There is nothing between the Artic Circle and North Dakota but a barbed wire fence.
Hundreds of miles west of Wells Fargo is a small family spread of roughly a thous
and acres owned through the family since the 1840's. Every January Timmy and his
mom, Cathy, and dad, Henry, came back to the ranch for a unwanted vist just to please
the family heirs.
Timmy's mom hated isolated towns since she grew up
in New York. Even the urban crime problems didn't bother her as much as this she
er miles of white frosted nothingness that she could see looking out the window. Hell,
she thought, I bet even the Indians never bothered to make a home here!
She watched Timmy outside wandering around the total flat pastures, snow at least
two feet deep, obviously to it all. Lassie was running in alternating big circles and little
cirles around Timmy.
Cathy stuck her head out the door and called. "Timmy,
don't go too far, dinner's ready in an half hour! And any way I don't like the looks of
those clouds."
"O.K. Mom." Timmy called back. He looked up at the
white clouds, even then the wind was blowing a little stronger. Timmy wondered if he
could get enough away from the cabin to barely see it but still get back in the half
hour given him, and so walked away into the wind.
When Henry's car pulled
up the drive way the wind had picked up into a galing wind and it had started snowing
again. Cathy came out the door and started calling.
When Henry's car pulled
up the drive way for Timmy.
"Henry, I just can't find that boy! I've been
calling for himthe last twenty minutes". Cathy looked worriedly into the snowing dark.
This didn't sit well with Henry who knew the weather in North Dakota. He was
certain a new storm was coming. He called the local police.
"Don't worry Honey." Said Henry. "Lassy will take care of him."
A search was made
but no one found any trace of Timmy. Nobody can fault anyone for not trying, but af
ter three days they called off the rescue. It had stopped snowing the day before and
they even had a helicopter fly over!
Cathy and Henry left the farm devastated
by the loss of Timmy. They left and went back to New York and quitely tried to put the
tragedy behind them. But eventually a call comes. Finally in the middle of March the
police called them back to North Dakota.The dog, Lassie, had came out of the snow
covered fields. A new search was started and this time Timmy's remains were found.
But they had to destroy the dog you see, because it was quite evident how Lassie
was able to survive three months stuck out in middle of no where.
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