Chapter One Lost Dog

                 Chapter One
                          Lost Dog

    “Bruno! Where are you, boy? Bruno!” Henry, Elizabeth, and I called this again and again until our voices went hoarse. “Bruno, please answer!” I cocked my head this way and that hoping that I would see the black Labrador bound up the street. I was disappointed to see otherwise.
    “Austin, it’s no use.” My sister, Eli said. “We’ve been searching for weeks, and he hasn’t showed up. Chances are, we’ll never see him again.”
    I grimaced at her. “Weeks aren’t that long. Most people stop trying after months.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes.
    “You’re actually going to look for months? You’re just wasting your time, little bro.” I turned to my brother Henry-who was used to seeing Eli and me argue- who was taping up another Missing Dog poster.
    “Aw, man!” he whined, as a strong gust of wind blew the poster away. Henry went on with his never ending battle with the wind, while Eli and I continued our quarrel.
    “We won’t ever find him, Austin! Why can’t you understand that?” she said. I scowled. Our dog, Bruno, was the most precious thing to me besides my guitar and cell phone. Also, my determined mind was already made up. I was going to find my dog no matter what the cost.
    “You’re right. We won’t ever find him. Not with your attitude!” I snapped. Eli glared at me.
    “What is that supposed to mean?”
    “It means we can’t find him if you’re so sure we won’t!” I shot back. Elizabeth rolled her eyes again.
    “Honestly, Austin. You read way too many books and watch too many movies. Do you actually believe that we can find him with a “positive” attitude?” The look on my older sister’s face made me not want to answer. Instead, I looked over to see how Henry was doing. Not good.
    It must have been his sixth or seventh time on pasting the flyer up and getting it whipped off again did we realize we were supposed to be home. Eli looked at her watch and said, “We’re late. We were supposed to be home by five.”
    “What time is it now?” Henry asked, grabbing as many strips of tape his hands could hold in order to put the flier up.
    “It’s five thirty. It’ll probably be six when we get home if we do mom a favor and grab some groceries.”
    “Let’s ditch the groceries, then.” Henry suggested as he stood on the tips of his shoes to tape the flier on a streetlight.
    “I don’t know. Mom really needs-Oh would you give up already!” Henry practically fell down from the startling raise in our sister’s voice. Once again, the wind blew the missing dog poster away. Henry sighed.
    “Fine,” he agreed sadly. Eli smiled smugly as she led the way around the corner to the town square. I noticed as we walked up to Lexis’s Market, Henry dump all the remaining fliers in a dumpster and walk the whole way with his head down sorrowfully.
    “Henry?” I asked quietly so that Elizabeth couldn’t hear.
    “Yeah,” he replied without raising his head.
    “Do you think we’ll ever find Bruno?” This time, Henry did raise his head. He smiled-or at least tried to- and replied.
    “Sure. I have some friends who lose their pets all the time, and they always come back in the end.” I tried to take that in. In the end, the words raced through my mind.
    “Really?”
    “Yeah, really.” he said confidently. I grinned, trying to stifle a frown. Although Henry would seem convincing to many other people, he didn’t fool me. I was used to him lying for my benefit. The look on his face when he turned away from me completely proved that he was lying. Although half of it was true. Everyone’s pets did run away once in a while; not all of them came back, though.
    I was completely distracted while we were in the market. I just followed my siblings around as they went aisle to aisle filling the shopping basket with common items such as eggs, butter, cereal, fruit, etc. The evening whizzed by, and next thing I knew, we were walking back around the corner and starting to climb into Elizabeth’s red midsize sedan that brought us to this part of the neighborhood.
    As I sat in the backseat, I daydreamed. I remembered all the good times we had with Bruno since he was a pup, to just a couple weeks ago, when he almost followed me to school. Then Henry’s words echoed over and over again in my head. In the end. In the end. In the end.  What was that supposed to mean? Almost distantly I could hear him and Eli argue in the front seats.
    I wasn’t sure what they were arguing  about, but I heard the words cake and presents, so they must have been talking about a birthday or something. Of course!
My Birthday. I tried to push the image of the friendly black Lab to the back of my mind and get in on their conversation.
    “No way, Eli.” Henry said. “You and me both know the only thing Austin wants, and that’s Bruno.” I grinned, glad that my brother knew me so well.
    “Of course not,” Eli scoffed. “We’ll get him a video game or something and call it a day.” The corners of my mouth tightened. “He doesn’t need Bruno forever, you know. It was just a silly old mutt if you ask me-”
    “Shut up!” Henry hissed. “If he hears you it’ll be a problem!” He did know me well. Elizabeth rolled her eyes, once again.
    “It doesn’t matter. The kid’s daydreaming, totally dazed. Probably doesn’t know a single word we’re saying.” I scowled. Apparently, Eli knew me well, too. I was surprised, though, that I still had fantasizing look on my face. I tried to keep it on-it was difficult now that I knew-and listened in on the rest of the debate.
    Before they began again, Henry took a brief peek at me to make sure I wasn’t listening. I must have fooled him because he continued. Luckily, he didn’t know me that well.
    “Hey, here’s an idea.” he said, quieter. “Why not get a new dog?” My heart stopped. A new dog?
    “Nah, if he has his heart set on Bruno, a new dog won’t do him good.” Eli rejected. For once, I was happy Elizabeth was alive. They were silent for a moment as Henry thought.
    “A cat?” he suggested. I almost threw up at the word. I hated cats, something else that brought Bruno and me closer together. “Maybe we could get a playful one, like a kitten. And it could be black, and we could name it Bruno-”
    “No!” Eli objected. “That would remind him too much!” Henry sighed. “Let’s forget about it and talk about it later. We still have a few days.” she said as she pulled over into our driveway.
    My mouth almost dropped open to exclaim, but I stayed quiet. I was good at holding my tongue.
    What I couldn’t believe was how close my twelfth birthday was. How could I miss that? Was it the excitement of losing Bruno, or the fact that winter break was almost over and school would start again soon? The thoughts left my head spinning, which added to the fact that I could have been daydreaming.
    “Austin, buddy, we’re home.” Henry said. I almost jumped that his voice was actually directed to me. I got out of the car and helped carry the groceries inside. My stomach churned because I get carsick easy, and that drive which was really five minutes, felt like ten hours. Days even. Life just seemed to go too fast and too slow at the same time without Bruno. It was like I was on one side, my life on the other, and Bruno was the balance on the scale. Without him, my life would weigh too much and overpower me. Why did he have to run away?

Author's Note

Please tel me what errors I made, and how much you like it