A Home for Molly

Chapter Six

“Have you come to see us? It’s Anya,” Rachel called back into the house. “My friend from the beach, Mum.” Rachel smiled at Anya and then looked down at Molly. “Oh! You’ve brought Molly, too.”

She looked a little bit puzzled, Anya thought. “Hadn’t you noticed she was gone?” she asked Rachel. Molly had been out since the middle of the afternoon! It did seem strange that they hadn’t noticed.

Rachel frowned. “Gone where?”

“She was running along the beach this afternoon, but I couldn’t catch her,” Anya explained. “I told Mum and Dad I was going to see the sea, so I could have another look for her. She must have slipped out earlier on – or maybe you left her on the beach,” she added doubtfully. She couldn’t imagine being that careless, but Rachel didn’t seem to have a clue where her dog was…

“We haven’t been to the beach,” Rachel said slowly. “We went to an adventure park. We’ve only just got back.”

Anya nodded. “She slipped out, then.” She crouched down and rubbed Molly’s poor scruffy ears that needed brushing so badly. She was almost tempted not to give Molly back…

Rachel crouched down, too, and Molly sniffed her fingers in a friendly sort of way. Anya watched, frowning a little. Molly didn’t seem that excited to see her owner.

“Anya, I don’t understand.” Rachel looked at her over Molly’s head. “Why would we notice Molly had gone? And gone where?”

“Don’t you care about her at all?” Anya felt her eyes filling with tears. How could Rachel not even be worried that Molly had been out on her own all day? She could have been run over! “She’s your dog! You’re supposed to look after her!”

Rachel simply stared at her for a moment. Then she shook her head. “No, she isn’t,” she said slowly.

“What?”

“She’s not our dog, Anya.” Rachel frowned. “She doesn’t belong to us. We don’t even have a dog.”

“But she was with you on the beach!” Anya looked down at Molly, who was watching them anxiously.

The little dog wagged her tail, very faintly. She could tell they were getting cross with each other, Anya realized and she patted Molly’s ears gently. “It’s OK,” she murmured. Then she looked up at Rachel. “She’s really not yours? I was so sure… She was with us all that afternoon. And you knew her name – you told me she was called Molly!”

“Yes, because it’s on her collar.” Rachel pointed to the name, woven into the fabric. “She was watching us playing in the sea and then she just tagged along. She was so gorgeous – but I thought she belonged to those teenage boys who were sitting further up the beach. I was sure she did.” Rachel frowned. “I thought they were mean, not playing with her… And they didn’t seem to mind her being with us, so I just kept fussing over her.”

“Oh, wow,” Anya muttered. “I suppose I just thought she was yours because of the way you apologized about her knocking over my tower. Sorry,” she added. “I was really telling you off just now. You must have thought I was mad!”

“That’s all right,” said Rachel. “I would have done the same if I thought you weren’t looking after your dog. But how did you find us? I never told you the address of the cottage, did I? I wished I’d thought of giving you Mum’s mobile number, so we could meet up on the beach again. I was so cross with myself last night when I realized I couldn’t even call you!”

Anya sighed. “You told me you were staying near the ice-cream shop, so I knocked on doors. It was so embarrassing. And the old lady two doors down was really angry with me!”

“Ooooh, she exploded at Lily the other day because she spilled sand out of her bucket on to the pavement. I think she’s just a bit grumpy. Poor you.” Rachel put her arm round Anya’s shoulders and gave her a hug. “I’m sorry you got into trouble.”

Anya smiled at her, but then her smile faded. “It doesn’t matter – but, Rachel, if Molly doesn’t belong to you, then whose dog is she?”

“I don’t know.” Rachel looked worriedly at Molly. “I suppose I just thought she belonged to those boys, the same way you thought she was ours. I never actually saw them call her or anything…”

“Do you think she could be a stray and that maybe she doesn’t belong to anyone? She’s ever so scruffy. Sorry, Molly, you’re beautiful, but you are scruffy,” Anya told her. “I mean, she needs grooming really badly and she’s covered in sand.”

“She’s too thin, as well,” Rachel pointed out.

Anya ran her hand over Molly’s domed head and Molly panted at her happily. “So – do you think she’s a stray?”

“Maybe…” Rachel nodded. “It seems that way, doesn’t it?”

“Poor Molly,” Anya whispered. “I wonder what happened – she’s so lovely and she’s still only a puppy.”

“Perhaps she got lost when her owners were here on holiday,” Rachel suggested sadly. “And they went home without her.”

“That’s awful…” Anya swallowed. “What am I going to do? I thought I was bringing her home and now it seems she doesn’t have a home at all.”

“Rachel, are you two all right out there?” Rachel’s mum came out of the kitchen. “Hello, Anya. That’s a sweet little dog. You had her with you on the beach, didn’t you?”

Rachel and Anya looked at each other and started to laugh. “Mum, Anya thought Molly was ours. She’s brought her back! And now we don’t know who she belongs to.”

“Oh!” Anya looked down at her watch. “I have to get back. I told Mum and Dad I’d only be a few minutes. I was just supposed to be going to look at the sea.”

“They’ll be terribly worried about you,” Rachel’s mum said, in a horrified sort of voice that made Anya feel much worse. “We’d better take you home at once.” She called out that she’d be back soon and closed the front door behind her. Then she hurried the girls and Molly down the street.

“Where are you staying, Anya?” she asked. “Can you remember the way?”

“Oh yes. It’s one of the cottages on the front, by the sea. I can go back by myself, honestly.”

But Rachel’s mum shook her head. “No, it’s all right, I’m sure you could, but I want to make certain that you get home safely.”

“Mum,” Rachel put in suddenly. “If Molly’s a stray, and we think she must be, can we keep her?”

Anya gasped – it was exactly what she had been thinking. If only she had said something first!

But Rachel’s mum shook her head firmly. “No, of course not. For a start, the cottage has a no-pets rule. And what would Alfie think if we came home and got him out of the cattery and there was a dog in his house? He’d probably walk out!”

Rachel sighed. “I suppose so.”

Anya took a deep, shaky breath and wrapped her hand more tightly around Molly’s makeshift lead. Until Rachel had spoken, she’d only had the idea in the back of her mind, but how amazing would it be if Molly could be hers? After all, no one else seemed to want her… Why shouldn’t they keep her?

“Would you like to stay with me?” she whispered to Molly, as she saw their cottage and hurried ahead. “Would you like to be my dog?” She knocked lightly on the front door of the cottage – the last thing she wanted to do was wake up Jessie. She needed Mum and Dad in the best mood possible.

The door swung open at once and Mum grabbed her into a hug. “Anya, where have you been? You said you’d only be a few minutes. I was about to go out looking for you!”

“Sorry, Mum…”

“Anya’s actually been really resourceful,” Rachel’s mum put in. “She found this dog and she worked out where we’d been staying, so she could bring the poor little thing back to us. Only the dog isn’t actually ours.”

“Is that the dog you were looking for earlier, Anya?” Dad asked, peering over Mum’s shoulder.

“Yes, but she doesn’t belong to the other family. We don’t know who she belongs to at all.” Anya crouched down and picked Molly up, showing her to Mum and Dad. “She’s so lovely, I can’t see how anybody would abandon her.”

“I’m sorry we can’t look after her ourselves until her owner is found,” Rachel’s mum explained. “But we had to sign a no-pets agreement for our cottage.”

“I think pets are allowed in this one,” Dad said slowly. “But we can’t have a dog here – what about Jessie?”

“Molly’s really friendly, Dad,” Anya explained. “She wouldn’t snap at Jessie.”

“She was very patient with the children on the beach the other day,” Rachel’s mum agreed.

“Couldn’t we just look after her for a couple of days, Dad?” Anya suggested hopefully. “I could take her to the vet’s to see if anyone’s reported her lost. And put posters up about her.”

She didn’t say what she was really thinking, which was, And then if no one knows about her, maybe we can just take her home with us…