PART 7

PART 7

In the flowered field, surrounded by green trees and small streams, Monica and Andrew continued in search of their little chubby dog, which seemed to have vanished in the air; this time together with her daddy’s shoes:

“Joy, please, come back! We’re worried about you!”, the Irish angel called, looking behind some bushes. Not far from her, Andrew also checked their surroundings:

“C’mon Joy, show up! Don’t you know it’s dangerous to be along in a place like this?!”, he ran his fingers through his blond hair, “Why did she do that?”

“Well, remember when you said that your shoes were killing you and that you would get rid of them?”

“But I didn’t mean it literally!”

“Oh Andrew, our wee one is still a baby, she didn’t know that…”, although he nodded his head, knowing it was true, the blond angel sighed with a little impatience:

“C’mon, let’s keep looking!”

Monica took his hand and they left the field and started to look for Joy in the woods.

*

One hour later:

“…Joy, please, answer to us!”, Monica pleaded, distress all over her face, “… Don’t be afraid, sweetheart, we’re not upset with you!”…”

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that!…”, Andrew mumbled, causing his dearest friend to stare at him:

“Andrew! She might be listening!”

“I hope so, cause she has to know that she got herself into a big trouble!”, his voice was purposefully louder.

“Oh, please, don’t be mad at her… She’s still so little…”

“Yes, but some work on her attitude wouldn’t do any harm!”

“Well… I think… maybe you’re right, but, if we stop to think, in a way, she has good intentions…”

“Good intentions?”

“Yes. She thinks your shoes were hurting you and, well, by taking them away, she would be doing you a favour… Her intentions are good. The problem is that… she is a wee bit clumsily sometimes…”

Immediately, Andrew felt his annoyance diminish, as he knew those words were completely true, and, most importantly, he also knew pretty well from whom the little puppy had ‘inherited’ that remarkable characteristic in her personality.

“You have to believe that, Andrew. She’s not doing this to annoy us; she would never do anything to upset us on purpose…”

“I know that… But we have to find her as soon as possible, before she goes too far…”

Suddenly, a puppy bark, still distant from them, echoed through the trees, bringing some relief to both angels:

“Oh Father, it’s Joy!”, Monica exclaimed, as Andrew took her hand:

“C’mon, it’s coming from that way!”

As they ran through the vegetation, the barks became louder and, minutes later, the angels arrived at a swampy area. Their feet were immediately covered with mud as they walked and Monica’s heart was pounding loudly in her chest:

“Oh, Andrew, look around us! She must be in great danger! What if she fell in the water?!”

“She’s barking, she can’t have fallen in the water!”

“Well, her barking could be a cry for help!”

“But at least it’ll take us to where she is!”

Suddenly, after moving away some bushes on their way, the 2 angels found a small lagoon, with dark and still waters. And, right in the middle of it, standing on the only rock that existed in the place, was Joy.

The little chubby dog had managed to reach the stone by using an old tree trunk that had fallen over the shallow water as a bridge. But now, she seemed to be afraid of coming back by crossing the trunk again, as it was a bit narrow and she, a bit heavy. If she missed one step, Joy would certainly fall on the muddy dark water.

“There she is, Andrew!”, Monica conjoined her hands gratefully, “Oh, thank you, Father!”

Also relived, Andrew rubbed her back:

“See? I told you we would find her!”

“She seems to be stuck in there…”, the Irish angel’s voice was still full of concern.

“Come with me, let’s try to come closer.”

They reached the bank of the lagoon and, although the little puppy continued to bark incessantly, they could see that, fortunately, she was not hurt:

“Stay calm, Monica. She’s just a little scared.”

“She seems to be terrified, Andrew!”

“Yes, but she’s alright…”, the blond angel stopped talking and frowned a little upset when he noticed something else floating near the impatient puppy dog, “… But I can’t say the same about my shoes!”

Using all her strength, Joy had dragged Andrew’s shoes with her all the way up to that place and then she had thrown them in the dirty dark water, near the rock she was now standing on. Little by little, his shoes were submerging in the mud and now, they were practically disappearing. Noticing his annoyance with the small dog’s attitude, as well as Joy’s impatience to be rescued, Monica rubbed her hands nervously:

“Calm down, sweetheart, we will take you out of there in a minute!”, she said, and turned to her dearest friend with pleading eyes: “Andrew, if… if you take your shoes out of the mud I can wash them for you…”

“Ok. We can come back later to take that little fur ball!”

Hearing that, the Irish angel’s eyes grew wide and she stared at him in shock:

“Andrew!”

He looked back at her and felt an inch of guilt for his words:

“… I’m joking!”, was his reply, though it was possible to see that his mood wasn’t exactly a light one. The blond angel used the same tree trunk Joy had used to go the playful puppy. Monica remained on the bank of the lagoon, with her hands conjoined and praying for the ‘rescue mission’ to be over soon.

Carefully walking over the old wood, he managed to reach the stone where the small animal was standing on:

“When we get home you and I are gonna have a little talk, missy!”, he spoke; his annoyance evident on his tone of voice. The little puppy tilted her head and looked at him questioningly as he grabbed her. Then, he bent down a second time and took his pair of shoes out of the mud; now they had turned from beige into dark brown and weighed 3 times more, due to the dirt that was inside of them. Andrew stared at the puppy again:

“How can something so little cause so much trouble?!”

A tiny, low and embarrassed bark was the reply to his comment. With distress over his face, Andrew stepped on the fallen tree trunk to come back to the bank of the lagoon. But now the blond angel was carrying 2 extra weights in his hands and balancing himself was not as easy as before:

“Slow down, Andrew…”, Monica warned, nervously biting her lower lip, as she and anyone else could see what would happen if he missed one step.

“I can’t, Monica. I need to get outta here immediately!”

The blond angel had hardly said that when Joy suddenly sneezed and that was enough to cause him to lose his balance: the tree trunk moved and Andrew, Joy and the pair of shoes fell down into the dark mud.

The pond was really shallow – its waters were up to Andrew’s knees – but that sudden fall caused him and the little puppy to be covered with mud. And when they finally arrived at the bank of the lagoon, Monica was not only relieved but she also had to cover her mouth and do an extra effort not to laugh at the scene in front of her:

“Monica, this is not funny!”, Andrew grumbled, mud was dripping from his face.

“Are you ok?…”, she asked, hardly managing to control herself. That question caused him to be even more upset:

“Well, in case you haven’t noticed, I happen to have a little problem here…”, he looked at Joy, “… I mean, TWO little problems!”

He placed the chubby (and very dirty) dog on the ground. And try as he might, Monica still couldn’t control her laugher:

“Well… I could hug and kiss you two but… I guess I’ll do it later, you know…”

But those words were not enough to make Andrew’s annoyance disappear:

“Well, concerning me, you’re gonna have to do it really later, because I have no doubt that it’ll take me hours to get rid of all this mud!”, he exclaimed, still upset, and looked at Joy, “But concerning this young lady, I don’t think she deserves any kiss or hug, but a good punishment instead!”

“Andrew, don’t be so hard on her; our precious baby didn’t do it on purpose… I mean… she did it, but just because she thought she was doing you a favour…”

“Monica, has it ever occurred you that ‘your precious baby’ has to learn a lesson and that you are overprotecting her?!”

That comment caused the Irish angel to stop smiling and her mouth to drop open indignantly:

“Oh… So when she’s brave and saves a life she’s yours, but when she makes a tiny and totally excusable mistake she’s mine?”

Joy was standing between her mommy and daddy and, with her long ears raised and tiny black eyes wide open, she watched their argument attentively and with a rather worried expression on her face. Andrew took away some of the mud that was dripping from his chin:

“I won’t stay here discussing this with you because somehow I feel I won’t have much success in expressing my opinion here!”

“Well, has it ever occurred you that your opinion might be a little mistaken?”

“’Mistaken’? I give up! You know what? I’ll go and take away all this mud from me right now!”, he turned to Joy, who was looking from one angel’s face to another, “And you should find someone to do the same for you other than me!”

“I’ll do it for her!”, Monica replied, a little more upset.

“Why am I not surprised?!”, he said, and started to walk away from them.

“Where are you going? The campsite is that way!”, the Irish angel was pointing to the opposite direction he was going to.

“I’ll use the shorter way!”, he spoke, causing her to be slightly offended:

“Fine! I’ll use my way!”, she said, and both angels went into totally opposite directions. Little Joy, for herself, watched as her parents moved away and sat on the ground with a very sad expression on her tiny face.