"𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝑜𝑔 𝓉𝑜𝑜𝓀 𝓅𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝑒𝑒𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓌𝓇𝑜𝓉𝑒,

'𝐵𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝑜𝓌, 𝒷𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝑜𝓌, 𝒷𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝑜𝓌.'"

(A Dog Of Few Words, Ima Ryma)

"Lola!... Pete!... Mom's on the phone!"

Grandma called through the bedroom door. Lola and her brother had spent most of their days there since the beginning of their holidays. She was reading and he was drawing.

"Coming Grandma!" Pete shouted as he threw paper and pencils on the desk. "Come on Lola! Faster!" He told to her sister as he crossed passed the doorway.

"... halfway, Lola. You just have two more weeks." Lola asked one more time to go back home early. Mom was unmovable. Pete and Lola would have to spend the rest of their holidays at Grandma and Grandpa's place as planned.

"Try to enjoy the weather outside? You can read under the trees, don't stay in your bedroom too much. Grandma told me you have spent the last week closed upstairs." Mom really could not fetch Pete and Lola earlier than planned due to hers and Dad's work. There would be no one to look after them until school would start again.

"There is nothing to do into the woods Mom. It's boring here," Lola complained again. She knew she would not be going back home as soon as she wanted, and that frustrated her.

"Did you try to go into the woods?" Mom inquired, curious. "I thought Grandpa gave you a map..."

❀❀❀

"Fetch!" Pete was throwing the ball to Grandpa's dog, Cookie. Despite his name, the dog was old, and not too playful for the boy's taste.

"Come on Cookie!" Pete pleaded with the brown and white canine. He had been playing for the most part of the day. After Mom's phone call, he had decided to spend more time outside. His sister was still brooding in their bedroom.

Cookie was indulging the young boy, chasing the ball when he wanted. He was taking his time to go around the trees in the garden. The game had lasted a good part of the afternoon, and the dog was showing signs of fatigue.

"Cookie! Fetch the ball! It's going into the woods!" Pete looked at the dog who was sitting, his tongue lolling. The ball continued its way toward the trees, at the back of the garden.

A fence separated the forest from the house, but there were a lot of holes and gaps in it. Grandpa said there were no animals in the dark trees, but Pete was still a bit worried to enter the woods. It was dark and dense, with no path to follow.

The boy ran after the ball just as it passed the first row of shrubs. Cookie had followed him, thinking it was a new game, or perhaps the promise of a walk into the forest.

Pete carefully progressed through one thick bush. The ball had rolled between the small branches. With the help of the dog, the boy succeeded in getting the ball back.

With some haste, he turned his back to the darkness of the woods and rushed back toward the house.

❀❀❀

"What do you want, Pete?" Lola looked at her brother, putting her book down on her knees. She had been spending the day in the room they shared, still frustrated after the phone call with Mom.

"Why don't you come and play with me outside, Lola?" Pete missed her twin sister since they started their holidays. She had moped over the fact that she was stuck there and forgot how she liked to play outside with her brother. Perhaps it was time for her to start enjoying her break.

"What do you play outside?" Lola asked Pete. Even if they were twins, and ten years old already, her brother was still a kid, playing kid games. He still enjoyed drawing or building sandcastles, as if he were still in kindergarten.

"I play fetch with Cookie. But I want to teach him some tricks. Grandpa said we can try to teach him tricks, but he won't do anything." Pete answered animatedly. In the past couple of days, he had built a certain friendship with the canine. He wanted to share that with his sister.

"Let's see what we can teach this dog," Lola smiled at her brother.

The summer day was still young with lots of sun and light outside. Pete and Lola devised a plan for training Cookie and teaching him tricks. The boy wanted the dog to somersault, the girl meant for simple tricks like sit, down and roll.

The argumentation went on for a moment, the dog watching them intently.

❀❀❀

"So, you were able to teach something to the old boy?" Grandpa asked. They were at the dinner table. Lola and Pete had played a long time through the afternoon and into the evening until Grandma called them. They had to set the table and soon they started a lively recollection of the daily activities. The twins were smiling, as did their grandparents.

"And he was cooperative?" Grandma continued. "I think Cookie likes you a lot, usually he does not move much, and does not like people telling him what to do," she added.

"It's because you don't like dog much," Grandpa grinned at her, "the dog listens to me when I call him." He paused a bit and looked at Pete and Lola. "What do you think about taking care of Cookie until the rest of your holidays? You can play with him. You will also feed him and walk him," he told them.

Pete was all smile, happy to agree with his Grandpa proposition. Lola seemed equally interested in the task.

"Do we need to walk him far?" She asked the old man. "If we play outside in the garden, is it not enough exercise for him?"

"Cookie needs more than exercise, you know," Grandpa explained, "he needs also to go out and smell things around. Usually, I walk him in the woods behind the house..."

Pete flinched as he heard those words. He was still afraid of the forest, with the many trees and bushes. It was dark in there.

"You don't have to go far inside the woods, you know," Grandpa added, "just follow the path from the gate at the back of the house. Walk a bit, then come back."

"What path?" Pete asked, startled. He had seen nothing when he went after the ball earlier in the day. He did not see the gate either.

Later that night, Pete had a strange dream. He was walking Cookie and got lost in the woods. There was a voice telling him to go deeper into the trees, and he followed a path made of blue rocks.

He was not afraid during his dream. Lost in the forest, but no afraid.

When he woke up, he remembered from his dream a small part only. Cookie had guided him through bushes and trees, and that there was a blue light coming from the ground.

❀❀❀

"Jump!" Lola was throwing the ball high in the air for the dog to catch it. So far, the dog was quick to learn new tricks.

"What's happening to you, Pete?" She asked her brother. "Since you woke up you look lost. You didn't sleep well?"

Pete was still thinking about his dream. He looked at the trees on the other side of the garden. He did not feel as frightened as the day before.

"Are we walking Cookie in the forest today?" Pete was still looking at the trees as he asked his sister.

As it was only the beginning of the day, they decided to wait before walking the dog. They threw the ball some more, but Cookie started to look tired. They let the dog rest and started playing together. Lola did not feel like going back home any more and Pete was happy to have his sister back in a playful mood.

The morning went pleasantly for the two children. They were outside, Cookie beside them. They climbed the fruit trees; Grandpa was okay with it. They watered the plants, and themselves, ending up so wet they had to change clothes. They had fun, and the dog observed them, following all their movements.

❀❀❀

"He has no leash?" Pete asked Grandpa.

They had finished their lunch, and the children were ready to walk Cookie.

"No need for it," Grandpa explained, "he will answer to you if you call him, and this way he is free to roam a bit. Don't be frightened if he runs off, he will always be back within a few minutes. It is just his time to meet with Nature and he likes to run free and smell around. Sometimes, also, he chases after small animals..."

With Cookie by their side, Pete and Lola took the direction of the small gate at the back of the garden. Some apprehension filled the boy. He was still uneasy, looking at the bushes, the trees and the darkness.

If they didn't see the path, Grandpa told them, Cookie would show them the way. They had nothing to fear. Even with the old man's reassurance, Pete was nonetheless anxious.

"Relax," Lola smiled at him, "we will just go a bit inside and come back. Like Grandpa said yesterday." Slowly she opened the gate and set foot in the woods.

Under the trees, the temperature was cooler. Pete told his sister they should take a jacket the next day. She answered him they would take a basket also. Lola had found what looked like wild strawberries, small in size and deep red in colour.

Cookie was happy to follow the two children, his big, wet tongue lolling out of his mouth. He stopped a moment with Lola to smell the fruits then left in another direction, going back and forth between the trees.

"Come back, Cookie!" Pete shouted at the dog who started to run deeper in the woods. Panicked, the boy followed after him, trying to see where he went.

Lola had no choice but to follow her brother.

Running as they were, they quickly lost the sense of orientation. Breathless, Lola asked Pete to stop so they could rest.

They sat on a patch of moss, protected by a lush foliage. Around them, the leaves and bark declined in a multitude of colours Pete did not know the name of. It was like a small piece of Paradise.

They were lost.

"Grandpa told us Cookie would not run away, just run of then come back," Lola scolded her brother. "Why did you dashed out like a madman?"

Pete was contrite, and a bit scared. Where they really lost, he thought.

"Cookie! Cookie!" The boy shouted, hoping the dog would come back fast.

"What are we doing now?" He asked his sister.

Lola did not answer directly. She looked around her, pensive. "I don't know," she admitted finally. "We wait for Cookie, and we'll see..."

The two children waited in silence.

"What is the problem?"

Pete sprung to his feet, startled. The voice came from behind a tree. The boy stepped nearer his sister and searched with his eyes in the darkness between the trees.

"Who's there?" He asked toward the voice, still seeing nothing.

The noise of the leaves stepped on intensified. A silhouette appeared. Short, Pete thought. The person is a small one. He took Lola's hand, as to reassure her, and himself at the same time.

"Who are you?" The boy added to the person in the shadow.

Nothing moved for a moment. No voice came back to them. The children started to think they dreamed the words and the noise.

The barking of a dog sounded in the silence. Cookie was back. He entered the area between the trees where Pete and Lola stood, then sat and looked at them. His tongue was sticking out of his mouth and his eyes were shiny.

"Cookie!" Pete ran to the dog, relieved.

"Where have you been!" Lola chided him, "why did you disappear?"

Cookie looked at the children, his head slightly bent to the side. He took control of his tongue back and closed his mouth. To the boy, it seemed like the dog was smiling at them.

"Is there a problem?"

The words startled Pete. He gazed at her sister who looked shocked. Turning back to the dog, his smile faltered.

"What is the problem, kids? Why don't you answer me?"

Cookie was talking to them.