Despair
rose up in me like a flash flood, so quickly that it had almost reached my
heart, when I heard a snuffling. The dog
who smelled like cake shuffled out from behind an overgrown bush. “Are you real?” I asked her. “Or are you going to disappear, too?”
She
cocked her head and bared crooked teeth at me, as if to say, does it matter?
I
dropped down to the ground next to her.
When I wrapped my arms around my knees and began to cry, she butted her
head against me until I laid a hand on her back. The setting sun was hot on my neck. “You won’t be safe here,” I told her. “You should go back into the woods, where’s
it cooler.”
But
she wouldn’t move.
Tiredly
I leaned back against the damp, cold ground.
When I closed my eyes I heard some more snuffling, and then felt her
fuzzy head against the palm of my hand. We will be safe tonight, I thought to
myself. Tomorrow was anybody’s
guess. Absolute safety would never be
mine to have. It simply did not exist.
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