CHAPTER 4: First Sight

The next day I told Curly my story. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as hers, but hey, I don’t choose the way I live. She was though, a bit surprised, probably just to make me happy, but she is a very good actress.

You know, I wouldn’t have even imagined the Curly that bossed everyone around, being the queen of her street like she said. Of course I would have imagined her fiery red eyes, and the sound of her menacing growl, but only faintly.

I can’t even believe I was the one that changed her back into her old self, not that I ever wanted to see her other self, but I still don’t understand. Why me? I mean anyone could change her back the way I did. Why do people wait for me to do this? I’ll probably never find the answer, but I guess that’s not important right now. Because Curly’s back to the way she was at pup hood. Now I have to figure out where we’re going. I was almost positive we’re in Canada somewhere, so that’s good, but not good enough.

I’d decided to rest because it’s not like there’s anything else to do in this stupid cage. Curly’s already asleep, so I can’t talk to her. I put my head down and closed my eyes, but I shot them open again, because of this screeching sound filling my eardrums to the extreme! The sound is like nails to a chalk board, but ten times louder! At once the whole car of the train was shaking violently side to side. But the good news was, my cage was right-side-up again! Next we were all being forced to lean forward in our cages, because…the train was stopping! When it finally ceased, we all fell backward immediately! I thought this was only to pick someone up again, but I was wrong.

After all that noise all I heard was…nothing. Absolute silence. Even the loudest of dogs did not dare to make one sound. I was scared to death as the silence was killing me. But as I looked over to Curly, she seemed only curious, but didn’t ask anything. But I bet inside, she’s just as afraid as I was, as all the dogs were. We all kept waiting for something to happen, but it was still silent. How long was this going to last?!

I was about to go completely insane, when suddenly, I heard something coming from the doorway. It was soft at first, but immediately got louder. It was like the nails on the chalkboard again, but lower and softer than when the train was stopping. Finally, the door opened very slowly, and a harsh, cold breeze shot from the crack of the door to all of us. I shivered. Both from fear and coldness. Slowly a few men stepped through the door and it was warm again. Some of the dogs were whining as they do everyday, and in no time the room was loud barking as always. I was really relieved when the silence was all over. But now I have to worry about what those unknown men were doing in here. I was getting more worried as they started to go down my aisle.

“Well, see any you like?” A familiar man said to the two unknown ones. The familiar one was the one who fed all of us on the train. He was pretty nice to us. At least nicer than the big man.

The two unknown men were looking around, but one of them stopped at me. I started to panic. He seemed to like me.

“Hey, look at this one.” He said. Then he started to feel around my body.

“Wow! You’re a big fella aren’t you? How much for this one?”

“Hmmm…$70. How about it?”

“Okay. You got a deal!”

 Then I widened my eyes in horror. I was sold! And I couldn’t do a thing about it. I layed down and whimpered. Now I’ll REALLY never get to see Judge Miller again. Curly looked so worried when she looked at me. I knew she wanted to help. She was now sad that WE’LL never see each other again. Curly put a paw on the wall of her cage. I did the same.

“I’ll really miss you, Buck. You are the nicest person I’ve ever met. You made me who I am again, and that means more than you know.”

“I’ll I told you was to listen to your heart.”

“And you have no idea what that meant to me. Thank you.”

“Your welcome. I’m really glad I met you. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have a friend on this train.”

“Friend.” Curly repeated, smiling. “I haven’t had one of those in a long time.”

I smiled as well.

“Well. I guess this is goodbye. Take care, Buck.”

“You, too Curly. And wherever you’re going, I hope it’s a good place. Goodbye my friend…I’ll always be in your heart, you know, because I changed it.” After that, I was being let out of my cage. I jumped to the floor. And was being lead on another leash one of the two mean had. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Curly, shedding the last tear I’ll ever get to see her shed. She looked at me and mouthed the word, “Friend.”

I smiled, shedding one tear as well.

While we were walking to the door of the train, one of the men felt his pocket and stopped.

“Oh dear! Hold on there! I need to get something!” The other man and I waited while he went back to get whatever he needed. I thought about who Curly might be sold to. I hoped it was someone nice, someone that could be a friend to her like I was. I hoped that Curly will be changed completely, into the good pup I know she is. She could be anyone’s friend. I wished I could spend more time with Curly, now, for the first time, I wanted to be on that train. I didn’t care what amount of food or water I got. If I was with Curly, then nothing ever really mattered. But…That’s all going to change now. Now that I’ll never see her again.

The man returned with his hat in his hand. But his other hand he was pulling something. Something that was…CURLY?! I couldn’t even breathe when I saw her being pulled by the other man. That meant she was sold, and now she was going to be my friend always.

Wow. I guess my wish had come true after all! And I was so happy!!

“What the- You bought another dog?!” Then man who waited with me asked in a surprising tone.

“Well. She seemed pretty lonely. And she looks strong enough. So why not? She could make a great addition.”

“*Sigh* Fine. We’ll keep her.”

I howled with glee as I ran to her, hugging her for the first time, since we were in cages the whole time. She stunk though, but at the time I didn’t really care.

“I guess fate gave us a chance to be friends after all.” Curly said while we were still hugging.

“Now we can both start all over again in a new life.”

“But…” She pulled away. “What would that new life BE exactly?”

There was a silence. I actually DIDN’T know what that new life would be. Nor did I know if it was going to be good or not. I knew that Curly didn’t know as well, and wasn’t really waiting for my answer. She was thinking about it also.

The two men took us to the door, the door that would take us out of here, for good.

I held my breath. I didn’t know what was going to happen as one of the men reached toward it and grabbed the handle. I held it even harder when a huge blast of wind came from the open door, but then it stopped. And we walked out.

I was utterly amazed! It seemed Curly was too. All this white stuff falling from the sky and landing on the ground for me to stomp in it. I didn’t know what it was, but I liked it, well, except for its unbearable coldness! I thought my toes were going to freeze off! Curly curled into a ball, rocking back and forth, shivering. I knew she didn’t like the cold so much either. But was WAS this white stuff? First I sniffed it. No scent at all. Then I stuck out my tongue to taste it. No taste. I just felt a drop of water on my tongue.

Then I realized. Judge Miller had once told me there was this thing called “snow.” Where it’s white and fluffy, but very freezing. And it floats gently down to the ground. It was just water, but frozen in crystal form and it melts back into water when it touches something warmer that it. So this was the first time I was standing in snow. I smiled, for the billionth time today. I couldn’t help it. I would get used to snow quickly, but Curly…She might take a while.

CHAPTER 5: The Harsh North

After we ran around in the snow for a bit, our new owners took us by our leashes and walked us. It was so nice to be able to walk freely again! I think Curly was having fun with it, too! And it was nice having a best friend to be at my side. We both looked at each other and smiled, again. No matter how difficult this new life would be, at least we would go through it together.

And I think that was going to start right now. We were walking through the snow when a small dot peeked over the white-covered land. That small dot turned into a bunch of dots, which eventually grew into buildings. It was a town. Curly and I looked at each other with worry, now. Who knows what would be in that small village!

As we got closer, a sign came up over the horizon. Our new owners stopped to look at it, I guess to see if they were in the right place. Oh, how I wished I was human so I could read! But I had to wait for them to tell each other. Luckily they did. We kinda learned to understand human during our travels on the train.

“Well, were getting closer. At least we made it to Alaska. Well be in Yukon in no time.”

Curly and I both exchanged glances that were too surprised!

“Oh my gosh, Buck. We’re in ALASKA!”

“ I know. I can’t seem to figure this out. Why are we taken to Alaska?