arms towards the register. Continuing to move at the pace of a snail’s crawl, his right hand had dipped below the register and under the counter.
A shot went off. The clerk's hands immediately went up to cover his ears. He turned his head to the left and saw the bullet hole in the wall level with his eyes.
"Don't you dare try reaching for anything!" the gunman yelled.
The clerk spun back around. "N-n-n-o, I-I w-w-won't."
“I’m not playing around, fool!”
“Of c-course not.”
"Now come on! Get to it!"
Once more the clerk slowly lowered his arms to the register. When he opened it, the chinging sound it made disturbed Ernie so much that he barked out.
This distracted the gunman. "Huh?" he let out, turning to Ernie. “A wiener dog?”
Not waiting one second, the clerk grabbed hold of the gun.
"Why you!"
In the struggle the gun fired five more times in the air and around the store, but not hitting either one of them. Being a six-shooter, the gun was now out of ammunition, and every subsequent trigger pull only elicited a small click. However this noise too bothered Ernie, so he moved to leave.
As he turned around, the sounds of the tussle still very much audible, he saw a large shadow on the ground. He cautiously peered up, and past the sun he saw the dogcatcher looking ahead. Figuring that the large man had yet to notice him, Ernie escaped right through the open-legged stance he was in.
He started out walking quickly and then began to run when he felt his footsteps would not be heard. This took a lot less time than he thought; in a matter of seconds the commotion from the store was out of earshot.
Ernie ran straight down the street and then turned at the first left. He followed this road, which had no further intersections, to its end. It stopped at a forest; he walked around the buffer and made his way inside.
The forest was filled with many large trees, ones so big that it was hard for him to see what was distant. But soon he saw two people up ahead: a little girl about seven years old and a man with gray hair. He was not sure why exactly, but his instinct told him not to get too close. So he decided to hide behind the tree just in front of him, and poked his head out a little to see what was happening.
"Mister, can I have my lollipop now?" the little girl asked.
"Alright, I suppose so," replied the man. "You've been an awfully good girl so far." He reached into his pocket and took out three pops, colored green, red, and pink. "You can have either apple, cherry, or watermelon. Which will it be?"
It took her a couple seconds to choose. "I'll have cherry."
"Good choice, I like cherry very much myself." He handed it to her and put the other two back in his pocket. “How is it?” he asked as she unwrapped and started licking.
“It’s really good! Thanks!”
“You’re welcome.” He moved forward and began to stroke her hair. “You have really nice hair, you know that?”
“Yeah, my mommy takes good care of me.”
“Right, your mommy. Remember that you can’t tell her about me.”
“Why can’t I?”
“Well, you see, this is our special secret. She wouldn’t understand.”
“Why not?”
“Because sometimes grownups don’t know what it’s like to be a kid and to have secrets and fun things like that. Okay?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Good.” He lowered his hands onto her shoulders and began to rub them.
She took the lollipop out of her mouth and giggled. “Hey! That tickles.”
“Oh, the ticklish type huh? Do you feel it…” he crouched down and moved his hands to her stomach, “…here!”
The girl howled with involuntary laughter. “Hey, stop!
The man ignored her and continued to tickle.
“Cut it out, please!”
He did as she asked and stopped. “Okay, because you asked so nicely.”
“Thank you.”
His hands were positioned at her waist. “My, you sure are in good shape.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Could you take off your pants and show me? It’s okay, it’ll be our secret, I won’t tell if you won’t.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
The girl unbuttoned the top button on her jeans. She placed her fingers on the zipper and pulled all the way down. The pants drooped to the earthly ground, exposing her legs and underwear.
“Very good,” the man almost cooed as his hands moved up and down her thighs. “Very good.”
Then he brought his hands to the top of her underwear, keeping his thumbs on the outside and putting the other eight fingers in.
“What are you doing now?” she asked. Her discomfort was starting to get the better of her.
But there was no change in his demeanor. “I can make you feel good there. Don’t you want to feel good?”
“…I want-” she was beginning to say when she turned her head to look upwards.
Turning his head in the same direction, he asked “What do you-“
He suddenly felt something around his neck that was being tightened. Trying to loosen it with his hands, he then fell to the ground and was sliding away from the girl.
When the man passed him, Ernie chased immediately after. He was equally as curious to understand what had just taken place.
The man stopped just outside of the forest. Ernie looked to his neck and saw a rope around it. His eyes followed the line to its holder: the dogcatcher.
Ernie looked up at him, but this time he didn’t run. Somehow he didn’t feel the large man was a threat to him.
“Like I told you before,” he said, “many terrible things happen out here.”
In return Ernie gave him a glance of understanding.
Ernie walked back through the exact route he took out. He passed the now-empty convenience store, school lot, and bench, reflecting on the events of each.
He finally reached home. To get back inside, he climbed a ladder that was up against the backyard fence, jumped down safely onto the trampoline, then jumped to the ground, and walked in through the doggy door.
He went straight to his bed and lay down, with no intention of leaving again for a long time.
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Ernie's Journey Page 2