Rex, ignoring Toby’s complaint, “I almost forgot to mention that someone you might know was caught today stealing clothes from somebody’s clothesline.  The chief checked his record and found out he had broken out of prison during an unfinished sentence for dogfighting.”

“ Carson!” Taya and Copper exclaimed in unison.

“The same,” Rex replied.

"How bad was it?" asked Luna.

“The damage?  Not too bad.  The worst of it was the cold- his skin was as blue as his shirt.  Or at least," he added, coming as close to smiling as they had ever seen him outside, "What was left of the shirt."  Everyone laughed.  "Well, I just wanted to let you know you can all rest easy tonight.”  And he turned and walked away.

“Well, then,” said Luna, “I guess it’s a happy ending all around.”

“Except for me,” griped Toby.  “I’ve gotta go home for a bath.”

Right at that moment the pile of boxes shifted.  Steele crawled out, battered and bruised.  But his eyes still had fight to spare.  “Alright,” he growled, “Now you’re really in for it.”

Without thinking, Toby jumped onto Copper’s shoulders.  “Hey, bozo!” he yelled at Steele.  “Remember me?”  In case Steele needed a reminder, Toby clicked his teeth.  Steele’s eyes flashed.  “Come and get me, you flea-brained mange-furred knucklehead!” Toby yelled.

Steele charged, and Copper dashed off as Taya picked up Luna and ran the other way.  Steele paused to decide which one to go after before a raspberry from Toby answered the question.  “Come on, try to keep up, old man!” Toby teased.  “We’ll beat you faster than your breath will curdle milk!”  Then he whispered to Copper “Head for the train station.  I’ve got an idea.”

Copper followed Toby’s advice and ran to the station.  “Now what?” he asked.

“Over there!” said Toby, pointing to a train about to leave.  There was an open boxcar.  Toby jumped in and told Copper, “Now hide behind the platform.”

“What for?” asked Copper.

“Trust me,” insisted Toby.

A snarl from around the corner convinced Copper.  He ducked out of sight just as Steele showed up.  “Alright, kid!  Where are you?” yelled Steele.

“Right here, Dracula!” called Toby, waving from the door.  “Can you see me?  I guess your eyes are getting old, so I’ll keep yelling and hope you’re not going deaf too!”

Steele ran at Toby and jumped into the car.  Toby dashed out an hole in the other side that was just his size, but too small for Steele.  “Shut the door, Copper!” he yelled.

Too late, Steele realized he’d been had.  The door slid shut and the latch came down just as he crashed against it.  “Bon voyage, Steele!” yelled Copper.

“All aboard!” called the conductor.  “All aboard for New York!”

The train whistle blew as it puled out of the station.  “Did he say New York?” asked Copper.

“I think so,” answered Toby.  “Why?”

“Well,” said Copper with a laugh, “If I remember dad’s stories right, that’s where they put up a statue of him.”

“Oh, boy,” laughed Toby.  “I’ll bet Steele’s not gonna be happy when he gets off that train.”

Author’s Note:

Contains events from real life.  The names of the people involved in said events, along with certain details, have been omitted in order to protect the innocent.

As Toby quoted Rex in my first story, "Stories are meant to be learned from."  This has always been my philosophy.  Most of the time when I write a story I prefer to allow the readers to learn or not learn from it at their choosing.  But this story was a very personal one for me, and I felt it would be morally wrong not to add a definite lesson to it.

Blaze’s description of Taya’s mother is based on a real person I used to know.  She was a terrific girl, and she was very involved with the church, especially any and every children’s program.  I felt sure that if any teenager I knew was a model of a true-blue Christian, it was she.  Like Blaze, I was somewhat attracted to this girl, but she always seemed to already have a boyfriend.  As soon as she lost one, she got another.  Her whole life seemed to revolve around having them, possibly because her parents fought a lot.

Then when she was about 16, she started dating a boy who was nothing but trouble.  My only guess is that she wanted to change him, but he got her to abandon every shard of her integrity.  Soon this girl, my friend, whom I had never known to miss church or youth group even once, was almost never seen at either one.  I was horrified to learn just how low she had sunk, and even more so when I discovered she was not at all upset about it.  The fact is she was thrilled, which I can only attribute to how low her morals had sunk.  Like Blaze, I blamed myself for not trying hard enough to warn her, but I see now that she was going to do what she wanted.  I doubt she would have listened if God Himself had told her to dump the guy.

Unlike Taya’s mother, my friend is still very much alive.  But her boyfriend turned out to be an awful drinker and drug abuser (including some drugs which are illegal).  And predictably, he was as abusive to her as he was of his drugs.  In the end she finally wisened up, took the baby (yes, you read that correctly), and left.  Since then she has been avoiding him as much as possible.  I hope she will one day come back to church, perhaps the only real family she ever had.

Another reason this story is so personal to me is that Taya’s lack of a father growing up was much like my own shaky relationship with my dad.  He was technically there throughout most of my childhood, but he always seemed to discourage the interests and beliefs that I continue to hold dearest, some of which contain the roots of the entire Toby series.  His discouragement, however, served only to encourage me in areas such as dragons, creation science, and an odd assortment of other things.  But several years ago, my parents got divorced (I’ll give you three guesses whose idea it was).  With the exception of dad, our family went down the toilet overnight.  I plotted revenge for a long time, and tried every possible way to annoy him and make myself as much a thorn to him as he had been to us (just to make one thing clear, I never even considered direct physical harm).  But all my efforts failed in every possible way, each defeat more humiliating than the last.  Like Taya, however, I can honestly say I came out stronger from the ordeal.  Some of my best ideas for stories (including some which have attracted the attention of a potential publisher) developed from my efforts to terrorize my dad.  But as with Taya, I was a failure until I let go of revenge and returned my focus to what was really important: my remaining friends and family who hadn’t let me down.

I beg anyone out there in a situation like one of these to heed my words.  Whether you are a girl or a guy, if you are trying to change a troublemaker through dating, STOP NOW.  Nine times out of ten, the only one to change WILL BE YOU.  You may say, “Oh, that’ll never happen to me.”  But that’s just what my friend would have said.  And if you know someone who is doing that sort of thing, I implore you to do everything you possibly can to stop them.  Tell them, and keep telling them, that it will not work unless they set the change as a pre-requisite to dating.  If you fail, you can at least have some peace knowing you tried.  And remember, lacking a date on Saturday night is not the worst thing that can happen to you.  You can be somebody without having somebody.

And if you are mad at someone, maybe for the same reason I was mad at my dad, take my advice: skip revenge.  It’s a waste of time and effort, and even if you manage to hurt them back you will still be hurt and you will have done nothing but sink to their level.  Take it from me, forgiveness is way less painful.  The best kind of revenge is proving that you don’t have to be like whoever you’re mad at.

Balto, Steele, Kodi, Jenna, Rosie, Rosie’s mom, Aniu © Universal Studios

Taya, Copper, Nicholas Carson © redwolf03

Toby, Luna, Terry, Pete, Blaze (no connection to the dog in Balto), Tasha, Rex © Dragon Tamer