Charlie And The Lost Dog

Charlie And The Lost Dog

By Paul McCann

As the first of the new houses were being built around the village Ardoyne some of its early residents were mill workers who had already moved in to occupy the first of the homes that were finished , It was the first time for many of them to have a bathroom instead of taking down steel tub that hung op on a wall .

Charlie Magee was a one of the  truck drivers who brought building materials to the building sites around Ardoyne, there were some little sheds where items could be left and safely stored during the building . One day on his last run before finishing for the day Charlie went for a little walk  around the half built houses . It came as a surprise when he discovered a large shaggy dog restrained by a chain to a post , behind a water tank .

He thought that , its owner must have forgot about the dog unless one of the workers found the dog and chained him there to be found later Charlie could see the dog was hungry and distressed so he tried speaking in a friendly tone to the dog . Then he returned to his truck as he remembered he still had a sandwich left over from his lunch . When he came back to where the dog was chained  he gave the dog the sandwich and it was devoured in seconds . Then he patted the dog and tried to unchain it and as he did they soon became good friends . He tossed a stick and the dog ran to retrieve it , suddenly the dog started to dig a hole in the ground and then barked as if he was very proud of something . Charlie went over and looked at where the dog had been digging .

There was an old tin box there in the hole., Charlie lifted it out and opened it up to find some old photographs . At that moment he heard what sounded like a wolf howling then as he turned around he saw the dog was digging again in another further away then suddenly the dog seemed run away and disappear into the twilight . In the distance the wolf’s howling faded out .

Charlie went back to his truck with the tin box and the next day he returned with another load of stuff to the building over on the Ardoyne site that was flooded with water and people standing around pointing to the area where the dog had been digging the night before .

There was an official there from the Government standing with the building developer of the estate and they where walking side by side through the little stream that flowed around the site .

Charlie went over and introduced himself top the two men saying  .

“Well I’m Charlie one of the truck drivers ,. What’s happened >

He said

“Nice to meet you Charlie I’m Bob but call me Tubby , everyone else does , Its my nickname . “
He laughed aloud and pointed to his large belly .

“I’m Ian, the man with the brain otherwise known as the village planner Charlie  “

 “All right , nice to meet you . Last night I was just throwing sticks for a stray all around here , Then he disappeared over there somewhere “

““What’s you dogs name ? “

Said Ian

“Ah.. he’s not mine , he was put on a chain to a pole there”

Charlie replied

Then Tubby said to the village planner ,

“Well from where we’re standing it looks like it’s a sink hole that goes down about twenty feet into a pit underneath , so we might have to get some men down there on a harness to see where the waters coming from .

Charlie said goodbye and made his exit back to the truck to drop off the materials he brought    .

He made a few more runs during the day and a twilight he saw men with ropes and clasps and winches and flashlights all working away around the spot where he met the dog . They were pulling something up , from out of a large pit and it was taking them a while . Every now and then  they stopped to have a look at what they had and it was clear by the way they spoke that something strange was developing  .The first things they pulled out of the pit was some very old equipment that had been buried down below in a hole below the ground . They said the water was from a broken pipe  that seemed to run along for what could be miles . There were also old tools and other items that were buried as well under the ground .

Tubby and Ian wasted no time in sealing off the entire area . Immediately the authorities were informed and an investigation was made of the area that was cordoned off . After months of the investigations a few people came and shared a story about the ghost truck driver and his dog who had both been killed in an accident a long time ago and they had been buried in that spot where the flood had just happened . After this story was told news spread like a  wildfire out of control and people began to come to the site to see for themselves the place where the flood had happened . By now more stories were exaggerated and when Charlie was never seen again it was said that the truck driver and his dog had returned to the land of the living ,

As years went on all the houses were built and the story of Charlie and his dog was forgotten about .  The building developer had no idea who left this old tin box with photos on his office desk . When he opened up the box he found some old photos . Then he remembered the face of one of the men . It was a truck driver called Charlie who had come to say hello one day when Ardoyne was in the early stages of being built .  All the photos were very old and  fragile .

He went to some extremes to make enquiries about the old photos but no one seemed to want to talk about them . Years went by and Ian often told the story about the day he met a ghost who had lost his dog on an old building site he once knew  .

THE END