The wind hits me like a cold awakening to the face. It nearly knocks me over, and as I walk through the mess, all I can notice is how terrible everything looks. Windows are broken and their glass is flying everywhere; thank goodness for my fast thinking and throwing shoes on before I climbed out of the closet. Cabinets in the kitchen have blown open and alcohol bottles are strewn all over with their liquid spilled out in every crevice I can see from my place in the doorway. I keep moving, remembering my mission: keeping Ellie safe. I walk to the front door and sure enough, the door is secure. I don’t really understand how this rickety old wooden door stayed in place when the windows have broken. I would think the brute force would be enough to open every door in this house, maybe even break a couple hinges. I’m surprised I’m still standing. I look around and see nothing but havoc. I look behind the overturned couch to see if maybe someone, or something, is hiding, but I don’t see anyone. Maybe it is possible for the door to open on its own and then swing shut, even though the wind is blowing in only one direction.
When I make it to my dad’s bedroom and check under his bed, I hear a bloodcurdling scream. My stomach drops like a brick and all I can think of is what is making Ellie produce that awful sound? I take off down the hallway like I’m running for my life. Or Ellie’s life. I trip over a lamp and fall on the rough wooden floor, cutting my knee on the broken glass. I reach down and feel warm blood, but I don’t care about my pain right now. I have to get to Ellie; her screams don’t stop and with every step I take, my anxiety gets worse. I don’t reach the closet fast enough; Ellie isn’t there. I scream her name over the wind and hear a whimper. It was a whisper in the wind and I’m so surprised I did hear it, even if just a little bit. I take off to the room I heard her in, our bedroom, and see her standing on our bed, looking terrified around the room. I ask her what in the world she’s doing and she just points. I look towards her finger and see a black shadow running from under the nightstand, to under the bed. I pull out my cell phone and pull up the flashlight app. I lay down a few feet from the bed and point it where I saw the shadow run to. What I see shocks every nerve I have.
“It’s a dog!”, I shout, excited to be seeing this small but mighty creature. The poor thing is cowering, scared out of his wits. Ellie jumps off the bed when she hears that word.
“Really??” We have never seen a dog in our life. Of course we’ve heard about them from our friends, but no one around us owns a dog so naturally, we haven’t seen one! I grab a piece of stale bread from my pocket; I stuck a very big chunk in my pocket this morning to get us through the storm. I know bread isn’t much, but it’s all I could find in our bare kitchen since we ran out of food and haven’t scrounged up enough money for groceries. Ellie and I ate most of it but there’s still a couple bites left. I reach my hand out towards the dog, and he backs up a couple steps. I understand the feeling he has, scared of anyone. I don’t know what this poor pup has gone through so I let my hand rest there, waiting for him to muster up the courage to come forward and take the bread from my hands. He must be very hungry because it doesn’t take long at all before he’s running forward and gulping down the few bites. My heart shatters for this poor animal, he’s probably starving and he’s so cold he’s trembling, or maybe that’s from terror. It’s freezing in this old house but his face says he’s terrified. I assume it’s both. He must have come in through a broken window because his leg is cut. This animal is medium sized, his head is egg-shaped and he’s pure white. His almond shaped eyes are black from where I lay. My stomach hurts just by looking at his physical condition. His body weight is so low that I can see every bone in his body and his hipbones disgust me. There is no muscle between his pelvises and he’s limping on the leg he’s cut on, which tells me it can’t be minor. I sit up and search in my pockets for another piece of bread or anything edible and Ellie does the same. We find an old piece of meat in Ellie’s jeans, she must have stuck it in her pants, meaning to save it for later but forgot about it. Usually I would scold her because we can’t afford to waste food, but right now, I’m glad she did. I take the meat from her and hold the meat to me, hoping the dog will muster up enough trust to come up to me so maybe I can catch him and go search our kitchen for more food. The storm still hasn’t let down, but for this dog I would do anything. I barely know him, but already I love him. He hesitantly walks up to my lap and sniffs the meat. Very gently, he grasps the meat between his jaws and crawls back under the bed to eat it.
Once he’s done, he comes back out and sniffs my hand for anything else, my heart breaks once more and I don’t think that it can fix itself again. I carefully lift my hand up between his ear and scratch. I’ve never seen a dog before, but my instincts tell me that this is a good spot to scratch him. I’m right. He lies down and kicks the floor; his face relaxes and his eyes close and I can tell he’s enjoying every second of it. I let Ellie take over for a couple seconds so the dog will get used to her, and then I send her and…. I can’t rightly call him “the dog” so I think up a quick name. The first thing that pops into my head is Almond, coming from his almond shaped eyes and the fact that I love the taste of almonds, when I can afford them, which isn’t often. I put Ellie and Almond back into the safety of the closet and make my way back into the kitchen to see if I can find spare food that we forgot about. After searching our wrecked food supplier for at least five minutes, all I come out with are three crackers, a bologna slice and surprisingly enough, a piece of cheese. Ellie loves cheese so I’m surprised she left it to rot in the refrigerator.
When I find all the food I can, I tread through this wrecked home once more, my hair blowing in all directions, I yank open the closet door but struggle to close it. Ellie hops up and helps me. Almond is cuddled up in a jacket I didn’t even know we had to keep warm and I feed him, first the bologna, then the cheese and finally the crackers. Once I’m finished feeding him, he slowing makes his way over to my lap and lies down. Ellie sits down beside me and strokes Almond’s fur.
