The Black Umbrella

II

                             
M
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R
C
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Dear Mother and Father,

Today I had a small fight with Max. He insisted that I should sleep even though such things are unnecessary. He took a hold of one of mother's diaries and kept irritating me. After a small argument, I retrieved the diary. After that, he went off in search off food as he was hungry and couldn't control his urge for something edible.

I would like to address a problem. It has come to my attention that he continuously puts himself in danger by disturbing me while reading. This is why I would like to ask of you a favor. In case you see him any time soon, please teach him that people need privacy and not someone to annoy them with utterly unnecessary questions. Thank you in advance.

Other than the small disagreement we had, there hasn't been anything interesting going on lately. The other day, Mr. Smith asked of us to clean one of the rooms of his house and fix and move a bed from the attic. He mentioned a visitor coming soon and wanted us to be done with it today as this is the day of the arranged visitor's arrival. Unfortunately, today there was a storm that prevented us from going to Mr. Smith's house on time. Of course, the rain didn't stop Max from looking for food. I honestly wonder sometimes how he survived so far. Probably thanks to me.

I heard footsteps and lifted my head to locate the source of the disturbing sound. There was Max, right in front of the entrance. He stood there shivering. He was soaked wet and his clothes were dripping on the floor. I had just gotten rid of all the water that had come inside and then there he was replacing every last bit of it.

I got up and looked for a towel inside the chest. I walked up to him and said: "What are you doing just standing there? Take this", I handed him the towel and helped him take his coat off. He tried to wipe himself as best as he could and took his goggles off. He hadn't lifted his eyes from the ground but he wasn't focusing on anything particular. What was he thinking about?

" Hey, are you just gonna stand there or will you tell me what happened?", He looked up and stared at me surprised as if I had just appeared out of thin air.

"Oh, yeah. . . I was just- I saw-", He shook his head, collecting his thoughts and tried again." I was running around looking for food, but I couldn't find anything in the usual spots. I thought that it was because of the storm and that when it mitigates the restaurant owners would probably send somebody to throw out the leftovers because after this long they would probably start to smell in the kitchen. I run around looking everywhere but I didn't find anything that counted as edible.

Then there was an accident with a carriage and they tried to blame it on me. I denied it of course but as always that didn't get me anywhere. The policeman was heading my way when I turned around and sprinted off. I turned several times left and a whole lot more right, and every time I was heading towards an open road I changed direction. I didn't see where I was going. The goggles helped of course but they weren't enough.

I stopped and leaned against a wall. I tried to catch my breath and looked around in case he was still following me. Taking a deep breath, I relaxed when I saw no one was after me. But then I heard the policeman shout around the corner and panicked. I tried to find somewhere to hide but there weren't many options. I saw a pile of trash across the road and quickly raced there. I jumped inside the pile and tried not to make any other noise. . ." I tried to pay attention to what he was saying but the sound of his clothes dripping slowly, ticked me off.". . . I made a small hole so I could see and prayed that it wasn't visible from the outside. I waited for a while and I could only hear the rainfall. Suddenly I saw a figure pass in front of me huffing and puffing. He stopped and supported himself by placing his hands on his knees. He breathed heavily and looked around. My body tensed as he-", I raised my hand and cut him off. The noise was really pissing me off and while I was concerned about what he was saying, I didn't want to say anything that I would probably regret.