The Reason to Live

Part 2 of Sami's The Reason to Live!

Part 2

The Searching

Darkness enfolded me in its grasp. Cold took a hold of me. Despair wrapped 

around me. Unwanted sobs wracked my body. Millions of questions tumbled around in my brain like a rock in the sea. 

What had just happened? Why did I free that boy? What was that feeling that compelled me to free him? Why was he so different? 

My thoughts kept me awake for many hours. Finally, sleep came to claim me as I shivered curled up behind a dumpster in an alley. But even sleep couldn’t free me. I dreamed I was lost in the darkness. Every so often, I would see that boy walking in the fog, but I could never catch him, for he was following a light. At the same time, the light that was in front of the boy, was chasing after me. 

I woke up at dawn, shivering and shaking. Sweat beaded on my head and my hands trembled. Cramped from sleeping in a ball, I scooted out of the small space I was in. As I poked my head out from my hiding place, a warm breath blew on my nose. Curiosity kept me from shouting in fear and disappearing back into the darkness. I stood up to look at the pile of trash bags heaped next to the dumpster. Something brown was laying on the bags. It was fuzzy and small, but too big to be a cat and too small to be a dog. It couldn’t be a fat deer or an overgrown groundhog. 

It was a horse! But it was so small. Tiny ears flicked back and forth in the midst of a thick mane and eensy hooves were tucked under its belly. Never before had I seen a horse so small. He jumped to the ground next to me and stretched his small legs. Then he looked up at me expectantly. 

My first thought was to leave the little horse. But, before I even thought the situation through, I had found the horse’s name tag, read the address on the tag, and was searching for his home. Sparky, I learned as we walked, was a specially trained horse. He knew the commands come, stop, and stay and he always waited before doing anything. He wasn’t afraid of the noise of the city and didn’t twitch a muscle as a car thundered past. 

As I searched for Sparky’s home, something in my heart searched too. It tried to sort out the jumbled feelings that kept spinning in circles like a tornado. I couldn’t figure out how to feel. I was angry at myself, angry at King, even angry at that boy. I was afraid of what might happen next. My heart tried to find all these answers, but failed. 

It was near sundown when I finally came across the house that everyone had been directing me to throughout the day. The farm was like one that you would read about in a storybook, and Sparky trotted right up the steps to the door, with me trailing behind.

~Izzy~