A tragic story about a boy and his dog.

by: Aundrea Chapman

One day as a little boy was walking in downtown Rome, he passed a store that he did not recognize. He looked up for the sign but there was none. He peeked through the window and saw miles and miles of gumball machines. Then he saw one with a dog shmooshed into one of those little bubbles. And then there was a zebra stuck in a cage in the middle of the zoo. Then the monkeys were running all over the zoo and stealing popcorn from the kids. But that?s not the point. The boy, who was named Tom by the way, ran into the store to save the poor dog. He burst through the door and suddenly stopped. He checked his pockets for change, but did not hear any jingling. He headed out of the door, hanging his head and continued down the street. When he came up to the change store his face lit up and he was so excited that he ran into the door. Tom stumbled back and shook his head. Embarrassed, he stood up straight and pulled the door open. He walked formally up to the counter and handed the clerk a dollar. In return the man gave him four shiny, silver quarters. Tom took them and shoved them into his pocket. He burst out the door and ran all the way to the gumball machine store. The store looked a lot different form the outside than the inside. He could not find the gumball machine with the poor dog in it. There were so many machines that the boy got confused and started running around in circles and going crazy. Then he ran into a shiny, golden gumball machine. Through the glass Tom saw the poor dog squeezed inside the bubble. He put his quarter into the slot, his eyes shining, his heart pounding. He heard the quarter go down and *clink* into the other quarters. Nothing happened. ?The stupid gumball machine ate my quarter!!!? the boy screamed at the top of his lungs. He violently kicked the machine, forgetting that he was barefoot. ?OOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!? He yelled so loud that he made himself deaf. By now he was soooo raging mad that he ran out of the store and started yelling at everyone he saw. While Tom was busy being stark raving mad, the dog inside the bubble was slowly dying. Finally after about a half an hour the boy stopped his madness. He had limped about five blocks away from the gumball machine store. Tom stood there and realized that everyone was watching him. Then, he started laughing hysterically imagining that he looked like some crazy maniac that just escaped from the asylum and that everyone around him must have thought the same thing. By the time he was finished with his laughing fit, everyone else had gone back to their regular, boring lives. Tom started on his trek back to the gumball machine store. He walked in and realized that because of his foolish madness, he would have to (again) search through the many gumball machines. Fortunately, it only took him about fifteen minutes to find the golden wonderment. The boy calmly took out another quarter and slid into the slot. He heard the same clinking of quarters against quarters. He heard a bubble rolling down and out of the machine. Tom knew it wasn?t the dog because he could still see it amongst the other bubbles. He opened the bubble to find a tie-dyed sticky hand. Tom had fun while he played with his new toy then he got back to business. He then realized that it was going to take a lot of quarters to get the dog. The boy limped back down to the change store. He gave the man $10 and got 40 more shiny quarters. As he limped back to the gumball machine store, his pants kept on sagging from the weight of the quarters. He once again searched for the golden machine. This time it only took him five minutes. That was when he realized that it was only a few feet to the left of the door. He heaved a tired sigh and started on his mission to get the dog, who was very sick by now. About an hour later, he had one quarter left and no dog. He was surrounded by a multiple of different toys: 10 sticky hands, 8 bracelets, 5 tattoos, 6 parachute aliens, 3 rings, 7 bouncy balls, 8 stickers, and 1 slinky. By now, his hands were so sore from opening all those bubbles that he decided that if he didn?t get the dog with his last quarter, he would give up and just go buy a dog at the pet store. He took the quarter, prayed on it, and slid it into the machine. Once again, he heard the familiar clink. Tom heard the bubble rolling down. The boy closed his eyes tight as he cupped his hands under the opening where the bubble would come out. It dropped into his hands. He held his breath as he slowly opened his eyes. It was the dog alright, but it wasn?t looking too good. He quickly opened the bubble, despite the splitting pain and blisters. He was scared and excited at the same time. When the bubble was opened, the poor dog fell out limply glad to be out of his plastic cell. It was a small fluffy dog, like the one on As Good As It Gets. If you haven't seen that movie, maybe you should so you know what I'm talking about. But, anyways, it wasn?t moving. The boy quickly scooped it up and ran across the street to the vet. Tom didn?t care about any of his toys anymore. The boy waited an hour in the horrible, smelly waiting room. He read those really old magazines that no one likes. Finally the vet came out and handed Tom a very lively dog that was squirming everywhere. The vet also gave him a free collar and leash because he felt sorry for the barefoot boy. The boy and his dog skipped happily down the street. That's why this dog was special, it could skip. They both had fun living a good 'ol life together until the dog died a year later?

THE END