The Story of a Theif - Hailey Peterson (good books for high schoolers txt) 📗

get outta here,” said Stewie with a foul grin, “Ain’t no place fer miles.” He got up and walked away, and I looked at the poor dog and sighed. Well at least were not in a cage like him. I sighed. Might as well make use of the situation. I squirmed and jiggled my arms up and down. The rope slackened a little. I smiled, perfect, now for Fuji. I wiggled over to him and pushed him to face back-to-back. He squirmed and I shoved my fists against him. He stilled. I loosened his rope and sat right-side up again. The men didn’t notice, their backs were turned from the fire and were busy at the table.
As I fell asleep that night, I thought about how we were going to escape this precarious situation. There is nowhere to run, so we can’t do that. We can’t kill them, they’re to big and strong. I drifted off with these thoughts swimming in my brain.
I woke up to someone or something nudging my arm. “Wazzamushuggina????” I mumbled.
“Wake uuup!” said a voice, and something nudged me again.
“What! Fuji! What is so important!” I yelled. My eyes snapped open to stare directly into the bright, vicarious eyes of the dog. My eyes went wide with fear. The dog growled and squinted at me. I could feel the dogs breath on my face. I stiffened. I looked over to the right. Fuji was laying on his side staring attentively at the huge brute. I silently undid the rope tying my hands together. The dog’s ears perked and I froze. Fuji leaned up and in one swift motion the dog pounced on him. I saw behind the dog, the two men lying in the decaying grass, there eyes, face, legs all scratched and bit to the bone. Gasping I quickly stood up and leapt over the the animal towards the table. I felt a sharp pain explode in my leg. The dog had sunk it’s teeth into my flesh. I grimaced. I tug my leg, and the dogs razor teeth cut my leg into strands. I cried out in pain. I reached behind onto the table, and grasped a switch-blade, turned and thrusted it into the Doberman’s jugular. The dog wined and let go. I let go of the hilt and it stuck in the dog’s thick neck, blood poured from the wound.
The dog moaned and staggered. I hopped over to it and yanked the knife out. It wailed some more. It fell and lay there by the table, moaning and nursing it’s wound. I put the blood-soaked knife in a sheath and hooked it to my belt. I undid Fuji’s rope and helped him to his feet. We stared at the dog. It squirmed a little and then lay still. We both exhaled, realizing we were holding our breath. We stood quietly, taking in the scene. “Let’s camp here.” said Fuji breaking the silence. I nodded and we lay together, in front of the fire pit.
In the mourning I awoke first. I left Fuji laying by the fire and gathered our belongings. The dog was awake sitting in front of his cage. I hesitated, and the Doberman looked at me. After it was clear he wasn’t going to hurt me I took a chuck of meat from the pile on the table. The dog spotted it and began to salivate. I threw it to him and it landed with a thump in front of his large paws. He looked at me, then at it and began to eat. I smiled and walked over, petting the dog’s head. It whimpered and continued eating. As I finished packing, Fuji was awake and grumbling to himself. “Wake-y Wake-y!” I called to him. He smiled groggily. He got up and joined me by the table, pulling up a log to sit on. After we ate we grabbed us a horse, who, fortunately, escaped the Doberman’s wrath. The dog came up to us and pleaded with his eyes, “Take me with you.” I looked at Fuji, he gave me that look too. I said, “No way, we don’t need another mouth to feed.”
“O, come-oooon!” he said, nudging me with his elbow. I shook my head at the dog hoping he would get the message. Of course, he didn’t. The dog wagged his tale as he sat on his haunches.
“Fine! Whatever!” I yelled. “But the first sign of food shortages, he’s outta here!” Fuji nodded and grinned. I pulled the dog up onto the horse. The horse seemed skittish at this and bucked a little. “Woah.” I comforted. It steadied and we set off into the cool morning air.

End Part 4

Part 5: City Lights

It took us two days to reach where we left off. We found our camp, wet and in ruins. I found my personal belongings scattered on the muddy earth. I put them in my bag, and we set up camp for the night. It was cold that night, I huddled in front of the fire in a rough worn blanket I brought along. Fuji brought over a piece of meat and cooked it over the fire. We sat in silence, thinking about the day. Once it was roasting he took it off the spigot and handed it too me. I tore into it ravenously. “Sooo.” Fuji broke then silence. “Ally, do you like your meat?”
I finished chewing. “I really like it! Great job cooking, Fuji.” I said with a smile. There was more awkward silence. I cleared my throat. “Do you think we will meet more like them in the city slums?”
“Oh, probably not quite as bad as those two.” But he looked doubtful. I shrugged. As I finished and laid down, a thought popped in my head. I sat up and adjusted my seat.
“Fuji?” I said, carefully choosing my words. He looked up at me. “Why were you so disappointed when you heard my name was Ally Fourtniss?”
I looked at him with deep curiosity. He looked at the ground and tore up some grass. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it. We sat in silence.
“I guess, it’s because…” He began, finding the right words. “My mother’s name was Ally. Fourtniss was her middle name.” I let this all sink in.
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Publication Date: 12-17-2011

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