Stairway Of Time

Chapter 1.

"Why haven't you finished your homework?" I ask Ryo. "I am sorry ma'am, I was busy." Ryo said softly.
"What were you doing? What was so important and time consuming that you couldn't finish your homework because of that?" I ask him again. Ryo seems tensed now. He looks away appologeticly. "Well, look at me Kurosawa." I demanded. He looked at me and by the look of it, he is about to cry. I sighed. "Ryo Kurosawa, meet me today after school in the teachers room. Got it?" "Y-yes ma'am."

It is 4:30pm. I am sitting at my seat in the teachers room, waiting for Ryo. "May I come in, ma'am?" I heard someone say. "Yes, come in." I said. Ryo comes in. "Sit down." I said showing him a chair. He sits down. "Now Kurosawa," I start "tell me, what important task you were doing?" Ryo looks at me appologeticly. "Sorry ma'am." I smile and said softening my voice. "Kurosawa I am not scolding you. Just asking you about your important task. Tell me. I am your teacher." Now Ryo seems a bit relaxed. He said "Alright. But ma'am please promise me that you won't tell anyone about this and you won't call my parents. Please." I said "Ok I won't. Don't worry." Ryo smiled and said "Ma'am Yuki is ill." Now I am confused "Who is Yuki? Your little sister?" I ask him. He said "No ma'am, Yuki is a puppy." "Your pet?" Now, Ryo looks a bit sad. He said "It would have been nice if I could keep her as my pet in my house. But my mom doesn't allow me to do so. She absolutely hates animals. I found her at the park one day. Someone must have left her there. She looked hungry, so I gave her my lunch which I hadn't eaten in school that day. She ate so happily. I felt bad for her so I took her with me to my house and asked my mom if I could keep her." He stopped. It looks like he is about to cry. I said "What happened then? Did your mom allowed you to keep her?" "No." He starts sobbing. I feel a little bad. "Kurosawa, stop crying. Tell me what happened after that." He wipes away his tears and said "My mom didn't allow me to keep her so I took her with me and hid her at a secret place only I know. Everyday I secretly take half of my food to her and feed her without my mom knowing. But something unfortunate happened. The day before yesterday, when I took food to her I found her panting heavily. She had a high fever. So I took her to the vet. The vet said she needs constant caring, so I was caring for her. That's why I couldn't finish my homework. I am really sorry ma'am." He said. How can I be angry on the boy after what he said. "It's fine, I understand. But don't forget to do your homework again. It's a good thing that you care about and love animals, but studying is also important. Understand?" I said. "Yes ma'am. I understand." He said with a broad sunny smile. "Very good." I said patting his head and smiling at him. "Now go home." "Ok ma'am." And Ryo left. It is time for me to go home as well, so I left as well.

It is 6:20pm when I reached my apartment. I unlocked the door and entered my apartment and locked the door from inside. I sighed. 'That was a long day.' I thought to myself. Then I go to the bathroom, get out of my clothes and take a quick shower. Then I got out of the bathroom in my towel. after wearing comfortable clothes, I quickly prepared some snacks and eat them. Then I prepared dinner for myself. After it's done, I go to my bedroom and lie down on my soft bed and closed my eyes. Suddenly, my thoughts drifted back to Ryo. I smiled to myself and thought 'That boy reminds me of myself.' Suddenly I got nostalgic. I am starting to remember my childhood days. Something like this happened in my life as well.

At that time, I was 16 and a first year student at my high school. I was returning home from school. It was a very hot day. Suddenly, I don't know why, I felt like going to the park. I was obedient to myself. So when my heart told me to go to the park, I obeyed my heart. I went to the park. I bought a chocolate flavoured ice cream from an ice-cream vendor and sat at a bench. I started eating my icecream. After I was finished, I was about to get up when I heard something. 'What was that?' I thought to myself. I was always a curious person. I still am. Anyway, I got curious and followed the sound. It was comming from the bushes at the back of the park. I went there and saw a little puppy. What's more, I also saw a dog lying beside the puppy on the ground. The dog was limp. It was not moving, neither was it breathing. It was dead. 'It's probably the puppy's mother. Poor thing.' I thought to myself. The puppy seemed as if it hadn't eaten anything from two days. I felt really sad. I bought some biscuits from a shop and gave them to the creature. It tried to eat but couldn't chew the biscuits. It still drank it's mother's milk. I took the puppy and brought it home. I showed it to my mom and told her everything about it. "Mom, can I please keep this little puppy? If I leave it like this on the streets then it will die." I begged her. But my mom looked at me with stern eyes and said "No you can't. You know I don't like pets. So you can't." "But mom-" She cut me off "No means no. Now go and leave it where you have brought it." That was her last words. I went and left it beside it's dead mother. I was crying. I went home. Next day when I was going to school, I went to the park and to the bush where I had found the puppy the day before. I was worried about it and wanted to check on it. I even secretly brought a bottle of milk with me without my mother's knowledge so that I could feed it to the puppy. But the scene that awaited me there filled me with sadness. The bottle slipped from my hand. And tears fell from my eyes down my cheeks. The puppy was lying beside it's dead mother. It went where it's mother was. It's asleep for good and is in an eternal slumber and will never wake up.

Tears are falling from my eyes as I am remembering that day. 19 years have passed since that day, and yet the memory makes me cry whenever I think of it. If I found that puppy today, would I be able to save it? Maybe yes, maybe no, who knows?.