Exhaust clouds emit from the rear of the car into the frozen, evening air. The screen door of the house shutters open as Lynn shuffles on her coat on her way out.
“We’re losing daylight!” exclaims Lynn’s father from the front seat of the hatchback.
“Alright, alright! I’m coming!” she yells as she flings open the front door and throws herself into the passenger seat.
Her father scoffs and puts the car in drive to head down the long, unpaved driveway.
“There was no need to slam the door…”
While the two drive down the windy mountain roads, Lynn looks out her passenger side window and takes notice of the snow getting kicked away from the tires. She looks up to find a still and white abundance of trees that seem to go on forever.
Lynn zips up her coat and questions, “Why did we even have to take this drive in the first place?”
“Your mother needed milk, I don’t know.”
Disregarding his response, Lynn spots something up ahead in the middle of the road. She adjusts herself in her seat to try to get a closer look out the front window.
“Is that a-”
“Wolf,” her father finishes.
The car slows to a stop with a mere seven yards between them and a long-haired, four-legged animal with fur that matches the white of the world around them. The animal stays frozen and does nothing but stare back at them.
“Are you sure that’s a wolf?” Lynn asks.
The animal hobbles off to the side of the road with a limp in it’s step. “It’s hurt! It needs help!” she exclaims.
The animal sits itself on the side of the road to allow the car to pass as if to wait for the next if there were to even be one. As the car rolls by, Lynn makes an unbreakable eye contact with the animal. Those bright blue eyes shouted pure innocence and Lynn knew that. She turns back to her father and continues, “That could be someone’s dog! He could be lost!” She whips back around in her seat almost standing up to watch the animal as long as possible before it is out of view.
Her father lets out a brief laugh and begins to explain, “Y’know, wolves are intelligent creatures. They sometimes act hurt so they can lure people in…” Lynn slides back down into her seat and loses herself in thought, not listening to her father ramble, as she is unable to shake the image of those eyes.
The car pulls into a parking spot at the supermarket. Lynn’s father opens the car and gets out. Before closing the door, he peeks his head back in and says, “I’m just going to run in, you can stay in the car if you want.”
Lynn does not respond to her father as she is too focused on scrolling through social media for any posts about lost dogs in the area. A swoosh sound radiates from her phone as she sends out a message herself and rests the phone in her lap. A few short seconds later, her phone begins to ping repeatedly. She eagerly scrolls through her phone only to find herself in utter disappointment. Lynn angrily throws her phone at the dashboard in frustration, yells to herself that “it’s not a wolf,” and hides her head in her knees.
Lynn’s father places the shopping bag in the back seat and then sits himself in the front. He looks over at Lynn, still curled up in her seat, and closes his door with a sigh. He begins to drive.
“What would you even do if it was a dog? You can’t take it home,” he reasoned as the two started on their way home.
Lynn looks up from her knees at her father. After a brief pause for thought, Lynn quickly grabs her phone and begins calling as many local animal shelters as she can. However, each time she calls a new location she gets the same voicemail message every time, “Please call back within normal business hours 10am-5pm,” to which she would hang up immediately and try another.
Unable to get through to anyone and growing even more frustrated, Lynn yells, “Now what?! No one can help me! No one can help that dog! It’s hurt and it needs somebody!” The car comes to a stop at an intersection. Without hesitation, Lynn quickly unbuckles her seatbelt and runs out the car door in search of the animal, “It needs me!”
Her father runs after her into the ankle-deep snow on the side of the road. Trying to reason with her, he calls out, “You don’t know for a fact that it’s a dog. Maybe it’s better not to go after it.”
Turning back to him ten feet ahead, now starting to tear up, “I know what I saw, Dad! Those eyes! Those eyes were so innocent. That dog is not meant to be on his own out here.”
Her father takes notice of her unwavering determination and takes to his own phone in search of someone who could help. He puts the phone to his ear.
A middle-aged man answers the phone. “Hello, you’ve reached Midboa Animal Sanctuary-”
“Hi, yes. My daughter and I have come across an animal up in the mountains that we believe to be a.. uh... dog…”
In the dark of the night, Lynn, her father, and the man from the animal sanctuary search relentlessly for the dog.
The volunteer from the sanctuary reasons, “If we haven’t found him yet, maybe we should just come back out in the morning.”
Lynn’s father, agreeing with him, “I’d say that’s probably a good idea.” Disappointed they were unable to find the dog, Lynn heads back to their car parked on the opposite side of the road, still by the stop sign.
Lynn’s father walks with the volunteer to his truck. He says, “I just wanted to thank you for coming up here, I know this isn’t a ‘normal’ situation for you dealing with dogs and all.”
As the volunteer opens his door and hops up into the truck, he says, “Oh, that’s alright. Some strange feeling was telling me that I needed to go looking for him.”
The volunteer turns the key in his ignition, illuminating his headlights. He spots something up ahead, “Hey, is that him?”
At the car, Lynn quickly turns around and her face instantly lights up.
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