sensation crept into Suri’s throat, which made it difficult to breathe.
“Yes, my little Suri. My human found me and gave me my name,” Granny Pea answered quietly.
“How? When?” Suri was barely able to find her voice.
“It was a long time ago. I was still living with my mom and her human. I had brothers and sisters; a big friendly family. And each of us had our own name. My name was Pearl.
“Pearl?” Suri pricked up her ears in surprise. “Isn’t your name Pea?”
“I became Pea here, in the flock. Dogs really didn’t like my human name. They called me Small because I was the smallest. But then they agreed to Pea.
Grandma smiled a little sadly.
“So, Suri, I lived with my mother. When my brothers and sisters and I grew up, different people began to come to our house. They played with us, told us how cute we were, and then someone would suddenly called one of the puppies by name. It was wonderful to suddenly realize that this was your human! And that puppy, whose name was spoken, left with the human to go and live in their house. This is how my human appeared. One day, a very nice lady in a beautiful dress and with a glamorous hairstyle came to see us. She took me in her arms and brought me closer to her face. She smelled of flowers and of something warm. It was such a lovely aroma that I could not resist, and I licked her right on the nose!”
Suri giggled, and Granny Pea laughed:
“Imagine, I licked such a beautiful lady on the nose!” Granny Pea stared dreamily into the distance.
“And what did the lady do?” Suri asked.
“She laughed and said ‘Oh, you are my Pearl!’ And she kissed me back. So I realized that it was she who was my human.”
“And you began to live with her? What about yourmom? Didn’t you miss her?” Suri felt sad for some reason. She could not imagine her own mother not being there. Or her dad. Or her brothers.
“Of course I missed them at first. Out of habit, I whimpered and cried. But my lady was extremely kind. When I cried, she always took me in her arms, consoled me, and gave me a tasty treat. And at night she put my bed next to hers and caressed me until I fell asleep. This is how our world works – when we grow up, we leave our parents and go to live with the one who is our destiny.”
Grandma, a pensive look on her face, fell silent and Suri was also deep in thought. For a while they just lay there, each turning things over in their minds.
Suri tried to imagine what a bed was like. Is it as soft as grass? Did it also tickle the paws and tummy? And if it was similar, then how could it be moved somewhere else? Because grass always grew in the same place. And what did a person look like? Grandmother said that people walked on their hind legs, and with their front legs – rather, what she called their arms – they touched and did everything, even carrying different things with them. Suri once tried to walk like a human, but it was very uncomfortable. Her paws were all a’quiver, and she fell over constantly.
Suri also tried to imagine what it would be like to be “taken in a person’s arms” and “stroked on the head.” Was it like how mom and dad used to carry them with their teeth to move them from place to place? Did humans also lick one’s face with their warm tongues?
Suri dreamed so much about this, that at some point she even saw Grandma’s beautiful lady. She was standing in the shade of a tree, guarding a large bone in between her front paws, and wagging her fluffy tail. And next to her was Granny Pea.
Suri woke up and shook her head in confusion. What a strange vision! After all, people don’t have tails!
“Grandma, where did your lady go?” asked Suri, staring at her grandmother.
In turn, grandma gazed dreamily into the distance, and it was clear that she was a little sad. Suri’s question brought her out of her reverie. She looked at her granddaughter and said:
“It was not the lady who left, my dear. It was I who left. It so happened that I ran away and could not come back.”
“Why did you run away?” asked Suri, in surprise. “Did you have a hard life with her? Did the lady mistreat you, like all people do?”
“Of course not!” Granny Pea answered, indignantly. “My lady was always very kind to everyone. Like all the other people who lived next to us. She would never hurt me!”
“Sorry, grandma, I didn’t mean to upset you.” Suri’s ears were flushed with embarrassment.
“It’s fine, Suri, I’m not angry,” Granny Pea smiled. “I didn’t deliberately run away from my lady. We lived happily together as friends for many years. We walked, played, went on visits. Once we went to see her friends in the city. There was some kind of holiday, and in the evening we went for a walk. My lady put my favorite collar and leash on me. I never walked where there were a lot of people without my collar and leash. And this time, there was indeed a great crowd of people. We had a nice walk, and as it was already dark we went home. But that was when the nightmare began. The earth began to rumble, for some reason people shouted joyfully, and very bright lights appeared in the sky. There were so many of them, and they exploded so loudly that I almost went deaf and saw almost nothing but dazzling sparks. I jerked to the side, trying to hide from this nightmare. The collar slipped from me and I ran away. I forgot that my lady would protect me if I stayed close to her. I just ran for cover, and the lights continued to explode over my head.
Grandma fell silent.
“What a terrifying ordeal!” Suri felt that her grandmother was trembling a little, and pressed against her to calm her down.
“Yes, it was scary,” grandmother continued with a sigh. “But I was even more scared when I realized that I was lost. That my lady was not around, that I was in an unfamiliar place and completely alone! I had never walked alone and had no idea what to do. At first I decided to follow my tracks back, but they were overwhelmed by all the other smells. It was already night, so I hid in a box. I stayed in it until the morning, and then went out searching for my lady, for my home. It turned out that I had ran to some sort of park. I wandered for a long, long time, but did not find my lady. Several days passed like that. I was very tired and hungry. And then I met your grandfather.”
Suri pricked up her ears in delight. She loved the story of her grandparents so much. Suri never met her grandfather, as he disappeared long before her birth, but her grandmother spoke about him so often and so vividly that Suri loved him as if she had known him all her life.
“You know the rest of the story,” Granny Pea continued. “I still missed my lady. But then your mother was born, and I understood that everything was happening for the best. At some point, your grandfather left, and we started wandering again, and then I met the pack. Now we live here, and that’s that.”
“Would you still like to find your lady? Do you think she still remembers you?” Suri looked into her grandmother’s sad eyes and almost welled up with tears of her own as she wished for grandma’s happiness.
“Of course she remembers me! I’m sure my lady is still looking for me. But it is probably not our destiny.” Granny Pea looked affectionately at Suri. “And I have your mother, after all, as well as my grandchildren. And I have you, my beloved little Suri. I am very, very happy with you.”
Grandma pulled Suri towards her and hugged her with her front paws. Suri licked her grandmother’s little black nose, and both of them, happy and peaceful, continued to lie in the shade on the soft grass. Life is great when there are loved ones around!
Chapter 6. Autumn
Summer passed, almost imperceptibly, and autumn came. Suri had grown up. From a small ball of fur, she had turned into a long-legged, slender teenager. Her fur remained as soft, but now it stuck out in strange bunches,