Ellie's Story by W. Bruce Cameron

that. The car wasn’t important. I’d found the track of the girl who’d held the soft rabbit. But her scent was mixed with another, unfamiliar one. Strong … adult … male. I tracked them both, moving quickly, sure of myself.
    â€œShe’s got it!” I heard Jakob call.
    Then the smell vanished right where a car sat in the parking lot. The two people I’d been following had gone. They must have driven away in a different car, and then this one had pulled in to take its place.
    I turned back to Show Jakob. But he wasn’t happy, I could tell. Frustration and disappointment rose off him like a cloud. I cringed a little. Hadn’t I done the Work right? He’d always been happy before.
    â€œOkay, good girl, Ellie, good dog.” He pulled a rubber ring out of his pocket. But he played with me for only a minute or two, and I could tell that he was thinking about something else.
    Jakob had called me a good dog, but I didn’t feel like one. He wasn’t happy. The Work wasn’t right. Or maybe it wasn’t done.
    â€œWe’ve tracked her to here,” Jakob told a man in a suit. “It looks like she got into a vehicle and left. Do we have surveillance on the parking lot?”
    â€œWe’re checking now. If it is who we think it is, though, the car’s stolen,” the man answered.
    â€œWhere would he take her? If it’s him, where would he go?” Jakob asked.
    The man in the suit turned his head, squinting at the green hills we could see in the distance. “Topanga Canyon. Or Will Rogers State Park.”
    â€œWe’ll head up that way,” Jakob said. “See if we can pick up anything.”
    I was startled when Jakob put me in the front seat of the truck. He’d never let me be a front-seat dog before! But he wasn’t doing it because he was in a good mood; I could tell. He was still tense, so I stayed focused as he started up the car. We passed by another car with two terriers in the backseat of a station wagon, and they yipped at me out of pure jealousy, because I was in the front seat and they weren’t. I ignored them.
    Jakob and I drove out of the parking lot, and he held the soft stuffed rabbit out to me. I sniffed it obediently, but I was confused. Hadn’t I already done this? Didn’t I do it right?
    â€œOkay, girl,” Jakob said. “I know this is going to sound strange, but I want you to Find.”
    I turned and stared at him in bewilderment. Find? In the truck?
    Jakob drove slowly, quickly glancing at me and then returning his eyes to the road. I’d been told to Find, but I didn’t know how. I couldn’t put my nose to the ground and hunt for the little-girl smell on that soft rabbit. But I could—
    I lifted my nose to the window. Smells were rushing past so quickly it was hard to sort them out. “Good girl!” Jakob praised. “Find! Find the girl!”
    My nose was still filled with the smell of the girl from the toy. Then a breeze brought me that same smell from outside the window, still entwined with the man’s. I looked over at Jakob. “Good girl!” he said, stepping hard on the brakes. Behind us, cars honked. “Got it, girl?” he asked intently. But the smell had gone.
    â€œThat’s okay; that’s okay, Ellie. Good girl,” Jakob said, and let the truck ease forward.
    I understood now; we were Working from inside the truck. Instead of my legs moving over the ground, hunting a smell, the truck was doing the moving for me. I put my nose back to the window. Hot asphalt, fumes from the cars, a whiff of something disgusting and delicious from an overflowing trash can, a greasy and salty smell of fried chicken from a restaurant, but none of those was right. I was straining, rejecting any- and everything except the smell from the toy.
    I felt the truck tilt as we headed uphill. Disappointment was rising from Jakob; I could feel it.
    â€œI