I was late. I knew that my mother would have the evening meal prepared and I wanted to be there before it spoiled. I was looking forward to it. Whatever she made was always delicious and I started to salivate just at the thought of it. I satarted to walk faster. The bag I carried seemed to get heavier with each step. Then I had it. A shortcut. I would walk down the alley between the factory and the bleachworks, that should save me abouit ten minutes. I reachd the alleyway and turned in, hurrying to save time. It was getting darker and the ground was wet from the rain earlier. Just then I heard something that alarmed me. The bark of a dog. Not just an ordinary bark but a deep throated growl that seemed ominous. I turned and there behind me, slowly walking as if stalking me was the larges Doberman Pinscher I had ever seen. I hate dogs, I have a phobia and my mouth that earlier had been wet in anticipation of my meal suddenly dried in fear at the prospect of my being attacked by this monster. I backed against the wall. What should i do? If I ran it would have me, I was sure of that, but I couldn’t just stand still, could I? The dog prowled closer and closer. I could hear it panting as it’s mouth opened and it’s tongue lolled out dripping with steaming breath. It came closer. I froze with fear unable to move. Suddenly it pounced, front legs astride. They landed on my shoulders and the dog gave me a huge sloppy lick, it’s tail wagging vigourously. It was friendly! I can tell you, I was releived and was still late buy only by a few minutes. Dinner was waiting on the table and I have never been so glad to be home. Thank goodness it wasn’t a hot dog!

someone is waiting for a grade to come back on a paper or a health test like AIDS or something….they just had a blood test to see if they had AIDS and they have to wait 4 days for the results…..or do the same with cancer…once they do the biopsy…they get the results in a few days