Twitch

"This is gooooooood!" she said softly. The sand beneath her fingers was warm and soft to the touch. She'd been doing sand angels in the moonlight, staring up to the skies above her. She didnt know what all of the constellations were called, but she had an app for it.

The dog sat beside her asked, "What do they call you?"

"My name is Diane, but they call me Twitch. When I was a baby, I used to do this funny jerky thing with my hand when I was feeding. So the name stuck."

"Twitch," the dog repeated. "It suits you."

"Have you ever seen a space ship?" she asked.

The dog raised an eyebrow, "No." Though he figured stranger things had happened. After all, he'd found a human that could speak to him.

"Do you have a home?" she asked.

"No," the dog replied.

"Where's your bed then?"

"I have a habit of falling out of beds, so I sleep on the floor now."

She giggled, "That's just silly!"

"I'm a dog. Bite me."

She laughed harder at that. "You should try a hammock. Everyone falls out of a hammock!"

Ok. He may have found a human who understood him, but Twitch wasn't the brightest of kids. "Do you go to school?"

"No. I ran away from home to join the circus. I always wanted to be a monkey and hug bananas all day."

Not the brightest? Hmm... bit of an understatement there. "Monkey's eat bananas, they don't hug them."

She frowned. "Can I hug them first?"

"Only the ones that hug you back."

"Okay!"

Sweet Jesus!

The sun had set about an hour ago, and the dog had been sat next to her the whole time. The conversation had been like just this, and he was starting to lose his patience. Where were her parents?

"Do you think they have circuses in space?"

"If they do, you'll fit right in."

"I can climb trees too," she said, "so long as the bottom branches are close to the ground."

"Do you like climbing trees?" Ah! He regretted that as soon as he'd said it!

"Of course I do! I want to be a monkey!"

The moon was rising, and it was full. Its beauty left them both speechless for a while. It glimmered off the sea like molten silver, disturbed only by the gentle lapping of waves.

"If I stayed here forever, will you stay with me?" she asked.

The dog sighed. He could think of worse places to be. Perhaps if that happened, he could educate her more. Talking to her like this forever would frustrate him.

They came an hour later, escorted by a police car. They'd been looking for her for three hours. The dog took his leave when he saw the mother, in tears of joy, sweep her daughter into her arms, thanking the policeman over and over again.

Had he stayed, the cops would have called the dog catchers out. He knew what happened to old dogs that were caught by dog catchers. And he was old. Older than the moon.

"I met my best friend in the whole world tonight," the little girl was saying as they herded her towards the car. "I knew he was my best friend the moment I met him!"

The dog made his way down the beach, away from the flashing lights, to look for the next stray human to save. And he did so smiling.