My Greatest Companion (One Shot)

His name is Elmo, my pet Siberian husky, except I don't consider him as a pet, I consider him as a friend, family even! We spend our days together playing catch, eating our favourite bread, and taking walks in the park. We always play under a tree next to a bench... Full of happy memories.

Elmo was an eight year-old dog; I knew he was considered as old...

But not old enough to--

DIE.

We were all just shocked that one day, when we saw Elmo lying on the ground, not breathing, and lifeless. My father was devastated, my mother was sad and I...

I felt nothing.

On the same day, we buried Elmo at the backyard, the weather wasn't in sync, it was a bright and sunny day. As my father dug up a hole, I continued to stare at his corpse wrapped in a blanket my mom knitted for him. It was colour blue, the same as my name. 

While digging, my father shed a tear, my mom can’t stop crying... and I? I still felt nothing!

Why am I not sad about his death? My best friend died and I couldn't even shed a single tear for him! Why? Why am I not crying?

"You know son, they say, when an animal dies, it happened because they wanted to protect a human. Do you think it's true?" my mom suddenly asked in the middle of her sniffles. 

It wasn't the first time I heard of that statement, but I never really paid attention to it. Did Elmo really die for the sake of a human? If he did, then who?

No matter how hard I thought about it, I found it hard to believe that that was the case. As Elmo’s body was slowly being covered by dirt, I tried to force tears, I really tried, but I wasn’t sad enough. I was sad, but not enough.

The next day, I continued on with my life. Of course, I haven’t moved on that quickly from his death, a lot would change now. I won’t be using that ball for a game of catch. I’d only have to buy a half of our favourite bread and… I won’t have anyone to play with at that park. When I get home, no one would bark “welcome home” to me anymore. I won’t have anyone to pat on the head, to give baths… to take care of.

Even with those sad thoughts, not a single tear fell. I felt a little sadder, but it wasn’t enough to make me cry.

I dozed off in class. I didn’t listen to the teacher; I was just wasting my ball pen’s ink and continued drawing doodles. Some thoughts like Maybe Elmo’s just sleeping, maybe he’s still alive or maybe that was just a look alike of Elmo and he was dognapped! Or maybe even He might come back to life when I come back home later. Of course it was hard to accept he was dead on the first day of his death… I was sadder than before… but my tears still won’t fall.

Going home, I realized that my reflex acted up. It brought me to the park where Elmo and I used to play. Staring at that spot, the tree is the same, the bench is the same, and the only difference was… we weren’t playing there. Memories of Elmo jumping on me and licking my face, both of us running back and forth, just plain sitting on the grass while staring at the sky. Those times will never be repeated again.

A guy wearing a weird jacket plus carrying a suitcase snapped me out from reminiscing; he sat on the bench and stared at me. My eyes were wide open; it felt like I was at the verge of tear… but still… I wasn’t sad enough. I want to shed tears for my friend, to let him know that he leaving me was painful! But why can’t I?! Not a single tear of sadness…

I started to walk away, feeling angry at myself.

Only few yards away, I was shaken by a big explosion that almost brought me to the ground, luckily there was a wall next to me for support.

Running right back to the park’s entrance, I was shocked. The man who was sitting on the bench, dead, his suitcase, blown into pieces! Luckily there was no one close to him, or else they would’ve died too. What happened, a suicide bombing?

My schedule today was to play with Elmo on a spot right next to that bench. We should’ve been both dead by now… But I’m still alive… because Elmo died this morning, causing me to cancel my plans.

"You know son, they say, when an animal dies, it happened because they wanted to protect a human. Do you think it's true?"

I covered my mouth and fell to my knees.

What mom said was true…

How did Elmo know?

He sacrificed himself for me?

Finally, after all this time… My tears fell.

I felt sad, I felt proud, and I felt thankful. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry that you had to die for my sake… but… Thank you for saving me, Elmo.”

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