The story so far: Ma was out of town, and I was alone with my Pa, when he got a call and had to rush out of the house. I fell asleep and when I woke up it was dark and I was alone. There was no power and I heard a noise in Pa’s den. There was no one there, but the window was open. I found something like an iPod lying there and I fixed it to my ears.
I sat up, dazed. “What happened?” I said aloud.
“What happened?” I heard in my head.
My head throbbed. “Ow-ow-ow-ow!” I groaned.
“Ow-ow-ow-ow!” I heard in my head.
I held my head. “It’s hurting bad enough. I don’t need an echo!”
“It’s not an echo,” I heard. “It’s me.”
I jumped up and looked all around me. The emergency light was bright and I could see every corner of the room. There was no one there but me. And Sammy. I peeped out of the window. No one.
Strange!
Who had spoken? Was it just my imagination? Had I hit my head so hard that I was imagining someone talking to me? “What’s wrong with me?” I asked aloud, going to look in the mirror. “Why am I hearing things?”
“You’re fine,” I heard. “It’s just me. Samson.”
“Samson...Sammmm... Sammy…?” I half-squeaked, half-squealed, half-screamed.
“At last!” I heard. “You understand!” And Sammy launched himself at me.
(Let me tell you about Sammy. He’s not very big. He just comes up to my knees and I’m not very big either. How big can a ten-year-old boy be? He’s made up of many different breeds of dogs and he keeps everyone guessing. ‘An extra-large Apso? An extra-hairy terrier?’ people ask when we go for a walk, but I just shake my head. I don’t know what those breeds are and I don’t care. I’m just happy with Sammy as he is.
Sammy has lots of brown hair that flies all over the place and makes him seem much bigger and fiercer than he is. “His strength is in his hair,” Papa had said when we got him. “He is another Samson.”
And Samson he was — Sammy to everyone but Papa.
I sat down right where I was and allowed Sammy to slobber all over me. I don’t know who was happier — Sammy or me.
We didn’t say much. We just kept on with, “You can talk!” “You can understand!” “What fun!” “How great!” and danced all over the room until the worst possible thing happened.
The doorbell clanged.
“Who could it be, Sammy?” I asked as I pulled the earphones out of my ears (they came out easily this time) and left the iPoddle-thing on the table and ran to the door. I expected Sammy to say, “Papa” or “Kavita Didi” but I didn’t hear anything in reply.
But Sammy was wagging his tail and making happy sounds so I knew it was someone he liked and I threw open the door.
To be continued