A New Dawn

Harvey

 

        I always wake up to bright morning skies, chirping birds, and cold, damp floorboards. I’m an orphan. Well, I was made an orphan. I had a family once upon a time, a happy family. We were contended on what we have, a roof over our heads, food on our table, and the company of each other, we were at peace.

        I loved playing our little moments in my head over and over again. My mom singing while I and my big brother try to sing along as best we can. Dad was out eventually hunting for our meal, there was a good flock of game passing by and he wanted that evening to be special since it was their anniversary. I don’t get that concept since I was still young. Time passed by and evening fell, dad was still out and mom was getting worried sick. Big brother volunteered to go look for our dad. The instant he opened our front door, all hell broke loose.

        My mom ushered me under one of the broken floorboards since I was too small to fit in one.

     “Hush darling, don’t come out till I say so. Okay?” So I waited for my mother to come back. I waited, and waited.

        “Mommy? Can I come out now?”

       No one answered my call, so I crawled out my hiding place.

        “Mommy?”

        still no sign of my mother nor my brother “mommy please. I’m scared”. I cried as I looked for someone, anyone that can tell me what happened. All that’s left of our house were burnt ruins of our little home. I looked back to my little hiding spot and the whole area was damp. Someone poured loads of water on it so I didn’t burn to death. The question was who saved me and where are they. A seven year old boy left alone inside a burnt house. I wandered around our house that day. Hoping someone would jump out and tell me it’s okay, that everyone is safe and sound and is just playing a little prank to scare me. But no one came out, no one was playing a prank, I’m left alone.

 

        I woke up from my little day dream with a large pool of drool under me. Was I really sleeping up right?  I shook myself awake to get on the days chores. It’s my birthday today, I’m turning eleven. Guess that’s an achievement for an orphan to survive this long enough. I would’ve broken down years ago of being alone, but hey, I’m still alive and kicking. Clean the floorboards, find something to cover the hole in the ceiling, find something I can eat for a few days time, and maybe wander around till I stumble on another human being.

        A big day today, and I’m not going to waste anymore time drooling. I get on with my duties while thinking about my adventures of being alone. The daily routines of Harvey. The brave and adventurous Harvey. Who am I kidding?!. I’m just a kid living out of nowhere. Once I’m done contemplating on stuffs that are unreal I get to the real thing of my duty, finding something edible to eat. It’s not that hard since I was left in a farm with grazing cows and wandering chickens. But I don’t know how I’m going to take care of them, the butcher duty, as I call it. I tend to eat shrubs afterwards when I go back into thinking I can kill one of them. yeah, they can’t talk but sometimes they’re good company when I’m feeling lonely. I can eat shrubs for a while, just pull something out from the farm and just mixed them up.

        I’ve lived off on those for a couple of months now, so why stop suddenly? Quickly went to my depleting source of shrubs and pulled some of them. I wasn’t taught much as a kid but I know they’re edible. My parents wouldn’t grow such shrubs if they weren’t edible. A green one and an orange one always tastes good together I say to myself. What could go wrong if only eat this than some of that’s left. A shrub thing with red fruits growing on it. I tasted it once, regretted it. It burned my tongue for a while, drank so much milk I thought I was full from it. Another one is green and flaky, its good, but I kinda don’t like the texture that much. I’m down to grab another orange shrub when a loud explosion went off.

        I was confused, hopeful, and scared at the same time. What was that, where was that, who did that, so many questions running through my mind. Someone is here, and they can help me out. Maybe they can take in another kid and treat him as their own. I run towards the loud explosion with high hopes of finding someone. A large cloud of smoke rose up from the forest, there, that’s where it came from. The smoke made it difficult to run through trees and boulders but I can manage, I own this area, this is my safe zone. I continue to it, animals scramble to get away from it, so I know I’m going the right way.

        “HELP!!”

        I suddenly stopped on my heels. Someone is here, they’re alive.

        “Somebody please! Help us!”

        I started walking, slightly jogging towards it now, and run as quickly as I can to get there. The forest is burning and in the middle of the fire is something big and shiny, almost glistening. Inside it, a person, and beside the thing is a girl with white clothes, she’s hammering on the front of the thing. Is she trying to break it? Or break her hands instead? I quickly grabbed the biggest rock that I can lift and ran towards the thing. I lift it above my head and bring it down, striking and breaking the thing. She was shocked with what I did and quickly regained her composure. “Help me please, my father is hurt” so this is her father. They don’t look alike. I carried him on my shoulder while she helps him with the other. We drag him out of the danger and safely into where I know is safe. Someone is here. I can finally talk to someone else. 

 

authors note: this is my first time writing and publishing something out of the blue and i wish it pleases you, the reader. if you ever want to find out more you could suggest for another chapter of the story