Once, there was a boy by the name of Mark. When he turned 14, his parents got him a little puppy. Mark named the little golden ball of fur Sasha. In no time at all, the human and canine became best friends. Sasha stuck with Mark through thick and thin. There wasn’t anything better than coming home from a long day of school and seeing his energetic dog. On his fifteenth birthday Mark bought a camera. In the following years, hundreds of photos littered Mark’s room and almost all of them were with Sasha. When college came around, Mark had to leave Sasha at home, he was sad to be unable to see his best friend as often as he had liked. Every time he came home for the holidays, the first person he’d ask to see was Sasha. She’d come loping through the hallway, her tongue hanging out, with a silly little grin on her face. When Mark got a job a few years later, he took Sasha with him to his new apartment. When Mark got married, Sasha had the front row seats. When his first child, and then his second arrived, Sasha was there to play with them. After a while though, Mark got caught up with work, and his children grew up and Sasha was just…there. A few years passed by when Sasha began to limp. The veterinarians found that she had a problem with her shoulder. They said that Sasha would only live so much longer, soon after, she passed away. Mark was devastated. Sasha had been his companion since his childhood. A few weeks later, he found himself in his old bedroom. All the old photos were still scattered everywhere. Mark picked one off the floor; the photo was of Sasha and he, Mark was looking at the camera and Sasha was looking elsewhere, her eyes flashing in some unknown excitement oblivious to the world. Mark felt himself smile at the photo. It didn’t need to be anything bright and fancy to make his day, sometimes, it was the simple things in life that were the most extraordinary.
