stupidity.
Youth is bold, you see. It is also quick to hope, for life’s realities have not yet tempered it with the caution that follows experience. Youth believes what is possible; it does not dwell on the many ways we can fail.
It was a blessing that day that I was so young. Because it meant I believed I could do anything, without knowing what I could not. In my own mind, I was invincible. It was all I needed to keep going.
I wouldn’t go home without Hunter. Lise depended on me, whether she knew it or not. She had simply misunderstood me when she tried to usher me out into the backyard. She had not known what I knew.
By now, she did.
When the rain finally began to abate, rifts of blue were showing at the sky’s rim. Low black clouds had given way to gauzy blankets of gray. The wind that had been so fierce and unforgiving not so long ago had diminished to a soothing breeze, whispering in my ears, Find him, Halo. Find him .
I wandered until the pads of my feet were cracked and raw. Thorns tugged at my fur. Cockleburs tangled themselves in my britches and feathers. I sniffed and sniffed and sniffed. I smelled a hundred smells. None of them were Hunter.
Often, I stopped to listen. For a cow bellowing. For the plaintive bah of a ewe. For the familiar rasp of truck tires crunching on a limestone road. Anything that might clue me in on where home was, for Hunter couldn’t have gone far. But I heard only the hushed remnants of the wind and the caw of blackbirds scattering from the trees as they arose in a black tornado of wings to blot out the bleary autumn sky.
Tired to the bone, I stopped at a ditch that ran between two fields and drank some water. It was gritty with soil, but I was thirsty from my running. And growing hungry, too. I climbed up the embankment and sank to my belly, mist falling gently on my face. I wanted so badly to rest, to sleep until morning. But this was not a time to think of my own needs. Duty called. As long as I had breath and a heartbeat and strength enough to walk one more step, I would go on searching.
But which way?
From somewhere, I thought I heard a human voice calling my name. A familiar voice, a man’s voice. I held my breath, turned my head to listen. Nothing.
An amber beam of sunlight stretched from below the last of the clouds, just above the nearly bare treetops. It would soon be dark. My energy may have waned with the hours, but my determination had not. There was still hope. Always hope.
The hum of an engine sounded in the distance. Tires whirred over asphalt. For a few seconds, I thought it was coming closer, but the sound was muffled by countless trees, their branches clattering as a gust of wind rattled them.
I sat there minutes longer, barely breathing, just listening. Another vehicle whooshed along the unseen road, then another. If I went toward the sounds, I would find people, but racing by in their cars, I wasn’t sure they would bother to stop for me and if they did, how would they ever know I belonged to Lise and that Hunter was lost?
No, I had to keep searching. No matter how long it took. So I put my nose down and cast in sweeping arcs — left, right, left, right — until I found a thin path of trampled grass. The downpour had washed away any traces of scent, but still I followed it. Down a gentle slope, across a gulley, through a patch of bramble.
Halo! This way!
There it was again. It was Cam’s voice. I swear it!
I took off blindly in the direction I thought it had come from.
In a clearing, I raised my face and looked about. The sun had bowed behind the treetops. Shadows filled my vision, black edging columns of gray along the wood’s edge. There, a man stood. He hooked an arm in the air, beckoning to me. I tried hard to focus, but the light was dim. The silhouette was familiar. It could have been Cam.
Between here and there stretched a pasture where cows had been not long ago. I could smell their waste. Piles of it. Their scent was strong,
Youth is bold, you see. It is also quick to hope, for life’s realities have not yet tempered it with the caution that follows experience. Youth believes what is possible; it does not dwell on the many ways we can fail.
It was a blessing that day that I was so young. Because it meant I believed I could do anything, without knowing what I could not. In my own mind, I was invincible. It was all I needed to keep going.
I wouldn’t go home without Hunter. Lise depended on me, whether she knew it or not. She had simply misunderstood me when she tried to usher me out into the backyard. She had not known what I knew.
By now, she did.
When the rain finally began to abate, rifts of blue were showing at the sky’s rim. Low black clouds had given way to gauzy blankets of gray. The wind that had been so fierce and unforgiving not so long ago had diminished to a soothing breeze, whispering in my ears, Find him, Halo. Find him .
I wandered until the pads of my feet were cracked and raw. Thorns tugged at my fur. Cockleburs tangled themselves in my britches and feathers. I sniffed and sniffed and sniffed. I smelled a hundred smells. None of them were Hunter.
Often, I stopped to listen. For a cow bellowing. For the plaintive bah of a ewe. For the familiar rasp of truck tires crunching on a limestone road. Anything that might clue me in on where home was, for Hunter couldn’t have gone far. But I heard only the hushed remnants of the wind and the caw of blackbirds scattering from the trees as they arose in a black tornado of wings to blot out the bleary autumn sky.
Tired to the bone, I stopped at a ditch that ran between two fields and drank some water. It was gritty with soil, but I was thirsty from my running. And growing hungry, too. I climbed up the embankment and sank to my belly, mist falling gently on my face. I wanted so badly to rest, to sleep until morning. But this was not a time to think of my own needs. Duty called. As long as I had breath and a heartbeat and strength enough to walk one more step, I would go on searching.
But which way?
From somewhere, I thought I heard a human voice calling my name. A familiar voice, a man’s voice. I held my breath, turned my head to listen. Nothing.
An amber beam of sunlight stretched from below the last of the clouds, just above the nearly bare treetops. It would soon be dark. My energy may have waned with the hours, but my determination had not. There was still hope. Always hope.
The hum of an engine sounded in the distance. Tires whirred over asphalt. For a few seconds, I thought it was coming closer, but the sound was muffled by countless trees, their branches clattering as a gust of wind rattled them.
I sat there minutes longer, barely breathing, just listening. Another vehicle whooshed along the unseen road, then another. If I went toward the sounds, I would find people, but racing by in their cars, I wasn’t sure they would bother to stop for me and if they did, how would they ever know I belonged to Lise and that Hunter was lost?
No, I had to keep searching. No matter how long it took. So I put my nose down and cast in sweeping arcs — left, right, left, right — until I found a thin path of trampled grass. The downpour had washed away any traces of scent, but still I followed it. Down a gentle slope, across a gulley, through a patch of bramble.
Halo! This way!
There it was again. It was Cam’s voice. I swear it!
I took off blindly in the direction I thought it had come from.
In a clearing, I raised my face and looked about. The sun had bowed behind the treetops. Shadows filled my vision, black edging columns of gray along the wood’s edge. There, a man stood. He hooked an arm in the air, beckoning to me. I tried hard to focus, but the light was dim. The silhouette was familiar. It could have been Cam.
Between here and there stretched a pasture where cows had been not long ago. I could smell their waste. Piles of it. Their scent was strong,
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