Sally's Summer

• Rochelle Overton
• Short Story
• 2008

By Rochelle Overton

‘Sally stop complaining and cheer up, you’re going to have a great time on holidays.’ Sally’s mother reassured her.

It was the first day of holidays for the Rodger family. Sally plodded upstairs to her bedroom, overlooking the beach. Below she noticed a cream coloured Labrador chasing its tail in the backyard. She rushed down stairs to the back yard to meet it. She stroked the young puppy’s fur and they began to play fetch with a tennis ball she found.

For the next three days, the little puppy would be out in her backyard every morning when she woke up, but would leave by afternoon. So instead of playing with her teddy bears, she would spend all of her time with the dog. That night there was a terrible storm, Sally hugged her teddy bear very tightly but couldn’t wait to see the dog in the morning.

Sally woke up early the following morning, and as usual the little puppy was waiting there for her. Sally decided to go play down at the sand dunes with the puppy, she took the tennis ball with her and played fetch with the dog as she ran along the sand dunes. Sally made sandcastles with the puppy and had fun rolling down the eroded sand dunes. During the storm last night the waves and the wind had made lots of sand cliffs and Sally really enjoyed rolling down them. In the distance she could see the biggest sand cliff of them all.

‘Common girl let’s check it out,’ she said to the dog.

Sally raced the dog and when they reached the sand cliff, began to climb. As Sally was climbing the sand dune suddenly collapsed all around her. Sally let out scream before she was buried under the sand. Some people nearby saw her go under and rushed towards her, but they were too far away. The dog began to dig as fast as she could and reached Sally just in time. Sally struggled to breathe as she spluttered out sand.

‘You would’ve died if it wasn’t for that dog!’ The others exclaimed as they reached her.

For the next three days the dog never showed up. Sally was very sad because they were soon going home. On the last day while Sally was glumly packing her things as they prepared to head home, the dog suddenly arrived wearing a brand new pink collar with a name tag.

‘Sharley, so that’s your name.’ Sally said as she gave the dog a pat. ‘Good-bye Sharley, I hope your owner loves you as much as I do,’ Sally said as she started to cry.

Sharley barked. Sally waved to the dog as she hopped into the car. Sally was sad to say good-bye to Sharley but was already looking forward to coming back next year!