Sophie and the Finn by J Peter Clifford

Author:J Peter Clifford
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-940745-63-3
Publisher: J Peter Clifford
Published: 2014-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Erica suddenly awakened to the sound of barking. She wondered who it could be; her own dogs were right here at the side of her … bed? Well, they were here when they all went to sleep! She jumped up and ran down the stairs towards the kitchen, where all the commotion was happening. There, standing by the back door, were Sophie and The Finn, barking feverishly. She softly called out to them, “Sophie, Finn, stop this barking. You’ll wake Mom and Dad.”

Whoops, too late! She heard the heavy thump of her dad coming down the stairs.

“Erica, what’s going on? It’s only 6:00 in the morning!” her dad called out.

On normal Sundays, her Dad liked to sleep in a little, before going to church services. However, this Sunday wasn’t like every other Sunday, because her dad would be going out to the abandoned barn with Sheriff Conway to investigate the dogs that she and her pups had discovered yesterday.

“I don’t know, Dad. I just got down here myself,” replied Erica, as she turned on the flood lights in the back yard, revealing what it was that Sophie and The Finn were barking at. It was big, and looked sort-of like a wolf, but Erica knew there were no wolves in Vermont. It was standing there, not more than thirty feet from their porch, and looking back at them.

Erica started to open the door when her father reached out and stopped her hand from turning the doorknob. “Erica, hold on a minute; it may not be a good idea to open this door until we’ve figured out what this animal wants.”

There was a light rain falling and she could see the raindrops glistening off the fur of this creature. It kind of looked like a German Shepherd, only larger.

Erica’s dad opened the door tentatively and walked a few steps onto the porch, leaving Erica and her dogs in the kitchen. “There is something strangely familiar about this animal,” he thought to himself.

He called back to Erica, “Eri, can you get me the large flashlight from the pantry closet?”

Erica ran to the closet, grabbed the flashlight, and headed back to the porch to hand it to her father.

Her dad said, “This looks like the same animal that Sheriff Conway and I saw on the road to Mr. Cudworth’s, and Mr. Cudworth mentioned seeing a large animal run through his yard earlier in the day.”

Suddenly the animal turned and started to run, heading toward the trail in the woods where Sophie and The Finn had found the puppies. As it reached the edge of the woods it stopped, turned towards them, and began to bark, as if to say, “I need you to follow me.” The Finn began barking in return, and jumped up on the back door, trying to get out.

Erica’s dad returned to the house and said, “Eri, wait here a minute!”

When he returned, Erica saw that he had strapped on his gun belt. As a constable, he would occasionally leave the house with his handgun, but not very often.

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