Chapter Sixteen
Runaway Puppy
Before Evelyn and her son got halfway to their house, they were picked up by Rick who had been looking for them since five o'clock. While Alex and Julia were in the backseat, Evelyn explained everything to her husband.
By the time the O'Connells arrived home, Alex had fallen asleep in the backseat with a sleeping Julia cradled in his arms.
In the morning, the O'Connells once again gathered together in the sitting room to discuss the puppy finding. While Seti, Nibbler and Julia played together, Rick told his son about the news of Hieroglyph. The young boy took the news better then either of his parents would have expected, probably because there were still more puppies to find so it wasn't like they were losing all of them.
Once the news of Hieroglyph was out of the way, the O'Connells got down to work on the next puppy. They decided not to split up again but choose one puppy to get at a time. This time, the O'Connells chose to get Tiger back from Mr. and Mrs. Jackson.
With the help of Jonathan, the O'Connells managed to track the Jacksons down. They lived on 34 Fuller Rd. in the heart of London. With the street address, the O'Connells and their dogs got into Rick's prized car and drove out to Fuller Rd.
The Jacksons were not hard to find; they lived on the end of Fuller Rd in a semi-large country style house. Leaving the dogs in the car, Rick, Evelyn and Alex got out and went to the front door.
Alex knocked on the door and then went to hide behind his father because he didn't like the Jacksons very much. Mrs. Jackson answered the door and smiled once she saw the O'Connells. Alex peeked out from behind his father and past Mrs. Jackson to see if he could see Tiger.
After brief reintroductions, Mrs. Jackson invited the O'Connells inside. She directed them to the sitting room and offered to make them some tea or whatnot.
"That's all right Mrs. Jackson we came to ask you about Tiger, the puppy we gave you the other day." Rick began, sitting next to his wife on the cream-colored sofa.
Mrs. Jackson wrinkled her nose at the mention of Tiger's name. "That nasty little dog you gave me; he isn't anything but trouble. Runs around the house all day, he's already broken some of my finest plates." Mrs. Jackson said.
"See, that's what we came to ask you about; my wife, son and I have decided that we made a mistake in giving the puppies away and would like him back." Rick continued, though somewhat upset at the little puppy.
Mrs. Jackson's face became a mix of emotion: excitement and worry. "Well, you see Mr. O'Connell, I would more then happy to gave him back I haven't a clue where he is." Mrs. Jackson said.
"What do you mean?" This time is was Evelyn who spoke.
"Yesterday after the puppy chewed on my fine tablecloth, I got mad at him and set him outside. When I went outside later to get him, he was gone and I found a hole under the fence. That's where my husband is right now, looking for that puppy. I'm awfully sorry about losing him but it's normal to put a dog outside so I didn't think anything of it." Mrs. Jackson said and frowned.
"That's alright Mrs. Jackson." Rick said.
Mrs. Jackson showed the O'Connells to the door and waved as they pulled out of the driveway.
Once Alex got in the backseat with the dogs, Seti came over to him and nuzzled his hands as though she was expecting her puppy to be hidden in his hands.
"Dad, are we going to look for Tiger?" Alex asked, hugging Seti's neck.
"We don't have any idea where he is." Rick said, though he wanted to find the puppy just as much as his son and wife did.
"Seti can find him, he is her baby. She can find him." Alex said, pleading with his father.
Evelyn looked at her husband. "Maybe he has a point Rick, Seti might be able to find Tiger." Evelyn said, looking at her husband with the same pleading look Alex had.
"All right, we'll look for him." Rick said, attempting to sound upset about looking for the puppy but it was no good; his wife and son weren't fooled. Evelyn leaned over and kissed Rick and Alex repeated 'thank you' over and over again.
Once the O'Connells were in the main part of town, not far from where the Jacksons lived, Rick parked the car and everyone inside got out. Including the dogs; Alex hooked their leashes on and held them tightly. "Okay Seti you need to find Tiger. Go on girl." Alex said, whispering in the dog's ear.
Seti seemed to understand Alex because she started sniffing around, but for around ten minutes she stayed in the same place just sniffing. Rick frowned and then said, "Maybe we should ask some people if they have seen a little puppy."
Evelyn and Alex agreed. "This seems familiar." Evelyn muttered as she and Rick separated to ask people if they had seen Tiger.
Alex still stood; holding the dog's leashes while Seti continued to sniff. Suddenly Seti's tail began to wag and she began to wiggle around. Abruptly the dog took off, dragging Alex and her puppies along with her; the puppies barked and ran behind their mother, thinking it was a game.
Alex, who was still a little tried from lack of sleep, was having a hard time keeping up with the Retriever. Seti lead her puppies and Alex to a large construction site where workers were busy building a new business office.
Seti stopped at the half-built (or less) building and turned around to face Alex; she nuzzled her collar and leash as if telling the boy to 'let her free'. Alex did and the dog ran into the building; Alex tied the puppies to a metal spike in the ground (one used for foundations) and took off after his dog, not wanting her to get hurt.
Evelyn and Rick had combed the streets up and down, asking everyone in sight if they had seen a little puppy. No one had seen a puppy that fitted Tiger's description so reluctantly Rick and Evelyn headed back to where they left Alex. Only, their son was gone and so were the dogs.
After calling Alex's name for five minutes, Rick and Evelyn became worried when their son didn't answer. "We promised not to run off like this again." Evelyn muttered.
Rick began to look around rather then just call his son's name. Evelyn stood in the spot Alex had and looked around; a look of worry was plan on her face.
However, a man tapped Evelyn on the arm; the woman spun around to see who it was. The man was seated at a near by café, he looked a little older then Rick and herself. "If you're looking for a little boy with a lot of dogs they all went that way." The man said and pointed in the direction Alex had gone.
Evelyn smiled and said 'thank you' about ten times to the man before calling Rick. She told him what the man said and quickly the two were running in the direction that Alex had disappeared in.
Inside the half-built (or less) building, it was dark and dank. Twisted metal poked out from many spots in the barely formed walls and wooden planks provided the foundations for the building. Alex kept his arms to his side because twisted metal and nails protruded from many spots on the wall and the boy knew that if he got stuck with one of the metal objects he would have to get a shot and he hated shots.
There were already many floors in the house, over three that Alex could see from where he stood, on the bottom floor. There were holes in the ceiling and Alex could see workers hammering nails and boards. The boy knew he would get in trouble if he got caught but he cared more about finding the dogs that might be lost in the half-built building.
Neither Seti nor Tiger were on the bottom floor so Alex hurried to find a way to get to the second floor, without being seen by the workers.
Alex quickly found a set of not even half-built stairs that was missing a few rungs and was barely nailed together. Alex slowly but surly climbed the stairs and snuck onto the second floor. Alex slipped into a room that was devoid of workers and decided to think about his next action in there.
Before he had too long to think, he heard the sound of dog barking. He could barely hear it because of all them hammering and noise that the workers were making.
Alex waited a few minutes and then heard the barking again; Seti might have found Tiger or it was Tiger who was barking. Alex really couldn't be sure because to him, all the dogs sounded the same. Alex snuck out of the room and dodged a few workers and managed to sneak onto the third level by way of another shaky staircase.
On the third level there were many more workers and the sides of the level were missing, which meant this was the top level -so far- of the building. Alex hid behind a support beam and swallowed, not looking down. He had been wary of heights and high places ever since he was six and fell down a tree; he didn't want to go through anything like that again.
The third level was a lot bigger then the others because Alex couldn't see either of the dogs from where he hid and he was sure that they were up here because there was nowhere else to go. On this level there were also large machines that lifted planks and large stone pipes that Alex was sure were for plumbing, to the workers that would install them. Alex watched the machines raise the level and the workers take the boards and whatnot off the crane type object.
Evelyn and Rick reached the construction site and knew Alex was there because they saw the puppies tied up on a metal spike.
"You don't think he's actually in there Rick, do you? He knows better then that." Evelyn cried when she saw her son was not with the puppies.
"Calm down Evy, just wait right here and I'll go ask one of the workers if they have seen him." Rick said.
Evelyn frowned. "I'm coming too." She said, sounding like a child who has been told that he can't go with his older brothers fishing or whatnot.
Rick frowned. "For once, Evy, stay here please." He said, looking at his wife.
Evelyn nodded and watched her husband enter the half-built house and disappear to look for their son.
Out of the corner of his eye, Rick saw a tiny golden puppy walk over to one of the machines that was bringing up pipes for the workers to install. The workers didn't seem to notice the puppy climb inside one of the pipes but Alex did. Alex quickly snuck past the workers and over to the pipe where Tiger had crawled into; the workers didn't notice him either, they were too busy putting up foundations.
"Come on Tiger, come on boy." Alex coaxed at the mouth of the pipe.
Tiger turned around and looked at Alex; the puppy yipped and continued down the long pipe. Alex knew that if Tiger kept walking he would fall out of the pipe and he might not be as lucky as Alex had been when he fell out of the tree.
Alex climbed into the pipe, which was just big enough for him to fit in, with a little space left.
Rick hadn't found his son on the first floor but he had found Seti; Seti had come running up to him, barking and turning circles. "What's wrong girl? Where's Alex?" Rick asked the dog.
Seti barked and ran toward the unstable stairs and barked; Rick followed Seti to the stairs and carefully climbed them.
On the second level, Rick was spotted by one of the workers. "Hey! What are you doing here? You can't be here!" The worker shouted and came over to Rick.
"I think my son is lost in here, have you seen him?" Rick asked, hoping the worker had.
The worker just shrugged. "No, it's awfully dangerous for a boy to be here. Are you sure he's in here?" The worker asked.
"I think my dog is lost in here too, that's why my son came in, after his puppy." Rick answered.
The worker handed Rick his hard-hat and directed Rick to the stairs that lead to the second level. Rick thanked him and he and Seti followed the man's directions to the third level.
Once Rick and Seti were on the third level, they went to one of the workers to ask if they had seen Alex. Once again no one had but Seti began to bark and turn circles.
Alex was aware the pipe had begun to move as he crawled through it; he continued calling Tiger but the puppy refused to come to him.
"Tiger, come on Tiger. Please come on Tiger." Alex pleaded and continued crawling along on his hands and knees. The puppy yipped and faced Alex but continued walking down the pipe; Tiger was about halfway through the pipe and Alex was about a quarter way through.
Once Rick told the workers that his son was missing, they ordered all work to be stopped. Some of the workers filtered out to look for Alex but he was nowhere on the third level; Rick began to think that the boy was not in the building at all but Seti was acting as though he was. Rick began to call his son's name, while the workers continued searching.
From inside the pipe, Alex heard someone calling his name; he stopped to listen and became aware that it was his father calling for him. "Dad!" Alex called, over and over from inside the pipe. Maybe his father would be able to get Tiger to come away from the pipe.
Rick heard his son calling but he couldn't figure out where it was coming from. After looking around, Rick realized that the sound was coming from inside the pipes that were in mid-air. "The pipes, he's in the pipes." Rick said to the workers, who all turned to face the pipes that were swaying dangerously in the air.
The workers began shouting for the machine's driver to bring the pipes back to the level but he couldn't hear them because of the noise the machine made.
Finally, Alex managed to grab Tiger's scruff and clutched the puppy to his chest. Tiger began to whimper and lick Alex's hands; Alex peered over the side of the pipe and became dizzy. He became aware the pipe was in midair and there was no way for Alex to exit the pipe; the young boy began to cry and wish he wasn't in the pipe at the moment.
From the third level, Rick was slightly aware that his son was crying. "Alex, hang on Alex!" Rick cried and headed back to the bottom level to look at the situation from the ground.
When Rick rejoined his wife outside, he was greeted with his wife's question, "Where is he? Is he in the building?" Then Evelyn noticed Seti and became worried. "Rick, where is he?" Evelyn cried.
Reluctantly (he didn't want to worry Evelyn) Rick pointed to the pipes that hung in mid air. Rick quickly explained everything to his wife as they ran over to the machine.
Alex peered out of the pipe again and saw his mother and father beneath him. Alex began to cry harder and yell for his parents; Evelyn peered up at her son and told him not to move.
Rick talked to the driver of the machine who quickly and steadily brought the pipes back to the ground. As soon as the pipes touched the ground, Alex crawled out of them and threw himself into his mother's arms.
Evelyn hugged her son tightly and kissed his forehead over and over again. Then Alex was embraced by his father; his parents looked near tears as well, happy that their boy was all right.
"Alex, I don't want you ever to do that again." Both his parents instructed in between kissing his son.
Alex showed them Tiger, proud that he had saved the puppy. Both Rick and Evelyn agreed that their son was brave, though he needed to think before he acted.
Once again, Seti was also thanked for saving Alex; Rick thanked Seti for showing him where Alex was, on the third level. The O'Connells and the dogs all headed back to the car, all a little shaky about what had just happened.
Runaway Puppy
Before Evelyn and her son got halfway to their house, they were picked up by Rick who had been looking for them since five o'clock. While Alex and Julia were in the backseat, Evelyn explained everything to her husband.
By the time the O'Connells arrived home, Alex had fallen asleep in the backseat with a sleeping Julia cradled in his arms.
In the morning, the O'Connells once again gathered together in the sitting room to discuss the puppy finding. While Seti, Nibbler and Julia played together, Rick told his son about the news of Hieroglyph. The young boy took the news better then either of his parents would have expected, probably because there were still more puppies to find so it wasn't like they were losing all of them.
Once the news of Hieroglyph was out of the way, the O'Connells got down to work on the next puppy. They decided not to split up again but choose one puppy to get at a time. This time, the O'Connells chose to get Tiger back from Mr. and Mrs. Jackson.
With the help of Jonathan, the O'Connells managed to track the Jacksons down. They lived on 34 Fuller Rd. in the heart of London. With the street address, the O'Connells and their dogs got into Rick's prized car and drove out to Fuller Rd.
The Jacksons were not hard to find; they lived on the end of Fuller Rd in a semi-large country style house. Leaving the dogs in the car, Rick, Evelyn and Alex got out and went to the front door.
Alex knocked on the door and then went to hide behind his father because he didn't like the Jacksons very much. Mrs. Jackson answered the door and smiled once she saw the O'Connells. Alex peeked out from behind his father and past Mrs. Jackson to see if he could see Tiger.
After brief reintroductions, Mrs. Jackson invited the O'Connells inside. She directed them to the sitting room and offered to make them some tea or whatnot.
"That's all right Mrs. Jackson we came to ask you about Tiger, the puppy we gave you the other day." Rick began, sitting next to his wife on the cream-colored sofa.
Mrs. Jackson wrinkled her nose at the mention of Tiger's name. "That nasty little dog you gave me; he isn't anything but trouble. Runs around the house all day, he's already broken some of my finest plates." Mrs. Jackson said.
"See, that's what we came to ask you about; my wife, son and I have decided that we made a mistake in giving the puppies away and would like him back." Rick continued, though somewhat upset at the little puppy.
Mrs. Jackson's face became a mix of emotion: excitement and worry. "Well, you see Mr. O'Connell, I would more then happy to gave him back I haven't a clue where he is." Mrs. Jackson said.
"What do you mean?" This time is was Evelyn who spoke.
"Yesterday after the puppy chewed on my fine tablecloth, I got mad at him and set him outside. When I went outside later to get him, he was gone and I found a hole under the fence. That's where my husband is right now, looking for that puppy. I'm awfully sorry about losing him but it's normal to put a dog outside so I didn't think anything of it." Mrs. Jackson said and frowned.
"That's alright Mrs. Jackson." Rick said.
Mrs. Jackson showed the O'Connells to the door and waved as they pulled out of the driveway.
Once Alex got in the backseat with the dogs, Seti came over to him and nuzzled his hands as though she was expecting her puppy to be hidden in his hands.
"Dad, are we going to look for Tiger?" Alex asked, hugging Seti's neck.
"We don't have any idea where he is." Rick said, though he wanted to find the puppy just as much as his son and wife did.
"Seti can find him, he is her baby. She can find him." Alex said, pleading with his father.
Evelyn looked at her husband. "Maybe he has a point Rick, Seti might be able to find Tiger." Evelyn said, looking at her husband with the same pleading look Alex had.
"All right, we'll look for him." Rick said, attempting to sound upset about looking for the puppy but it was no good; his wife and son weren't fooled. Evelyn leaned over and kissed Rick and Alex repeated 'thank you' over and over again.
Once the O'Connells were in the main part of town, not far from where the Jacksons lived, Rick parked the car and everyone inside got out. Including the dogs; Alex hooked their leashes on and held them tightly. "Okay Seti you need to find Tiger. Go on girl." Alex said, whispering in the dog's ear.
Seti seemed to understand Alex because she started sniffing around, but for around ten minutes she stayed in the same place just sniffing. Rick frowned and then said, "Maybe we should ask some people if they have seen a little puppy."
Evelyn and Alex agreed. "This seems familiar." Evelyn muttered as she and Rick separated to ask people if they had seen Tiger.
Alex still stood; holding the dog's leashes while Seti continued to sniff. Suddenly Seti's tail began to wag and she began to wiggle around. Abruptly the dog took off, dragging Alex and her puppies along with her; the puppies barked and ran behind their mother, thinking it was a game.
Alex, who was still a little tried from lack of sleep, was having a hard time keeping up with the Retriever. Seti lead her puppies and Alex to a large construction site where workers were busy building a new business office.
Seti stopped at the half-built (or less) building and turned around to face Alex; she nuzzled her collar and leash as if telling the boy to 'let her free'. Alex did and the dog ran into the building; Alex tied the puppies to a metal spike in the ground (one used for foundations) and took off after his dog, not wanting her to get hurt.
Evelyn and Rick had combed the streets up and down, asking everyone in sight if they had seen a little puppy. No one had seen a puppy that fitted Tiger's description so reluctantly Rick and Evelyn headed back to where they left Alex. Only, their son was gone and so were the dogs.
After calling Alex's name for five minutes, Rick and Evelyn became worried when their son didn't answer. "We promised not to run off like this again." Evelyn muttered.
Rick began to look around rather then just call his son's name. Evelyn stood in the spot Alex had and looked around; a look of worry was plan on her face.
However, a man tapped Evelyn on the arm; the woman spun around to see who it was. The man was seated at a near by café, he looked a little older then Rick and herself. "If you're looking for a little boy with a lot of dogs they all went that way." The man said and pointed in the direction Alex had gone.
Evelyn smiled and said 'thank you' about ten times to the man before calling Rick. She told him what the man said and quickly the two were running in the direction that Alex had disappeared in.
Inside the half-built (or less) building, it was dark and dank. Twisted metal poked out from many spots in the barely formed walls and wooden planks provided the foundations for the building. Alex kept his arms to his side because twisted metal and nails protruded from many spots on the wall and the boy knew that if he got stuck with one of the metal objects he would have to get a shot and he hated shots.
There were already many floors in the house, over three that Alex could see from where he stood, on the bottom floor. There were holes in the ceiling and Alex could see workers hammering nails and boards. The boy knew he would get in trouble if he got caught but he cared more about finding the dogs that might be lost in the half-built building.
Neither Seti nor Tiger were on the bottom floor so Alex hurried to find a way to get to the second floor, without being seen by the workers.
Alex quickly found a set of not even half-built stairs that was missing a few rungs and was barely nailed together. Alex slowly but surly climbed the stairs and snuck onto the second floor. Alex slipped into a room that was devoid of workers and decided to think about his next action in there.
Before he had too long to think, he heard the sound of dog barking. He could barely hear it because of all them hammering and noise that the workers were making.
Alex waited a few minutes and then heard the barking again; Seti might have found Tiger or it was Tiger who was barking. Alex really couldn't be sure because to him, all the dogs sounded the same. Alex snuck out of the room and dodged a few workers and managed to sneak onto the third level by way of another shaky staircase.
On the third level there were many more workers and the sides of the level were missing, which meant this was the top level -so far- of the building. Alex hid behind a support beam and swallowed, not looking down. He had been wary of heights and high places ever since he was six and fell down a tree; he didn't want to go through anything like that again.
The third level was a lot bigger then the others because Alex couldn't see either of the dogs from where he hid and he was sure that they were up here because there was nowhere else to go. On this level there were also large machines that lifted planks and large stone pipes that Alex was sure were for plumbing, to the workers that would install them. Alex watched the machines raise the level and the workers take the boards and whatnot off the crane type object.
Evelyn and Rick reached the construction site and knew Alex was there because they saw the puppies tied up on a metal spike.
"You don't think he's actually in there Rick, do you? He knows better then that." Evelyn cried when she saw her son was not with the puppies.
"Calm down Evy, just wait right here and I'll go ask one of the workers if they have seen him." Rick said.
Evelyn frowned. "I'm coming too." She said, sounding like a child who has been told that he can't go with his older brothers fishing or whatnot.
Rick frowned. "For once, Evy, stay here please." He said, looking at his wife.
Evelyn nodded and watched her husband enter the half-built house and disappear to look for their son.
Out of the corner of his eye, Rick saw a tiny golden puppy walk over to one of the machines that was bringing up pipes for the workers to install. The workers didn't seem to notice the puppy climb inside one of the pipes but Alex did. Alex quickly snuck past the workers and over to the pipe where Tiger had crawled into; the workers didn't notice him either, they were too busy putting up foundations.
"Come on Tiger, come on boy." Alex coaxed at the mouth of the pipe.
Tiger turned around and looked at Alex; the puppy yipped and continued down the long pipe. Alex knew that if Tiger kept walking he would fall out of the pipe and he might not be as lucky as Alex had been when he fell out of the tree.
Alex climbed into the pipe, which was just big enough for him to fit in, with a little space left.
Rick hadn't found his son on the first floor but he had found Seti; Seti had come running up to him, barking and turning circles. "What's wrong girl? Where's Alex?" Rick asked the dog.
Seti barked and ran toward the unstable stairs and barked; Rick followed Seti to the stairs and carefully climbed them.
On the second level, Rick was spotted by one of the workers. "Hey! What are you doing here? You can't be here!" The worker shouted and came over to Rick.
"I think my son is lost in here, have you seen him?" Rick asked, hoping the worker had.
The worker just shrugged. "No, it's awfully dangerous for a boy to be here. Are you sure he's in here?" The worker asked.
"I think my dog is lost in here too, that's why my son came in, after his puppy." Rick answered.
The worker handed Rick his hard-hat and directed Rick to the stairs that lead to the second level. Rick thanked him and he and Seti followed the man's directions to the third level.
Once Rick and Seti were on the third level, they went to one of the workers to ask if they had seen Alex. Once again no one had but Seti began to bark and turn circles.
Alex was aware the pipe had begun to move as he crawled through it; he continued calling Tiger but the puppy refused to come to him.
"Tiger, come on Tiger. Please come on Tiger." Alex pleaded and continued crawling along on his hands and knees. The puppy yipped and faced Alex but continued walking down the pipe; Tiger was about halfway through the pipe and Alex was about a quarter way through.
Once Rick told the workers that his son was missing, they ordered all work to be stopped. Some of the workers filtered out to look for Alex but he was nowhere on the third level; Rick began to think that the boy was not in the building at all but Seti was acting as though he was. Rick began to call his son's name, while the workers continued searching.
From inside the pipe, Alex heard someone calling his name; he stopped to listen and became aware that it was his father calling for him. "Dad!" Alex called, over and over from inside the pipe. Maybe his father would be able to get Tiger to come away from the pipe.
Rick heard his son calling but he couldn't figure out where it was coming from. After looking around, Rick realized that the sound was coming from inside the pipes that were in mid-air. "The pipes, he's in the pipes." Rick said to the workers, who all turned to face the pipes that were swaying dangerously in the air.
The workers began shouting for the machine's driver to bring the pipes back to the level but he couldn't hear them because of the noise the machine made.
Finally, Alex managed to grab Tiger's scruff and clutched the puppy to his chest. Tiger began to whimper and lick Alex's hands; Alex peered over the side of the pipe and became dizzy. He became aware the pipe was in midair and there was no way for Alex to exit the pipe; the young boy began to cry and wish he wasn't in the pipe at the moment.
From the third level, Rick was slightly aware that his son was crying. "Alex, hang on Alex!" Rick cried and headed back to the bottom level to look at the situation from the ground.
When Rick rejoined his wife outside, he was greeted with his wife's question, "Where is he? Is he in the building?" Then Evelyn noticed Seti and became worried. "Rick, where is he?" Evelyn cried.
Reluctantly (he didn't want to worry Evelyn) Rick pointed to the pipes that hung in mid air. Rick quickly explained everything to his wife as they ran over to the machine.
Alex peered out of the pipe again and saw his mother and father beneath him. Alex began to cry harder and yell for his parents; Evelyn peered up at her son and told him not to move.
Rick talked to the driver of the machine who quickly and steadily brought the pipes back to the ground. As soon as the pipes touched the ground, Alex crawled out of them and threw himself into his mother's arms.
Evelyn hugged her son tightly and kissed his forehead over and over again. Then Alex was embraced by his father; his parents looked near tears as well, happy that their boy was all right.
"Alex, I don't want you ever to do that again." Both his parents instructed in between kissing his son.
Alex showed them Tiger, proud that he had saved the puppy. Both Rick and Evelyn agreed that their son was brave, though he needed to think before he acted.
Once again, Seti was also thanked for saving Alex; Rick thanked Seti for showing him where Alex was, on the third level. The O'Connells and the dogs all headed back to the car, all a little shaky about what had just happened.