Dog Whisperer (5 page)

After her math class ended, Emily guided Zack through the busy corridors and down to the main office. The vice principal, Mr. Kaufman, sighed when he saw them come in.

“
Again
?” he said.

Emily nodded sheepishly.

“How does he keep getting out?” he asked.

Emily shrugged. Sometimes, she thought he was just plain
magic
, since there really wasn't any other explanation that made sense.

“What is your next class, so I can write you a pass?” Mr. Kaufman asked.

“Science,” she said. “With Mr. Strader.”

After she called her parents, and her mother promised to come over right away, Emily sat down to wait. Zack sat on the floor next to her chair, leaning his muzzle on the crook of her elbow, and gazing up at her.

“I'm always happy to see you,” she said to Zack. “But, you really need to stay home. It's not good for you to be running around by yourself.”

Zack wagged his tail.

Emily had a sneaking suspicion that the only two words he had listened to were “happy” and “good.”

They sat there for a few minutes, and she yawned. Zack immediately yawned, too, which made her yawn again. It was funny, how yawns were always contagious. But then, he suddenly perked up, looking very focused, and she instantly stopped feeling drowsy. Something must be going on, but she wasn't sure—wait, she could smell smoke. Or maybe Zack could smell smoke. Either way, she was sure that there was smoke—strong, acrid smoke—somewhere inside the school.

She jumped to her feet only about half a second after Zack did, and followed him towards the now-empty corridor.

“Hey, wait a minute!” one of the assistants in the office said. “Where are you going?”

“We'll be right back,” Emily said quickly, and hurried after her dog without waiting for a response.

She sniffed the air, and was sure that it really
was
smoke, but she couldn't locate the source—or even the direction.

“Where is it, boy?” she asked.

Zachary barked once, and hurried down the hallway. He seemed to be leading her towards the cafeteria, and she picked up her pace, slipping and sliding a little as she tried to get traction with her sneakers. Bobby had a theory that the janitors always put extra wax on the floors in the school, just to keep people from being able to run in the halls without falling down.

Zack raced headlong into the cafeteria doors—which must have been locked, because when he rammed into them, they didn't budge. He panted uncertainly, and looked up at Emily for help.

Emily grabbed the handle, and shook the doors, but nothing happened. She was stymied, too, for a minute, but then remembered that there was another entrance outside, near the dumpsters and small loading bay.

“Come on!” she said, and ran for the main exit, with Zack loping right next to her.

She was going to get in really big trouble for leaving the building during the school day—but, she couldn't think of another solution. So, they ran outside—right past a startled hall monitor—and Emily headed around the side of the building, towards the parking lot.

She pounded up a small flight of concrete steps, towards the metal door leading to the cafeteria's kitchen area. It was really heavy, but when she tugged it open, huge gusts of smoke came billowing out.

“Oh, wow,” she said, and ducked instinctively.

Zachary tried to plunge through the doorway and inside, but she grabbed his collar to yank him back.

“No, it's too dangerous!” she said, using both hands to try and hang on to him and keep him from going in there.

There had to be a fire alarm somewhere that she could pull, but she didn't know where to look. The smoke alarm was blaring, so that was a good start, and maybe there was some kind of sprinkler system, too? It was a public school, so didn't there have to be equipment like that, for safety reasons? By now, with luck, people were probably already being given “this is not a drill” instructions over the intercom and starting to evacuate all of the classrooms.

In the meantime, Zack was still trying to twist away from her and get inside the kitchen, and she tightened her grip on his collar.

“No, Zack!” she said. “Stay here!”

She couldn't feel much heat, or see flames, but there was so much smoke that there had to be a pretty big fire in there. With the alarm blaring, help would be arriving any minute now, so she just needed to keep Zack safely out of the way, and wait for the fire department to take care of it. Maybe the smartest thing for her to do would be to run back into the school, and make sure that the principal and everyone else knew what was happening. But, the regular fire alarm was going off now, too, in addition to the cafeteria's smoke alarms, so she assumed that the news had spread to the rest of the school.

She backed carefully away from the smoke, feeling her way towards the little flight of cement stairs. The smoke was so thick that it was very hard to see what she was doing.

“The firefighters will be here soon, Zack,” she said, her eyes burning from the smoke. “Come on, let's wait over there, out of the way.”

Unfortunately, Zachary seemed to have other plans, because he wrenched free and charged into the building.

“Zack, no, it's too dangerous!” she yelled, as he disappeared into the smoke. “Come back here!”

But, as far as she could tell, he hadn't heard her, and there was no sign of him.

Now what? If she went in there after him, she was going to get into a lot of trouble. But, he must have had a good reason for doing it, right? And could she really let her dog take a risk like that by himself?

Emily stood on the loading bay indecisively, not sure what she should do. Then, she heard Zack barking, sounding frantic. So, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and went in after him.

The smoke was so thick inside that she immediately started coughing and choking. It was also much hotter now, and almost impossible to see, although there seemed to be a bright orange glow somewhere up ahead of her. She had to feel her way along, and kept tripping, and banging into things. Counters, walls, chairs—she crashed into everything, as she stumbled along. It was scary, and she was going to turn around and run back outside, except that she wasn't even sure where she was, or how to find the exit.

She wanted to call for help, but it was too hard to breathe, so she didn't even try. She just pressed her shirt sleeve tightly against her nose and mouth, to try and keep as much of the smoke away as possible.

Then, she felt a large furry shape push against her left side. She felt for Zack's head, and then slid her hand down to his collar and held on tightly. There was too much smoke for her to try and speak, so she sent him the strongest possible image of them both running outside and breathing deeply in the cool green grass of the school's baseball field, just beyond the teachers' parking lot.

Zack noticeably hesitated, and Emily sent him the thought even more forcefully. They needed to get
out
of here, as quickly as possible. But, he kept pulling her forward, and she stumbled along behind him for a few steps. Then, he stopped short, and she lost her balance, falling over a long, heavy object that was spread across the floor in front of them.

To her horror, she realized that it was a body!

 

6

Emily was completely terrified—especially when the body moved slightly. But, that meant it was a person, who was partially conscious. A person who was still alive. It was starting to get so hot that it was hard to think clearly, and Emily could hear flames now—as well as the screeching fire and smoke alarms. The fire seemed to be off to her right somewhere, and the orange glow was brightening.

“Hurry!” she said to the person on the floor, and coughed, trying to get her breath. “We have to get out!”

The person was unresponsive, and Emily grabbed a limp arm to try and pull him or her away from the fire. There was no way she was going to be able to drag someone that big by herself.

Now, she felt Zack tugging at her sleeve, trying to guide her back towards the exit. He seemed to be determined to pull her away, which didn't make sense, when there was someone else who needed to be rescued.

“Zack, no, don't do that, you need to help me,” she gasped. “We have to save the person!”

She was getting rapid mental images of being outside on the loading dock, and pointing at the building. She was pointing, and gesturing, and—okay, he wanted her to get help. She didn't want to leave the fire victim behind, but Zack was using his body to block her away from the fire, and force her towards the exit.

She closed her eyes, and imagined herself pulling the person's right arm, while Zachary used his teeth to grab the person's other arm by the sleeve. Then, she pictured the two of them working together to move the person safely outside.

She could feel Zack hesitate, and took advantage of that to stagger back towards the limp body on the floor.

Every single instinct she had told her that Zack
really
didn't want her to do that, but as she grabbed the person's arm, Zack did the same thing on the other side.

Then, she tugged as hard as she could, and felt the person slide forward a few inches.

“Good dog!” she yelled at Zachary. “Keep going!”

With both of them pulling, they made slow, but steady, progress. She stumbled and fell once, and Zack instantly was behind her, pushing her back up to her feet.

“Don't worry, I'm okay!” she said.

She fumbled around until she found the person's arm again, and resumed pulling. Emily wasn't really sure where the door was, but she trusted Zack, and assumed that he would be able to find the exit for them. The smoke didn't seem quite as thick now, and she thought there might have been a whiff of cool, fresh air somewhere nearby.

They got to the door just as several firefighters came barreling in, and they all crashed into one another. After that, everything happened very quickly, and Emily found herself out in the parking lot, coughing heavily. People were asking her if she was okay, and she nodded, looking around anxiously until she located Zack. He seemed to be all right, too, although his white fur was stained grey from the smoke.

It turned out that the person they had rescued was Mrs. O'Reilly, who was one of the school cooks. The paramedics were giving her oxygen, but Emily could see that she was sitting up now and moving around.

“Is she going to be okay?” Emily asked one of the firefighters.

The firefighter nodded. “It looks like she's going to be fine. You and your dog were very brave.”

Emily shook her head. “No, it wasn't brave. We smelled smoke, and then I followed him, that's all.”

The firefighter smiled. “Okay, if you say so. Now, let's get the two of you checked out by the EMTs.”

Emily felt fine, but she let the paramedics give her some oxygen to breathe, anyway.

Her mother, who had just pulled into the parking lot, came racing over.

“What happened?” she asked anxiously. “Are you all right?”

Emily downplayed the whole thing, but her mother was quick to bundle her into the car and take her to the pediatrician. Luckily, the doctor said she was perfectly fine, but should maybe not run into any more burning buildings.

Which seemed like really good advice.

After that, they stopped by Oceanside Animal Hospital, so that Zack could get checked, too. While they were there, he also had the last booster shots for his yearly vaccinations. Their vet's name was Dr. Kasanofsky, but everyone in town called him Dr. K., for short.

“Well, he seems pretty good,” Dr. K. said, after giving him a quick examination and listening to his chest with his stethoscope. “I don't think you have anything to worry about here at all.”

“I'm going to give him a bath when we get home,” Emily said.

Dr. K. nodded. “That's a good idea. Unless, of course, you
like
the way he looks with grey fur.”

Emily laughed, imagining what it would be like if they just left him the way he was, so that he would have a whole new look.

“Any other great adventures this week?” Dr. K. asked.

Well, other than the hurricane, not really. “Just, um, normal stuff,” Emily said. Her
new
normal, anyway, now that she had a
very special
dog.

They had to stop back at the school on the way home, so that Emily could pick up her knapsack and make sure that she had the right homework assignments. Everyone, from the principal, to teachers, to the firefighters who were doing a clean-up operation in the cafeteria, came over to praise her, and to pat Zachary. The fire had apparently started because some paper goods had been stored too close to the stoves. But, the good news was that Mrs. O'Reilly was going to be fine, although the doctors wanted her to stay overnight at the hospital, to be sure.

When they got back to the car, her mother looked at her for a long minute before starting the engine.

“Walk me through the part where you are sitting safely in the office, waiting for me to come pick up the dog, but then end up running into flames,” she said.

Emily shrugged. “I don't know. Zack ran, and I ran after him.”

“And,” her mother prompted her, when she didn't elaborate.

“And, um, wrong place, right time?” Emily said. Or was it the other way around? “Right place, wrong time?”

Her mother looked at Emily, and then looked into the backseat, where Zack was cheerfully asleep, lying on his back with his paws in the air. “I'm very proud of both of you, but please
do not
do it again, okay?”

Emily nodded.

With luck, it was a promise she would be able to keep!

*   *   *

They finally got their power and phone service back on Wednesday, and Emily's main reaction was that she was really glad that she hadn't been born in pioneer times. A world with no television? No Internet? No refrigerators? It was hard to imagine. Maybe, if she had been born back then, she wouldn't have cared, because she wouldn't have known the difference. But, as far as Emily was concerned, living in the modern world was
way
better.