Student Essay 1 - A Talking Dog - by Park Soo Yeon

The following story is written by Park Soo Yeon, a Year 4 Korean student, attending Garden International School in Kuala Lumpur. See if you can find the five parts of her story plot:

A Talking Dog

I really didn’t want to lie to my family. It was just that I was afraid I might get punished badly. And it wasn’t a big deal because I didn’t steal any money. Anyway, I ran and ran away from my house. I didn’t care where I was going to at all. I just wanted to go somewhere where nobody could find me. Tears were pouring out of my eyes.

Then after I had calmed down a bit, I stopped. I looked around. “Where was I?”

Luckily, there was someone walking by. I stopped that person. I asked the person politely, “Excuse me, may I know what this place is called?”

The person looked at me and replied, “This place is called Mont Kiara.” He strolled away.

I thought, “Did he say Mont Kiara? Oh my goodness!!! Mont Kiara! That’s miles away from my house!” I sat on the pavement, feeling hopeless.

No one was passing by. Then suddenly, I heard a voice. When I looked up, I was surprised to see a dog standing by my side.

I was surprised again because I heard him say, “Hello girl, why are you crying? Ah-ha! I bet you are lost! Don’t cry, girl! Be strong! Anyway where do you live? I’ll take you back.”

I sobbed, “I live in Ampang Avenue. That’s miles away from here.”

Then the dog shouted, “I’ll take you back to your house!” It made me stand up.

The dog marched away, being aware that I was following it. I was fascinated by its speed. I had a job keeping up with it. I had to walk faster than usual. It wasn’t exactly running, but it was almost like running. After some running and walking, we arrived at my house. I saw the dog stop and I stopped too. The ends of the dog’s mouth curved up gently. It led me into the house and barked loudly. All my family members came out, wondering what all the barking was about.

My parents saw me standing next to a dog. They had been looking for me for hours. They hugged me so strongly that I was hardly able to breathe. Then my sister cried, “Mom, dad! Look at this dog! Isn’t this Peter?”

When my parents and I had looked at it closely, we realized it really was the dog we had lost many months ago! My sister was the only one who had cared about Peter. My parents and I weren’t interested in animals. So when the dog went missing, only my sister was anxious to look for it. And now we had found our pet Peter and happiness did not end in our house.