Eagle River Read Online Free

branches. He didn’t look back, but he could hear a big body crashing through the woods behind them, and the bark of that dog. It reverberated around them. Then, his foot hit a rise in the ground, perhaps a gopher hole. He sprawled out flat, the wind knocked out of him. Ben leaped over Galen’s prone body and flew past. As Galen scrambled to get back to his feet, he watched Ben make the turn into onto forest path. Then, Ben was gone.
    As for Galen, now the beast was upon him. Once he was on his feet, he backed slowly up, because he knew that you’re never supposed to run from a dog. The monster dog had slowed to a muscle bound, hackles raised strut. Its bull neck was lowered, its body was sort of crouched, ready to leap, and tear out his throat, Galen imagined. A dull, shaky growl issued forth from the deep chest. He continued to back slowly.
    “It’s okay. You’re a good dog. A very good dog.”
    “Heidi! Heidi, sit!” A girl’s voice suddenly commanded from somewhere over by the pond.
    The dog, a boxer, Galen now saw, whined and looked back towards the pond, but held her ground. She didn’t obey the command. Galen began to back pedal even faster. Heidi, the boxer, clearly noticed his movement. For, she growled again and strutted the rest of the way up to him. There, she stood just inches from him, baring her teeth. Galen kept on staring down at the ground, not wanting to aggravate her by looking into her eyes. His mom had always warned him never to look a dog directly in the eye, or any other animal for that matter. “Heidi’s a good girl. A very good girl,” he breathed.
    Heidi wasn’t buying it. She continued to growl softly, menacingly.
    He decided that moving probably wasn’t the best plan. He was caught, well and truly caught, but he rationalized that getting into trouble was probably better than having Heidi take a hunk out of him.
    “Heidi come!” A slight figure burst through the trees. A tall, skinny girl in blue jean shorts and a tank top rushed up and grabbed Heidi by the collar.
    “Heidi! You’re a bad dog! A bad dog!”
    Heidi moaned and whimpered, with her cropped ears flat against her rounded skull. She pressed her hulking mass up against the girl and her entire body had wiggled with her rounded stump of a tail.
    “I’m sorry about Heidi,” the girl blurted out as she continued to hold the dog by her collar. Moonlight glanced off her long blond ponytail and it swished with her movement. She moved closer to Galen, with Heidi loyally wiggling her way between them. “Heidi doesn’t bite. Well, except for mailmen and you’re not a mailman. She loves kids, really.”
    “Maybe you should tell her that,” he muttered since Heidi was continuing to eye him with serious interest.
    “She’s friendly. It’s just that she worries whenever she sees anyone swimming. It freaks her out. We have to lock her in the house when my brother and I go swimming. She’s friendly, honest.”
    As if to prove the girl’s words, the dog made her way over to Galen. She sniffed at him, snorted, and then pressed her muscular side against him, gazing soulfully up. Galen reached down to touch her back gently. Her tail stump wiggled furiously in encouragement. The ugly cute boxer face grinned up at him in blissful encouragement.
    He patted the dog with increasing enthusiasm. “Cool dog... Heidi’s a pretty girl. Oh, yes she is.” He went down on his knees. The dog licked his face, the broad abrasive surface of her tongue warming the chilled planes of his wet face.
    “Wait here. I’ll go get your clothes,” the girl said.
    In short order, she had returned with his T-shirt, shorts and tennis shoes.
    “Thanks. Freezing, Galen nearly grabbed them from her.
    Politely, she turned her back to him while he changed.
    Galen’s clothes were ice cold with the night air against his skin.
    “I’m Kjersten.”
    “G-Galen,” he shivered out as he thrust his sneakers onto his wet feet. He shoved his socks into his