No Other Story by Dr. Cuthbert Soup Read Free Book Online

patched-together fur coat, pulled at a small device, about the size of a cell phone. He pointed the gadget at the dog and pushed a button. Immediately the barking noises ceased, and the man returned the remote control to his pocket.
    â€œPlease, you’ve got to help us,” Penny pleaded, hoping the man spoke English. “Our father is badly hurt.” The man took a moment to survey the situation. Penny could see, in the reflection of his sunglasses, a small, pathetic image of her tightly bunched group. How could the stranger not take pity on such a woeful lot?
    The man bent down and took Penny by the left hand and, a little too roughly, pushed her sleeve back, then turned her arm and inspected the underside of her wrist. One by one, he did the same with the rest of them, carefully scrutinizing their left wrists. Once he had finished, he turned and walked back to the sled. Penny and the others sat and hoped he would not abandon them. They watched as he lifted a stack of animal pelts from the back of the sled, then returned to where they sat and dropped the skins in a heap. He peeled off the top one and draped it across Teddy’s shoulders, then knelt down and lifted the shivering boy from the icy ground.
    While the man carried Teddy back to the sled, Chip took a skin from the pile and covered his father. He passed the next two to Penny and Professor Boxley, then wrapped the remaining one around himself.
    The pelts were cold and stiff from exposure to the elements and their effectiveness was not immediately felt, though no one was complaining at this point. It was just nice to have something between the icy wind and their bare, goose-bumped arms. Penny picked up Pinky and wedged the hairless pink dog beneath her arm.
    The sled driver returned and helped the others to their feet. Silently, he looked the group up and down, then nodded to Chip, apparently deciding he looked the fittest and ablest of the ravaged bunch. Chip took his father by the feet while the modern-day caveman took him beneath the arms. Together they carried Ethan past the motionless robot dog to the back of the sled.
    Next, he climbed aboard the sled, removed the remote control from his pocket, and took aim. The mechanical half dog–half tractor began barking once more as it lurched forward, grinding and yipping its way across the frozen landscape.
    The sled was just large enough to accommodate one driver and two passengers, and it seemed to have been unofficially decided that those two passengers would be Teddy and his unconscious father. The others would have to walk. But where were they walking? Penny, for one, wanted to know.
    â€œExcuse me. Where are we going?” She couldn’t be sureif the complete lack of response was due to the man being unable to hear over the howling wind and the barking dog, because he didn’t speak English, or because he had simply chosen to ignore the question.
    Either way, she didn’t ask again, and she and the others hunched their shoulders and bowed their heads against the biting wind and trudged along behind the sled. So utterly exhausted were they that none of them noticed the strange dull light streaking across the heavens, barely visible among the dark, winter clouds. Then again, perhaps they had seen it, but thought nothing of it in a place where the moon, the stars, and the sun all hung in the sky at once.
    They slogged along for what seemed like an hour (but in reality was only fifty-seven minutes) before they finally arrived at the opening to a cave. The man shut down the electronic dog and stepped off the sled.
    The man motioned to Chip, and the two of them lugged Ethan into the cave with the others following close behind, still not quite certain whether their host was friendly or perhaps desirous of putting them into some kind of homemade caveman stew.
    Once inside, the first thing they noticed was just how gloriously warm the cave was, though not so warm that they considered shedding