We ran to Mrs. Larson’s side. Samantha shook the sleeping woman, whose mouth sagged open. Her limbs moved slackly when Samantha pulled on them. Swiftly, my girl eased Mrs. Larson the rest of the way down the steps, laying her flat on the sidewalk.
“She’s not breathing!” Samantha exclaimed. She was terrified, and I looked around, alerted for threats. What was wrong?
Samantha touched the woman’s neck, then felt her wrist. “No pulse! Oh God, Ripley! Code blue! Okay, starting CPR.”
I watched as Samantha clasped her hands and pushed forcefully on Mrs. Larson’s chest. Mrs. Larson’s head rolled at the end of her limp neck. I sat still and watched, waiting for it all to make sense.
“Help!” Samantha shrieked up and down the street. “Help! Please! Help, somebody!”
From her tone I could tell my girl was yelling at someone, I but I couldn’t smell anyone nearby. The silence that followed her shout was oppressive and threatening.
Samantha was panting. “Ripley! I need your help!” she told me urgently. I sprang to all four feet.
She stopped pushing at Mrs. Larson for a moment and reached up to my collar, unsnapping my leash, which fell to the ground. “We need help. You have to tell Ben, okay?”
I heard the name Ben and tensed. Obviously something bad was happening. What did she want me to do?
“Oh no,” Samantha moaned. “I know you don’t understand.” She had gone back to pushing on Mrs. Larson. Suddenly her eyes met mine. “Wait! Okay, Ripley, Search! Search!” She picked up Mrs. Larson’s limp arm and thrust it at my snout. “Okay, Ripley! What happens when we Search? Search! We found Mrs. Larson. What do you do now?”
I was utterly baffled and so worried that I yawned. I could feel my girl’s desperation, but Search? Were we supposed to do Search Mrs. Larson? She was right before us.
“Ben!” Samantha snapped at me sharply. “Oh, Ripley, don’t you understand? Search! Ben!”
I knew both of those words. Search. Ben. When I found someone, I was supposed to tell Ben. I jerked my head back the way we’d come. Ben was there, drinking coffee and laughing with Mom.
Samantha’s eyes widened. “Yes! Yes, you’ve got it! Tell Ben! Search!”
I turned my head back to my girl.
She was so worried. Her heart was hammering. Fear rippled off her skin. When Samantha felt like this, my job was to be near her.
But my other job pulled at me too. When human emotions were running hot and high, that was when I was supposed to do Search. I was supposed to find Ben.
I broke away from Samantha and ran flat out down the sidewalk, tearing up the front steps and skidding to a halt at the front door. I pawed at it, barking frantically.
Inside, vibrations, and then Mom opened the door. “Ripley?”
She gasped as I lunged past her, following my nose to the kitchen. Ben was sitting with a piece of toast halfway to his mouth, staring. I ran to him and pounded his leg with my paw.
“Ripley? What is it?” he asked.
“Where’s Samantha?” Mom called in alarm. “I don’t see her!”
Ben was gazing at me without comprehension. I impatiently clawed at him again, and when he stood, I turned and darted to the open front door, stopping only to check to make sure he was coming.
Then I ran.
I heard his feet pounding the cement after me as we dashed back up the sidewalk. I veered into Mrs. Larson’s yard well ahead of Ben.
“Good dog!” Samantha told me. “Dad!” she yelled loudly. “Code blue!”
Ben ran up and dropped to his knees. “Good job, Samantha! Call nine-one-one!” he panted, handing her his phone. He slid next to Mrs. Larson and began pressing her chest in the same rhythm, up and down.
I did not understand, but I knew that somehow Ben and Samantha were helping Mrs. Larson.
I was astounded when, a very short time later, Roxie’s car came screaming up, but without Roxie. The man and woman who got out of the vehicle were very focused on Mrs. Larson, and they took her away in Mom’s rolling bed.
Ben and Samantha watched Roxie’s car drive away, and then Ben turned to Samantha. “Amazing, Sammie. I don’t know very many people your age who could do what you just did. How are you?”
“I’m shaking.”
“Yah, for sure, that’s understandable. Adrenaline will do that to you.”
“Will she be okay?”
“I don’t know, but if she is, it will be because of you.”
“Me and Ripley,” Samantha corrected.
I heard my name and wagged. I came and sat next to my girl so she could pet me. It seemed like a good time for that.
“Yes. You and Ripley.” Ben nodded. “The most important thing about CPR is to do it early. If you’d run back to the house to get me, we would have lost valuable time.”
Samantha swallowed. “I was scared but I didn’t panic. I couldn’t afford to. I needed to start CPR.”
“Yah, I know.”
“I want to do what you do, Ben. Someday I want to be a paramedic.”
Ben’s face brightened. “You’ll be excellent.”
“Thank you, Ben.”
“So…” Ben cocked his head at her. “You called me Dad again.”
Samantha’s smile was sunny. Her anxiety was ebbing away, now that I was with her. “There was a lot going on,” she explained.
“Okay.”
“But speaking of that,” Samantha continued with a sly glace at him, “have you talked to my mom yet? About … you know?”
Ben looked sheepish. “I’ve had a ring in my pocket for five days. I just can’t think of the right time, don’tcha know. I took her out to dinner but then her chicken was dry, and we were supposed to go for a hike but it rained…”
“Ben!” Samantha exclaimed, exasperated. “Just do it!”
I wagged because I could smell Mom approaching, and it would be nice to have all of us together. “Is everything okay? Is Mrs. Larson going to be all right?” she called.
Ben and Samantha turned.
“I would have come earlier, but the fire department had the area blocked off. They do that to me a lot,” she complained.
“We won’t know how she is until the hospital tells us, but you should be proud of our Sammie, for sure. She didn’t panic, she stuck to her training, and she performed CPR perfectly,” Ben boasted.
“Roxie taught me,” Samantha added.
Mom smiled. “I am proud of you, Samantha.”
Samantha grinned. “Hey, Mom,” she said. “Look at those orange flowers over there.”
Mom glanced around. “Mrs. Larson’s mimosas?”
Everyone turned to look at nothing in particular.
“You should go look at them. Such pretty flowers. You and Ben. Take Ripley,” Samantha urged. She held my leash out to Ben. “Ben might need him.”
“Oh.” Ben blinked.
“They are such beautiful flowering plants,” Samantha reasoned. “They used to be plentiful, but with agriculture, they’ve become really rare, so they’re special. Every July, when you see a mimosa plant, it’ll remind you of this day.”
“What?” Mom stared at my girl.
“Yah, she’s right,” Ben declared. “Let’s go check’em out.”
As we walked across the street, my nose curled up at the flowery smell of a bush that was starting to drop blossoms on the ground. “What’s Samantha doing?” Mom asked curiously, glancing back at my girl, who had drifted toward home but was now lingering, half hidden behind a tree, as if watching us.
“Never mind that. Look at these blossoms, Lizzy. This is such a wonderful time of year.”
“What in the world has gotten into you both?”
“So … Lizzy,” Ben began nervously.
“You okay?” Mom asked, concerned. “You look upset.”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Are you feeling sick?”
“No! I mean, yeah, no, yeah, a little, if you want to know the truth,” Ben admitted. “I only … I have a question.” He fell to his knees. I stuck my nose in his face and wagged, ready for petting, since he was down so close to me.
But Ben pushed me aside and reached into a pocket. I watched curiously as he pulled out a little box. There was nothing to eat inside.
Mom gasped.
“I love you, Lizzy Kidd. Will you marry me?”
* * *
Many days later, we all drove to Captain Bee’s house. The truck and Roxie’s car were in the driveway, the doors were open, and people I didn’t know milled around talking. Other than the scent of all these new people, the place smelled the same.
People sat in chairs where the vehicles were usually parked, and in back, against the hoses, someone had put up some sort of raised platform. Leading me on a short leash, Ben escorted Samantha, Mom, and me into chairs on the platform so that we faced everyone else in the audience.
We were with several people I didn’t know and one I did. Captain Bee was there, smiling happily and handing me a treat. I could tell from the smell of it that it had come from Samantha’s pocket, but I didn’t care—a treat’s a treat.
People were laughing and talking in a pleasant buzz, which ended abruptly when a woman stood up from one of the chairs in our row and walked to the front and leaned down a little to speak into a big silver stick that poked up from the floor.
It didn’t smell like a stick for chewing so I didn’t see why she was interested in it.
“Thank you for coming,” she boomed. Her voice was surprisingly loud, thundering throughout Captain Bee’s house. “Is the microphone working?”
“Oh yes, we can hear you!” Roxie called back.
People laughed. They were all in a very good mood.
“I’m Deputy Mayor Susan Walter,” the woman announced.
People did that thing where they slap their hands together. It was loud enough to make my ears twitch.
“The mayor sends his regrets for not being here on this very special occasion,” the woman continued. I yawned, more bored than anything. Were we just going to sit here and stare at rows and rows of people while this woman spoke in her hideously loud voice?
Apparently so, because she chatted for some time. “And so…” she finally concluded, in a different tone. I looked around. Was something new going to happen? “It’s my honor to introduce Chief Brewster.”
Everyone clapped yet again. I looked at the floor. If Ben would just loosen his hold on my leash, a nap might work very well for me right about now.
Grinning, a man with hair under his nose and the smell of bacon on his clothes came up to replace the woman at the silver stick. I was very interested in the topic of bacon. His voice was even louder than the woman’s.
“Thank you, Susan,” he thundered.
Everyone else in the room was quiet.
“As chief, it’s my honor, whenever people do something noteworthy and brave, to bestow upon them our Citizen Hero award. Today is one of those days, made even more special because of the recipients. For the first time in Minneapolis history, we’re recognizing the life-saving actions of a wonderful canine: Ridley.” The man pulled up a piece of paper and regarded it. “Ridley…” he began.
“Ripley!” Samantha hissed. I looked toward her. Was I supposed to go to her? But Ben still had hold of my leash.
The man frowned and glanced at my girl. “Sorry?”
“His name is Ripley, sir,” Ben explained. “Not Ridley.”
“Ah. Sorry. Yes, of course, I can see that. I, uh…” He chuckled. “I had a dog named Ridley when I was growing up. Little Jack Russell.”
A few people laughed softly. I did not know why.
“Today Ripley receives our Citizen Hero award for bravely entering the Hoedl Shopping Center when it caught fire, participating in the search and rescue, and ultimately helping to save the life of one of our very own, Captain Leland Hutchins.”
More hand slapping.
The man in the hat peered over his paper at the assembled people. “Hutch couldn’t be here with us today for these proceedings—he’s still recovering from his injuries. But I’m sure if he were here, he’d join us all in congratulating the dog who saved his life.”
Ben and Samantha exchanged glances.
“Hutch was pinned beneath a fallen section of ceiling. Conditions made it impossible for the rescue squad to locate him.” The hat man gave everyone a stern look. “This is why protocol and procedure dictate we never work in teams smaller than two.”
People murmured but, for some reason, did not clap.
“Luckily, our canine friend was there to assist. Ridley—” The man caught himself and smiled. “Sorry, Ripley is here today with his trainer, Lieutenant Benjamin Gustafson. Ben?”
Much louder hand slapping. I wondered if there was a special meaning to the sound, depending on how soft or loud it was.
I was surprised when Ben led me to stand in front of the silver stick.
“Thank you, Chief Brewster,” Ben said, and now his voice was huge. I stared up at him in concern. Ben cleared his throat. “Using dogs in search and rescue is a standard procedure in many fire departments, and I’m glad Station Five has joined them in this effort. Ripley truly is a remarkable dog, don’tcha know. But he wouldn’t have reached his full potential if it weren’t for his real trainer, Samantha Kidd. Stand up, Sammie.”
I glanced over as Samantha shyly got to her feet.
“We’re about to hear more about Samantha in a minute—she’s a very special young lady. Samantha took over training when my naive ideas about how I was going to manage my schedule made it impossible. Turns out, raising a puppy is very time-consuming.”
Some people laughed.
“Her mother is also an amazing dog trainer. Lizzy, would you stand?”
I saw Mom stand up next to Samantha. She smiled and waved and people did more hand slapping.
Ben bit his lip. “And now I have something really important to tell you.”