Misery Loves Company - Judy Albietz

Lily had waited until today to tell Josh about the dog showing up during lunch hour. She had been sitting alone at the back of the school. She replayed the scene in her head. The huge dog appeared out of nowhere and sat down across from her. There he was, maybe seven feet away from her, staring at her. He had a lot of long hair, mostly brown. He looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t place him and didn’t see any tags on his large red collar. He looked really sad, actually quite miserable, for a dog. Probably lost. Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice.

“Hello Lily.”

“Who’s there?” Lily asked. She jumped up and looked around but didn’t see anybody.

“Not much time to explain. So sorry but this is urgent. Lily, you will understand when you hold the stone you wear around your neck. You found that stone when you were with Josh the last day you were together, before he moved away.”

“Who is this?” Lily demanded, as she unconsciously reached for the little blue stone with her right hand. This couldn’t be Josh. He was a couple of thousand miles away. But he was the only one who knew where the stone had come from. He’d put it on the string for her—making the necklace she never took off.

The dog’s eyes were watering as he cocked his big head to the side. The stone in Lily’s hand began to feel warm. Feeling dizzy, she sat down. Then the memories flooded her head. It was like watching a movie. And she was in it. She then knew who the dog was. His name was Sam and he’d saved her life—many times. She’d traveled with this dog to a place where she could talk to monkeys with blue skin. She saw herself with Sophia, the Medicine Monkey—her friend. She also knew something was wrong, why Sam was so unhappy. Tears came to her eyes too. Her friends were in trouble.