National Park

Chapter 1

Four candles burnt brightly on the cake shaped like a giant bone.
Hope it has chocolate filling, thought Raja as he licked his lips.
The cake was propped up on the dining room table, and surrounding the table was Raja’s
family. Raja looked at them, his eyes watering with love and gratitude.
Father Dev was an elderly man who looked much younger than his actual age, but, when you
looked into his eyes, you could tell that he had truly lived a full life. Dev’s wife, Bharti, was a
fun loving woman. In Raja’s opinion, she was the reason Dev had maintained his
youthfulness. She was a strong, opinionated lady who had raised her family to think for
themselves, yet not take life too seriously. She was always affectionate towards Raja, but
instilled responsibility into Dev and the children by ensuring they all had a role in taking care
of him. Every now and then, though, she would share an extra treat with him while the others
were not watching, and he knew he had a special place in her heart. Raja had learnt a lot from
her.
Their two daughters, Meesha and Maya, were the best of friends. Well, that was until there
was a disagreement, then you would think they could happily kill each other! They were total
opposites, yet they seemed to bring balance to each other. They would never admit it, but
they couldn’t live without each other.
At the head of the table facing the group sat the puggle, Raja, a cross breed between a beagle
and a pug, the beloved family pet. Raja means ‘King’ in Hindi, and he liked to think of
himself as an Indian dog of royalty. In fact, he had been treated like a king most of his life,
and considered the family’s house in the middle of suburbia as his castle and the backyard as
his empire. Raja stared at this wonderful family and thought in amusement that they were
certainly his most trustworthy servants!
Turning four years old is a big thing in dog years, he thought. I am now truly a man; umm…
well, an adult. I will become a mighty and heroic warrior in the neighbourhood; protector of
the weak and saviour of all! The name Raja will be feared by all wrong doers and… A cool
breeze suddenly riffled up Raja’s spine, snapping him out of his daydream.
The lighting in the room started to dim as the sunlight coming through the windows faded.
Everyone around the table stared at Raja as if hypnotised, their expressions suddenly blank.
Raja looked back in shock as the hair on his little puggle body stood on its end.
“What’s going on?”
Dev stepped forward. “Have you lived as you would have dreamt? If not, that is too bad. Four
years is all that you will have. Your time to leave is now,” he whispered, in a monotonous,
dreary tone.
The silence that followed was deafening. Raja could not move a paw. Dev slowly stepped
backwards from the table, followed by the rest of the family. In the same monotonous tone,
they all started chanting, “Your time is up. Your time is up. Your time is up.”
Raja stared at the flames of the four candles on the cake as they flickered; the table started to
shake rhythmically and jiggered towards him. He wanted to bark, to run, jump away, but his
body remained paralysed with fear, frozen in his chair.
The chanting continued. “Your time is up. Your time is up. Your time is up.”
Then, suddenly, everything stopped and Raja had a flash of hope that things were back to
normal. As he took a deep breath, the cake on the table exploded, splattering pieces of sponge
cake and icing all over the room! The candles flew up into the air, and behind their flickering
flames Raja could see a giant lion, its jaws wide open, flying through the cake and towards
him. He cowered, his paws over his face, whimpering.
“Shut that bloody dog up!” a voice shouted over the fence.
Raja rolled over onto his back, his heart still pumping, his eyes dilated and sweat rolling
down his jaw; the cold winter night felt even colder than normal on the grass outside his
kennel. A light went on inside the house and Raja heard Dev’s footsteps as he walked out
onto the patio. Raja slowly stood up on all fours, shivering.
Dev was wearing his favourite pyjamas, tracksuit pants and a sleeveless vest. He shivered
slightly as he walked over to Raja. “I really need to get myself a night gown for these 4am
trips out into the garden. Father’s Day is around the corner; maybe I should hint at it to the
girls.” He chuckled as he bent to scratch Raja’s head. “This is becoming a common
occurrence, boy. What’s going on in that little head of yours? Nightmares hey? I’m sure the
family holiday planned will do you as much good as it will for us. Tonight you can come and
sleep inside. Don’t let Bharti know, though.”
Dev winked at Raja, then lifted him and carried him into the house, along with his favourite
blanket. Raja watched as Dev gently folded the blanket before putting him down, locking the
doors and then walking back to his room, then snuggled into the blanket. He could still
remember the day Dev and the girls had come to see him at the pound. They were looking for
a new pet, as Meesha had accidently flushed their pet hamster down the toilet. How this could
have happened always worried Raja when he heard about it later, but he had suppressed any
further thoughts about the incident. In the pound, he had sat quietly in the cage and put on his
best puppy dog eyes to grab the family’s attention. Being a puppy, of course, had its
advantages, but Raja was one of a large family of five other puppies! All six stood waiting,
tails wagging frantically against the cage as they stared pleadingly at Maya as she
approached. She had an angelic look to her and Raja just knew that she would choose him.
Amazingly enough, she stared directly at him and it appeared that she was thinking the same
thing! Meesha was jumping all over the place screaming with excitement: “They all so cute!
Can’t we take them all?”
But Maya had totally ignored her and every other puppy and had her eyes locked only on
Raja! It was the most magical moment of Raja’s short life when she had bent down in front of
his cage and simply put her hand out with her palm facing upwards. Raja had stared for a
fraction of a second, then made his move. He had placed his right paw on top of hers and
their connection was sealed. Maya had smiled. She had called Dev and Meesha over, pointed
at Raja and said, “He’s the one!”
The first year with his family was an amazing adventure for Raja. He was treated as the third
child and included in all their activities, and, of course, his input was always required in
settling disagreements. Like the day Dev had brought home two dresses for the girls and an
enormous fight ensued as they both clawed and grabbed at the pink dress decorated with
multi-coloured flowers. The other dress was quite simple in comparison, but was equally
pretty, light yellow with animal prints in white, so subtle that you had to stare hard to see
them. After what seemed like hours, the two girls posed for Raja, each one holding each dress
up against their school clothes. At that moment, Raja realised that Dev had purposely chosen
two very different dresses, both equally beautiful. The yellow dress suited Maya and the pink
was best for Meesha. Raja barked once at Meesha, giving his approval, much to her delight.
An upset Maya had walked over to the mirror and looked at herself intently. Within seconds,
the realisation had dawned on her too. She had smiled softly and ran over to hug her father
contentedly, giving Raja a quick wink at the same time.
Best of all, Raja loved the numerous adventures he experienced on the various family
holidays. Different locations, new environments, and the chance to interact with other people
and their pets.
Raja was always sleepless with nervous excitement the night before a trip, but the emotions
tonight were very different. The thought of the planned holiday was bringing with it a lot of
fear and anxiety. Raja curled himself slowly and tried to settle on the blanket. This truly was
his favourite blanket; tonight, though, he was not as comfortable as he would have liked tobe. He had had this recurring dream for a very long time… that his time on this planet would
not be long. Haunted by the thought, the nightmares over the past few months had added
weight and made it feel very real.
The nightmares were always set around his fourth birthday party and always ended tragically
for Raja. The thought that he might die young caused him to take chances that he would
normally not. ‘Every day and every moment is an adventure’ became his motto. There is no
other way to live.
However, the sudden appearance of the lion in his nightmare really scared Raja. He slowly
closed his eyes and remembered Dev’s words about the holiday doing him good.
Little did Dev know, but going to a national park filled with wild untamed animals, including
lions, was the last thing Raja would enjoy.