THE COLD RAINING NIGHT

It was well over 45°C, the sun blaring at my back. My shirt was dripping with sweat and my backpack felt really heavy. But none of those things bothered me. The only thing bothering me was, where had Boo run off to now.

Before we continue the story, I should introduce myself. Hey! I’m Lily and this is the story of my hiking trip with my dog, Boo.
Boo and I love the outdoors and spend as much time possible in nature. We often go trekking, kayaking and, like today, hiking.

We had been on the mountain for almost an hour and half until suddenly Boo caught scent of something and decided to run behind it. I wanted to run behind him as well, but I was not familiar with this part of the mountain and besides, the backpack and the heat made it very hard to walk and climb the steep slope so running was out of the question. So the only thing I could do was call out his name and hope that he comes back without hurting himself.
I knew he would be fine, after all, we have been to many such adventures together, so I wasn’t too worried.

My feet had become very tired so I decided to sit under the shade of one of the trees. I pulled out a few sandwiches that I had packed, hoping that Boo would get the smell of the sandwiches and come back.
Soon enough, as I was finishing my second sandwich, I heard a rustle of bushes behind me and out came the little boy, his golden coat shining in the sunlight.
He sat beside me lay his head on my knees and began panting. I laughed. “Tired, are you?” I said and patted his head. He panted even harder as if agreeing with me.
I pulled out his water dish from my backpack and gave him some water. He gulped at it as if he hadn’t had a drink of water in years. After he had quenched his thirst he eyed my unfinished sandwich. “Fine, you win.” I said and tossed the sandwich to him which he swiftly caught in the air.

After sitting under the tree for another 10 minutes we started climbing again. I was surprised at how steep the mountain was, but at the same time, confused. “How did we miss this stretch of the mountain before?” I asked Boo who was oblivious because he was busy trying to catch butterflies.
We kept climbing steadily taking breaks every 30 minutes or so. After almost 2 hours of climbing I decided it was time for lunch, as if understanding my thoughts, Boo gave a loud bark.
“You like lunches, Boo?” I teased him and patted his big head.

He was only 5 years old but quite big in comparison to the other dogs his age. Even though he was so big, he was very irresistible, everyone loved him, even the people who were afraid of dogs. Which lead to him being the centre of attention wherever he went.

After having a hearty lunch of sandwiches and fruits for me and dog food for Boo, we got back to the climb.

My love for nature had been alive since I was young, I would wander in our big backyard full of trees and bushes since I was 4. I would spend countless hours just sitting on the grass and looking at all the different plants and insects growing in our garden.
As I grew older my love for nature and travelling grew. I have always loved travelling to new places and learning their culture, cuisines, arts and most of all, adventure sports.
5 years ago when I was travelling, I found Boo at one of the adoption centres and fell in love with him. So, he came back home with me and since then we’ve spent many hours, days and even weeks wandering and visiting new places and sometimes just hiking in our own town and climbing the mountains and hills nearby.

I took a deep breath of the natural air, it is always so refreshing to take a walk in the woods and breathe in the fresh air.
The sun was hidden behind the clouds and a small steady wind was blowing, just perfect for a nap.
I’ve always felt that Boo and I share a special connection, and proving me right, Boo gave a big yawn and sat down under a tree.
“Come on Boo, we’ve only been walking for 15 minutes. If we stop now then we won’t be able to get back home by sunset.”
He whined and gave another big yawn.
“Now you’re making me sleepy too.” I said looking at my watch, there was still 3 hours to sunset, “Fine, but only for 10 minutes and then we’ll get back up.” I said and lay near him and rested my head on my backpack and patted his shiny coat.
I woke up to something wet and slimy dragging across my face, it was Boo’s tongue. I pushed him off and wiped my face. I looked at my watch, “Oh no! We’ve been asleep for almost 2 hours” I looked at Boo with scolding eyes but he didn’t seem to mind it at all. He was beginning to catch the scent of another little rodent. “No! No more running behind rodents and squirrels.” I ordered him. Luckily, he listened to me.

I looked up at the sky to judge the sun’s position. Unfortunately for us, the sun was shielded by heavy clouds and I could see more heavy clouds coming our way.
“Oh no Boo, it’s going to rain. I told you it was a bad idea to take a nap.” He simply looked at me with his big brown eyes and tilted his head questioningly.
“Come on boy, let’s go.” I said and started walking back as fast as I could go.

I looked back and saw the clouds slowly clear out. “Looks like we’re actually safe, Boo.” I said and lightly patted his head as he trotted beside me. He barked back in response.

Unfortunately for me, I was wrong, around 10 minutes later fast wind started blowing and steady rain started falling down.
Now, if you’re not someone who hikes then let me tell you, rain is never good, especially if you’re in a steep slope.
Rainwater flows down and takes some land with it, and the more steeper the slopes are, the more forcefully the landslide will come down.

The only thing that we could do was to go down as fast as possible and hope that the rain stops soon.
We kept walking down the steep slope when suddenly I saw a bright flash of lightning in the sky. “Oh no, this cannot be good.” I thought. Seconds later I heard the sound of loud thunder.
Even Boo could sense the stress in me and stood very close to me. I gently patted his head, “It’s going to be alright buddy, let’s just stay away from trees as much as possible.”
This was easier said than done when you’re walking on a mountain covered in vegetation.

We kept walking while the rain kept falling down harder and harder. Soon my shoes were soaked from the inside by the water that was steadily flowing down. I kept praying for the rain to stop but there were no signs of rain stopping anytime soon. The wind kept blowing steadily and the rain kept falling harder. I was shivering and cold , Boo’s coat was also drenched.
“Looks like we’re both going to catch a cold when we get home.” I told Boo trying to ease out the stress in my mind.

We walked for another 10 minutes when suddenly Boo stood completely still and cocked his ears to one side.
I had grown to trust his instincts. Getting him was one of the most smartest choices of my life because he had saved me from many difficult situations in the last few years.
Suddenly he started running really fast and the only thing I could do was run behind him as fast as I could. He ran and climbed and climbed a fallen tree and barked at me. I understood his signal and climbed it. Almost a minute later a wave of water, mud, rocks and soil slided down the slope.
Luckily for us the broken tree was high enough so we didn’t get swept off.

Once the wave had passed Boo got down from the tree and I followed his lead and got down. That’s when I realised that I had lost my way. I was so busy following Boo and keeping my eyes on him that I didn’t track my path. Generally I am very good with directions but in the darkness with heavy rain falling from all sides it was difficult for me to know which way to go.

It’s in time like these that I’m really thankful to Boo, he has the sharpest nose and is great at finding his way.
He could sense that I was lost and immediately took the lead. I followed him as fast as I could. Suddenly he decided to run as fast as he could, which I was not prepared for.
As I was running I tripped and fell down, right at that moment a big flash of lightning lit up and hit the tree near me, the tree fell towards me and I was trapped.
The tree felt heavy on my body and my legs were screaming with the pain.

Boo was barking at the top of his voice. It took me a minute to calm him down. I yelled at him “Calm down Boo. Now run away, go home! Home! Okay?” He came towards me and started whining. “No, home Boo! Home, go home, get ma.” The special connection between us sparked again, he barked as if telling me to hold on and ran away barking.

I was slowly loosing all sensations from my left leg. I tried pulling myself out of the position but I couldn’t.
I took a deep breath and tried to analyse my situation. After looking around and feeling my body I realised that I was in a better situation than what I had expected.
The tree had fallen on my legs but luckily a large rock close to my legs had taken most of the weight of the tree from my legs. The rest of my body was safe apart from the few scratches.
The bad news was that I had lost all feelings below my knee on my left leg and my right ankle hurt really badly.

The rain was still pouring heavily and a small stream of water was flowing near me.
Once again I tried pulling myself but it was impossible and any movement was making the pain in my right ankle even worse.
So I decided to wait for Boo to come back with help and hope that the rain would stop soon.

I lay in the mud with the rain falling steadily, I could see earthworms and small insects coming out from the ground.
These insects and worms never bothered me, infact they brought back nostalgic memories from my childhood when I would spend hours trying to catch them and learning and reading about them.
As I was watching a small worm crawl across my arm I heard something.
I strained myself to get a better understanding of what it was, and then it hit me, it was the sound of a landslide!
I tried in vain to wriggle my body from under the tree. Within seconds a huge rush of water, soil and mud came down on me heavily. I had to hold my breath in to avoid filling my lungs with the water.
After around 2 minutes the wave passed that’s when I realised, the rock that was holding onto the weight of the tree had been carried away by the water and now the weight of the tree was on my legs. I could feel excruciating pain on my right ankle and my left knee.
Once again I tried in vain to get away from the huge tree.

I was lying in the in pain in the dark when a sudden thought came to me, if the rock had been carried away by the water, then how come the tree didn’t move at all. I squinted my eyes to get a better look at the tree but it was nearly impossible to see anything in the darkness.
Suddenly a flash of lightning lit up the sky. That’s when I got an idea. I turned my face in the direction of where I thought the tree had been uprooted from and counted down the seconds till the next beam of lightning came up.
Soon enough another streak of lightning lit up the sky and that’s when I saw, the tree had not been uprooted, instead,  a part of the tree trunk had been hit by lightning and it broke off from there.
After many more lightning strikes I realised that a large part of the trunk was still attached to the tree, so it hadn’t completely come off which meant that rolling the trunk down the slope would not be an option.

I lay in the wet soil and as the rain fell steadily on my face I let the tears flow down freely. I was wet, tired, hurt, upset, lonely and really worried for Boo. What if he was also in a similar situation? Or what if he got carried away in a big landslide?
I couldn’t imagine my life without him. With these sad thoughts piling up in my head and the rain and tears flowing down my face I closed my eyes and waited for the earth to take me in.
I imagined a peaceful and calm place, away from the rain, from the sadness, from the pain and from the suffering. I imagined living a beautiful life with ma and Boo, I could even hear his barking. His adorable and irresistible face that attracted everyone, his naughty eyes when he tries to steal my food and his pleading looks when he wants me to stop my work and play with him, and through all of it I heard his barking, it was growing louder and clearer.
I suddenly opened my eyes, I was not dreaming it, it was actually him, he had come back!

I called out his name at the top of lungs “Boo! Here boy, here!” He ran towards me and licked my face. I patted his head and kissed his nose. “Good boy Boo, good boy”.
I heard voices coming closer now, someone was calling out to Boo. I patted his head and said “Go boy.”
He ran off and minutes later a whole group of people including ma came up to save me. They were all armed with flashlights and lanterns and some people even had axes and knifes with them.

Ma had tears in her eyes. I smiled at her and said “Fun days, huh?”
She gave me a smile and said “I’m never letting you go out of the house ever again.”
I gave her a small laugh and petted Boo who was standing near my head.
The people were busy cutting the tree and getting me out from under the tree.

The rain had stopped and winds had ceased. The moon was out and shining brightly. After almost an hour of cutting, pulling, breaking, screams, shouts and barks they finally managed to cut the trunk and pull me out.

Just as I had suspected, my left leg was broken and my right ankle had a sprain and was swollen to the size of a football. The men carried me to the hospital where I passed out.

I woke up the next morning in the hospital bed with my legs and hands covered in bandages.
I found ma sitting on a chair besides the bed holding my hand. I gave her a big smile and said, “Hey there young lady, fancy seeing you here.” It was a line she would use on me everytime Boo and I would come back from hiking or trekking or travelling. She gave me a small laugh and kissed my forehead. “I was so worried about you.”  She said tears welling up in her eyes.
“I know ma. But don’t worry now, I’m completely fine , okay?” She gave me a small nod.

I looked around and immediately started panicking.
“Don’t worry, they took Boo to the vet as soon as they brought you here. The doctor said that Boo is completely fine and that we don’t need to worry at all. He is at the neighbour’s house right now, the hospital staff won’t let him inside the hospital.” Ma said reading my expression, I guess even ma has the special connection with me.

I spent the next few weeks in the hospital recovering from all the fractures and broken bones.
We made a special request to the hospital and they let Boo inside my room for a few hours every day during which he would lie on the bed near my legs and look at me with his deep brown eyes. I spent hours petting him and cuddling with him.

Soon it was time for me to go home. I was still using crutches to walk but the condition of my legs was better than before. My right ankle was completely fine and I put most of my weight was on it, the left leg was still covered up with bandages but the doctor said that with proper rest and care, it should be fine within 7-10 days. I spent those days lying in bed with ma and Boo watching TV and talking and laughing.

Today is the last day of bed rest. Today we’ll be going to the hospital to get the bandages removed. I can walk without the crutches and the pain is gone.
Ma is worried that I’m going to hurt myself all over again. I’ve promised her that I won’t get into any trouble for the next 7 days.
Boo is really excited. So am I, I can’t wait for our next adventure!