take him to the vet’s office. She nodded and watched Saba run off with Dingo on her back.

“Thank you, Dingo,” she said softly.

-----

Dingo was quiet on the way to the vet’s office. Finally, Saba couldn’t take the silence any more. “I guess you’ve been spending a lot of time at the vet’s office lately, big brother,” she said. Then she added with a smile, “I guess I’m going to have to follow you around and make sure you don’t get in any more trouble.”

“Yeah,” Dingo said in a tired voice.

Saba didn’t give up on trying to make conversation. “Well, this is different,” she said. “For once, I’m taking care of you. Usually it’s the other way around. Weird, isn’t it?”

“Uh-huh,” Dingo muttered.

Saba rolled her eyes and turned her head to look at her brother. “What’s bothering you?” she asked. “Usually you talk so much I can’t make you shut up.”

“I’m in pain, okay?” Dingo said. “I don’t want to talk right now. I just want to go to the vet’s office.”

Saba raised an eyebrow. “I think that’s not the only thing that’s bothering you,” she said. “There must be something else.”

Dingo shook his head. “I told you, that’s the only reason I don’t want to talk right now.”

“Come on, Dingo,” Saba said. “I’ve known you my whole life. I can tell when something is really worrying you.”

Dingo glared at his sister. Then he sighed. “Okay,” he said. “You’re right. I’m worried about something else.” He told Saba about the race for the sled team. “The race is a week from now. There’s no way that I’ll be healthy enough to race by then.”

“Dingo, Dingo, Dingo.” Saba shook her head and smiled. “Don’t you remember what Mom always said whenever we weren’t able to do something and we gave up? ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ You’ve got a strong will, Dingo. If you really want to be in this race, you’ll be in it. You’ll find a way…I know you will.”

“I wish that you were right,” Dingo said with a sigh. “But you have to be realistic, Saba. I couldn’t run in that race even if I wanted to. It would be too risky. I could faint or collapse during the middle of the race. There are a lot of dogs running in that race. If I faint, I would probably be trampled by them and be killed.”

Saba stopped running. They were at the vet’s office. She turned around to look at her brother again and looked into his eyes. “Just think about all the people you’re going to disappoint if you don’t run in that race, Dingo. Josh, Liko, Matt, Angel, our parents, me…you’re going to disappoint all of us if you don’t try. But the person that you’ll disappoint the most if you don’t run is yourself.”

Dingo looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“Dingo, you’ve told me a million times about how you’ve always wanted to be a sled dog. This is your chance to live out your dream. This may be the only chance you’ll ever get. I know that this is something you really want to do. And I know you well enough to know that if you want something, you don’t let anything stop you from getting it. You’ve never let anything stop you before, and I know you won’t now.” She paused for a moment. “Dingo, you’re going to run in that race, and you and I both know it.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 5

“I haven’t seen Dingo since you got home, Jason,” Jason’s father said while their family was eating supper. “Where is he?”

“He’s at the vet’s office,” Jason said. “He hurt his back when I was at Maria’s house. She fell off the roof. She would’ve died if he hadn’t broken her fall.”

“I guess our little canine hero is at it again,” Jason’s father said with a smile. “If he keeps it up, though, he’ll be spending his whole life at the vet’s office.”

“So, what did you do at Maria’s house, Jason?” Jason’s mother asked.

“Well…Maria is very…unique,” Jason said. “She and her mom were arguing because her mom wouldn’t give her any money. Then she started talking about how she wouldn’t need to borrow money from her mom if she was a rich girl. She said that if she was a rich girl, she would have all the money in the world. Then she said that she should write a song about being a rich girl.”

Sandy rolled her eyes. “A song about being a rich girl?” she asked in disbelief. “Why would anyone want to listen to a song about being a rich girl?”

“That’s what her brother Eduardo said,” Jason replied. “Later she started to say that she was hungry and she wanted to eat a banana. Eduardo told her that there aren’t any bananas in Alaska, and then she started throwing a temper tantrum. I remember exactly what she said-‘I want bananas! B-A-N-A-N-A-S!’ Then she said that she should write a song about bananas, too.”

Sandy laughed. “Bananas?” she said. “And I thought that the song about being a rich girl was a dumb idea! What is she going to think of next? A song about some girls from Japan?”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “I think that would be too random even for her,” he said.

“I should visit Maria someday,” Sandy said. “She sounds very…interesting. So, when is Dingo going to be able to come back home?”

Jason shrugged. “Probably in about a week.”

“I hope he makes it out of there in time for the race,” Sandy muttered.

Jason’s mother raised an eyebrow. “What race?”

Sandy looked away suddenly and traced a tile pattern on the floor with her foot. “Uh…it’s nothing…” Sandy had the unique gift of understanding animals and their thoughts. She knew that Dingo wanted to run in the race. She hoped that this incident wouldn’t ruin his chances.

-----

Six days later, Dingo rolled over in the small basket in the vet’s office, trying to fall asleep. ‘Here I am again,’ he thought. ‘Now I bet someone is going to come in and annoy me…’

“Hey, Ding-dong!” said a friendly voice. Dingo opened his eyes and saw Saba grinning in front of him. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Dingo said. He sat silent for a minute. Then he sighed. “You were right, Saba.”

Saba cocked her head. “What was I right about?”

“You were right about the race,” Dingo said. “You know me too well, sis.” Saba smiled. “You said I would decide to be in the race, and I did.”

“I knew it,” Saba said. “What can I say? I’ve been stuck with you all my life. I know you almost as much about you as you know about yourself. Maybe even more.”

Dingo found the last comment strange, but he just shrugged it off.

“So, do you think you’ve recovered enough to do the race tomorrow?” Saba asked.

Dingo laughed. “Are you kidding?” He jumped out of the basket and landed right next to her. “I’ve never been better!”

Saba pushed her brother away playfully. “I knew you would come around eventually,” she said. She expected her brother to give her a little shove or make some comeback, but he didn’t. He just stared out the window.

“Uh…Dingo?” Saba walked over to her brother. “Is something wrong? You look spaced out.”

Dingo hesitated. “Well…the race wasn’t the only thing I was worried about,” he said slowly. “I’m also worried…about Liko.”

“Liko?” Saba raised an eyebrow. “I noticed that she’s been acting weird lately. Do you know why she’s acting so strange?”

Dingo nodded. “That’s why I’m worried,” he said. He explained what had happened between Liko and himself to Saba.

Saba’s eyes widened. “Wow,” she said, staring at the ground. “That sounds exactly like what happened between me and Josh a while ago. At first I said that I didn’t want to be anything more than friends. But the whole time I did want to be more than that…deep down. I just didn’t realize it at first.” She looked up at Dingo. “I think that you like her deep down. It’s just going to take some time for you to realize it.”

Dingo opened his mouth to protest, but then he shut it. Saba knew him almost as well as he knew himself, and she was almost always right when she said stuff like that. After all, she had been right about the race, hadn’t she?

“Yes…” Dingo said slowly, thinking. “You’re right. I do really love her deep down. I’m just not ready to be more than friends yet.”

“I’ll talk to her,” Saba said. “After all, I went through the same thing with Josh. I think it will help if I talk to her.”

Dingo smiled. “Thanks,” he said. “I think that will help, too.”

Saba started to walk out of the room. Then she stopped and turned her head to look

Previous Page

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Next page