An eerie encounter with a dog at an old gas station. What the heck was that dog?
It was midday. I was driving under the elevated highway and had to make a stop at a run down gas station. This gas station always had few visitors, due to it being placed right behind an elevated highway ramp. But it was never this quiet.
There was a faint banging noise that I heard when I got out of the car. I thought it was a wind blowing on a rusted iron sheet. Then, I saw it. It was a dog with a bucket on its head. It was ramming its head up against the iron sheet wall of an old shanty shack that housed the gas station’s water pump.
My first thought was, poor thing. The stray probably got its head stuck in a bucket while searching for food, or worse, some cruel person may have put a bucket on it as a prank.
I hesitated for about a second, but then I immediately set out to get the bucket off of the dog’s head right away. I hesitated because there were news reports of stray dogs with rabies in the area. But, I didn’t want my irrational fear to stop me from helping this poor dog.
As I was walking towards it, the dog stopped ramming its head and turned to look at me. I was still several feet away, but it knew exactly which direction I was coming from. Dogs have great hearing and smell, obviously. But I felt like it was looking directly at me through the bucket. When I moved just my head slightly, the dog moved its head slightly too.
When I got a closer look, I realized that it was not a bucket that was on its head. It was some sort of a smiling mask of some creepy looking unknown creature. May be it was supposed to be a tiger? But it was drawn by someone who didn’t know what a tiger looks like. The mask’s eyes curved upward, and it also had a wide grin. The smile didn’t show fangs, but instead, human-like teeth, which somehow made it worse.
I paused. As I slowed down my steps, I reconsidered pulling the smiling mask off of this dog. It turned its head following my movement, meaning it could see just fine underneath the mask. May be it wasn’t a stray, but a dog that belong to the gas station owner. I suddenly changed direction and walked towards the restroom.
As I was about to do my business in a stall, I felt someone coming in the bathroom. And for once, I was relieved. Finally, another human being at this gas station. But then, something didn’t feel right. The footsteps weren’t heavy. It sounded like, small feet. Little feet tapping on wet floor tile. Four of them. It was the dog!
The dog followed me into a bathroom? Why? Did it think I was going to help it pull off the mask or something? I started to get creeped out. Was I being irrational? I did feel sorry for the dog, but if it could see fine and move fine, someone else can help it later. It sounded selfish, but the fear of rabies and this dog not behaving like a dog should was really freaking me out.
My urge to relief myself was gone I decided to open the stall very fast and very wide so that it would block the view from the direction that I heard the dog came in. I sprinted out the other side of the bathroom.
I got to my car, and got inside. After taking a deep breath, looking my silly self in the rearview mirror, I felt foolish. It’s the middle of the day. You can see 10-wheelers passing by at the entrance of the gas station, this is silly. And it was a dog with a mask stuck on its head, it wasn’t going to bite.
Just as I was finishing the thought, I jumped when I saw that dog was now blocking my path to exit the station. Despite its moving forward to cut in front of me, the smiling mask was turned sideway, directly facing me.
I honked the horn. It didn’t budge. I honked again, and something I couldn’t explain happened. As the dog turned its body to face me, the mask went in a reverse direction. No way the mask could change direction like that, could it? I had enough. I put my car in reverse and hightailed out of there.
I didn’t even exhale until I was on the road. I breathed out then looked to the side, and then I saw it. The dog was running next to the car. I was going sixty, but it matched the car’s speed. Its leg were impossibly long now. They were blurry because they were going so fast, but they looked more like tentacles than legs. And while it was running forward, the smiling mask turned sideway again, looking straight at me.
Then suddenly, a welcome sound is heard. A ten-wheeler blasted its horn from behind me. It sped up and passed me on the same side of the dog. It was going so fast, I could feel the wind it created slammed my car. After the ten-wheeler sped off, I looked to the side and could see that the dog was gone.