Reagan Ali - Short Story - Marshall County

Amber's Sacrifice

One day, there was a bald, wrinkled, old man named Joe. He was 84 years old nearing
his 85th birthday. Joe lived in a small neighborhood with his two dogs. Max and Amber. Max
and Amber were big, shaggy, black, wolf dogs, with glittering green eyes. Joe did almost
everything with them. He took them fishing with him. He watched movies with them. Joe didn’t
know what he would do without his dogs by his side. Although they were sweet dogs and loved
Joe, everyone was scared of them because they thought the dogs would attack them. All the
children thought that the dogs would eat them. Trick-or-treaters would skip over that house
because of the ‘‘wolves”, and nobody went to visit Joe because of them—not even his family. He
got really lonely at times, but Max and Amber were always there to comfort him.
Once on Halloween night, Joe went to make a bowl of popcorn for the dogs and himself
to watch a movie. While the buttery popcorn was popping in the microwave, he came back in the
living room, sat down on his lumpy old couch, and turned on a movie. Then ali of a sudden, he
smelled a bit of smoke and the dogs started barking.
Then he said, “What are you two barking at now?! Can’t you two be quiet once in a
while?!
The dogs continued to bark. Joe couldn’t hear the movie with all the barking, so he let
them outside. He suddenly saw a flash of orange come from the kitchen. He went in to
the kitchen to see what Max and .Amber were barking at. He was in shock when he saw what it
was. The popcorn bag had caught fire and the kitchen was going up in flames! Then for Joe,
everything went black. Joe slowly started to awaken. His vision was blurry. He blinked twice and saw that he
was still in the flaming kitchen. Joe realized he had passed out. He had been sore from the fall
and was too old and frail to get himself back up. He figured this was the end. That's when he had
seen Amber come in the doggie door in the kitchen. Amber grabbed the back of Joe's shirt and
started to drag him out of the fiery kitchen. Then Joe had remembered when Amber was little,
that she used to come and lay with him in his bed every morning when he was sad. He, snapped
back to the present time. Just when Amber had gotten him outside safely with Max, the door
frame started to crack, and then it fell on top of Amber. She was whimpering, but Joe knew he
couldn't help her. He was too weak. Max saw that Amber was stuck, so he ran over to Amber as
fast as he could, but couldn’t do anything to help her. It was that moment, when the whole house
caught on fire and collapsed, as well as some trees near the house. Amber was trapped. Joe
then heard a siren, one of the people down the street must have called the fire department. But It was too late. Tlie flames had taken possession of Amber. There was nothing anybody could do.
A couple of firefighters came and put out the fire. One pulled out the big, black, lifeless dog.
He then called, ^*We found .Amber, I’m sorry Joe.'
Joe fell to the ground ciying. Max went over and rubbed on Joe. It was that night that
everyone had found out what the dogs meant to Joe. They realized that the dogs were not mean,
not in the slightest bit. Rumors spread that Amber had saved Joe’s life that night, but nobody was
really sure but the person that called the fire department, the firefighters, and Joe.
Even though Amber died from the fire. Joe would never forget about how she saved his
life that night. After the fire, the town heard all about what happened to Joe’s house and decided
to help. He was living with his family because his house was destroyed, so while he was gone,
they decided to build the house again and surprise him.
After Joe's house was built again, people were no longer afraid of the dogs. People came
to visit him. His family came over for Holiday meals. This year, the whole town celebrated his
85th birthday. The children even came to visit Max. Max still comforted Joe w^hen he thought
about Amber, but he was no longer lonely.

Reagan Ali

11

Short Story

Marshall