The whole story started on an extremely hot day in Bangkok, Thailand.
Carl sighed in boredom. His black brand-new Tesla Model X crept slowly onto the freeway. The air in the car was cold compared to the air outside. The sun was scorching hot, so hot that you could see vapors rising from the asphalt. The car moved just a couple meters at a time.
A guy like him usually had a private driver, but he was now stuck in a luxury car because he had just picked it up. Carl wanted to drive on his own today, but he'd forgotten that when it was close to lunchtime in Bangkok, traffic was heavy.
Alright, let's try the auto-pilot system, he thought. Carl pressed the handlebar on the right-hand side, under the steering wheel, twice. He set the car to maintain a five-second distance from the vehicle in the front, and then he held his left hand on the steering wheel. He turned on his iPad and started killing time by reading a marketing report in the car.
Beep Beep Beep!
A red bar appeared on the screen with an alert sound. Carl looked up. The rows of cars that had once lined the lane split in two. Meanwhile, the Tesla braked automatically while approaching an obstacle.
".!?." Carl stepped on the brakes out of habit.
Sharp, pitch-black eyes looked out from a strange object in the middle of the road. A pile of ragged black-and-white fabric! It was like somebody had thrown it in the middle of the road.
Carl straightened up, trying to get a clear look - the pile of cloth stood and tried to walk! A dog, not large, not small. Its black and white fluffy fur looked dirty because of the dust and smoke from the traffic. The tips of its large triangular ears were black. But most surprisingly, the dog carried a small backpack.
The dog yanked up. It walked, dragging its legs slowly, staggering right and left. One of the cars honked loudly as the little dog staggered across the lanes.
Carl looked at the creature; it was utterly startled. The dog tried hard to push itself away from a car wheel that nearly drove over its tail. The little body shuddered, then suddenly fell back, laying down panting against the road again.
"Damn it!" Carl swore.
Looking left and right, not seeing a glimpse of who was going to park to help the dog, Carl let out a big sigh. He pressed the P button in his car and turned on the emergency flashers.
A stream of heat rushed in as soon as he opened the door. Carl could feel the steaming hot asphalt against the soles of his shoes. He squatted down, looking at the dog lying with its tongue dangling. Carl's shadow streaked over it like a parasol.
Despite looking a bit ragged, the dog in front of him seemed far from an ordinary stray. Maybe quite dirty, but overall, it looked healthy. The leather backpack that was tied to it was a name brand - expensive.
"Woof." Bright brown eyes opened, looking at the man sitting in the sun. Its fluffy tail wagged gently, showing pleasure.
Carl signed. To be honest, at first, he'd just thought about pulling the stupid dog to the side of the road. But once he made eye contact and saw the sparkle in that pair of brown eyes, he just couldn't bring himself to do so.
He didn't want anyone to know that he was soft-hearted.
Carl scooped up the dog and carried it into his car. He drove to a top-notch animal hospital not far from his own residence.
A kind-hearted vet met them. She secretly swallowed, because she felt such pressure from the dog's owner. He was very handsome, but his expression was icy cold.
"Your dog is dehydrated, but it's not very severe," she said. "I want him to sleep with a bag of saline. You shouldn't leave your dog in a warm car..."
"It's not my dog."
"He is a Bangkaew, a famous dog breed. I'm pretty sure that he is a purebred. From the bone structure, he is probably about three years old. His overall health is very good."
"..."
"Once the saline runs out, please call for a nurse. You can take him home then, and please try to give your dog more water."
"It's NOT my dog," said Carl again. He squinted his eyes at the vet's face, until the young doctor smiled dryly, quickly asking to look at another case.
Carl looked at the dog with the IV needle poking from its leg. One part of him wanted to just walk away from here. Leave the problem for the animal hospital to deal with.
But a small voice in his head protested. On the metal table next to the dog was a black backpack that the nurse had untied. Inside the bag was a nice T-shirt, black jogger pants adorned with three white stripes, and a pair of sneakers. There was also the newest iPhone, with a three-lens camera and a flat battery, and a chunk of cash, worth around ten thousand baht. An ID card displayed a name and address in Phitsanulok Province.
Carl looked at the picture on the ID card. It was of a young boy with a slender face, neck-long black hair, round nose, and plum lips. But the most prominent were those big, brown sparkling eyes. They looked familiar. Where had he seen them?
The twenty-one year-old boy on this ID card is probably the owner of this dog, thought Carl. Once the mobile battery was charged, he'd call this boy and lecture him about the dog.
Carl surprised himself when he felt the corners of his mouth lift into a small smile when he thought about meeting that brown-eyed boy.
Picking up a dog from the freeway wasn't easy. By the time Carl finished everything at the vet and brought the problem back to his high-end condominium, the round white clock on the wall showed it was already 7:35 in the evening.
A few soft towels were laid out as mattresses for the dog in the kitchen. He put a bowl of water next to the towels. Carl couldn't help but stroke its head, gripping the soft earlobe, and it was funny that the fluffy tail was wagging when those eyes were still closed....
Carl noticed a stain on his black polo shirt as a result of carrying the dog dog, but surprisingly, it didn't smell like a dirty animal.
A loud snort came from the dog lying on the floor.
".!."
The dog's stomach made hungry gurgles.
"Haha, I know I knowâŚI am hungry too." Carl laughed softly. He even smirked. He'd shown such a variety of expressions in half a day that he was still secretly surprised.
Carl texted his servants, who were staying in a downstairs condo, to order dinner for him, and to deliver granulated dog food while he showered.
It took less than thirty minutes. The servants then sent a message that they had delivered the orders.
Carl felt much better after his shower. He was now wearing a pair of soft pajama pants and a white T-shirt. He could smell some food as soon as he walked towards the kitchen. His dinner today was a wagyu steak with mashed potatoes from his favorite restaurant.
"Hmm..." he heard.
The sound of a groan and a soft voice from the kitchen made Carl stop. His servants were unlikely to be in the room anymore.
Carl turned back to the bedroom with silent footsteps. He grabbed a Glock 19, a short pistol, from his bedside table. His long fingers turned off the safety. He stepped slowly toward the kitchen.
His sharp eyes glanced at the pile of empty towels on the floor. Where did that dog go?
Carl's life had been in danger many times. There had been plenty of exciting experiences, but what he saw now was one of the weirdest. He looked at a naked boy with pale skin standing facing away from him, toward the dining room table.
The boy squealed in his throat with satisfaction. He held premium grade steaks with both hands. He brought one to his mouth and bit into it; red blood from the steak flowed from the corners of his mouth, dripping gruesomely along his fingers.
"Stop! Don't move!" Carl shouted.
The boy flinched, turning to look at the source of the sound, his white hands letting the meat fall on the table. Wide round eyes turned to look at the firearm aimed at him.
In the same second, Carl himself was wide-eyed with shock.
Large, pointed ears bounced through the boy's pitch-black hair. He had a large, fluffy tail, which Carl saw as the boy turned and jumped behind a couch.
Ears and a tail!
Carl frowned in confusion, trying to piece together the story. That pair of big round brown eyesâŚ.
"Please, don't shoot," the boy said in a trembling voice, ears dropped, so afraid that he didn't dare to move. Was the couch bulletproof?
"Who are you? Explain now! Where's the dog?" asked Carl, tightening the gun in his hand, sharp eyes looking at the dog's ears, and the end of the boy's tail poking out from behind the couch.
WTF?