Maria sprinted across the yard like a startled spider across a screen door screen. She didn't know how long it had been since she'd seen Toby, but something wasn't right. He wasn't anywhere in the yard, and he was too young to be out alone, in her estimation.

He nine-year-old mind imagined him in all sorts of scary and dangerous situations. He could have fallen in the creek out back. He could have wandered off into the woods and been carried away by a coyote. Her grandfather told her he'd been seeing the coyotes again. It would be nothing for a coyote to carry off a Terrier. Maria felt a lump in her throat.

"Toby! Toby, where are you!" Maria and Toby had been together ever since she could remember. "Toby!" She pressed back a sob. "If you don’t come home this instant, you're going to be in big trouble, Mister!" She tried to sound brave… brave, and mad.

When only silence met her, she could feel her heart rate quicken. She looked back, made sure she could still see Grandfather's house, and then pushed farther into the woods. It was the rule that she could only go as far as she could still see the house, but she knew he had to find Toby.

"Toby! Toby, you have to come home! You just have to." Maria crouched down on the ground. Tears came to her eyes, but she fought them off. Where could Toby be? Gran had often told her that people would meet their pets in heaven. She remembered Toby laying in bed with Gran before she went to Heaven. The tears started to flow when she thought of Toby and Gran lying next to each other in Heaven under a Willow tree. Gran loved Willow trees.

"Toby?" It was a half-hearted attempt to call her dog, and a half-hearted attempt to know that her Gran was safe and sound.

Maria heard a "snuff" from behind a tree. She stood up and quickly brushed away her tears. She ran toward the sound.

"Oh, Toby!" She grabbed the small dog around the neck in a hug that would make a bear proud. "I thought you were gone forever. I thought you went to be with Gran."

Toby's bright brown eyes reflected her rosy cheeks. He licked her face and she knew that he understood… in a way that only a dog could understand a child. Gran had been gone but a week, but Toby would hold her heart until she could be with Gran again. He pawed at the ground.

"What, Toby?" He was insistent that she let him go and that she follow him. He walked a few feet to a tree. Maria remembered running to this tree in the woods near Grandfather's house. She'd brought Toby here many times. The last time was the day Gran died.

Toby sat at the base of the tree. Maria told him it was time to go, but he sat tight, giving a small whine. Maria went back to get him. When she stooped to put her finger under his collar, a metallic glint caught her eye. Through the leaves of the woods, the sun had happened upon the lid of a locket. Maria recognized it as a locket Gran had given her on her 6th birthday. She had always been afraid to tell Gran, or even Grandfather, that she had lost the locket. She hadn't owned it more than four months when she lost it. When she found it was missing, she couldn't bear to tell anyone how irresponsible she had been.

Toby jumped up and licked her face. His stubby tail was wagging, she saw through the haze of her tears. She wanted to wonder how Toby could have known the locket was there. She wanted him to know how much it meant to her that she had found this locket. She opened it up and saw the pictures… the one on the left of her Gran and Grandfather on their wedding day, and the one on the right of the Mum and Dad on their wedding day. She looked over at Toby and knew that he understood.

"Toby…." She could say no more when he pushed her to a seated position on the ground and took over her lap as his own.




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