For two consecutive days, a little boy was disturbed by incessant barking coming from the neighbor’s house, and eventually, his curiosity drove him to investigate inside

A lonely boy from a poor home becomes an unlikely hero when he decides to find out why his neighbor’s dog won’t stop barking.

Ethan Hough was a 13-year-old boy who was being raised by his impoverished parents. They made sure he was well-fed, but the family lived from hand to mouth for the most part. It was one of the reasons they took family planning very seriously — they could never afford to have another mouth to feed.

It was the only life Ethan knew, but he hoped that one day, things might change for them. They lived in a three-bedroom bungalow that they had used as collateral when they took out a bank loan several months before.

They spent the loan on Ethan’s mother, who fell victim to the novel coronavirus back when the virus first started its rampage.

It was a lot of money, but his mom had survived the ordeal, to the relief of both males. When she finally returned home from the hospital, Ethan’s father, John, threw a small celebration within the family to welcome her.

However, the joy had not lasted past that night because they received mail from the bank asking them to pay up their loan or lose the house the following day.

John tried to come up with the money, but there was only so much he could do except beg for a loan extension. They got a couple of additional months, but that was all they would have. The couple tried to keep their financial woes away from their son, but Ethan was a very clever boy. He knew but kept quiet about it while praying things got sorted out.

Ethan was not only clever, but he was also kind and lonely. His parents didn’t permit him to leave home at all because they feared he would be bullied because of their financial status.

“Kids can be so mean,” they would tell each other when in truth, they were simply ashamed of themselves.

Ethan had no friends, didn’t go in for sports, and was always the first to head home as soon as the last bell rang for the day. His classmates saw him as a weird geek and often avoided him.

Little did they know he was only obeying his parents’ instructions. “You have to study very well so you can become a rich man and support this family,” his mom would always tell him.

“My boy will secure us a rich retirement,” his dad would say.

That was a very egoistic position, but his parents did not see things like that. They believed it was their right to demand such a thing from their boy. They believed he would change their lives — if only they knew how right they were.

During the summer holiday one year, Ethan started to hear barking coming from his neighbor’s house. An old woman lived alone in the house. She was known as Carla, and she had no family to speak of.

Like Ethan, people in the neighborhood avoided communicating with her because they thought her insensitive. Her only companion was a big dog named Rocky, and Carla spent all her time with him.

When Ethan noticed that the dog kept barking for two days straight, he approached his dad to tell him. “Dad, have you noticed the dog barking this whole time? I think we should find out why,” he said.

“Oh, Ethan. What could be wrong with her? The crazy old lady must be playing with her ragged dog and that’s it. I just wished the dog wouldn’t make so much noise.”

Ethan was unsatisfied, but he let the conversation die down. While his father was in the garage, he decided to slip out from their home and check what was happening.

“The dog sounds frantic,” thought Ethan. He came to Carla’s house and knocked on the door, but no one answered.