Astro Shows the Way

It was a day that everything went wrong for Amanda and Gabriel. 

Astro, their new dog, had jumped on Gabriel's bed and yanked away his blanket even before the alarm clock rang. 

"Woof!" he barked. 

He wanted to go for a walk. His fur fell into his eyes and he seemed so adorable that Gabriel did not want to scold him. 

Astro then went to Amanda's room and upset her schoolbag that she had carefully packed the night before. 

Mum burned the pasta that she had made for their lunchboxes. So she had to make them ham sandwiches. 

Astro jumped on Dad's lap and the coffee spilled all over his white shirt. Mum had to find another shirt from the laundry.

Since they had moved to their new house, Amanda and Gabriel were late for school on most days. 

Every day they saw traffic jams, construction on roads, annoyed teachers, and an upset Mum. 

They had decided to leave early today to reach on time. 

But...

On the way to school, Gabriel realised that he had forgotten his PE kit at home. And Amanda had forgotten to take her water bottle which had fallen out of her bag when Astro upset it. 
 
There was no way they could turn back because they were stuck in a heavy traffic jam.

Amanda and Gabriel wondered whether it was called a 'jam' because it was sticky. 
They sang about the traffic jam. They argued about the rhyming for a while and came up with this:
 
"Traffic jam, traffic jam,
What can be worse than this?
For lunch we are having bread and ham
That we will surely not miss."


They sang it so loudly that Mum had a headache. She ddidn't tell them a story to while away the time as she usually did. 

"Late again!" complained their teachers as they stood outside classroom doors.

They were taken to the headteacher's office. He wrote a long note for their parents. 

They said, "We could have reached on time today if only Astro had not..." 
The head teacher did not want to hear any explanations. 

On the way back from school, it was the same story - traffic jam, bottlenecks, hunger and tiredness.

When they showed the headteacher's note to their Mum, her headache worsened. 

"Please take Astro out for a walk. He has been barking all day," she said while holding her head with both hands. 

On the walk, Astro loosened his leash and ran towards a clump of tall thorny bushes.

Amanda and Gabriel followed him. 
They called out to him: "Come back, Astro!"

He waited for them to catch up and then skipped away again.  He disappeared in the bushes. 

Wait, what was that? There was an opening through the bushes and a narrow footpath led through it. Cautiously they walked through it and came to the other side.

"Where are we?" they wondered. 

Right ahead of them they saw a white building with familiar, tall glass windows that reflected the evening sun.
 
"That's our school!" they exploded together. 

That was the best thing that had happened to them that day. 
"Well done, Astro! And thank you for showing us the way!" they exclaimed.  

The next day and all the days after that, they reached school in not more than seven minutes. Mum, Dad and Astro walked with them to school.
Their  teachers were very pleased.


(This story by Aashoo is based on the real experience of Amanda and Gabriel from Venezuela and their new dog, Astro. Protected by Copyright, February 2017.)