Nikolina Vucetic always made it home on time but today she wouldn’t make it home on time.
Today a bloody attack would break every heart in Pancevo.
—
“If heaven exists, it’s probably a giant park.” Leo thought.
“Leo, all you do is watch. Why do you love the park so much?” Biljana said.
Leo avoided people, mostly. He loved his family. He didn’t need anyone else.
Something was different at the park. People played at the park. Little children laughed. Grown ups traded grins. And he loved taking it all in. A part of him was part of all of it.
So he watched.
—
“When you’re nine you can be scared but when you’re ten years old you’re not scared anymore.”
That’s what one of the boys at school had said. He was ten years old in the nine-year-old class so he knew more things.
Nikolina was trying to be brave. She looked over her shoulder again.
She walked faster. That large dog was still getting closer.
She ran.
He charged.
—
Her scream liquefied Leo’s heart.
Her anxious blond hair flagged for help as the beast razed her footing.
Leo drank in the scene.
“That thing is going to kill her.” he thought.
—
Witnesses at the park that day say they “heard a scream and then saw a brown missile streak across the park.”
“Leo saved the little girl?”
“Yeah, that little dog that always watches from the hill, he just jumped in, and, and… man, there was a lot of blood.“
—
When Leo rocketed into him, the bull mastiff let Nikolina free.
15 pounds of sacrificial love versus 150 pounds of malevolent muscle.
The dogs tumbled and snapped and snarled.
Nikolina held her bloody arm and ran.
—
A little girl’s smile broke every face in Pancevo.
A little dog died and broke every heart in Pancevo.
They built a statue for Leo the Fearless.
They planted flowers and watered them with their tears.
“To all small heroes with big hearts.”
