It was a Saturday evening, I was 4 years old. I was watching Dora on the TV. My mom called me downstairs and I started walking down.
"Hello Sasha, how's your day?" She asked
"Oh good." I respond wondering why she's calling me down now.
"Somebody is coming over, can you change and clean up a bit?" My mom asked.
Well, today might not be the good day I hoped for. I hate interacting with strangers, even if I'm only 4. I'm not good at it and I rarely say anything even to my family. Any random person would think I can't talk. But I don't mind. I know I should clean up and change, but I'll just stay in my room all day, but if I don't mom will get mad. I don't want mom to get mad, it's scary when she gets mad. It gets... physical. So I change into an outfit and clean the upstairs. 2 hours later the doorbell rang, so I sit in my room. I expect that it's another old business meeting, but my mom called me down.
Downstairs is an adult and a kid that's around the age of 3. I stood at the edge of the stairs, looking at them. I stayed silent.
"Sasha.. this is Poe." My mom said introducing me to the young child around my age.
"Hi!" She said, looking very cheerful.
All I do is look down and don't respond. I knew after the guests left, my mom would yell at me for being being quiet.
The other woman said "Go play with her!"
I went upstairs and Poe followed. You entered your room and turned the TV on. Dora was playing yet again. You just say on the bed watching and you notice Poe in the corner looking a little nervous. Maybe they wanted to talk? Either way I probably wasn't gonna.
"Um.. hi?" They said looking at me.
I look at them for a good second then look away. I didn't want to talk, and I knew that. Why should I waste my energy on talking. My older brother spent too much time talking to his friends and they just ended up being rude to him. It got so bad he ended up dying, killing himself. Why waste time talking to people if that's just gonna happen?
"Oh.. you don't wanna talk." Poe said silently.
You don't look at them. I just stared into nothing. I realized Poe was talking to me, even though I wasn't responding. It's like she was trying to have a normal conversation, even if I wasn't responding. But I listened. She told me about her life, interesting facts, and more. I listened carefully. They were interesting, I wanted to know more. But it's dangerous. After what happened to my brother, I don't want that to happen to me. We were interrupted by my mom calling us to come down and that they were leaving. Poe told me goodbye and I smiled, it was tiny and hard to see, but it was there.
It's the next day and I thought about Poe, I never thought the day where I'd have any interest in talking to somebody would come. I wonder if I'll ever see Poe again. I'd love that day to come. What am I thinking? Talking to them would be dangerous. That same thought repeated in my head, but I really wanted to.
A week later and a knock is heard. I open the door and see Poe standing there.
"Hey! My mom said I could stay for a while. Is that ok?"
I nod and head upstairs, Poe follows.
"..Hi.." I say once we get in the room.
"WOAH! That was unexpected pspspspsdpsp."
"Yeah.. I guess. Why'd you come over?"
"I wanted to see you. You're easy to talk to."
"Oh."
We had a back and forth conversation and discussed different things. I didn't answer any questions about why I wasn't talking, that's when I stayed silent. Poe didn't need to know that. They were only 3 anyways. I know I'm only 1 year older but I know the experience all too well.
In the end me and Poe became best friends. I was happy. For the first time in a long time.
