That One Day...

• Laura Husson, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2019

I was walking out of my house with my dog, Cupcake. Suddenly she started barking at a tree. She was trying to run at the tree and I couldn’t keep a hold of her. I had to let go. Cupcake was running at the tree and it looked like she was going to hurt herself. I didn’t know what she was doing and it scared me. Cupcake reached the tree and smashed her tiny little skull into the tree. It definitely would’ve hurt because her head was bleeding severely. I didn’t know what to do. Should I take her to the vets? No, too far away. She could be dead in a matter of minutes. I had remembered that there was a walking track nearby. I was going to take Cupcake to a rest stop in hope of finding some adults or someone who would help me save my dog. It was a long way to the rest stop so I wrapped Cupcake in my jumper to keep her warm. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as I held her close and ran as fast as I could. Success! I had found one old man sitting on a log next to a campfire. I wonder if he will be able to help me. I ran over to him and spoke in a very puffed and exhausted voice. I wasn’t even sure if he could understand me, but he definitely saw all of the blood gushing out of Cupcake’s head into the jumper. “Will you help my dog Cupcake? She hurt herself while she was running at a tree. She is not moving very much. I don’t know what to do” I said in a panic. The old man started to speak in a very calm voice. “Calm down boy, everything will be ok.” I didn’t know what to say. All I could do was cry. I was worried about Cupcake and what my parents would say. While I was crying I saw the man ruffling around in his pockets. “What are you doing?” I asked. He didn’t reply, but he did pull a little glass bottle out of his pocket about the size of my thumb. The old man unwrapped Cupcake from my jumper and rubbed this liquid on her skull wounds. Cupcake jumped a little bit and I wondered what he was doing to her. Was it hurting her? No time to ask questions. I need results. But I couldn’t help myself. I ask the man “what will this do to her? Is she going to die? What are we going to do next?” “Whoa, whoa, whoa… hold on boy! I am a retired vet but I can’t answer all of those questions at once. Cupcake will be fine within a few hours, although I still don’t know what happened to her. I think you need to take a breath. You must be very stressed.