Ellie's Story Read online

  “Geoffrey! It’s okay; we’re going to get you out of there!” Maya yelled to him. She knelt in the street, getting her uniform soaking wet as she strained to stretch her arm into the hole far enough to touch him.

  But the water that was pouring into the drain had pushed Geoffrey back. He was clinging to the far wall of the sewer, to the edge of a black tunnel that stretched out behind him. The water roared around him, pouring past his body and into the long, dark space, and Maya could not reach him.

  The sense of terror that was rising off Geoffrey was so strong it was blinding. I whined anxiously. My Finding of Geoffrey wasn’t finished. He was there, so close to me, but I couldn’t get to him, and neither could Maya. I understood that this Find would not truly be done until Geoffrey was out of the water.

  Water. I’d never really liked it, and here was proof that I had been right. It might be fun to splash in the ocean where the water only reached my paws or to jump into Maya’s bath, but this water—I knew it was dangerous. It was deadly. It was going to hurt Geoffrey if we didn’t finishing Finding him soon.

  “How did he get in there?” the policeman shouted.

  “It’s a tight fit; he must have squeezed in before it was raining. It’s really coming down!” Maya’s voice was full of frustration.

  A round circle made out of iron was set in the concrete right above Geoffrey’s head. The policeman pried at it with his fingers, trying to pull it up. He couldn’t. “I need to get a tire iron!” he bellowed, and handed the flashlight to Maya before he ran off, his feet sloshing in the water.

  I stayed crouched down by the opening to the drain, right beside Maya. Inside, I could see that Geoffrey was soaking wet and shivering with cold. His jacket was a thin yellow rain slicker, with a hood pulled up over his head, but it wasn’t doing much good.

  “Hold on, okay, Geoffrey?” Maya repeated, leaning down so that Geoffrey could see her face. “You hang on. We’re going to get you out of there, okay?”

  Geoffrey didn’t answer. His eyes, in the yellow glow from Maya’s flashlight, were dull, as if he hadn’t heard her or he didn’t care.

  I heard a siren wailing, and in less than a minute a patrol car swung around the corner and braked right beside us, skidding a little on the wet street. The policeman jumped out and ran around to the back of the car.

  “Fire and Rescue are on the way!” he shouted.

  “There’s no time!” Maya shouted back. “He’s slipping into the water!”

  Maya was very afraid. I yawned with my own fear, panting with it. We had to get Geoffrey out of the water!

  The policeman grabbed something from the trunk and ran back to us with a long, thin rod of iron in one hand. “Geoffrey, hang on! Don’t let go!” Maya yelled. The policeman slipped one end of the metal rod under the edge of the circular plate in the cement, and he leaned on it hard. When Maya jumped up to watch, I went with her.

  The policeman grunted with effort. The plate tipped with a crack and then flipped up, falling over onto the sidewalk with a clang that hurt my ears. Where the plate had been there was now a hole that went straight down to the sewer.

  Geoffrey looked up, startled by the clang of the iron plate falling and the light that streamed down over him. It was only dim, gray light, drenched by the rain, but it must have seemed bright to him.

  A splatter of mud fell onto Geoffrey’s cheek. He lifted one hand to wipe it away.

  “Geoffrey! Hang on!” Maya called out.

  But he only had one hand on the wall now, and one hand was not strong enough. The water pushed hard against him, and he looked up at us for one moment before he was swept away into the tunnel.

  “Geoffrey!” Maya screamed.

  I was still on Find, so I didn’t hesitate for a moment. I didn’t like the look of that black rushing water at all, but it was carrying the boy away. I knew I had to follow.

  I was terrified. I thought of my dreams of the boy Ethan. He’d sunk down into the water. Then Jakob had done the same thing. They had both needed me to save them. Now Geoffrey needed that, too. Could I do it?

  I plunged headfirst into the water and was swept along the tunnel after Geoffrey.

  18

  It was dark in the tunnel; I wasn’t even sure which way to swim. My nose broke the surface, and I gasped in a breath, choking as black water surged into my mouth. The top of my head scraped against the tunnel and then the water pulled me down again, wrestling with me, rolling me over and over.

  I’d wrestled with Jakob and Al, with Maya, with my littermates long ago. That had been fun. This wasn’t. I was being tumbled and dragged, not even sure where the water was going or how I could swim to shore.

  And Geoffrey’s scent was here, too, washed this way and that by the current. I would catch a hint of it and then it would disappear. But I knew he was ahead of me, soundlessly fighting for his life.

  Suddenly the water pulled me downhill. When my head surfaced again, I was able to paddle. The tunnel we’d been pulled through had joined another, larger one. The current was flowing through this tunnel even more quickly, but since it was bigger, there was more air space above the water.

  I swam as hard as I could toward the smell of Geoffrey. I couldn’t see him, but my nose told me he was close, perhaps only a yard or two away.

  Then the smell vanished. I knew he had gone under.

  When Jakob had been under the water, I’d dived down to reach him. It had been the right thing to do. He’d praised me; he’d called me a good dog. I had to do the same thing for Geoffrey.

  I took a breath and forced myself under the surface of the water, paddling hard. That time before, I’d been able to see Jakob beneath me. Now I could see nothing as Geoffrey and I were both swept along. But I knew he was there, tumbling just beneath me. I strained, my mouth open, blind, and then I reached him. I had the hood of Geoffrey’s rain slicker in my mouth!

  I heaved with my back legs and dug with my front paws. Together Geoffrey and I burst through the surface of the water.

  I heard him coughing and choking as I kept his hood between my teeth. I was gagging myself, trying to get rid of the water in my throat without opening my jaws. Whatever happened, I would not left Geoffrey go.

  I could not swim in any direction except the one the water was already going. All my paddling feet could do was keep both of us up so that we could breathe. At first Geoffrey tried to help as well, by kicking his feet. But as we raced along the black tunnel, he slowly stopped. His body sagged down into the water, pulling down on the hood. I struggled to keep us both from sinking, but it was harder and harder. My jaw and neck were aching; my legs were slowing.

  How was I going to save Geoffrey? I’d Found him, but that wasn’t enough. The water was going to drag both of us under, unless I could get him somewhere safe.

  But where was safe? There was only the rushing water and the hard concrete of the tunnel’s surface.

  Some weak light from far ahead flickered over the tunnel’s walls and the water’s surface. Light—that was good. Light might mean sunlight; it might mean Maya; it might mean people who would help us.

  The light grew stronger, and a sound grew louder along with it. It was a deep, humming roar, and the walls of the tunnel echoed it back at us until it filled my ears. I tightened my grip on Geoffrey’s hood. Something was about to happen. But what?

  The light grew brighter and brighter all around us, and suddenly we burst out into daylight, tumbling down a cement chute and landing with a splash in a swiftly flowing river.

  The force of the splash forced us both under, but luckily my back legs touched something firm beneath me—a rock, perhaps—and I shoved us up.

  Geoffrey couldn’t help me at all. He was limp, his head rolling from side to side as the waves pushed us. Water splashed over my head and into my nose. I forced my legs to move faster. We were out in the light now. There had to be somewhere safe that I could go.

  The banks of the river had been lined with cement, so that the cur
rent pulled us between two slanting walls. I tugged Geoffrey toward one bank, but the current fought with me, trying to pull us both back into the center of the river. The ache in my neck and jaw was getting worse. What if I lost my grip?

  Then flashes of light caught my eye. Downstream, men with raincoats and flashlights were running toward the bank of the river.

  But they were too slow, weren’t they? And the river was too fast. Geoffrey and I would be pulled past them before they could get to us.

  I heaved against the greedy water. It was trying to suck us down, to claim Geoffrey, but he was mine. I had Found him. I wasn’t going to give him up!

  Slowly, I began to inch us both closer to the bank where the men were running.

  Two of the men plunged into the water. They were tied together with a rope, and the rope ran back to the other men waiting on the bank. The two in the water waded out, hip deep, straining their hands to catch us.

  But we were not close enough. The water would sweep us past them.

  No. No, I wouldn’t let it! I dug in with my claws, as if the water were dirt and I could dig it out of my way. I paddled and heaved and put everything I had into aiming for the men’s arms.

  “Gotcha!” one of them shouted as Geoffrey and I slammed into them.

  The people on the bank braced themselves as our weight pulled the rope taut. But no one fell. One of the men in the water grabbed my collar. The other man seized Geoffrey around his waist and hoisted him into the air.

  I let Geoffrey’s hood go. I knew he was safe now. I’d Found him and I’d taken him to people. I’d done my job.

  The man kept holding my collar tight and throwing his weight against the pull of the quickly flowing water. The men on the bank pulled, too, and together the four of us thrashed our way to the shore.

  I was last in the water. The man who held my collar was hoisted out, but he never let go of me. Lying on the concrete, he pulled and heaved at me, and I scrabbled at the steep bank with my tired, aching legs, and somehow I was out.

  I flopped down on the marvelous solid ground and spat water out of my mouth. Several of the men were huddled around Geoffrey. I saw one squeeze his skinny chest, and a gush of brown water came out of his mouth. Then he was coughing and crying.

  I heaved myself up with a cough and a sigh. It seemed my job was not quite over yet. People were supposed to be happy to be Found. Geoffrey was not happy. I limped over to him, without enough strength even to shake the water out of my drenched fur.

  I lay down heavily next to Geoffrey, and he threw himself onto me, hugging my wet fur with all the strength he had left. I could feel him shaking. The fear was beginning to drain out of him, though, and my fear was going along with it.

  Geoffrey was going to be okay. I had done my Work again. I was a good dog.

  Geoffrey kept holding on to me as the men around us pulled off his slicker and his shirt and his soggy jeans and wrapped blankets around him. “You’ll be okay, boy; you’ll be okay,” one of them said. “Is this your doggy? She saved your life.”

  Geoffrey didn’t answer, but he lifted his head to look into my eyes. I licked his cheek with one quick swipe of my tongue.

  “Let’s go!” someone shouted, and one of the men gently pulled Geoffrey’s hands loose from my fur. They picked Geoffrey up and ran with him up a hill to a street. When they loaded him into a white truck, it took off with its siren screaming.

  I stayed where I was. My legs were shaking with tiredness, and it was all I could do to lift my head enough to vomit out the river water that had gotten into me.

  Then I put my head down on my paws and lay still, the cold rain pelting me.

  The siren of a police car wailed, getting louder, coming closer. I glanced up the hill without lifting my head. “Ellie!” Maya screamed. She slid and scrambled down the hill to my side. I was too tired to wag my tail, but I was glad to see her. If she wanted to play tug-of-war, though, that might have to wait until later.

  Maya was soaking wet; tears and rainwater were mixing on her cheeks. She hugged me nearly as tightly as Geoffrey had done. “You are a good dog, Ellie. You saved Geoffrey. You are such a good dog. I thought I’d lost you, Ellie.”

  After a while, Maya stopped crying and helped me up the hill, holding my collar and talking to me gently. With her arms around my chest she hoisted me up into the backseat of the police car, and we drove straight to the place where the man in the white coat looked me over from my nose to my tail.

  I spent the night there, which I wasn’t too happy about. But in the morning I got to go back to Maya and Al’s house. I was so stiff for the next few days that I could hardly move, but everything else was back to normal.

  A few weeks later, Maya and I did School again. Only this time the big room was filled with grown-ups, not children. We sat up on a stage with lights in our eyes while a man talked in a loud voice. I wondered when Maya was going to talk and if the grown-ups would come and pet me as the children always did, but that didn’t seem to be the plan this time.

  After he was done talking, the man came over to me and put a second collar around my neck. I wondered why he was bothering to do this. I had my collar on already, and this other one was flimsy and silly. It hung too loosely and had a big, heavy metal dog tag on it that banged against my chest when I walked.

  The man also pinned something on Maya’s uniform, and everybody clapped. She knelt down beside me while even brighter lights flashed around us, like lightning with no thunder.

  It wasn’t as interesting as Work or as real School. But I felt Maya’s pride and love as she whispered that I was a good dog.

  Then Maya got back up. “Ellie, Come. I have a surprise for you.”

  She walked with me off the stage. All the people who had been watching us were now standing up, talking in groups. A lot of them stopped to talk to Maya or shake her hand and she smiled back happily, but she kept moving. I stayed by her side.

  Then she stopped. “There, Ellie. See?”

  I looked through legs, most of them in dark blue pants, and I saw why Maya had brought me here.

  A man was standing by himself, wearing a suit and tie, with a small smile on his face. The man was Jakob.

  Maya let go of my leash and I bounded over to him. He stooped down, scratching my ears. “How are you, Ellie! Look how gray you’re getting.” He turned to a woman standing a little way behind him, with a girl in her arms. The girl looked to be a year or two younger than Geoffrey, and her grin was far wider than Jakob’s.

  “Daddy used to work with Ellie,” the woman holding her said. “Did you know that, Alyssa?”

  “Yes,” the girl said, squirming to get down. “I want to pet Ellie!”

  “Can she, Jakob?” the woman asked.

  “Of course.”

  Alyssa ran forward and hugged me. I braced myself so she would not tip me over, and I licked her face. She giggled, and Jakob laughed.

  I had never heard Jakob laugh like that before.

  Over Alyssa’s head, I looked at Jakob. He was so different from when I’d lived and Worked with him. The coldness inside had gone away.

  “I’m glad you’re doing this community outreach program,” Jakob told Maya. “A dog like Ellie needs to work.”

  I heard the word “work” and wagged my tail as Jakob came and knelt down beside Alyssa and me. But there was no urgency in the word, no sense that we were about to Find anyone. Jakob just always talked about work. That was his way.

  Maya hovered in the background, exchanging smiles with the woman who’d been holding Alyssa. She was the girl’s mother, I realized. And Jakob was the girl’s father. He had a family now, and he was happy.

  That’s what was different. In all the time I had known him, Jakob had never been happy.

  I had never thought that Jakob might be lost or might need saving. He was the one who helped me save other people. But now it almost felt as if Jakob had finally been Found.

  “We’ve got to get you home, honey,” the woman
said to the girl.

  “Can Ellie come?” Alyssa asked.

  Everybody laughed.

  It was nice to be there with both Maya and Jakob. I eased down to the floor, so happy I thought I might take a nap.

  “Ellie,” Jakob said. He bent down and took hold of my face gently, looking into my eyes.

  The feel of his rough hands on my fur took me back to when I was a puppy, first learning my Work. I wagged my tail, thumping it on the floor. I knew that soon I’d go home with Maya, that my place and my Work was with her now. But I was still full of love for this man.

  “Good girl,” Jakob said gently, and I heard tenderness in his voice. I could tell that he loved Alyssa and her mother, and for the first time I could sense that he also loved me.

  “A good dog,” Jakob told me. “Ellie, you’re a good dog.”

  More About Search-and-Rescue Dogs

  Ellie is a search-and-rescue dog. She’s trained to find people who are lost. In real life, dogs like Ellie do this kind of work every day. Handlers like Jakob and Maya work hard to train their dogs—and themselves—to do what is needed to find people in trouble.

  What kind of jobs do search-and-rescue dogs do?

  Some search-and-rescue dogs find live people and others look for dead bodies. Some are trained for wilderness work or water rescue. Others find people who have been trapped in a collapsed building or hurt in a disaster. Ellie is trained to search for living people.

  What does a search-and-rescue dog need to do?

  A search-and-rescue dog must learn to obey its handler’s commands, to find the scent trails left by a person, and to let its handler know that it has found something important. Some dogs bark to alert their handlers; others use body language, such as the angle of the ears or the tension of the body. The dog must also be able to climb, balance on wobbly surfaces, crawl through tunnels, and become comfortable riding in cars, trucks, airplanes, helicopters, and maybe even ski lifts or boats, depending on the kind of rescues it will be doing.