Momo
A Pup’s Heart
Noah was a little girl of seven. Her parents lived 1600 miles away in a big city Noah had never gone to. In fact, the farthest out of her village she had been was a neighbouring village just a few miles away from her own. She had gone there to visit her grandmother’s friend with whom she lived. As her grandmother had told her, her parents had left the village when she was just 3. For four long years, she had not seen her parents. But they used to send her letters. Her parents were both working to support themselves and Noah and her grandma.
Her grandmother had already entered her seventies. But nobody in the world could live with her and say so. Even in this old age, she used to do most of the chores of the house with not even the slightest complaining. She was as agile and active as a woman in her forties would be. According to her, the healthy lifestyle of the village had made her this way. She had been taking care of Noah since her birth and the responsibility came fully on her when her parents decided to leave Noah in her care.
Noah really loved her grandma. Living with her all years had resulted in a very special bond between the two.
Two years back when Noah was just 5, she was playing in the street with all the village girls, that was when she came upon a little puppy, it looked stillborn. It seemed that it had gotten separated from its mother, and she was nowhere to be found (Noah had checked all the nearby areas). Well, what could have been better for a five-year-old girl, than to find a stranded puppy? So like any five-year-old girl, she brought it home. Grandma loved it too. She was happy seeing the good human being her granddaughter was becoming. They named the puppy Momo.
So for the next two years, Noah had the greatest time of her life living with her beloved grandma and her newly found pet whom she loved just as much. Well, of course, there were petty little homely problems in their life but with the three of them together they went away like nothing. Noah loved to play with Momo. Sometimes all her friends would gather at her house and take turns playing with him. Noah would be really happy at that time. She loved the fact that Momo was adored by everyone. Well, he was cute, and it seemed he himself liked to play quite a lot. In these two years, Momo had become quite a huge part of the family. Noah had a special attachment to him, she would always keep him around. Momo was quite loyal too, like all dogs. But in his case, it seemed that he knew too that he owed Noah and her grandma a lot for taking care of him. So he loved them just as much and remained loyal.
As it stands, their village was quite near the border of their country and the neighbouring one. The two had always been at each other’s throats. But this time, real tension had been building up between them for two or three years. The deployment of security forces had been increased in her village and the areas surrounding it following the declaration of red alert in all border areas. Grandmother found herself in an uneasy situation with all these army men patrolling the ground every few hours. She might be a tough lady physically but in her heart, she was but a 72-year-old grandmother. All the action was taking a toll on her.
One day, it so happened that they had to leave the village for some reason. All movement in and out of the village was being carried out under the supervision of soldiers to ensure safety in the border areas. So in the carriage with the three people were seated two army men who were to act as guards till they were inside the red alert areas. Being in the same carriage, naturally, they started talking to each other.
“Is a war going to break out?“, Grandma asked one of the soldiers.
“It could ma’am, at this rate, rather I would say we are just on the doorstep of one”, he replied.
“The other side’s playing dirty”, added the other one.
Grandma was confused, “how so?“, she asked.
“Intelligence has told us that they are using terrorists who have infiltrated here and have been told to shoot civilians at sight, they’re hiding in the woods near the village, that is why we have to accompany everyone on their trips and check everyone entering or leaving the village”, he explained in detail.
Noah on hearing all this became quite afraid and shrank away in a corner of the carriage. One of the soldiers noticed this and told her to remain assured that nothing would happen to her as they were there. She did become a little relieved on hearing this and started playing with Momo. He had been sitting there as if seriously listening to everything and that was weird because he never liked to stay in one place so quietly.
They had come about halfway when all of them heard a voice which sounded like someone was walking among the leaves very close to the carriage. “Oh! it’s just probably some wild animal”, grandma remarked.
When it continued for half a minute more, the carriage came to a halt on the order of the soldiers.
“Please you two get out of the carriage and hide among the bushes on the other side”, said one of them as they went into the woods to investigate the source of the sound. They did as told and got out with Momo closely following Noah who on her part had clutched her grandmother’s dress to not get separated. They quickly went and hid in the bushes. Noah was terrified and was holding Momo tightly near her chest.
It is said that dogs possess a sixth sense, that somehow they know if danger is approaching.
They had been standing there for about a couple of minutes when they heard one of the soldiers shout something. They couldn’t tell what he was trying to say since his voice seemed quite distant, apparently, they had gone quite deep into the forest and seemed like they were returning. It was after some good 30 seconds that they were able to figure out what he was saying. “DUCK MA’AM DUCK, THERE ARE TERRORISTS ON YOUR SIDE”. After this, it was sheer panic and chaos reigned. Nobody knew what they were doing. Grandma lay down on the ground to get as low as possible. But suddenly Noah was nowhere to be found, and so was Momo. Suddenly gunshots started ringing everywhere. Grandma raised her head a bit and found that Noah was on the other side, and had taken cover behind a tree thinking that she was safe she quickly put her back down. Momo was close on Noah’s heels holding onto her feet. Tears were falling from her fluffy little cheeks. It was too much action for a seven-year-old to stand. She was shaken from within, but somehow was trying to pull herself.
She constantly kept telling herself that it’ll be alright and she would definitely survive this. What she did not know was that quite a bit of her torso wasn’t hidden and she could definitely get hit by a bullet if this continued. Which was just what was about to happen. Momo it seemed like had gotten wind of what was going to happen. As soon as the next shot rang he jumped in the air to cover Noah. He succeeded in his aim and took the bullet straight in his head (and was thrown into Noah’s lap due to the impact) which would have otherwise pierced through her stomach. Noah suddenly felt something fall on her lap and was horrified it was the person she loved so much. Her mind went blank because of Momo’s death. She couldn’t digest the fact that with whom she was playing minutes ago, was now lying in her lap, dead. Moreover, it was to save her that he took the bullet. The bullet had pierced his brain resulting in instant death, but his face was still intact, it showed no pain, rather there was a smile on it as if he was proud he was dying for the person whom he so much loved. The tear flow had now taken a more vigorous flow and the tears were falling straight on his smiling face.
Subsequently, the firing stopped as all the militants had backed down, and Noah met her grandmother and the two soldiers, one of them was injured but looked like he would recover alright. Grandma too became on learning about Momo. After all, he was one of the family. Noah took quite a lot of time to get over the horrors of that day, but she just couldn’t get Momo out of her mind. His joyful memories just kept flashing in front of her eyes like some kind of film. She couldn’t get the picture of his pierced head and smiling face out of her head.
Following this attack, an actual war broke out. With intense fighting all over the place, all the villagers were moved to a town more inside the country. Noah and her grandmother went to where her parents were and started living with them permanently.
