Echo Come Home

by Megan Rix

  If the dog were really lucky, the lorry had gone right over him without touching him. The wheels were so big and the bottom of the lorry was so high off the ground that there was a chance it could have done. The dog would have surely been killed instantly if any of the wheels had struck him.

  He could feel the dog’s heart beating fast and his little body was trembling. The driver sighed with relief: he definitely wasn’t dead.

  The lorry driver laid the little dog carefully on the seat next to him and drove home. It wasn’t far, although it was dark by the time he parked up.

  ‘What have you got, Dad?’ his children, a boy and girl of six and seven, called Ben and Abby, wanted to know as the lorry driver carried the little dog into the house.

  ‘Not another stray, Frank,’ his wife said wearily, as she patted the back of the crying baby she held in her arms. He’d brought a cat home a few weeks ago and the children were so sad when Whiskers had left of his own accord through the cat flap a few days later.

  ‘I found him on the motorway,’ their dad told the children, as he put Echo down on the sofa.

  ‘Is he OK?’ asked Abby.

  ‘I think so. He’s probably just in shock,’ her dad said.

  Echo’s tail flapped up and down once as Abby gently stroked his furry head.

  ‘Get him some water and maybe a bit of cheese, Ben.’

  Echo didn’t want any water, although he did manage a nibble of cheese before falling fast asleep.

  ‘I think he’s OK,’ Frank said, biting at his thumbnail.

  ‘Doesn’t seem to be in any pain,’ said his wife, Mary.

  ‘I’ll take him to the vet’s and try to find out who he belongs to tomorrow.’

  ‘He’s snoring,’ Ben said, and Abby grinned. The snores were pretty loud for such a little dog.

  Frank came down twice in the night to check on Echo. The first time the little dog was still asleep. But the second time he was awake so Frank took him outside. As he watched the dog sniffing the bushes before doing his business, Frank was relieved to see that he didn’t seem to be seriously injured in any way.

  The next morning the children woke up to find the little dog was much livelier.

  ‘Let’s call him Ruffles,’ said Abby.

  ‘No, Waggy,’ said Ben. ‘He’s always wagging his tail.’

  ‘Heads it’s Ruffles and tails it’s Waggy,’ their dad said, as he threw a coin up into the air and caught it. ‘Waggy it is!’

  They didn’t have any dog food so they gave him the cat food they’d bought for Whiskers instead. Echo thought it was delicious.

  Frank took a photo of him licking his lips when it was all gone and posted it on Facebook.

  The baby started to cry and Echo looked over at it in its carrycot and then ran over to Mary, put out his paw to her and whined.

  ‘What’s going on?’ she said.

  ‘I think he’s letting you know the baby’s crying, Mary,’ Frank said.

  ‘How does he know to do that?’ asked Abby.

  ‘He’s the cleverest dog in the world,’ said Ben.

  ‘And now he’s our dog.’

  ‘He’ll only be our dog once we’ve taken him to the vet’s so he can be checked for a microchip,’ their dad reminded them. ‘Someone could be out there right now desperately searching high and low for him.’

  The children nodded, as they gave each other a look. They knew the dog might belong to someone else, but they couldn’t help hoping that he didn’t and could stay with them.

  ‘Can we come?’ Abby asked.

  ‘OK.’

  Mary looked at baby Charlie, fast asleep in his carrycot. If she got a move on, she might just have time for a quick shower before he woke up again. Then she and the baby could go on the outing too. She ran up the stairs and turned on the water.

  ‘Dad, Whiskers is in the garden!’ Ben said, pointing out of the window.

  Dad, Ben and Abby went out to try to coax the cat back inside.

  Echo lay next to the baby and when Charlie started crying again he knew just what he had to do. He ran up the stairs and put his paw on the bathroom door, but it was shut. He whined, but Mary didn’t open it.

  She was just lathering the shampoo in her hair when the little dog started barking outside the bathroom door. She tried to ignore it, but he just wouldn’t stop.

  ‘Shh, you bad dog!’ she said, opening the door.

  Echo stopped barking and now she could hear Charlie crying downstairs. She grabbed a towel and ran to him.

  ‘It’s OK, Charlie, Mummy’s here.’

  Abby, Ben and their dad came back inside, having been unable to catch Whiskers.

  ‘I thought you were watching Charlie,’ Mary said crossly.

  ‘Sorry, love. We spotted Whiskers in the garden. He’s come home!’

  She looked down at Waggy. He gazed back up at her with his beautiful brown eyes.

  ‘Good dog,’ she smiled. ‘Good dog!’

  Frank took Charlie from her and she went to finish her shower and get ready. But, when it was time to leave for the vet’s, Waggy wasn’t there any more.

  Echo had slipped through the cat flap and disappeared.

  In the holidays, when Jake went with his dad on the long-haul trips, he liked sitting high up in the cab, looking out at the world rushing by, and they would play I Spy. But the only thing Jake wanted to spy now was Echo.

  His dad was hoping to distract him from thinking about that so he took him along to get the lorry serviced. He’d told everyone he knew about Echo being missing. All of the other lorry drivers had promised to keep an eye out for him.

  They were almost at the garage when Dad’s phone rang.

  ‘You still looking for that missing dog?’ Dad’s friend Bill said over the hands-free lorry-cab phone. ‘I think we might have found him.’

  Dad looked at Jake. ‘You have. Where is he?’

  Jake could hardly breathe. He so wanted someone to have found Echo.

  ‘Frank Perkins picked up a dog on the motorway matching the description yesterday. And there’s another thing …’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘He alerted them to the sound of their baby crying.’

  ‘That’s what hearing dogs are trained to do!’ Jake cried.

  They got Frank’s address and it turned out to be only a few miles away. Dad turned the lorry round and headed to Frank’s house. As soon as they got there, Jake jumped down from the cab, ran up the path and rang the doorbell. Echo had to be here. He had to have finally found him.

  Frank Perkins opened the door with Abby and Ben right behind him.

  ‘Where is he?’ Jake asked them. ‘Where’s Echo?’

  Frank looked at Jake’s dad as he came up the path and shook his head. Jake’s dad squeezed Jake’s shoulder.

  ‘Who’s Echo?’ asked Abby.

  ‘My dog,’ said Jake.

  ‘He means Waggy,’ said Ben.

  ‘He’s gone,’ Frank said.

  ‘Went out through the cat flap,’ said Mary.

  ‘No, he can’t be gone, he can’t!’ Jake cried.

  ‘When did he go?’ Jake’s dad asked.

  ‘Only a few hours ago.’

  ‘He could still be around.’

  Frank shook his head. ‘We looked everywhere but we couldn’t see him.’

  Jake was devastated. ‘But where can he have gone?’ he said.

  ‘Maybe it wasn’t Echo,’ his dad said. ‘Maybe it was another dog.’

  Frank pulled his phone from his pocket and showed them the photo he’d taken after Waggy had eaten the cat food.

  ‘That’s Echo,’ Jake said miserably. He couldn’t believe how close he’d been again to finding the little dog. They’d only missed him by a few hours.

  ‘I couldn’t just leave him on the motorway,’ said Frank.

  ‘The motorway!’ Jake said, and now he was really worried. ‘What was Echo doing on the motorway?’

  ‘I don’t know how he got there, but I ran righ
t over him with my lorry. Luckily, the wheels are so big that its undercarriage is way off the ground and passed over him without hurting him.’

  But it could have done, Jake thought to himself.

  ‘I wish he’d stayed,’ said Abby.

  ‘You wouldn’t have thought he’d be able to squeeze through the cat flap,’ said Ben. ‘But he did!’

  Everyone jumped when the cat flap rattled. Jake stared at it, willing it to be Echo. But it wasn’t him. It was Whiskers coming home.

  ‘No luck?’ Mum said, when they got back. Jake shook his head.

  ‘But at least he’s nearer now than he was,’ Dad said. ‘Frank’s only a few miles away from us.’

  Jake looked at the map and the red pins showing all the most likely sightings. As he did so, a tiny flicker of hope ran through him. The pins formed a rough triangle shape. Could his dad be right? Could Echo be trying to find his way home? If the pins were right, he was definitely heading in their direction.

  CHAPTER 26

  The railway station was very quiet when Echo went under the barrier and no one saw him. When the first train of the morning stopped and the passengers got out, Echo jumped up the steps and on to the train.

  The conductor went down the platform, making sure all the carriage doors were properly closed, and then waved it on its way.

  Echo tucked himself under a seat, but once the train was running he came out. Further down the carriage a woman was putting on her make-up and looking into a little compact mirror, but there was no one else about.

  Echo hopped up on to a seat and looked out of the window as the train sped on, but he jumped off it again and lay in the bottom part of the luggage rack when the train pulled in at the next station. Each station they stopped at more people got on board as they headed into town for work and it wasn’t long before Echo was spotted.

  ‘Oh look …’

  ‘Isn’t he sweet?’

  ‘What’s it doing there?’

  ‘Who’s he with?’

  But no one knew.

  Echo went to sit with a man eating a sausage sandwich and when he was given some of it he wolfed it down. When the man got off at the next stop, Echo did too.

  Outside the station he sniffed the air and smelt the delicious aroma of yesterday’s noodles, fried chicken and curry not far away. Echo headed towards the scent of takeaways.

  Boris, from Freddy’s Fried Chicken, had stopped leaving water out for the little stray dog that used to visit them a while back. But as soon as he saw Echo he recognized him as the missing hearing dog and phoned the dog warden. She was only a few streets away.

  ‘I’ll be right there!’

  Li couldn’t believe it when he saw the little dog through the restaurant window.

  ‘Hey, hey!’ he waved excitedly.

  Echo looked over at him and wagged his tail.

  ‘Wait there!’ Li shouted, holding out his palm in the same way that Jake did. Echo sat down and waited while Li ran to the kitchen.

  ‘Call the dog warden and say Echo’s come home,’ he told the chef, as he spooned out a bowl of noodles and hurried out of the restaurant with them.

  Echo skipped back when he saw him running. Li slowed to a leisurely walk so he wouldn’t frighten the little dog.

  ‘Look what I’ve got for you,’ he said.

  Echo watched Li set the bowl of noodles down on the ground and then came forward to eat them. Once the little dog was busily slurping up his free meal, Li tried to grab him. But before Li’s fingers could even touch his fur Echo had darted away.

  ‘OK,’ Li said, holding his hands back in a gesture of surrender. ‘No touching.’

  Echo wagged his tail once as if he were agreeing and then stepped forward to finish the noodles.

  Behind the little dog Li saw the dog warden creeping forward with her dog grasper – a pole with a loop at the end of it. Closer and closer she came. She was almost near enough to use the grasper when her shadow fell over the little dog. Echo looked round, his eyes opening wide when he saw the grasper, and he ran.

  ‘Come back, Echo!’ Li shouted after him. But Echo didn’t stop.

  As soon as the pelican crossing bleeps started, he raced across the road, then through the car park, across the churchyard, into the back garden of number 9 and under the broken gate of number 23.

  He ran on across the grass until he came to the place where the old bridge had been, but it had disappeared. There was no way across the water unless he swam. He tentatively put his paw in the water and then took it out again.

  But Jake was somewhere on the other side. It was the only way to reach him. Echo gave a whine and then jumped into the cold water. It was very deep and he sank under it, but instinctively splashed to the surface, gasping for air.

  His paws moved fast under the water and at first he was only able to doggy-paddle in circles. But once he realized he wasn’t going to sink he managed to calm down a little. His vision cleared and he swam across.

  At the other side there was no way for him to get out. He started to panic as he struggled to get up the steep riverbank. He tried and failed and tried again, getting more desperate all the time.

  ‘’S OK, we’ll help you,’ said a familiar voice. The next moment the little dog was being lifted out of the river in a catch net.

  ‘Best thing you’ve caught today, George,’ the fisherman who was with him said, as Echo scrambled out of the net and vigorously shook himself.

  ‘He reminds me of a dog I used to know. A dog called Bones, although his fur’s a lot shorter than Bones’s was,’ George said, as he picked up his now soaked cheese-and-pickle sandwich.

  Echo came forward and nudged George’s hand and George stroked him.

  ‘Well I never,’ George said. ‘Are you saying thank you?’

  But even before George had finished speaking Echo was running on across the grass towards a bus stop. The bus that came along was very much like the one Echo had been on with Jake – even down to the driver’s gingery beard.

  ‘Assistance dogs travel free,’ the driver said, as Echo slipped on board.

  Echo sat on an empty seat, looking out of the window, as other passengers got on and off. He stood up and put his paws on the glass as they passed a school playground. A boy stood close to the fence, holding a ball. As the bus moved closer, Echo could see the boy more clearly. He whimpered and his heart started to beat very fast. It was Jake! He’d found him at last.

  Echo barked and barked until the driver stopped and opened the doors. ‘Go on then. Off you get.’

  Echo jumped off the bus and ran along the pavement back to the school playground. But Jake wasn’t there any more. The playground was empty.

  CHAPTER 27

  The children in Jake’s class were presenting their dog projects. They’d already covered Romans and their dogs, police dogs, dog shows and puppy training.

  A few children had done projects on dogs in wartime.

  ‘A German shepherd from World War One went on to become a Hollywood movie star. His name was Rin Tin Tin …’ Shula told everyone.

  Amos didn’t like writing much but he loved making things.

  ‘I’m going to show you how to make a dog coat,’ he said, holding up an old red sweatshirt.

  ‘All you need is a sweatshirt or an old jumper and a pair of scissors and a dog to model it.’

  He looked over at the large stuffed toy dog he’d put on the table and everyone laughed except for Jake.

  Amos cut off one of the arms of the sweatshirt and then removed the wrist cuff too.

  ‘It has to be wide enough for the dog’s head to get through,’ he said, picking up the toy dog. ‘Then all you need to do is cut holes for the dog’s front legs and cut the back to size and there you have it: a coat for a small dog, from the arm of a sweatshirt.’

  ‘Thank you very much, Amos,’ Miss Dawson said. ‘I guess it would be suitable for a cat too?’

  ‘Yes, miss, and you could make one for a hamster or a gerbil from
a sock,’ Amos told her. ‘I don’t have a dog but I do have a hamster. He’s called Mr Munchy.’

  This time Jake joined in when everyone laughed.

  Just before lunch it was Chloe’s turn to give her presentation.

  ‘Did you know that people used to treat dogs like hamsters and put them on a wheel to run round and round to cook their food?’ she asked the class.

  Everyone shook their head.

  ‘Well, they did. They were called turnspit dogs and there’s a stuffed one in the Abergavenny Museum …’

  ‘Yuck!’

  ‘Yes – it was yuck, especially for those poor dogs.’

  Tony was the first one to present his dog project after lunch.

  ‘This little stray dog was called Rip,’ he told everyone, showing a picture he’d stuck on a board. ‘And he’s credited with saving the lives of over a hundred people in World War Two. The thing is, it doesn’t matter what sort of dog you have. Or whether it’s clever or brave or anything else. All dogs are stars to the people that love them.’

  Echo crossed the playground and slipped in through the side door as the caretaker came out with a bag of rubbish. No one saw the little dog as he went down one corridor and up the next, his nose to the ground.

  But, as he came to the end of the corridor and the glass swing doors, he lifted his head and sniffed the air. Sausages … and something else that was even more exciting: Jake’s scent. Jake had been here and not long ago. The door was heavy for him to push so he went backwards and opened it with his bottom.

  No one was in the hall now, but Echo found some sausage scraps that children had dropped on the floor and gobbled them up.

  When one of the dinner ladies opened the swing door from the other side and propped it open with a metal food trolley, Echo slipped out of the hall, unseen. No one saw him until he went into the nursery classroom by mistake.

  ‘A dog!’ a little girl cried with delight.

  The other children started squealing and running towards him with their hands outstretched. Echo quickly ducked back out again. Little children were scary!

  ‘What dog?’ the teacher said. She couldn’t see anything. Nursery children tended to have very active imaginations. Yesterday they’d told her there was a dinosaur in the toilets.