Echo Come Home

by Megan Rix

  ‘We’re here today to celebrate Echo passing the last of his tests to become a hearing dog,’ Lenny said.

  Echo came in with Becca, his tail wagging fiercely as soon as he saw Jake.

  ‘Would you now take off Echo’s hearing helper dog in training coat, Jake, and put his qualified hearing dog one on him instead?’ Lenny said.

  Jake stood up and Echo made happy little whimpering sounds, stepping from one front paw to the other as Jake came forward. Jake could feel his face burning. He didn’t like everyone staring at him, but he kept telling himself no one was looking at him. It was Echo’s big day and all eyes were on him.

  Echo licked Jake’s face as he knelt down and put the new coat on him. Everyone clapped and Echo looked up at Jake, knowing he’d done well, but not quite sure what it was that he’d done.

  ‘Doesn’t his tail ever stop wagging?’ Jake’s dad asked as he stroked the exuberant Echo.

  ‘He certainly seems happy to be coming home with us,’ Jake’s mum said and Jake smiled.

  There were forms for Jake’s mum and dad to sign, but finally it was time to go.

  ‘Echo loves going in cars!’ Jake said, as the little dog happily jumped in the minute he’d opened the back door.

  ‘That’s because the trainers take the dogs on lots of short car journeys that have something fun at the end of them like a trip to the park,’ Lenny said. ‘Plus you’re going in the car and wherever you are is exactly where Echo wants to be.’

  Lenny showed Jake how to put on Echo’s car harness so he’d be completely safe in the back seat. Jake’s dad started up the car as Lenny waved them off.

  On days like these, Lenny knew for sure that he had the best job in the world.

  From the top of the Helper Dogs wall Jasper watched Echo drive away. Lenny went over to stroke him.

  ‘We’ll both miss him,’ he said. ‘But they’ll be back to visit.’

  CHAPTER 12

  Once they were back at the house, Jake unclipped Echo’s lead and Echo immediately made himself at home. He had no problem at all jumping up on to the sofa in the lounge, even though it was almost the equivalent of a person jumping their own height. He circled round twice and then lay down with his head on a cushion.

  ‘Comfy?’ Jake’s mum asked the little dog when she found him.

  Jake laughed because Echo certainly looked as if he were.

  ‘He looks like he’s lived here all his life!’ Jake’s dad said.

  ‘That’s because he’s home,’ Vicky said, and Jake smiled.

  ‘Come on, Echo,’ he said. ‘Let’s show you the garden.’

  Echo immediately jumped off the sofa and followed Jake out of the lounge and through the kitchen. His little black nose sniffed at the interesting smells: bread in the bread bin, lots of nice things to eat in the fridge, the lingering smell of roast dinners coming from the oven.

  Jake opened the back door and Echo wagged his tail as he trotted out into the garden. There were even more interesting smells here. A cat had been there recently, a hedgehog path ran round the edge and a family of mice lived under the shed.

  Once Echo had done his business, they went upstairs.

  ‘This is Mum and Dad’s room,’ Jake said, opening the door. ‘And this is the bathroom.’

  ‘This is my room,’ Vicky said. ‘And you’re welcome in here any time, Echo.’

  ‘Remember what we were told, Vicky,’ Mum said. Lenny had made it clear that Echo needed to know he was there to help Jake. He was sure there was no need to worry in Jake and Echo’s case, but sometimes dogs became confused when there were lots of people in a family fussing over them.

  ‘Jake has to be the one who walks him, grooms him, pets him and gives him his food and treats, especially for the first few weeks.’

  ‘It’s not fair,’ Vicky grumbled, as Jake led Echo to his room.

  ‘And this is our room,’ he told the little dog. He put his phone on his desk and then flopped down on to the bed. ‘And this is our bed.’ Jake patted the duvet and Echo immediately jumped up beside him and lay down.

  A few moments later, Jake’s mobile phone text alert sounded and Echo immediately sat up, looked over at where the sound was coming from and put his paw out to Jake.

  ‘What is it?’ Jake asked him, and he held his hands out in the sign for a question.

  Echo led him over to the mobile phone on his desk and Jake smiled when he saw that he had a text message.

  ‘Good dog,’ he said, and he held up both thumbs. Echo was so pleased that he’d done well that he spun round and round in a happy circle.

  The text message was from Tony. He’d put Got and then an emoticon picture of a dog and a question mark.

  Jake took a selfie of Echo and himself. Want to meet him? he wrote and pressed Send.

  Ten minutes later, the front doorbell rang. Everyone had been told not to open the door so that Echo would know it was his job to alert Jake.

  Upstairs Echo heard the doorbell and whined and then put his paw on Jake’s knee. He looked over at the bedroom door as the doorbell rang again.

  ‘What is it?’ Jake asked him and Echo led him down the stairs to the front door. He looked up at Jake and then at the door. When Jake opened it, he found a gasping Tony outside.

  ‘Ran all the way,’ he panted.

  Echo wagged his tail and, as Tony crouched down to say hello, he put his paws on his shoulders and licked his face.

  Mum and Dad and Vicky came out of the lounge where they’d all been waiting to say hello to Tony too.

  ‘Come on up,’ Jake said.

  Echo raced up the stairs ahead of the two boys as if he were showing them the way. He ran straight into Jake’s bedroom, picked up his ball in his mouth and started squeaking it.

  ‘Echo loves that ball,’ Jake told Tony, as Echo dropped it at his feet and looked up at him.

  ‘Are you going to bring him into school?’ Tony asked, rolling the ball across the floor for Echo, who pounced on it and then flipped on to his back, still holding it with his legs in the air, as the boys laughed. Echo jumped up, wagging his tail. He liked the sound of Jake’s laughter very much.

  ‘Maybe,’ Jake said, and he gave Echo a stroke. ‘If I’m allowed. I really want to.’

  ‘Too right,’ Tony said, as Echo picked up the ball and dropped it in front of Jake, who rolled it for him. ‘And then he could play ball with us at breaktime.’

  ‘He’d like that!’ said Jake.

  ‘See you again soon, Echo,’ Tony said, when it was time to leave. Echo wagged his tail.

  Later, when Jake’s mum wanted him to come downstairs for his dinner, there was no point in calling because he couldn’t hear her so she called Echo instead.

  ‘Echo, Echo!’

  Echo came racing down the stairs to see what she wanted, his tail wagging.

  ‘Good dog,’ Jake’s mum said, and she gave him a small treat.

  Then Jake’s mum wrote ‘Dinner time’ on a Post-it note and put it in the soft, small wallet Lenny had given them.

  ‘Call,’ she said, pointing up the stairs. Echo ran back up and gave the wallet to Jake.

  ‘Good dog,’ said Jake, putting up his thumbs. He opened the wallet and took out the Post-it note along with a treat for Echo. Then he followed Echo down the stairs. It was time for the little dog’s dinner too. Helper Dogs had given them some of the dog food they used as they didn’t want Echo to get an upset tummy from a change of diet.

  Echo crunched up the dry dog biscuits, but he kept looking over at Mum as she dished up the lasagne. Its cheesy smell was intoxicating.

  Later, when they were watching the TV, Echo started pulling at the end of Jake’s dad’s trainer laces. He looked up in surprise at Jake as they came unravelled from the bow.

  ‘Neat trick, piccola canaglia,’ Jake’s dad said, and Echo wagged his tail and then did the same thing with the other lace. ‘I bet he could untie a rope too!’

  Jake’s dad pulled his trainers off and wiggled his
toes inside his socks.

  Echo started tugging at a sock. ‘No, no, no,’ Jake’s dad said. ‘I’ll take my own socks off, thank you,’ and he pulled off one sock and then the other, as Jake and Vicky laughed.

  Usually Jake hated going to bed and would stay awake for as long as he possibly could. Often this meant he was so tired he almost fell asleep at school the next day. But it had been even worse when he was younger and the only way he got any sleep was if his mum and dad let him sleep in their bed with them.

  Once he took his hearing aids out at night, he could hear almost nothing other than the tinnitus ringing in his ears. He wouldn’t know if his mum or dad were calling him or if a burglar were in the house or if Vicky screamed. Knowing that was scary, especially when he was younger. It still frightened him now.

  But tonight he didn’t feel like that because he had Echo with him and Echo would let him know if there was anything wrong.

  At bedtime he took Echo outside, filled up his water bowl, put it on a tray over by the window in his bedroom and climbed into bed.

  ‘Come, Echo,’ he said.

  But before he’d finished saying the words Echo was already lying on the bed next to him.

  Jake woke up in the night to find Echo on his back with his legs in the air. Jake rolled over and went back to sleep.

  He woke again when he felt hot breath on his face, but he knew it was only Echo and he didn’t mind a bit.

  In the morning when he woke up he found Echo staring at him with his big brown eyes, already wide awake.

  ‘Morning, Echo,’ he said, and Echo pushed his head under his hand for a stroke and a tummy rub before jumping off the bed.

  Time for breakfast.

  CHAPTER 13

  ‘Oh good, you’re up,’ Mum said, when Echo and Jake came downstairs.

  Dad was drinking coffee, but Vicky wasn’t up yet.

  ‘We thought that as your dad’s home for the weekend it’d be nice to go somewhere as a family for the day.’

  ‘Where would you like to go?’ Jake’s dad asked.

  Jake grinned. There was somewhere he really wanted Echo to see.

  ‘The seaside,’ he said.

  ‘What about the seaside?’ asked Vicky, rubbing at her eyes as she came into the kitchen.

  ‘We’re going there for the day,’ Mum said.

  ‘We are?’ Vicky said excitedly. It was ages since they’d been there. ‘Can Meera and Julie come too?’

  ‘No, it’s just our family today,’ Mum told her.

  ‘Better get your swimming costumes,’ Dad said to Jake and Vicky. ‘The weather forecast says it’s going to be scorching.’

  But Vicky was already racing back upstairs to find her bikini.

  ‘You’ll love the sea, Echo,’ Jake said, as he grabbed his swimming trunks from a drawer and put them on under his jeans.

  Echo wagged his tail. He didn’t know what the seaside was, but he knew Jake was happy and that always made him happy too.

  When they got back downstairs, Mum was pouring cornflakes into cereal bowls.

  Jake measured out Echo’s dog food in the measuring jug and put it in his bowl.

  ‘Here you are, Echo,’ he said, and they all watched as he gobbled it up before they crunched up their own cornflakes.

  Jake loved watching the dog eat – especially when it was something extra tasty – because Echo’s little tongue would go in and out as if he were really savouring it.

  Echo sat next to Jake in the back of the car during the long two-hour drive. Some of the time he looked out of the window and some of the time he looked at Jake. Most of the time he slept.

  ‘We’re here,’ Jake said at last, and Echo sat up and peered out of the window, catching the excitement in Jake’s voice.

  Jake unclipped him from his car harness, but kept hold of his lead. In front of Echo and as far as he could see to the left and the right lay yellow gritty stuff. He’d come across it sometimes on building sites. But he’d never seen this much of it in one place before.

  He watched as Jake took off his trainers and then half pulled off one of his socks.

  ‘Here, Echo,’ he said, wiggling the end of his foot where the sock dangled. Echo grasped the sock in his teeth and tugged. Jake laughed.

  As soon as Jake’s shoes and socks were off, he wriggled out of his jeans and T-shirt and ran towards the sea.

  ‘Come on, Echo!’

  Echo went running with him. But as Jake ran into the waves Echo came to an abrupt halt at the shoreline and stared in horror. The water went on and on and the waves swept upward, rolled and crashed down. Echo shook with fear. Then, much worse, the waves crashed into Jake, and Echo ran back and forth along the water’s edge, barking at Jake to tell him to come back out, to get away from the scary water. And finally he did.

  ‘It’s OK, Echo,’ Jake said, as he flopped down beside him on the sand. ‘No need to be scared.’

  Echo licked Jake’s face and wrinkled his nose. The boy didn’t taste like he usually did. He was all salty.

  Echo was very relieved when they headed away from the water back to Jake’s mum who was lying on a rainbow-coloured towel and reading her book while Vicky and Dad went to get everyone an ice cream.

  ‘Echo didn’t go in the sea,’ Jake said, and Echo looked up at the sound of disappointment in his voice, not sure what he’d done wrong.

  ‘Well, he’s probably not been to the seaside before,’ Jake’s mum said, pushing her sunglasses on to the top of her head. ‘Give it another try in a little while.’

  Echo might not have liked the sea, but he soon found out that digging in the soft sand was amazing. He dug and dug and dug and when Jake laughed it made him dig even more because he liked it when Jake made his happy noise.

  He also liked the icy-cold, slippery-sweet taste of the vanilla ice-cream cone he was given and the fish and chips they had for lunch.

  When the tide went out, it left little rock pools along the shore and these were much less scary for Echo than the sea. Jake lifted up a stone in a rock pool and a tiny crab came out. Echo put out a paw to try to stop it, but it was too quick and buried itself in the sand. He also tried to catch the darting shrimps and they were too fast as well but Echo liked paddling in the shallower pools and following Jake as he climbed over the rocks.

  By the end of the day Echo was exhausted and slept all the way home. Jake felt his furry chest rising and falling and stayed as still as he could so he didn’t wake the little dog.

  ‘We should go out to celebrate,’ Dad said, as they came back into town. Echo stirred and sat up and yawned.

  Jake wasn’t too sure. ‘Why don’t we just go home?’

  But one of the things Jake’s mum and dad were worried about was Jake’s lack of confidence.

  ‘Let’s go and show Echo off,’ Dad grinned.

  Jake looked down at the little dog who gazed up at him with his head tilted to one side. He was wide awake after his long nap.

  ‘OK,’ Jake said reluctantly, and he put Echo’s hearing helper dog coat on him.

  Echo sniffed the air as they went into the Chinese restaurant.

  ‘No dogs allowed!’ the restaurant manager said, hurrying over to them with his hand outstretched, as if he intended to push them back out.

  Jake turned to go. He knew they should have stayed home.

  But his dad said: ‘He’s a hearing dog.’

  The restaurant manager looked down at Echo’s hearing helper dog coat. ‘Oh sorry, I didn’t see. Come in, come in. All assistance dogs are allowed.’

  They sat out on the verandah and Echo looked up at the swaying paper-lantern chains and sniffed the air again.

  One of the waiters brought Echo a bowl of water and when Echo saw him he stood up and wagged his tail.

  ‘Does he know you?’ Jake asked.

  ‘I don’t think so …’ Li said. ‘There used to be a dog that looked quite like him who came here for food. But he was just a stray and his coat was much longer …’
/>   ‘Echo was a stray before he became my hearing dog,’ Jake said.

  Echo sat down and looked pointedly at Li and then put out his paw to him.

  ‘One moment,’ Li said, and he hurried off, then came back holding his phone in one hand and a bowl of chicken fried noodles in the other. ‘They’re not hot – may I?’ he asked, pointing to Echo, who was now standing up and drooling at the sight of one of his favourite meals.

  His face was in the noodles and slurping them up almost before Li had put the bowl down on the ground. On his phone Li found the photo of the stray dog, also eating noodles, that he’d taken a few months ago.

  ‘Look!’ he said, as he showed it to Jake and his family.

  The dog in the picture certainly looked a lot like Echo, especially now Echo had noodles hanging from his mouth too.

  Li went to find more staff who’d met Echo previously when he was a stray and soon there was a crowd of people around the table on the verandah until finally the restaurant manager told them all to go back to work.

  ‘You’re welcome any time,’ Li said, after Jake and his family had finished their meal. He looked over at his dad, the restaurant manager, and his dad nodded. ‘Plus free noodles for the dog!’

  ‘Echo loves noodles,’ Vicky laughed.

  ‘Well, that wasn’t so bad, was it?’ Jake’s mum said, squeezing his hand as they left the restaurant.

  ‘It was amazing,’ Jake grinned. The whole day had been amazing. He looked down at the little dog beside him. Everything was a hundred, no a thousand, times better now that Echo was here.

  CHAPTER 14

  One of the many things that Echo had experienced as part of his hearing helper dog training was going to the supermarket. But Jake still didn’t really want to go there. He’d refused to ever since the lady had called him a ‘rude boy’ and pushed her trolley into him.

  ‘It wasn’t you who was rude, it was her,’ his mum said.

  But that didn’t make him feel any better or want to go to the supermarket again.

  ‘What if she’s there?’ he said.

  ‘She won’t be.’