Story Prompt: Your character moves into a new place. On the surface, the place seemed ideal, but his/her first night there, your character discovers a terrible problem with the place that he/she didn’t take into account…
I was searching for a long time to find that perfect place to stay. Wherever I went, there was always something or the other which did not suit me. Then one day, suddenly, out of nowhere, I found the perfect place to stay, as much perfect as I could hope the best for. It felt like I was destined to be here. It had everything I wanted, and I decided to wait no more. I moved there immediately.
The day went by, and then fell the night. I was preparing myself to sleep and was almost asleep when I heard a small noise. It felt like someone was crying. I looked outside. Yes, there was a small girl by the window in a house nearby. She was looking outside and crying. Soft, silent tears were rolling from here eyes like pearls in the moonlight. I wondered why such a small girl was crying. As I continued to look at her and wonder, she happened to glance at me. At first she looked slightly confused, must be because she saw me in the neighborhood for the first time. But very soon, she gave me a soft smile. Then immediately she went inside. Her parents voice were heard coming from inside asking her to go to sleep as she had school the next day. From my vantage point, I could see her bedroom. Both her parents came to kiss her goodnight and went. Very soon, she was deep asleep. Immediately after, although my mind was loaded with so many questions about the girl, exhaustion won over, and I was fast asleep in the blink of an eye.
The next day, I woke up early morning. The image of the small girl refused to go from my mind. I wanted to see her once again. When I looked out at her home, I saw that she was ready to go to school. I decided to follow her today. Very softly, I followed her on her way to school. Her school, it seems, was nearby as she walked her way alone. All through the journey, she kept glancing at siblings going hand in hand to school and I could see it was affecting her mood. Now I understood why she was crying the previous night. She must be the only child of her parents and she was feeling lonely. My heart went for her. I wanted to do something for her but could not think of anything yet. The smile she had given me the previous night was angelic and I wanted to see that smile again and again.
Soon, I started following her to school everyday. After a few days, she started noticing me. So I started going along with her, walking next to her. For the first few days, she did not speak anything and just enjoyed the company. Later on, she started speaking to me. She told me all about her home, her friends, her family. Everything else was perfect, but when she used to go home, she always felt lonely. Her parents loved her a lot but she wanted someone to play with her. I realized she was just 6 years old. She wanted someone her age to be with her, to keep her company. I still wanted to do something for her, but was stumped, until one day everything changed.
One day, I saw her coming back from school with the same sad expression and it broke my heart. Today I will do something, I decided. But what? I thought I will just go with the flow, and walked to her house. As I was coming near her house, she opened the door and saw me. She gave a yelp of joy and came and hugged me tight. I just basked in her show of affection for me. No one has ever loved me so much as this little girl. Hearing her sound, her parents came out and saw her hugging me. They were stunned. She took her arms off me and looked at her parents with pleading eyes. In a few moments, she uttered a few words to her parents which answered my question on how I can help bring back the smile on her face permanently. She asked, “Mom, Dad, can we keep him?” Her parents looked at me. I was a 6 month old puppy living in the shed nearby. I possessed no harm to them, but in fact brought a brilliant smile on their daughter’s face. How could they say no to her?
And that is how I found my perfect new home. Now I live with Rebecca and her parents. And I always ensure that Rebecca never shed a single tear when I am around.
