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Whatever it was, it was in the center of the lane we were running along, the one that had traffic coming toward us rather than away from us. As Apollo continued his bizarre behavior, something in my gut tightened and I found myself picking up speed as I tried to bring the shape in the middle of the road into focus.
I was still several hundred yards away when I saw the outline of a vehicle coming over the small rise just behind the object that I still hadn’t identified as any one thing in particular.
Until that object began moving.
“Oh God,” I whispered as my brain finally made sense of what I was seeing.
It was a kid.
A really little kid.
In the middle of the road.
With a car coming up right behind him.
The child couldn’t have been more than two or three. I watched in horror as the kid saw Apollo and then clumsily climbed to his feet. He was holding some kind of toy in one hand and pointing at Apollo with the other.
“Hey!” I shouted as I began waving my arms to get the attention of the truck that was barreling down the highway and straight for the child. But the pickup didn’t slow in the slightest. It looked like the driver’s head was down, probably looking at a cell phone. I screamed as loud as I could, enough to startle the child. The kid stopped his forward movement but instead of moving off the road, he sat back down and began to cry.
My lungs burned as I raced after Apollo, but I knew I wouldn’t be fast enough to get to the child before the truck did.
So I did the only thing I could think of.
I dropped Apollo’s leash.
The second the tension on his leash was gone, the animal took off. He barreled toward the child. I continued to shout and wave my hands as I ran but the driver still didn’t look up. It appeared that he’d slowed down a considerable amount, probably because he was paying attention to his phone and nothing else, but he was still heading straight for the kid with alarming speed.
Time seemed to stop as I watched Apollo reach the kid. But he didn’t stop his forward movement. If anything, he sped up. I held my breath as Apollo leapt through the air and landed on the hood of the truck. The impact caused the vehicle to swerve wildly, causing Apollo to slide off the side. I lost sight of the dog and could only pray he hadn’t fallen beneath the tires. The driver was still trying to get control of the truck when he finally saw the child sitting in the middle of the road screaming his head off.
The sound of squealing brakes assaulted my ears as burning rubber hit my nose. I managed to reach the child just as the truck skidded past him. I curled myself around the toddler’s body and waited for the tires to hit me, but it was just a heavy rush of air that swept over my body as the truck passed us.
As I unfurled myself from around the kid, I heard the driver yelling, “Are you guys okay?”
“Call 911!” I shouted as I began looking the child over. He was screaming his head off and big wet tears were sliding down his face but thankfully, he appeared unhurt.
“You’re okay, I’ve got you,” I said as I gathered the boy in my arms. “You’re okay,” I repeated over and over. The little boy’s chubby arms went around my neck. I finally understood the word he was saying over and over between hiccupping sobs.
“Pollo.”
I instantly looked to my right, terrified I’d see the dog’s mangled body. But there was nothing.
I let out a relieved breath when I saw the dog in the ditch next to the road. He was upright and moving away from us. His pace was slow and it looked like he was holding one leg in the air.
“Apollo!” I called, hoping he’d hear the vibrations of my voice. But the dog didn’t respond. I managed to get to my feet with the distraught little boy still sobbing on my shoulder. I was about to call the dog again when I saw him begin to wag his tail as he nuzzled something in the ditch. When he moved out of the way a bit, I saw a flash of purple.
“Hey, are you okay?” the driver asked frantically as he appeared at my side. As much as I would have liked to deck the guy, I had more important things to focus on.
“Take him,” I said as I handed the little boy to him. As soon as the child’s weight was gone from my arms, I ran to where Apollo was.
My heart was slamming in my chest as I took in the sight before me.
