Questions, Questions
"What child can resist the happy face and wagging tail of a golden retriever (albeit a dirty and grungy-looking one)?" [Episode 13]
You are reading 🏝The Little Island and the Hungry Dog, an illustrated story for kids (and kidults) published in serialized form here on Substack. Previously, a sea otter named Gordo had beached a surfboard on the little island. A couple days later, the surfboard was spotted by two people in a hot air balloon. Just joining us? You can catch up on the whole story here.
It took a few minutes for the three kids in the little bay boat to notice me.
The oldest, a teenager, was too preoccupied with steering the boat as close as possible to the island.
The two youngest (I found out only later that they are boy-girl twins) had spotted the surfboard bobbing in the water and were arguing about which of them saw it first.
It took three barks from me before all three kids raised their heads and looked out over the island — finally sighting me atop the rocky mound at the center of the island.
The little girl, having climbed out of the boat and jumped into the shallows, was the first to make her way towards me.
The older boy warned her to stay back, but — of course, and I say this humbly — what child can resist the happy face and wagging tail of a golden retriever (albeit a dirty and grungy looking one)?
I too ran towards her, and in about three bounds I was on top of her, licking her face and knocking her down, eventually repeating the process with her brother, and then, finally, with the older boy.
He seemed to be less of a dog person than the other two, but when I jumped up and placed my paws on his shoulder even he couldn’t resist a smile.
Then began a never-ending stream of questions from the two little ones:
“Why is he so dirty?”
“Is he a coyote?”
“Does he sleep here in a dog house?”
“Did he surf to the island?”
“Where did he learn how to surf?”
“Will the police put him in jail for stealing the surfboard?”
“Where is his family?”
“Where are his food and water bowls?”
“Does he have rabies?”
“Why doesn’t he have a collar?”
“What is his name?”
After a while, the older boy grew impatient trying to fabricate answers to these questions and yelled for the twins to pipe down.
Of course, that only unleashed a new round of questions, which began to morph into calls to bring me home in the boat.
While they were distracted, I took the opportunity to nose into an open backpack the older boy had set in the sand. It contained a carton of crackers and several baggies of cookies, among other less-edible things.
After a few seconds,the twins were crying that I was now stealing their cookies, and the older boy ran over to snap up the bag.
Fortunately, my bad behavior — I couldn’t resist! — didn’t end up costing me a ticket back to shore on the small bay boat.
While the older boy fished out the surfboard from the water nearby, the twins, realizing that I had not, in fact, eaten their cookies, generously decided to share a few fish-shaped crackers with me.
“But only three,” said the little boy, a stern look on his face.
[To be continued…]
You can really imagine his stern look. Top drawer as ever Charlie.