Help!

Yeehaw!

The big brown eyes looked fearfully up to him and Eddy winced looking down. He gripped the box tighter and extended his steps for the last meters, hurrying up. Standing in front of the practice he realised that it was closed.

"Oh no."

He looked down at the little puppy in the box who whimpered back at him.

Eddy tried to look for opening hours but the only thing he could see was a sign in the window with an arrow in a circle that pointed at "I'm out." The other two options were "We're closed" and "Come in!".

What does "I'm out" even mean? When would the person be back?

"Hey, do you need help?"

A young man got out of a car, casually dressed in jeans a simple black tshirt, accompanied by a little girl.

"Ah yeah", Eddy scrambled, "I am looking for the vet."

"Oh good", the man came closer and Eddy noticed that he was smaller than him, glasses on his face but to his surprise, Asian as well. Which was rare on this side of the continent.

"I am the vet."

"You look twelve."

The man laughed, an oddly joyful sound and with a swift motion, he unlocked the door of the practice and motioned Eddy inside. The little girl was giggling as well but was obviously curious about what Eddy was carrying.

"I'm Asian. I can be any age I want. The name is Brett. This is Sophie."

He pointed at the girl, who now tried to get a glimpse of what was inside the box.

"Eddy."

Brett turned on the fan inside to fight some of the heat and guided Eddy into a side room where he could place the box on a table.

"What do you have here then?"

Now they were both looking into the box and Brett cooed at the puppy.

"Hello little fella."

Carefully he patted the small head of the puppy, who couldn't be more than four month old.

"I found him on the side of a road, some teenagers where running away when I pulled over."

Brett clicked his tongue disapprovingly, got a stethoscope from one of the cupboards and very carefully, lifted the puppy out of the box, which Eddy then removed from the table all together. Sophie squealed in delight, her eyes glued to the little animal. The puppy was visibly scared, ears down, not moving and looking up to the two of them.

Brett checked his breathing and heart beat first, both rapidly quick and then felt the puppy all over.

"Poor thing. I think he broke some rips."

"Is he going to be ok?", Sophie asked with big eyes, looking to Brett.

"We'll have to see. Do you want to help me make an x-ray?"

Sophie nodded her head and Brett showed her how she had to grab the dog from the front and bag to not press onto the ribcage any more than needed. Attentively, he followed Sophie to another room to place the puppy on a different table with the x-ray machine nearby.

"Are you just passing through?"

Brett asked the dazed Eddy, who had just followed every movement the pair made.

"Oh", he shook himself awake, "Nah, I just moved here actually."

"Oh?", Bretts head perked up from the machine and Sophie looked at him with new found curiosity as well, "Mining or Farming?"