Chihuawolf (6 page)

“He must have,” Paco grinned. “We got away! He didn't get us!”

Coco gave Paco a smile, but her eyes were filled with worry. She hoped the howling creature had turned back to the mountain, but she wasn't certain about it. “No he didn't get us. But—”

Paco looked at Coco intently. Something was wrong. “What's the matter?”

“I—I—got hurt. I cut my back foot. I ran off the road and stepped on glass from the broken windows.”

“Is it bad?” Paco's heart gave a painful squeeze.

“I think it is,” Coco said, then quickly added, “Don't worry, Paco. I'm okay. Now that we don't have to run, I can walk on three legs until we get home.”

“It's all my fault!” Paco cried. “You're hurt because of me.”

“The glass cut me, you didn't.” Coco took a little hop, keeping one back paw lifted. “I wanted to come with you. Please don't blame yourself.”

But Paco did. His head hung down. He pushed away the tears that wanted to fill his eyes. He swallowed the sob that wanted to stick in his throat. He must be brave now. Yet inside he felt awful. He vowed he'd never sneak out or do anything so foolish and dangerous ever again.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the two dogs traveled toward town along the wide, white highway. The moon finished its nightly track from the east to the west and disappeared. The stars glowed more brightly against the velvet black sky. The air became chill and damp with dew.

Sometimes Coco looked back toward the dark mountain. A few times she asked Paco to stop so she could listen. She never said if she saw or heard anything.

Once Paco glanced behind them and saw dark wet spots on the ground where they had just walked. “You're bleeding, Coco!” he cried. His voice grew heavy with fear. “We need to stop. You should sit down. Wait here. I'll run ahead and get help.”

“No!” Coco cried out. “I can't stay here.”

“Por qué, mi amiga?
” Paco asked.

Coco didn't want to tell Paco the truth. Her ears were better than his. Her eyes were better too. She had seen something sneaking along behind them. She had heard the panting of a large animal. She had realized the creature hadn't given up at all. He was back there, keeping his distance. He wasn't trying to catch them. He was following them back to town. She didn't know why, but she knew for certain that he lurked out there in the dark.

Not wanting to frighten her friend, she didn't answer Paco's question. She only said, “I just can't stay here. I'll make it home, Paco. I will, if we take our time.”

And so the two dogs continued on their journey. Coco would walk and hop, walk and hop. Then they would stop for a minute. They moved slower and slower.

The night waned. The hours passed. On the far horizon, the first pearly light of dawn made a band of gray against the inky sky. Coco whimpered a little, but the two dogs kept going.

Paco worried that they would never reach the pretty houses and neat lawns of the streets he knew. He asked Coco if she wanted to stop, to give up until somebody came looking for them.

“Never give up, Paco. Never, never, never. Remember that.” And she hopped on.

Finally they arrived at the edge of town. Paco recognized some of the buildings. His spirits rose. They were getting close to home. They started down familiar streets.

First they passed the cozy cottage where B-Boy lived with Tommy. It sat silently behind some hedges; everyone inside was sleeping.

Next the two dogs came to the large house where Natasha lived. A light suddenly flickered on within it. A sharp, clear bark sounded.

Paco gasped. His heart raced. “Hurry if you can, Coco. Victoria's brother takes Natasha out early to run with him through the park. It must be nearly time.”

They slipped past the house as fast as they could. Nobody saw them, but from inside Natasha barked again.

Although it took a very long time, they never gave up. The small black dog and the large brown one finally arrived in Coco's backyard.

Coco sighed and sat down. She looked very tired. She pulled her headlamp off. “I can't climb the stairs, Paco. Please take this inside for me and put it by the door. I left my backpack in the junkyard, but it really doesn't matter. All that matters is that I'm home.”

Paco grabbed the headlamp and rushed through the doggy door. He dropped the headlamp under the coat rack, then he hurried back outside. He saw that Coco was lying down. She wasn't moving.

Ay
Dios
mio!
Fear gripped Paco. He sprinted over to her. “Coco! Talk to me!”

She raised her head a little and looked up at him. “Go home, Paco, quickly, before Olivia gets up.”

“No! I won't leave you.”

“Don't worry. My family will find me soon. I need to rest now.” And she put her head down and closed her eyes.

Paco didn't leave. He sat right next to Coco and threw his head back. He took a deep breath, he opened his mouth wide, and bringing the sound up from deep in his chest as Professor Pewmount had taught him, he began to howl.

Paco howled louder than he had ever howled before. He howled deeper than he had ever howled before. He howled like a big dog would howl. He howled with all the strength in his Chihuahua's body because he needed to wake Coco's family right then.

And he did.

He heard Sandy's voice drift through an open window. “Dad! Dad! What's that noise? It sounds like a dog in trouble.”

He heard Sandy's father call out, “Something's wrong out there. That dog's howling for a reason.”

Paco heard two sets of footsteps running through the house and pounding across wooden floors. But he didn't move. He kept howling until he saw the back door open. He kept howling until the second he heard Sandy's father yell, “Coco! It's Coco! Sandy, call the vet! Coco's hurt!” Only then did Paco, his heart a cold stone in his chest, his spirits lower than they had ever been in his whole life, run out of the yard, across the street, down the red bricks of the narrow alley, and race lickety-split for home.

No one stirred inside Paco's house when he squirmed through the doggy door. Olivia and her mother were still asleep. Quietness softly filled the rooms. Paco let out a deep sigh. He was so happy to be back.

He trotted over to his favorite spot on the recliner. He hopped up and burrowed under the afghan that Grammie had knitted. All he wanted to do was go to sleep.

His nose hit something hard. His head jerked up.
What
did
Norma-Jean and Little Annie do this time!
he thought, getting mad and forgetting how tired he was. He pushed aside the afghan to see what was filling his seat.

A neat pile of doggy treats sat on the cushion of the recliner.

A little meow came from the top of the chair. Norma-Jean asked, “Are you all right? We were very worried.”

“We thought you might be hungry,” Little Annie said.

“
Gracias
, my sisters,” Paco managed to say, his throat closing up with tears. The cats had waited up for him just like they'd said they would. They really did like him. They really were his
family.

Putting his chin down on the doggy treats, Paco stopped acting brave. And only then did he begin to cry.

There was a robber here last night! A robber with a big knife!” Sandy said. His eyes widened with excitement, and he used his hands to show how huge the knife must have been. “Coco fought him off. That's how she got cut so bad.”

The sunshine bright in her eyes, Olivia, Paco's precious little girl, sat on the back steps of Sandy's house and listened to her friend. “A robber? How do you know? Did you see him?”

“No, Dad and I didn't see anybody. Coco had already chased him away. But it must have been a robber.”

“Why? Was anything stolen?”

“Yeah! Coco's backpack was gone. And the refrigerator door was wide open. Dad checked and he said two bottles of water were missing and—and—and a whole pack of hot dogs! I think the robber put them in the backpack. He would have taken other stuff too, I bet. But Coco got him!”

Paco, who was lying at Olivia's feet, put his paws over his eyes and moaned.

The girl looked at the little dog. “I don't think Paco's feeling well.”

“He looks OK to me.”

“I don't know. He's just not himself.” Olivia shook her head so that her brown curls danced up and down. “I can't put my finger on it. I dragged him out of the house today. He always runs for the door when I say we're going for a car ride. He loves coming over here. But this time he didn't want to move. He kept whimpering and wouldn't get out of the recliner.”

As if on cue, Paco whimpered again. His whole body ached like a bad tooth. Tears welled up in his eyes. He squeezed them shut to keep from crying.

“See, like that! Maybe he's in pain.”

The only pain Paco felt was all inside his heart. The phone had rung early that morning. When he had heard Olivia say, “Hello? Sandy?” his chest had gotten tight. He couldn't breathe. He had felt so afraid that Sandy brought bad news about Coco. When he had heard Livy say, “So she's going to be OK?” his breath came out in a whoosh. So did more tears.

He also heard Livy say she would come over that afternoon and bring Paco along.

Paco didn't want to go. He didn't want to face Coco. He stubbornly refused to leave the recliner, even though Livy dressed him in the new denim jacket she had bought at the mall. A picture of a Chihuahua riding a motorcycle adorned the coat's back, under the words “Hot Dog!”

He looked good, but that didn't lift his spirits at all.

Now Paco moped on the concrete path behind Sandy's house. Guilt settled on him like a black cloud. Coco had gotten hurt because of him, no matter what she said. He whimpered again, but this time no one noticed because all they could hear was a wild frenzy of yips and excited barking.

“Tommy and B-Boy are here!” Sandy yelled. “Wait until I tell Tommy about the robber.”

“Hi, Tommy!” Olivia's face lit up as if someone had turned a spotlight on her.

The red-haired boy jumped off his bike. He dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of gummy worms. “Open your mouth and I'll give you one,” he told Olivia.

Olivia giggled. She put her head back and opened her mouth like a baby bird. Tommy dropped in a big, fat, orange gummy worm.

“Hey! I want one too.”

“Sure, Sandy. Here, catch!” Tommy flipped a yellow worm over to his friend. Then he popped a green one in his own mouth. They all chewed while Sandy told him about the robber that Coco had driven away, risking her own life, and getting a deep cut on her paw.

“She lost a lot of blood,” Sandy explained. “She has to take it easy for a whole week. She has to wear this big stupid collar that looks like a funnel so she can't bite at the stitches. But she won't limp or anything once it heals. That's what the vet said.”

“That's great,” Tommy said.

“But you know what?” Sandy asked.

“What?” Olivia and Tommy said together.

“Dad and I never heard Coco barking. We heard another dog howling. That's what woke us up. It wasn't Coco. It's a mystery, that's what Dad says, anyway.”

“How weird,” Olivia said, as Tommy stretched out another gummy worm in her direction but kept it dangling right out of her reach.

“Stop being a tease, Tommy,” she laughed, not sounding a bit mad.

“Yeah, it's strange, and what's even stranger…” Sandy hesitated.

“What?” Olivia and Tommy again said at the same time.

“I thought at first it was—no, it couldn't be, but I thought for a minute—”

“What!” the two other children yelled.

“I thought the other dog sounded just like Paco. But that's impossible.”

“Paco?” Olivia said. “Paco was asleep on the recliner all night. It couldn't have been him.”

“I know. It seemed crazy to me too. But still—some dog
was
howling and woke us up. The vet said that saved Coco's life. We got her to the vet just in time.”

“No! Was it that bad?” Olivia shivered all of a sudden.

Sandy nodded, his face solemn.

Paco whimpered again, his head hanging down.

“Howling. Here. Last night,” B-Boy put his mouth close to Paco's ear and whispered. “It
was
you, was it?”

Paco nodded. “
Sí
, it was all my fault.”

“You cut Coco?”

“Of course I didn't cut Coco,” Paco snapped. B-Boy was the most annoying Jack Russell terrier in the whole world.

“So what happened?” Suddenly B-Boy couldn't stay still another second. He began running up and down the steps, up and down the steps, making Paco dizzy just watching him.

“If you must know, we went looking for the werewolf, but the werewolf found us first. He chased us. We ran through a junkyard, and Coco cut her foot.”

“You're joking!” B-Boy skidded to a stop. His eyes turned into saucers. “You've got to be kidding, right?”

“
Ay, caramba!
Do I sound like I'm kidding! I nearly got my best friend killed. All because I took your stupid advice.” Paco stood up, his tail stiff. Maybe he'd feel better if he got in a fight with B-Boy.

“Don't blame me!” B-Boy barked.

“I will too blame you!” Paco barked back.

B-Boy rushed behind Paco, darted in, and nipped the tip of Paco's tail.

Paco whirled around and growled in B-Boy's direction, showing his small white teeth.

“Half-pint! You can't get me!” B-Boy barked.

Enraged, Paco leaped at B-Boy and tried to bite his leg.

“Hey! Stop!” Tommy yelled. Paco backed away from B-Boy, but he kept growling. He was so mad.

“Livy, what's wrong with Paco?”

“Paco! What are you doing? What's wrong with you!” Olivia's voice scolded. She scooped up the little dog into her arms. “I told you he wasn't himself. Maybe I should take him home.”

“No, don't go! I think B-Boy started it. He jumped on Paco or something,” Sandy said. “They'll be okay. Let's go in and see Coco. I know she must feel left out if she heard our voices out here.”

Leaving the backyard and the bright sunshine of the afternoon, they all went inside.

“Don't you dare laugh at me.” Coco lay in her dog bed, her brown head at the bottom of what looked like a huge white funnel that circled her neck. Curtains covered the windows, making the room dim. Darkness lingered in the corners.

“Hey, hey, Coco.” B-Boy ran over and sniffed her up and down. “Nice collar. You look like a flower. A daisy.”

Paco stayed back, his head drooping. “I'm so sorry, Coco,” he sniffed.

“Come over here, Paco.” Coco's voice was soft. She looked terribly weary, and her nose was pale.

Paco slowly walked closer. He couldn't meet her eyes.

“Look at me.”

He raised his head.

“See. I'm OK. You saved my life. I'm going to be fine.”

Paco looked down again, blinking away tears. “I feel terrible,” he whimpered.

“Listen to me, Paco!” Coco's voice sounded stronger than she looked. “We had a great adventure. And you know what? My family calls me their hero. They think I fought off a robber with a knife! I didn't get in a bit of trouble for taking the hot dogs or losing my backpack. Instead, I'm being pampered. Sandy even made me this medal.”

She lifted her head so Paco could see a blue ribbon with a silver foil medal hanging around her neck underneath the big white funnel. Written on the medal were the words
World's Greatest Dog.

Coco's voice turned gentle. “See, everything turned out great.”

Paco looked up, light coming back into his eyes. “It did? You're not mad at me?”

“I'm not mad at you. Not even a little bit. Come on over here. You look worn out. I'm a little tired. Let's take a nap.”

Paco squeezed into Coco's dog bed. He curled up next to her. He closed his eyes and smiled. He felt comforted by her presence. All was right in his world.

“Hey hey Coco! What about me?” B-Boy was running around the dog bed, first circling in one direction, then stopping and running back.

“You can climb in too,” Coco said.

B-Boy grinned. He jumped into the dog bed and pushed his way into a spot next to Paco. He plopped down and fidgeted, trying to get comfortable.

Paco frowned.
Nothing
is
ever
perfect,
he thought and wriggled away from B-Boy. Then, feeling happier, he fell into a deep sleep and didn't dream.

But Coco didn't dare to sleep. She kept a close watch over her two little friends. Even though she had told Paco that everything had turned out great, it really hadn't. She knew the werewolf had followed them to town the night before, and she didn't know why. Or what he planned to do.