by A homeless boy risks his life to save a dog locked in a flooded car. A week later, the dog’s owner takes him to her house and shows him a room that rekindles his past and makes him burst into tears.
When all the doctors she visited told her that she could not bear a child, Helen was devastated. It seemed she was destined to remain childless all her life.
“My friend knows someone who works in the shelter. You might like a child there…what do you think?” Helen’s husband Josh often asked her. He thought adopting a child would heal her, but she said she needed time to think.
One day while driving home from the café, something dirty, trying to wriggle its way out of a gutter, caught Helen’s attention. It was Ollie—a helpless little stray pup struggling to make his way out.
A strange joy warmed Helen’s heart after seeing Ollie. Tears rose in her eyes. “Poor thing! He needs our help. Let’s take him home!” she said to Josh and rushed out of the car to help the pup…
“What makes Helen think Ollie will replace the hollow in her heart?” a puzzled Josh wondered. “Hmmm, okay! If he makes you happy, he goes home with us!” he said, putting little Ollie in their backseat, wrapped in a towel.
Ollie was scared, and he looked distrustful of humans. He curled up on the seat. Tears and fear filled in his eyes as he whined in his canine language. He was frightened and hoped he would not be thrown away again. Then he arrived at a place—which would be his forever home.
Two years later, Ollie was no longer that timid little pup. He had grown into a gigantic ball of fur who loved his mom and dad like crazy. Ollie was no less than a naughty human kid. He was Helen’s world, the light of her eyes, and she hated it whenever someone addressed him as her ‘rescue dog.’
“Oh my God, is this my room?” cried the boy, unable to hold back his tears after looking around.
“Ollie is not my rescue dog. He’s like my son,” she often told them. To Helen, this four-legged canine was her world. She never tolerated people who didn’t understand their precious bond.
Helen and Ollie were the perfect mom-son duo. They never went out without each other. On one such day, they were hanging out together outside the store, unprepared for what was coming their way.
“Hey boy, wait in the car. I’ll be back, alright?” Helen said as she patted Ollie on his head before kissing him goodbye. She locked him in the car and headed to the supermarket.
Ollie hated crowded places and never accompanied his mom to the store. So he preferred to curl up on the front passenger’s seat and wait until his mom returned.
Moments later, there was a sudden outburst of chaos. Helen was busy shopping and had no idea it was raining heavily outside. The whole area began to flood unexpectedly. People rushed to every open store and boutique they could find for shelter.
Matt, a 9-year-old homeless boy, was looking for a place to run to safety when he spotted people flocking to a grocery store nearby. He had no time to think and ran after them.
“The water has entered the store,” shouted the manager. “Everyone, go upstairs. Hurry up.”
Matt hurried upstairs with the rest. Helen noticed the clutter and was alarmed. “What happened?” she asked a man and screamed at the top of her lungs when she learned of the flood. All she could think of was Ollie trapped in the car.
“OLLIE…Oh my God, I left my dog in the car,” she cried, running toward the window. “My dog is trapped in the car. Somebody, please…”
Matt looked outside and saw the car Helen pointed to was on the verge of drowning in the flash flood. She was frightened to go out because she didn’t know how to swim. Matt understood Helen’s anxiety and ran to her pet’s rescue.
He grabbed an iron rod from the corner and raced downstairs. “Hey kid, where are you going? You will drown,” some shouted. But Matt turned a deaf ear to them because he was determined to save Ollie.
He braved the fierce currents and swam to the car. He peeped through the window and saw a frightened Ollie staring back at him with big, brown eyes. “Save me, human. Take me out. I’m not able to breathe, and I’m scared,” they painfully expressed.
Matt broke the window with the rod and grabbed Ollie by his collar. “Easy boy, easy. Come here…” he said, afraid that the dog would bite him. But Ollie wagged his tail and obeyed. He was pulled out, safe and sound.
“My baby…Ollie…Thank God you are safe!” cried Helen as Matt scooped the dog and put him on the car’s roof. Then, he climbed atop and sat with Ollie, patting him gently so that he would stay calm and not get scared looking at the current below.
Minutes later, a rescue team arrived to take people out to safety. Thankfully, it had stopped raining by then, making their task easier. The rescue team helped Matt and Ollie to safety.
“Ollie!” Helen shouted. She tearfully hugged and kissed her dog several times, unable to forgive herself for leaving him alone in the car. “I am so sorry, my baby. What would I have done without you? Please forgive mama,” she sobbed.
Helen looked at Matt and started crying even more. “I don’t know how to thank you. You saved my baby’s life today.”
Matt smiled at her and got up to leave.
“Wait a minute… where are you going? Aren’t your parents here with you?” she asked him.
“I have no parents or home,” replied Matt. “I have to go. The spot I sleep in at the parking lot nearby must have been destroyed in the flood. I have to arrange a safer place to stay.”
Helen was shocked. “You have to arrange a safer place?”
“Yes! I sleep on a stack of old cardboard I found in the dumpster. It must be wet and ruined now,” replied Matt. “I have to look for new cardboard to make my bed.”
“But why are you living on the streets?” asked Helen, curious to know more about the kind boy.
It turned out that Matt had lost his parents in an accident a few months ago and had nobody who could take him in. “I used to sleep on my bed when I lived with my parents. I had a big bedroom with huge posters of my favorite cars and a lot of toys. I miss all that now,” he recalled.
“And don’t you have any aunt or uncle? No grandparents?” questioned Helen.
Matt buried his face in his palms and began to cry. “I don’t have anybody. My parents had sold the house and were planning to move abroad. But they died in a road accident, and I overheard people talk at the funeral about sending me to a shelter. So I ran away because I was scared. I didn’t want to go to a shelter.”
Helen felt sorry for Matt and was touched by his innocence. She realized he needed more than just her gratitude. “He needs a home and someone to love him,” she thought and returned to meet the boy a week later.
Josh and Helen drove to the parking lot to find Matt. They saw him curled up on a pile of old cardboard. “Hey…Matt, wake up…Hey….” she said, jolting an asleep Matt.
The boy was startled when he saw them. He did not understand why they had come for him. Ollie ran out of their car and began licking Matt’s face. He was confused and happy at the same time. The dog still remembered him, and it made him cry.
“Come with us,” said Helen.
Matt was puzzled. “Go with you, but where?”
“Home!” replied Josh and Helen, helping a shocked Matt get up.
They rode him to their house and showed him his new room—one filled with toys, colorful posters of cars, and a fluffy bed toward the corner, just like he dreamed and once had.
Matt hugged Josh and Helen and spent a few minutes only crying. “Oh my God, is this my room?” he cried, unable to hold back his tears after looking around. “It looks almost like the bedroom I had when my parents were there.”
“Yes, it’s all yours!” Helen replied, teary-eyed. Matt was the happiest that day and was legally adopted shortly after. Josh and Helen never regretted not having children of their own. To them, Ollie and Matt were two wholesome reasons to live, laugh, and be happy. They were their heaven, their earth, and everything in between.
