Escape from Home (Chapter 2)

Before he knew it, he was all the way at the end of his road, far away from his home.  He walked up the road and came to a bush.  He stopped at the bush because something caught his attention.  A small brown sniffing thing moving around.  ‘Hello?’ said Thomas.  The sniffing thing suddenly disappeared into the leaves.  Thomas stuck his hand in and ‘GRUFFF!’  The loud noise threw Thomas back down to the floor in surprise! 

‘Ouch!’ said Thomas as he landed on the hard pavement.  The head of a curious dog peeped out of the bush.  ‘Oh, it’s just a dog.  You gave me quite a scare you know!  You should be careful who you bark at!’  The dog tilted it’s head to one side, trying to make sense of what this boy was saying. 

‘Well, the truth is… I’ve run away from home.  Yep, no body wants me there anymore, so I’ve left them.’  The dog came out of the bush and started sniffing Thomas’s feet.  ‘Are you listening to what I’m saying?’  Thomas then noticed the sun shining on the dog’s silver collar tag.  ‘Bruno’ it said.  ‘Your name is Bruno.  Hello Bruno.’  Bruno seemed to show a smile.  ‘Have you run away from home too?  Maybe we could be friends.  It can be quite scary out here on your own.’

Just then, a police car raced past Thomas and Bruno at high speed with it’s sirens on full blast.  ‘WA-OOO WA-OOO WA-OOO!’

‘Wow, must be some robbers on the loose!  Come on Bruno, let’s go and see if we can help!’  Thomas ran up the road as Bruno followed behind.  ‘Can you see anything yet?’  Thomas puffed to Bruno.  Bruno didn’t reply but carried on as they ran round the corner.  And there, up a narrow alley Thomas spotted the blue flashing lights reflecting off the brick wall.  ‘They must be up there Bruno, come on!’

As Thomas and Bruno turned to corner to go up the alley Thomas noticed a policeman and a tall man talking.  The policeman was a short stubby gentleman who had to look up when speaking to the tall man who had a short beard and dark glasses.  The tall man was holding a brown bottle and only had one sleeve on his black jacket.

‘What do you think they are talking about Bruno?’  Thomas took another step forward to get a better view, but as he did he stepped on a twig, which broke making a loud enough noise for the policeman and the tall man to look over.

‘Oi!’ shouted the man in the sleeveless jacket, ‘Come here!’  Thomas turned and ran at top speed in the opposite direction.  He was told never to talk to strangers and even though there was a policeman, something did not seem right about this at all.

Thomas looked behind him to see Bruno following along with the bearded man.  ‘Ahh!’ Thomas thought to himself ‘He’s gonna catch me!’  But then, Thomas seemed to be away from them.  ‘We’ve lost them Bruno.  But where are we now?’  Thomas and Bruno found themselves in the middle of the park, the one that his mother told him never to go to alone.

‘Bruno, this isn’t good.  I’m not supposed to come here on my own.  Well, actually, I’m not on my own am I?  I’m here with you!’  Thomas chuckled to himself at his own cleverness then started walking towards the swings.  He was just about to sit down when a hand landed on his shoulder and a voice followed ‘Hello boy!’

Ah!  It was the policeman, the short stubby one whom Thomas was rather suspicious of.  ‘What are you doing out here on your own?’  Thomas froze momentarily, then quickly thought of something to say.  ‘Well, I’m not here on my own actually, I’m here with my dog.’

‘That mutt is yours is it?’

‘Yes, his name is Bruno.  And my mum is on her way, I just ran off ahead of her.’

‘You did, did you?’

Thomas was not sure whether he was managing to fool the policeman or not. 

‘Well, I’d better go find my mum now.’  Thomas walked past the policeman to get away when the policeman grabbed his arm.  ‘Not so quick lad.’

[Chapter 3]