Chapter 10:

Maxine Henderson:

I got out if the car and searched for the house we were suppose to be meeting the family at and at spotted it three houses down the street.

"It's down there." I pointed out to Max who was standing there in a daze.

I rolled my eyes at my brother and poked his bare shoulder.

"Max!" I shouted in a soft tone so I wouldn't be heard by the whole neighborhood.

He snapped out of his daze and turned his head towards me.

"What you say?"

"I said its down there." I repeated and pointed in the direction of the house location.

"Oh, alright." Max answered me and began pacing towards the house.

I followed suit quickly afterwards.

When Max and I reached the house I took in its appearance.

The house was shaped like a small box with grey, wooden slits that decorated the outside of the house.

There were four windows to the house.

Two sitting next to each other on each side and there was a small car parked out the front of the house.

One of the tires half in a hole.

When we got to the front door I was about to knock on it but noticed how it was slightly left ajar.

The door creaked open slightly more and I grabbed a hold of it, poking my head in the house.

The hallway to the house was empty with the gib rocked walls slowly falling apart.

There was chopped paint left laying on the scratched up timber floors and you could see a candle lit up at the end of the hallway.

"Hello?" I called out, opening the door further and stepping in the house.

Max followed me in and stared around at the hallway in wonder and I could only imagine what he was thinking.

"Hello." I called out again, entering into a small room with a lit up candle and four sleeping bags left on the floorboards.

I studied the room in wonder.

Where did the family go?

Did I get the wrong house?

They should be here.

I met my eyes with Max's and shrugged my shoulder, scared to talk out loud.

He eyed me warily and said, "I thought people were suppose to be here."

"Me too." I answered in a whisper, my eyes flickering over to the bathroom that was across from the small bedroom.

There was nobody in the bathroom either.

I studied the bedroom more when I heard a high pitched yapping coming from one of the sleeping bags.

My mouth opened slightly and my eyebrows raised.

What the hell?

My heart thumped in my chest and I sucked in a shaky breath, inching closer to the blue sleeping bag where a small figure wriggled inside it and yelped.

I screamed loudly, my heart beating faster than before.

"Maxine?" My brother called from the doorway in a worried tone.

I turned around to face him and whispered in a shaky breath, "there's something moving in the sleeping bag."

"Something moving." Max freaked, ready to bolt out the door.

"Yes!" I shrieked, bending down onto my knees next to the moving sleeping case.

I poked the figure with my shaking finger, taking a gulp.

I felt something soft and quickly removed my finger.

Curiosity getting the better if me I unzipped the sleeping bag and took in a little white dog who bounded over to me and nuzzled my bent knee.

"Hello little doggy." I said patting it's skinny body.

I picked it up in my arms and walked over to Max.

"What's a cute little doggy doing in this house all by himself." My brother said in a baby's voice and I held back my laugh.

"You stay here with the dog and I'll go see if there's anything else here. I'm certain this was the house." I said handing him the dog.

"Alright." Max answered back.

I exited the room and went further down the house where I came to face a door off its hinge.

I pulled the door hearing it creak and I went out into the tiny backyard.

The grass met up to my knees and tickled them making me bend down in an arch to scratch my leg.

There was a big tree in the middle of the yard along with rubbish left laying around.

"Hello?" I called out, walking forward further.

I heard a whimpering sound and searched the backyard for any signs of life.

"Anyone there?" I called out, noticing that darkness was looming upon the place.

"In here!" What seemed to be a little girls voice cried out.

I blinked in surprise and searched the yard for anywhere the little girl could be.

If the little girl is hiding out here, where are her parents?

The parents were the ones that I had made the arrangements with to help them with their current situation.

I was going to send then food and money each week, but where had they gone since this morning?

Finally after searching the perimeters of the backyard I spotted a piece of wide, flat wood.

Making my way over towards it I knelt down and peered inside it.

There was a crying little girl sitting there, her little legs outstretched.

Her face was dirty and her brown hair was in pigtails.

"Saffron?" I asked the little girl.

When I organized to meet the parents I didn't know the little girl that I'd see at the park everyday was their daughter.

Her eyes lit up and she brought her hand up to wipe her tears away.

"Maxi!" The little girl said excited.

"Yes, Maxi. Where's your parents Saffron?"

"They left me here!" She cried.

"Oh god, shh, sweetie." I said to her softly and picked her up, carrying her into the room where Max sat cross legged feeding the dog a slice of cheese and I rolled my eyes.

"Max, they left. They left her here." I explained, tears threatening to spill.

His eyes widened and he stood up, eyeing Saffron.

"What are we going to do?" He asked me and for once I knew he wasn't going to have a joke around with me, saying something weird.

"Bring her back home."

"What's mum and dad going to say about that? They won't like it." 

"So be it! They can just swallow their pride and let her stay." I defended.

Saffron buried her head closer into my chest making my grey jumper bundle up in wrinkles.

"Alright, alright, well we better get going. It's late and mum and dad will be home soon wondering where we are."

"Alright." I answered following Max out of the house and back to the car.

I opened the door and sat Saffron in the seat, buckling the seatbelt.

Max had sat the dog on the floor of the front of the car and hopped into the drivers seat so that I could sit in the back with Saffron.

After twenty minutes if the drive she had fallen asleep her head resting on my shoulder.

Her cheeks were crusted with dry dirt, mixed with tears that had fallen earlier.

I played with one of her stray pieces of hair forcing my eyelids to remain open.

"When we get home I think you need to give that dog a bath, it stinks and while you do that I'll try ring her parents and I might go to the police tomorrow afternoon and report them as missing."

"Alright, and true,true this dog smells. Smelly little doggy you are, yes." Max said in a babies voice causing me to burst out with quiet laughter.

The rest of the ride involved Max talking like a baby to the dog who he named Noodle.

Don't ask me why.

The dog probably already had a name but Saffron was still fast asleep.

When we pulled up in the driveway mum and dads car was in the garage and I gulped in fear.

What would they have to say about this?

I grabbed the little girl from the car and held her in my arms while a Max got the dog out, playing with its paws, making it dance.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"Max, seriously, it's a dog, not a toy."

"Yes I know but he's a cute little boy, isn't he?"

I rubbed the side of my temple and shook my head.

I knocked on the door and heard footsteps coming forward and the door opened revealing my blonde headed mum.

Her hair was tied up in a messy bun and her mouth formed in a stern straight line.

"What have you got to as for yourselves?" She asked us, taking in the little girl in my arms and the puppy in Max's.

"And what are these monstrosities?" 

"Um this is Saffron and that is um Noodle." I said to my mum.

She looked at me weirdly.

"Is that your brothers idea for a name." She rolled her eyes.

"Yes." I snickered.

"Where have the two if you been and where did you collect these things?"

"Mum they're not things and we collected them at a house while we were coming back from Damon's." Max answered making up a random lie.

"How?" My mum demanded.

"The girl and the dog; Noodle were sitting there outside his house. We decided to bring them back here and contact the police telling them that we found a girl and a dog."

"Alright, alright I guess that's satisfactory, but by no means will you two children be getting away with this." She said sternly.

"Yes mother." Max and I answered at the same time.

"Good." She answered ushering us inside the house where dad sat on the lounge watching something on fox tell.

"By the way Max before you do anything I suggest you wash that thing. It reeks and I do not wish for it to be making the house smell like garbage."

"Yes mum." Max answered and the dog barked in his arms.