Secret Attic
  • Home
  • Short Story Comp
    • Short Story Results
  • WEEKLY WRITE
    • WW Results
  • Picture This!
  • The Long Short Story
  • Drabble Contest
  • The Booklets
  • Online Booklets
  • League Table
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Short Story Comp
    • Short Story Results
  • WEEKLY WRITE
    • WW Results
  • Picture This!
  • The Long Short Story
  • Drabble Contest
  • The Booklets
  • Online Booklets
  • League Table
  • Blog
  • Contact

​Agility by Stef Smulders

28/3/2021

0 Comments

 
The hands of the girl moved as if she were a puppet. Her dog sat in front of her, panting, his large, meaty tongue dangling from his mouth. Ready to go. Can I? Can I? he seemed to say, his eyes radiating eagerness.
“Buddy, Buddy!” the girl cried. Her happy, high voice drifted away in the large hall where the onlooking crowd was dead silent, transfixed by the scene.
The dog remained in his spot. 
“Buddy, Buddy!” the girl cried again. 
The dog sat tight.
Then the father who was holding the girl whispered something in her ear. At first, she didn’t seem to understand, but then her eyes became bigger, and she said: “Go, Buddy, go!”
And off he went her dear pet, the joy of her short, restricted life. She looked at him and cried, “Go, go!” Her weak limbs, moved by her father, waved at the frantic dog who jumped, crawled, disappeared in the plastic round tunnel, climbed a small bridge and zigzagged between a series of elastic poles, before finally reaching the finish where the little girl welcomed him with a cascade of happy cheers.
The crowd applauded, choked with emotion.
 
As her father carried her away, the girl kept looking at her pet. An assistant brought him along on the leash. The dog looked at the girl with eager eyes. Is she happy? Is she happy? he seemed to ask.
Yes, she was.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Issues 4 & 5

    September 2020
    October 2020

    The Stories

    All
    A Change Of Luck By Jeff Jones
    ​A Charmed Life By Patsy Collins
    ​After The Last Guest Left By Barbara Zapson
    ​Agility By Stef Smulders
    ​Alpha To Zulu: Alphabet Phonetic Frolics By Jolie Marchant
    ​A Merry Encounter By Donna Hughes
    ​A Moment By Josie Turner
    ​A Smouldering Secret By Amy B. Moreno
    ​Ballroom Dancer By Felicity Edwards
    Bapaume III By Nick Fraser
    ​Beta Testing By Stephen Hosking
    Blackberry And Apple By Andrew Ball
    ​Black Money Matters By Antonio Salituro
    ​Blossom Time By James Ellson
    ​Calm Evening - River Wind By Thomas Elson
    ​Chop Wood Carry Water By Feliz Piez
    ​Communal Gardening By Stef Smulders
    ​Dead Fast By Stephen Foster-Pilkington
    Falling Light By Debbie Robson
    ​Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover By Andrew Ball
    ​First Climb Of The Season By D.M. Kerr
    For Whom The Hands Clap By Fiona Murphy-McCormack
    ​Grace’s High Note By Philip Charter
    ​I Fear Myself By Kurt Russell
    ​I Lost My Wife Down The Back Of The Sofa By Brian G Ross
    ​In Conclusion By Lou Hoffman
    ​Johnny By Steven Evans
    ​Last Chance By Sonia Mehta
    ​Letting Go By Kate MacWhannell
    ​Little Miss Perfect By Dorothy Snelson
    ​Most Marriages Performed By Leah Holbrook Sackett
    NIFTY FIFTY WINNING ENTRIES
    NIFTY-FIFTY WINNING ENTRIES
    ​No Longer By Emily Kate Hastings
    ​No Regrets By Felicity Edwards
    ​On Rings Of Fire By Dipayan Chakrabarti
    Puzzle Box By Bob Carlton
    ​Rosalyn Tempest By John Jones
    Sabrina’s Rising By Cheryl Burman
    ​Something Comes To Live In Vincent Van Gogh's House By Sobia Ali
    ​Special Recollections By Bryan Smith
    ​Stolen Warmth By JY Saville
    ​Telepathic Drugless Therapy By Eva Bell
    ​The Bird And The Riley By David Crozier
    ​The Bright Side By Ophelia Clare
    ​The Cardinal Sins By JB Polk
    ​The Housefly By David Butler
    ​The Near Demise Of Old Norm By Rachel Wade
    ​The One That Got Away By Malina Douglas
    ​The Ritual By Vaibhav Sharma
    ​The Suitcase By Maddy Allen
    ​The Three Little Pigs Meet Goldilocks And The Three Bears By Anita Gorman
    The Well By Patricia Furstenberg
    ​Vergence By Stephen Lisle
    ​Waiting By Jeff Jones
    ​Yogurt Man Street By J. Anthony Hartley


    OPT-OUT
    To request your story to be removed from online publication: EMAIL US
Secret Attic - Founded March 2020