Chapter 4: Roam

“Where does this energy come from?” Polly asked himself.

“Hours ago, I was lying helpless waiting for death and now?… Wow!”

There were times when he felt so confident about himself. He walked with a swagger to the beat of the music in his head. His mother liked it when he walked like that. She thought that walk made him even cuter.

The song in his head was Roam by the B-52s, another band from the 80s. If there was one thing good about Mr. Santos, it’s the music that he played in the farm. He remembered seeing everyone’s head bobbing to this tune, much like those toy dogs in people’s cars.

Sometimes he imagined himself wearing sunglasses as he danced to this.

Boy Mercury shooting through every degree

Oh girl dancing down those dirty and dusty trails

Take it hip to hip, rocket through the wilderness

Around the world the trip begins with a kiss

“Oh, the best part -” as he walked to the beat.

Roam if you want to

Roam around the world

Roam if you want to

Without wings, without wheels

The lyrics went over and over in his head, so apt to what he was doing that moment.

He turned off the music in his head when he realized where he was. He had taken a number of strolls with his mother and brothers but this was the first time he was seeing that side. His mother avoided this place. There were plenty of people she said and lots of nasty street dogs, too.

So far, he had not seen nasty dogs, just lots of people passing by - by foot and in wheels. It looked like everyone was in a hurry to get to their destinations, their brains set on where they were heading.

Right now, destination was the least of his problems, survival was.

It was fascinating to him watching people pass by one another. Some of them managing to say hello or nod their heads to acquaintances and some just minding their own business.

His senses got filled with new stimuli - new sights, new sounds, new smells but it got overwhelming as the day progressed.

He stopped in a corner to rest. He’s been walking for what seemed like forever. His stomach was rumbling, his throat dry.

But it’s not that he didn’t eat. He was able to eat the food that fell on the floor when he passed by a store and he was able to drink from a puddle of water on the side of a street at noon.

Ka-boom!

"Wait that’s not my rumbling tummy!…It is thunder!”

And for the first time in his life, he was hearing the sound of thunder and seeing the flash of lightning without a roof on his head. It was amazingly frightening. “What contradiction!” exclaimed his head.

He noticed a spot under a parked car that’s still dry. He hurried to get there. There he hid for hours waiting for the rain to stop. The dry spot under the car got smaller and smaller but he was happy it didn’t get small enough to reach him.

It was deep into the night when the rain stopped. He got out from under the car and he was welcomed by the cool night wind that blew away all the confidence he had earlier that day.

Electricity was out. It was a dark dark night that even with his dog eyes, he couldn’t see all that clearly.

He found his way behind a thick bush. He circled a spot three times, as dogs would always do before settling on a place to sit or to lie down. He remembered the stories that his brothers would tell him about monsters and ghosts that come out in the dark. He covered his eyes with his paws, not wanting to look around. But his ears! His ears could hear almost everything and he wanted to cover them, too.

His head was filled with thoughts of monsters that kill dogs, monsters that eat dogs, monsters that dress up dogs - oh, monsters! His head screamed.

He covered his eyes for as long as he could until his forearms felt numb.

Slowly, he opened his eyes. The sky was clear and the moon and stars had all appeared. “What a beautiful sight!”  he says. It looked like the postcard he saw in the trash one day. It said “The Starry Night by Van Gogh,”… “Whoever he is, I now know what he means.”  

And there he fell asleep while trying to count the stars in the sky.

“Polly! Polly! Wake up!”

“Mom, is that really you? You found me!”

“Yes, dear!”

He hugged his mother so tightly. “Oh, mom, I really miss you!”

“I miss you, too!”

“Where are my brothers? Where are Basil and Bitok, and Wacky?”

“They’re out waiting for you… Come, Polly!” his mother called.

He saw his mother running away. He ran after her.

“Mom, wait!… Wait for me mother!”

But she didn’t stop. She disappeared….again.

It was just a dream.