The Forgotten Puppy

Chapter Eight

“Dad, run!”

“Emi, honestly, we won’t get to it in time. I’ve got to buy my ticket, remember. Don’t worry. There’s another train not long after.” He pulled out his wallet and started to tap the screen on the ticket machine.

“It’s still there…” Emi pleaded, looking up at the departures board. “Couldn’t we try? It’s so cold now and it’s starting to snow again. I hate thinking of Rina outside in this weather, all on her own. Oh, it’s nearly going! Couldn’t we go and wait by it and just say that you’re coming in a minute?” She gazed across to the other platform, watching the train.

Ben gave her a hug. “It’s only fifteen minutes till the next one, Emi. We’ll get home and find her. It’ll be all right.”

“But what if we don’t?” Emi said miserably. “What if we’ve lost Rina forever?”

Ben shook his head. “I bet she hasn’t gone far. I know Mum’s looked for her, but Rina’s probably scared being out on her own, that’s all. She’s not used to it. She’s hiding somewhere really close to home and she’ll come out when she’s feeling a bit less frightened and we’ll find her.”

Dad pulled his ticket out of the machine.

“Is it still there? Come on, then, let’s run!” cried Emi. “We’ve got to find Rina!”

Rina twitched in her dream, thinking that she could hear Emi calling her name. Then she sprang up, shaking her head.

She had heard Emi! Emi was close by!

Rina stuck her nose out from behind the ticket machine, looking around desperately. She was still a little dazed from her cold sleep, but she could see the train on the other side of the station. Could Emi be on it?

Rina darted out, yapping, calling to Emi to stop, to wait for her. But as she tried to run, something dragged at her, pulling her back.

Her lead was caught! Rina whined out loud – Emi was just over there, she was sure of it. She had found Emi at last and now she couldn’t reach her!

“Goodness me, what’s the matter? Are you lost?” An old lady was standing in front of her, looking down at her worriedly. “Poor little thing.”

Rina ignored the lady, pulling again at her lead. She had to catch Emi!

“Oh, you’re stuck. Stand still, silly thing. There.” She reached over and unhooked the lead from the piece of broken brick it was caught up on. “Now, who do you belong to? Oh!”

Rina was gone, not even stopping to let the old lady stroke her. She was scrambling up those slippery metal steps and racing across the footbridge.

But when she got to the top of the steps, the train was gone. She could just see it, in the distance. She had lost Emi again! Rina sat down at the top of the steps and howled and howled.

“We were so close!” Emi sat down on the bench in the little waiting room and put her hands over her eyes. She knew it was stupid to cry about missing a train, but every minute mattered. What if Rina was hiding somewhere, just waiting for Emi to come and find her?

Ben made a face. “I know – I think they could have held on, honestly. Thirty seconds earlier and we’d have caught it. What is that?”

A high-pitched yowling was echoing across the station and all three of them peered out of the waiting-room windows, trying to see where it was coming from.

“It sounds like a cross between a police car and a baby,” Dad said, smiling a little. “That is one miserable dog. Oh, Emi, don’t be sad, I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with him – it’s probably waiting in a car outside the station, that’s all.”

“It sounds like Rina when we leave her behind!” Emi whispered, getting to her feet. “But it can’t be…”

“It does sound like her,” Ben said, nodding.

“Really?” Dad frowned. “It seems unlikely… She couldn’t have followed you on to a train, could she?”

Emi and Ben exchanged doubtful glances. “Well, she has been to the station a few times to see us off. But she wouldn’t get on a train…”

“I bet she would,” Ben said. “If she thought you were on it, Emi. You know she misses you loads.”

“It is Rina…” Emi said, running to the door as a particularly loud wail echoed across the station. “It sounds just like her. It is!”

She darted out on to the platform, looking around wildly. And there, up at the top of the stairs, was a little dog, with her head lifted up, howling in misery.

“Rina!” Emi screamed, and Rina stopped mid-howl and stared.

Emi hadn’t gone after all. Emi was right there! Barking joyfully, Rina hurled herself down the stairs and into Emi’s arms.

“You know, if we hadn’t missed that train, we might never have found her,” Emi said thoughtfully, looking at Rina sitting next to her on the platform. “I think about it every time I go on a train now.”

It was several months later and Emi and Ben were with their dad at the station. But this time it wasn’t because they were going home – they were going on holiday!

Dad smiled at her. “Aren’t you glad I was so slow getting my ticket that day? Have you got your ticket, by the way, Emi? And all your bags? I really don’t want to miss this train.”

Emi looked down at the bags by her feet and counted them hurriedly. “No, it’s all right, I’ve got everything. I thought for a minute I hadn’t got Rina’s bag, with her bed and her bowls and all her toys, but I have.”

“That dog’s got more luggage than you and Ben,” Dad said, grinning.

“Thanks for letting her come on holiday with us, Dad.” Emi put an arm round his waist. “It’s going to be brilliant, taking her to the beach. Oooh, the train’s coming!”

Rina stood up, looking at the train suspiciously. It was the first time she had been on one of these great loud things since Emi and Ben and Dad had brought her home. She still didn’t like trains very much. She hated going to the station to say goodbye to Emi. Though at least now she knew that Emi would always come back.

But this time it was different. Emi was holding her lead and her bed was in a bag – Rina could smell it – just next to them. Rina was almost sure that she was getting on this train, too.

“Are you ready, Rina?” Emi whispered. “We’re going on a trip.”

Rina squashed herself tightly up against Emi’s leg as the train drew in and everyone picked up their bags.

She was not going to let Emi get lost again…