It took me entirely too long, to my way of thinking at least, to get to where my truck was at. Once I saw it, I felt a little better, though I

still wasn't sure what I was going to do. How much time would it be before Evan and Daniel noticed that I'd been gone too long? Though, involved as they were

in the work at the building, they themselves might lose track of the time. And, too, they might think I was just goofing off or taking my time

getting back. They wouldn't necessarily panic. At least not right off.

I was glad that at least nobody at home would be wondering where I was. They'd known I was going to stop and help Daniel that afternoon.

I had just a bit to go before I reached my truck. Then I would-I don't know why, but I felt instinctively as though I should look back, and

when I did, I saw those dogs following me. They were back quite a ways, not real near, but still my heart started pounding in fright.

"Crap, crap, crap," I muttered. I wanted to run, but I forced myself not to. They might not catch up to me before I reached the safety

of my truck-but they also might. It took everything that I had in me not to run.

When I was within a good, healthy sprint to my truck, I shot a look back to see if the dogs had advanced closer. They had, for sure, but

I still thought I could make it-I hadn't locked my truck, so I wouldn't need to take time to fiddle around to unlock it...

I broke into a run, and reached my truck, yanking open the door and hopping into the seat faster than I probably ever had before.

I slammed the door closed, and, breathless, saw the dogs running now. I was still catching my breath, watching as they reached the

truck, and the biggest one, the one who had growled at me, jumped and stood on his hind legs, nearly looking in the window at me.

Good grief, what were they? Part alien dog or something? I mean-looking at me like that thru the truck window?

He barked at me a couple of times, and, though I doubted it would make any difference, I hollered thru the glass,

"Go HOME!"

And then, "BAD DOG! GO HOME!"

He did drop to the ground, but neither of them made any move towards going back to their house. They prowled around the truck, circling.

I scooted over to the passenger side, watching, as they went to that side, and then back around again.

I sat back in the truck seat with a heavy sigh. Contemplating what in the world I was supposed to do.

I was, to put it quite bluntly, between a rock and a hard place. Couldn't get out and walk back to where Kristen was, to use their

telephone. Couldn't get out at all. Not without being bitten, likely. Attacked was more like it.

Even though I knew I was safe enough in the truck cab like I was, I still felt fearful. What if the dogs never left and went back home?

What if nobody drove by on this road? What if that wierdo man came looking for his dogs? If he did-I would lock my doors, I thought, and my

mind was racing with thoughts.

I wasn't sure just how much time had passed. I don't wear a watch. I did turn on the radio, trying to hear the time, but it was

never announced. I turned it back off again, sighing, and worrying.

How do I get myself into these situations, I berated myself. Grrrrrrrr.

I tried to calm myself down. "The boys will come looking," I told myself. Trying to believe it would be sooner rather than later.

I would even listen to their scolds and lecture without complaint or back talk, I thought. I would be so glad to see them that I wouldn't

even fuss if they gave me a fierce talking to for running out of gas...

By now the dogs were done prowling around the truck. One of them sat in the middle of the road to the side of the truck, and the other one

went to lay on the grass by the ditch. Just to see their mood now I rolled my window down, just a bit, and spoke to them.

"Go on home," I said, trying to sound coaxing and nice.

Immediately they got up and came back, closer, and began barking. The aggressive one growled, and I rolled the window up, fast.

Now, I love dogs, as everybody knows, but right now I wasn't feeling anything but hate for these two.

"Damn, damn, damn!" I swore, slamming my hands down on the steering wheel a time or two.

How much longer I sat there, I don't know-but when I saw, and heard Evan's old rust-colored truck heading towards me, I didn't think

I'd ever felt such relief before. The dogs saw it coming, too, and they were in the middle of the road, standing and waiting as if to chase

Evan's truck.

They seemed to speed up when they saw that it was my truck sitting there by the side of the road, and pulled up alongside of me.

Evan at the wheel, and Daniel beside him. Evan's window was down already, and I rolled mine down half-way. The dogs were barking

furiously, and we had to speak loud to hear over them.

"What are you doin'?" Evan demanded of me.

"I'm out of gas," I said.

"Oh, for cripes sake," he said. "Well, come on, get in here, and we'll go and get some to bring back out."

I had my hand on the door handle, but said, "I can't get out-those dogs are crazy aggressive."

Evan hollered at the dogs but they only growled in return, backing up slightly.

Daniel opened the passenger door, and was starting to get out of the truck, and I panicked.

"Daniel, NO! They'll attack you-for real-they almost did to me earlier-don't get out like that-"

Daniel hesitated, but then stepped out, and the bigger shepherd began to charge that way.

"I told you!" I yelled, as he got back into the truck fast.

"They belong to that guy up the road-" I began to explain. Daniel reached up and took the rifle from the gun rack in the rear window

of Evan's truck, and then he stepped out enough to fire a shot into the air. It worked, because both dogs were startled, or frightened enough

that they took off on a run.

Daniel was putting the rifle back into the rack, and they both started telling me to get myself into Evan's truck.

I hurried to do that, going around to Daniel's side, and climbing up, sliding to the center of the seat, as he then got in beside me, and

slammed the door. Evan drove on, turning around at the first place wide enough to do a u-turn in, and we headed back to town.

"Do you not keep an eye on your gas level?" Evan demanded.

Before I could even answer that, Daniel said, "That's one of the rules of drivin', squirt."

"I know," I admitted.

"We were gettin' worried about you," he went on.

"I'm sorry. I was going to walk to use somebody's telephone to call you-but then those stupid dogs got crazy-"

"They just show up while you were sittin' there?" Evan asked, and I realized that they had neither one heard me when I said the dogs

belonged up the road.

"No-they live there," I said, pointing ahead to the approaching house I'd been walking to. We could see the two dogs now, still running, and

in a pasture heading towards the house. "I was going to use the phone there, but the dogs scared me, and the guy that lives there

gave me a bad vibe-"

Instantly, they were both on big-brother high alert.

"What happened?" Evan demanded. "He say or do somethin' to scare you?"

"He was just weird," I said. "You know what I mean."

By now we were passing the house, and they were both reading the name on the mailbox.

"You know him?" Evan asked Daniel.

"Nope. Do you?" Daniel countered.

Evan shook his head. "Naw."

"So you walked to that house?" Daniel took up the questioning again.

"Yeah. And the dogs came right to me, so I was just standing in the road, and they kept circling me. It was scary," I said.

"And then the guy comes out?" Evan asked.

"Yeah, finally he did. And he called them off. He offered to let me come in and use the phone, but-" I hesitated. I decided the less said right now,

the better. No need in firing them up any more than they were already.

"I just decided that wasn't the best thing," I said. "So I was going back to my truck and I was going to walk to where Kristen is-but

those dogs started following me, and I was stuck."

"For cripes sake," Evan said, again. "You could have been mauled, or somethin'."

"I know."

"It's a dumb thing to do," he said. "Runnin' out of gas like that."

I'd told myself I would take the scoldings with no sass-back, but I was holding my tongue already.

"I know," I said.

"Good thing Evan asked which way you were heading to," Daniel put in. "Otherwise, we wouldn't have known where

to go look for you."

"Yeah. That was a good thing," I said, in agreement, hoping that my docile agreement would keep them both from getting any more riled.

They both fell silent and so I kept still, too, until we got to the gas station in Murphys. They borrowed a gas can from Merle, the owner of the station,

and Daniel filled it with gasoline, handing the money off to Merle. And then, we were back on our way again.

"I'll pay you back for the gas," I offered, halfway back out to my truck.

"We'll talk about that later," Daniel said.

We were nearing the house where the dogs lived, and the weird guy was outside now. He stood in the yard, peering at us as we

drove past.

"What'd he say to you?" Daniel asked, as we passed on by.

"Just-" I hesitated. "Not much, really."

"You said he gave you a weird vibe," Daniel reminded me.

"Yeah. I just didn't get a good feeling about him," I said, sort of vaguely.

"If he got out of line with you, you need to be sayin' it now, Harlie," Evan said.

I looked to my left at him, as he drove. "He didn't," I said, firmly, so he would stop fussing. "I just didn't want to go into the

house alone with him-"

"Good thing that you didn't," Daniel said.

"Yeah," Evan said, in agreement. "That decision was a smart one." Meaning that my other decisions this afternoon were not.

Ah, here it came...

"So here's the part where you tell me how dumb I am, right?" I challenged him. "Bone-headed? That's what you usually tell me."

Evan had the audacity to look as though I'd hurt his feelings, or insulted him.

"I'm not that mean to you, am I?" he challenged me, in return.

I caved immediately. "No, Ev, of course you're not," I said, with a sigh.

"I thought I was a fairly stellar sort of a brother," Evan went on, warming to the topic with a grin in my direction.

"Oh, you are," I said. "You both are," I went on, looking from Evan to Daniel. "Coming to look for me and all. I was never so glad

to see anybody as I was to see the two of you coming along."

"Uh huh," Daniel said, and I linked my arm thru his.

"I'll work for you to pay you back," I promised again, earnestly. "And-can this be our little secret? Between the three of us?" I looked

at Daniel and then at Evan, and back again.

"Why does it have to be a secret?" Daniel asked me, and I knew he knew full well just why I was asking such. He looked amused.

"You guys pointed out how dumb it was," I said. "And I know it was. I was scared, with those dogs, and everything-I've learned

my lesson. For real. Okay, guys?"

"What do ya think, Evan?" Daniel asked. "Should we keep this to ourselves? Or should we not?"

He was nearly laughing and I gave him a soft punch in the arm.

"I don't know," Evan said, as we were pulling up near my stalled truck. He did another u-turn and pulled behind my truck. "That's a

hard one to decide-"

"Alright, guys," I said. I knew they were giving me a hard time because, well, because that's just what they do. But they weren't going

to say anything to any of the others about my misadventure of the afternoon.

We piled out, and Daniel put the gas from the borrowed can into my tank, and then, once that was done, Daniel rode with me, and we

started back to Murphys. I drove him to the club building.

"Are you coming home soon?" I asked him.

"Not for awhile. I want to get a few more things done first."

"Well, I told Crane I'd only stay an hour and then I'd be home to do my homework-" I said. "And I think my hour is pretty well gone by

now."

"More than gone," Daniel said, dryly, raising an eyebrow at me. "And I didn't even get any labor out of you."

"I'll work. And I'll pay you back, Daniel. I promise," I said.

"I'm just teasin' you, brat," he said.

"I know. But I mean it. And I appreciate you and Evan. A lot."

Daniel got out, and turned to smile at me. "Get on home, then, and get your homework done. I don't want you gettin' grounded

again over your grades."

"Okay," I said, and he headed up to the building door.

I called out to him as he was starting to go inside, and when he turned to look at me, I gave the 'I Love You' sign in sign language.

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