Cease negative mental chattering. If you think a thing is impossible, you’ll make it impossible.
—BRUCE LEE
After Jenny broadcast his owner’s voice through the tape player, Rex let me go. Relief flooded my veins, but it was short-lived. He had abandoned me for Jenny. Her eyes went wide as I think we both understood one of the words Sir had meant.
Frantically, she rewound the few seconds of tape and hit the play button again before throwing the recorder a dozen feet away. She must have hoped he would run to it, rather than her.
But Rex didn’t swerve, didn’t even hesitate, as he hurtled toward her. When he was still six feet away, he leapt.
Jenny screamed then, a wordless sound of utter terror. Rex barreled into her chest, knocking her onto her back. I staggered as fast as I could toward them.
My blood chilled when I saw that he had Jenny’s wrist in his mouth. Growling, he shook it back and forth. I was on them now. I hit his nose with a right hammer fist as hard as I could. It was wet with his spittle, and I felt it give under my blow. But it was as if I had done nothing.
Jenny looked like she had fainted, loose and boneless. Her head lolled back, exposing the top half of her throat, which wasn’t protected by the Bruce Lee book.
I needed to try something else. Frantic, I broke off a car antenna and brought it down on the dog’s back like a whip. It didn’t even give him pause.
It was hopeless. I would never get him off her. Soon Rex would drop Jenny’s wrist and go for her throat. And she would die here in the frozen mud, only a few hundred yards from freedom.
I couldn’t let that happen.
The wooden spoon was still in my back pocket. I pulled it out and tried to poke Rex in the eye with the handle. But it just landed on his cheek.
Still, it was enough to make him pay attention to me. Letting go of Jenny, he turned and nipped at the spoon, catching it in his powerful jaws. There was a cracking sound. In a single bite, he reduced it to splinters.
Then he turned back to Jenny, his open jaws dripping spit on her slack white face.
I slapped the dog’s butt. “Come get me! Come on!” I stuck my face close to his.
He lunged at me. I smelled his rotting breath. His jaws snapped closed a few centimeters from my face. I took a step back. As I had hoped, he followed. Weren’t predators hardwired to scan for movement and then chase it? An unmoving Jenny wasn’t as much fun as a person who screeched and ran and leapt.
So I did, running away from Jenny as far and as fast as I could.
But Rex’s four legs were faster than my two. And my path had led me into a tangle of cars from which there was no other exit. I turned to face the dog, my back against the rear end of a big green sedan so old it had fins. If he tried to knock me over, maybe the car would hold me up. I held my arms between him and my face. When he attacked, I would try to give his jaws the splint.
I knew all those moves would only buy me time. In the end, they wouldn’t save me.
There had to be another way.
The front passenger door of the old car stood open. I threw myself back on the bench seat and started frantically scooting away. My heels alternated digging into the rotting upholstery and kicking at the snarling dog as he followed me. I was thankful for the hours I had practiced kicking the heavy bag in kung fu.
When my back hit the door, I groped behind me until I found the handle. I opened it while at the same time giving one last kick to the dog’s chest. It not only pushed him back, but it also propelled me out the door. I landed on my butt. I rolled under the door and then, lying flat, kicked it closed. Barking, Rex lunged at the window, single-minded in his pursuit.
I pushed myself to my feet, ignoring the pain in my wrist. Putting my face close to the glass, I taunted the dog with my proximity. As Rex threw himself against it, I hoped the window was as unbreakable as the one in the RV.
And then before he could turn around, I ran to the other side of the car and slammed the passenger’s-side door shut.
The dog was trapped.
Rex’s growls began to alternate with barks. They were only partly muffled by the confines of the car. We had to get out of here before Sir showed up. I turned back to find Jenny.
She was sitting up, looking dazed. With my good hand, I reached out for her. “Come on, Jenny! Get up! We need to go. Now!”