BAD DDG

10:00

 

Yolanda stopped right in the middle of the footpath and Shahbaz rolled straight into her.

‘Wargh!’ He dropped the lead as he flew over the dog, then hit the concrete, arms covering his face. The landing jarred his shoulder and his hip. At least he’d landed on his left-hand side. The impact had smooshed the muesli bar in his left pocket rather than the phone in his right.

Still ... Shahbaz looked gloomily at his cracked wrist guards. It felt like his helmet was scratched, too. He had promised Dad he wouldn’t try any jumps, wavers, or grinds today. When Dad saw the damage, he’d never believe Shahbaz hadn’t been mucking around.

‘Man, Yo-yo.’ Shahbaz climbed shakily back onto his purple rollerblades. ‘How about a little warning next time?’

09:29

The husky ignored him. Her head was tilted, like she’d heard someone opening a packet of turkey treats in the distance.

Shahbaz looked around. A man was pushing a giggling toddler on a swing in the playground. A garbage truck was beeping as it picked up skip bins in the car park. Two young women were walking along the footpath towards him, holding takeaway coffee cups. Traffic droned along the freeway in the distance.

Yolanda’s scarred nose twitched. Maybe she had smelled a cat. Yolanda loved people and other dogs, but hated cats. Whenever one climbed onto the back fence, she’d go ballistic. She would charge at the fence, hard enough that her thick skull sometimes left a dent.

08:15

Shahbaz looked up, scanning the trees for cats. But he could only see birds in the branches. They weren’t even singing. Actually, the birds weren’t even moving. Just standing there in silence, like they were bearing witness to something.

Once he’d noticed it, the silence of the birds was eerie. He picked up the retractable lead and threaded his belt through the handle to secure it. Then he gave a gentle tug. ‘Let’s go.’

The husky seemed to snap out of her trance. Her collar jingled as she shook, and then she was trotting along the path again, Shahbaz blading alongside her. He did a gentle fishtail, swishing one foot behind the other. Dad hadn’t specifically forbidden that.

07:05

BANG! An expensive-looking sedan reversed into a parked ute, just as Shahbaz zoomed past. A car alarm wailed.

Shahbaz skidded to a stop, shocked. From this angle it looked like both vehicles were empty. How had the crash happened?

06:05

The sedan looked new. Maybe it was a self-driving car. But Shahbaz had heard those were less likely to crash than regular vehicles. They certainly didn’t start themselves and ram other cars for no reason.

Yolanda barked. It was a sudden, sharp noise, filled with rage.

Shahbaz knew that bark. Yolanda had spotted a cat.

‘Easy, girl,’ he warned. ‘Don’t—’

The dog charged. Shahbaz tried to catch her collar, but his hands grabbed empty air as she streaked away across the car park.

‘Yo-yo! Stop!’ The lead made a whizzing sound as it unspooled from the handle attached to his belt. If Shahbaz detached it, he would lose his dog and she might get run over. If he didn’t, he would be dragged into the car park after her.

The lead buzzed. He was running out of slack.

‘Yolanda!’ Shahbaz shouted. ‘Get back here!’

The dog ignored him—and then it was too late. The lead went taut, jerking Shahbaz forward. He barely managed to stay upright as he hurtled into the car park, the wheels of his rollerblades skidding under him.

He could see the cat now; a big, grey thing crouched in the long grass on the other side of the car park. It didn’t seem at all worried about the dog sprinting towards it, or the kid on rollerblades getting dragged along behind. Maybe the cat assumed they would be hit by a car before they made it across.

The furball might be right.

05:16

Shahbaz screamed as a dirty hatchback zoomed through the car park towards him. The vehicle squealed to a halt just in time, the middle-aged driver slamming her palm on the horn.

‘Sorry!’ Shahbaz yelled, as the dog dragged him past.

Yolanda barked like crazy, stampeding across the car park towards the cat. She didn’t seem to hear Shahbaz yelling. When a cat was around, she had tunnel vision. It was like the rest of the world didn’t exist.

Shahbaz frantically clawed at his belt, trying to untie it. But now that he was moving, it was impossible to work the buckle.

When he looked up, he was hurtling towards a sign which said, 2P Pay Parking. If he crashed into it at this speed he might break his neck. But if he grabbed the steel pole, he could reel the dog back in.

04:12

He crouched and tilted the angle of his rollerblades, swerving away from the sign, but not too far. He flung out one hand, trying to catch the pole—

But his aim was off. The pole clanged against his broken wrist guard, knocking his arm backwards, and then it was gone before he could try again.

Shahbaz had almost reached the middle of the car park. He was careering towards a gravel divider about a metre wide, separated from the asphalt by a concrete kerb. Yolanda ran over the divider with no problems, because she wasn’t on wheels.

For Shahbaz, it would be harder.

03:50

He crouched, heart racing. If he stacked it at this speed, he would lose his dog—and probably most of his face.

He waited until the last possible moment and then jumped, his blades skimming the top of the kerb. He sailed over the gravel, then crashed down onto the asphalt on the other side—wobbly, but upright.

‘No jumps,’ Dad had ordered. Sorry, Dad.

‘Yo-yo!’ Shahbaz bellowed again. When that darn dog eventually stopped, she was in deep trouble.

An engine whined to his right. Shahbaz twisted his head in time to see the driverless sedan shooting towards him, still with no-one at the wheel. What was going on?

The car wasn’t going to hit him or Yolanda. It was going to hit the lead between them. They would get dragged behind it, at a velocity that would kill them both.

Shahbaz yanked on the lead. This didn’t slow the dog down at all, but it gave Shahbaz a burst of speed and slackened the lead a bit. As the car zoomed closer, Shahbaz swung the lead like a skipping rope. He timed it perfectly— the lead bounced over the roof of the car, sprang off the antenna, and hit the asphalt behind it. Shahbaz dodged around the rear bumper and the self-driving car hummed away, leaving him hurtling after the dog again.

The cat arched its back and hissed at Yolanda as she approached. Yolanda, who was never intimidated by anything or anyone, kept coming.

The cat’s nerve broke. It turned and bolted—

Towards the ramp which led up to the freeway.

Shahbaz felt the blood drain from his face. Rollerblading through a car park at this speed was dangerous. On the freeway, where vehicles zipped past at more than a hundred kilometres per hour, it would be deadly.

‘Yolanda!’ he screamed. ‘Stop!’

The dog ignored him, galloping after the cat as it raced up the guardrail towards the freeway. When Shahbaz hit the ramp, gravity slowed him down, but only a little. The big husky seemed to pull him uphill as easily as her ancestors had pulled sleds across Siberia. At the top of the slope Shahbaz could see cars and motorbikes flying past, exhaust churning in their wake.

02:05

He tore at his belt, and finally got the buckle undone. The handle slipped off. Now he wasn’t tied to the dog anymore— he was gripping the lead in his hands. He could just let go.

But then Yolando would run onto the freeway and be flattened.

A supermarket delivery van zoomed along the road ahead, frighteningly close. Shahbaz was almost at the top of the ramp now. If he didn’t let go, they would both die.

Tears filled his eyes. ‘Sorry, Yo-yo.’

He loosened his hands around the lead—

01:40

Then he noticed the picture on the side of the supermarket truck. An ad for Yolanda’s favourite treat.

Yolanda wouldn’t have noticed the image. Her eyes didn’t respond to photographs. But she had amazing ears.

As he shot up the ramp towards certain death, Shahbaz pulled the squashed muesli bar out of his pocket.

‘Treat!’ he yelled. ‘Yolanda! Treat!’ And he ripped the packet open.

At home, Yolanda could somehow tell the difference between the sound of a turkey treat being unwrapped and a muesli bar. But here, surrounded by traffic noise and the confusing scent of the fast food place next to the car park, she stopped.

This time, Shahbaz didn’t trip over her. He tackled her instead, wrapping one arm around her body and grabbing her collar with the other hand. They lay side-by-side on the hot asphalt. After so much time in motion, it was dizzying to finally be still.

The cat had vanished, like cats always did when consequences were coming. It was probably already at home, licking its paws and looking innocent while its adoring owner photographed it for the internet.

Shahbaz hugged the dog so tightly she wheezed. ‘You scared the heck out of me, you know that?’

00:48

The dog snuffled at Shahbaz’s hands, trying to find the treat.

Then she stiffened.

Shahbaz heard it too—engine noise. Someone was coming towards the ramp. Fast.

He turned and saw the driverless car again. It had found its way out of the car park and was tearing up the ramp towards them.

He scrambled to his feet. The ramp was barely wide enough for the car and it could swerve at any time. It wasn’t safe to take cover on either side.

The car zoomed closer and closer. Now Shahbaz saw that there was someone inside—a girl about his age, strapped into the passenger seat, screaming words he couldn’t hear.

Operating on instinct, Shahbaz scooped up the dog. She was half his size, but the adrenaline gave him incredible strength. Then he jumped sideways onto the guardrail, balancing on his rollerblades.

Immediately he started to slide down in a perfect grind, four or five metres above the concrete below. The squirming dog made it almost impossible to stay upright. Shahbaz wobbled but didn’t fall as they gained speed, hurtling down the rail together.

The car shot past, zooming up the ramp as they slid down it. Just as they were about to hit the bottom, Shahbaz jumped again, landing on his feet back in the car park before rolling to a stop.

‘No grinds,’ Dad had said. Sorry, Dad.

Shahbaz put the dog down and took a deep, shaky breath. The screeching brakes and blasting horns from the freeway above faded away to nothing.

Yolanda was wagging her tail and looking pleased with herself.

00:00

‘Good dog,’ Shahbaz said. It wasn’t true, but he couldn’t help saying it. ‘Hang tight—I have to call the police. That girl looked like she was in real trouble.’