Hades

Chapter 4. Just friends

I was in the middle of a meadow. I moved around disoriented, that place sounded very familiar to me. Then I heard a giggle and turned around to find a little girl of about six or seven years old running towards me with her arms outstretched. It was she who was laughing. She was missing 

several baby teeth, had orange hair and blue eyes. When she got closer I could see it was...me?

"Watch out!" I stretched out my arms to stop her because she was coming straight at me, if I didn't stop she was going to crash into me, but something unexpected happened. The kid not only didn't flinch as if she couldn't see me, but her little body went through mine as if it were made of air.

"I'm going to get you!" Yolanda ran a few meters behind the kid, smiling.

"Mom?"

Yolanda didn't answer me or flinch, as if she couldn't see or hear me; her body went through me 

as if she were a ghost.

"Where is the camera, honey?" I instantly saw that Victor was a few feet away sitting on a towel spread out on the floor. The family had gone on a picnic, but for some reason I didn't remember any of it. Yolanda stopped to listen to her husband and little Kore took the opportunity to go into the woods and hide among the trees. Intrigued and a little worried that she might get lost or something might happen to her, I followed the little girl. Little Kore had hidden in some bushes and picked a flower, a white lily to be precise. Then, the little girl saw something in the distance 

and walked further in.

"Don't go any further or you'll get lost."  I said, but the girl ignored me completely.

It was an animal that had caught little Kore's attention. A big, hairy animal: a German shepherd. The dog was lying on the grass with his back to the little girl.

"Play with me, doggie," the little girl grabbed the dog's furry tail and pulled it. Instantly the animal sat up growling and rolled over with its teeth bared. The girl burst into tears with fright and the lily fell off.

The dog, seeing the girl, instantly relaxed and licked her cheek. The girl stopped crying and stroked the dog's head smiling, she was no longer afraid. Then she looked down at her feet and saw the completely shattered flower. Her eyes flooded with tears again.

"Flower...the flower."  The kid pointed to it crying "It was for mommy and now...now it is brake it has death."

The dog walked away a bit, somewhat irritated, while little Kore continued to repeat "it has death" between sobs. Then he came back with something in his mouth, it was another water lily, even bigger and prettier than the one the little girl had picked, this time a deep orange color interspersed with a lighter yellow, a shade quite similar to little Kore's hair. The dog handed it to her and little Kore began to jump for joy.

"Doggie, doggie, come home with me! I'll call you...Fleas because Mommy says dogs have fleas...No! Stuffy! Because you're like a big stuffed animal!"

The dog snorted and started walking towards the meadow and little Kore followed in a happy trot. The little girl began to clap her hands and singing.

 

"Stuffy is little and he has no fleas because...hmmm...he's...soft! Stuffy is little and he has no fleas because he's softy!"  she sang.