Snippet 4

Chapter 4 - Abandoned Found - sneak preview (full book available on Amazon - kindle and paperback)

He stood up and waited for the wind to subside a little, putting a hand behind his right ear, and at last the noise rang through the relentless surrounding weather row. It was like a distressed whining had been carried by the breeze and that was why Jason could hear it so clearly; had it not been so windy he probably wouldn’t have heard it at all from inside the house. He knew it had to belong to something, and with a burst of joy he encouraged the hope that it was the voice of one of his parents, perhaps calling out to him " but that hope died in a second when he assured himself it probably didn’t belong to them.
He was curious to know to whom, or what, the whining sound did belong, though. It spurred him into action. Abandoning all protest, he ran up the stairs to his mum and dad’s bedroom and searched through the draws to find a torch. He found it! Hidden under a piece of paper in the draw of his dad’s bedside table.
He then rushed out with his dad’s raincoat on, opened the front door, and, without wavering, Jason stepped onto the doorstep, put his hood up, and trudged forwards, the wet pouring rain attacking him from in front, along the extremely slippery pontoon.
The torch was on but he could barely see a thing through the densely thick dark veil that stretched far in front of him. He could still make out the whining sound, though, which helped to guide him in the right direction. As far as he could make out now, it was coming from the shore.
Jason walked forwards, shining the torch on the ground so he could see where he was going. In about five minutes he reached the shore. He wasn’t wearing any shoes, so he felt the sharp pain of gravel against his bare feet. He treaded slowly until he reached the soft, kinder dirt.
The whining seemed to be coming from the left, so he turned that way and waved his torch in front of him as he continued to walk and follow the sound.
In minutes he saw movement in the light of the torch: something small and dark was on the ground; at first glance, it looked like a large piece of clothing was draped over the thing that was making the horrible whining noise; after moving a few steps closer, he tested the waters, cautiously, picking gently at the material, and he soon realised that what it was, was not a piece of clothing at all, but multiple layers of soggy wet newspaper. Some sort of lump wrapped inside it was wriggling about. Without any clue as to what it could be, Jason picked up the bundle " it was stiff, round and not very heavy, but it was making a lot of noises so it must be living, whatever was underneath " he carried it back towards the house, torch in one hand.
The thing was stirring more and more as he reached the front step. He walked into the house and shut the front door. He laid the bundle on the floor, then took off his dad’s raincoat and dropped it behind him on the mat. His feet felt frozen and he looked down at them to see that they were very dirty. But it did not matter.
There was no light on in the hallway so he took the sopping wet bundle into the living room and laid it on the rug in front of the fireplace.
Jason tried peeling off the newspaper but all the pages were so stuck together ... on the other hand, though, the thing inside whined continuously for so long that he just had to free it. 
He ripped the soggy paper in half down one side. After he had pulled the newspaper off, Jason was surprised when he saw what was lying there in a curled up position. It had really dirty fur, tiny bent paws, and a tail, which was hanging limp over its left leg.
‘A puppy,’ Jason muttered out loud.
...
...
...
‘Hey, guess what? Micah " you have a naaame!’ Jason wooed as he tickled the puppy’s small belly. It wriggled and opened its mouth wide trying to bite Jason’s hand before he managed to pull it away. Then, when he had finished, Micah rolled over and enthusiastically started chapping his jaws at Jason, daring him to play. And since there was nothing else for him to chew on, Jason offered the sleeve of his jumper, dragging it along the floor away from Micah, so he would be tempted to follow it " and in fifteen minutes they were involved in a game of Tug of War with each other; Jason was lying on his front along the floor with his right arm stretched out in front of him, and on the end was Micah trying to pull at his sleeve, with very little success considering the fact that Jason was heavier; however, this didn’t deter him one bit. In fact, he seemed full of energy now compared to yesterday morning when he was exhausted, sad and hungry.
Later that afternoon, they went outside with each other, and Jason had decided, after having enough of playing, to sit on the edge of the deck with his feet dipped in the water, accompanied by his new best friend, Micah, the puppy, who was at this point sitting beside him. There was a reddened sky in the distance, where the sun had just disappeared below the horizon.