A Memory

               
               
                (произведения моей дочери)


                _____________



      Karasu was sitting in her bed with her fluffy pajamas on and stared
 
blankly at the wall, remembering something from her past. Something sad was
 
on the mind of this twelve year old as she waited for sleep to claim her. A
 
 diamond like tear slowly rolled down her pale cheek. Her expression was lost.
 
Like she wasn’t in her body at the moment; as if her soul were somewhere else.
 
She absentmindedly pulled the covers up to her chin, and heaved a sigh. Karasu
 
began to see it from the misty sights from the sad, sad, past. It gradually became
 
clearer. Ironically, her story began with a happy beginning, in her parents’
 
restaurant.
 
                * * *
 
                “Mommy, what’s that lady doing, combing the dog next door?” A
 
curious three year old Karasu asked her mother, indicating the grooming dog
 
place next door to their restaurant. It seemed pretty interesting. After all, dogs
 
were dogs, and she loved animals. Why not check this stuff out?
 
                “She’s grooming the dog, dear. You can go see if you want.”
 
                “Cool!” Karasu squealed, excitedly jumping around on her clumsy, not
 
yet developed little legs. It was so easy to make this child smile. Karasu ran
 
past the fish aquarium in the entrance, and out the glass doors of the restaurant.
 
She noisily entered the dog grooming place, and innocently stared into the eyes of
 
the lady behind the counter.
 
                “May I help you, little one?” The lady was right away over taken by the
 
look in Karasu’s eyes. So little and irresistible. This place was actually only               
 welcome to the people who needed their dogs groomed. Yet, really, who wouldn’t
 
 let this little child inside?
               
                “I’d like to see the dogs,” Karasu’s voice rang out in her most polite
 
tone, sweet and clear. Usually, all dogs are off limits to anyone else, but the dog
 
owners. Yet, as you might have guessed, the lady let Karasu inside, the moment
 
her little request was spoken.
 
                As they passed a series of different already groomed dogs, they
 
were greeted with happy, cheerful barks from the enthusiastic pups. “Ooh, look! I
 
like this one! It’s all nice, fluffy, and cuddly. Looks so soft!” Karasu exclaimed
 
softly in her quiet, childlike voice. “What is your name?”
         
                “I am Andrea. How about you, sweetie?”
 
                “I’m Karasu,” Karasu proudly said in her little childish manner.
 
Andrea looked at the darling girl with fascination and wonder. They were heading
 
back to the main entrance when suddenly Karasu noticed a black toy poodle
 
sitting at the front desk. She didn’t have much experience with dogs, and this one
 
was out of its cage! Or at least it didn’t have a cage. Karasu hid behind Andrea,
 
not knowing what to do. They continued on, and Karasu gingerly sat on a chair.
 
Andrea noticed her reaction to the black toy poodle, and she allowed Karasu
 
pet it, and become familiar with the dog. 
 
                “This is Stormy,” Andrea said in a soft voice while gently setting
 
the poodle into Karasu’s lap. “I named him Stormy because when I got him,
 
it was on a stormy day. Here.” Andrea noticed that the poodle had taken to
 
Karasu quite quickly. It was a good start.
 
                “Stormy,” Karasu murmured, and getting a little bolder, began to run
 
her fingers down his silky fur. Oh, how soft it felt! She loved this poodle almost at
 
once.
                Karasu went over to Andrea’s dog place very often now, to see Stormy.
 
Those two simply couldn’t be separated. Karasu spent most of Stormy’s life with
 
him. It was as if he was her own dog. She fed him and played with him. She
 
combed his silky fur and took him on walks. Karasu didn’t even want to have
 
anything to do with being separated from him!  Until, one day, Andrea returned
 
from the vet’s place with the news that Stormy was sick and  blind. Karasu
 
couldn’t grasp this piece of news normally. She ran out of the grooming place 
 
with a lump in her throat the size of a baseball. How could fate be so mean, and
 
 make this happen to her when she was so happy? How could fate dare? And how
 
ironic that when one becomes happy, fate turns their life around, and makes
 
the miserable! Karasu fell limp in her mother’s arms and cried.
 
                Karasu continued to visit Andrea and Stormy everyday. She wanted to
 
spend all of her time with this black toy poodle which had made her life so happy. 
 
Until now. And it wasn’t even his fault. She fed him with all the love that her little
 
Heart could offer. She combed his silky fur with all the gentleness that she herself
 
 could  manage. Stormy later on refused to eat. He rejected all hands that had
 
 food in them. Even Andrea. Yet he ate for Karasu; just for Karasu. Just to make
 
his friend happy a while longer.
 
                Karasu sat on a couch at home, five years old now, wondering how her
 
beloved Stormy was doing. Her mother walked in the door, home from work.
 
Karasu glanced up.
 
                “Karasu,” her mother began, she bit her lip, “Karasu, Stormy is dead.”
 
                “No!” Karasu’s lip quivered. She burst out crying, her ocean of tears
 
gradually ruining her mother’s shirt. She sobbed and sobbed and couldn’t
 
stop. When she went to bed later that night, Karasu made her pillow so wet with
 
tears, that if you slightly added pressure to it, it would make a sort of squishing
 
noise. Karasu stayed awake the whole night when she was told that her Stormy
 
died.
 
                * * *

                Karasu awoke  at three o-clock in the morning feeling thirsty. She
 
went out of her bedroom, dragging her feet behind her to grab a bottle of water.
 
When she was in the cold kitchen, she felt someone tap her shoulder. Karasu
 
turned around, and no one was there. Chugging down her water greedily,
 
she noticed a tape recorder on the counter. Karasu grabbed it and stuffed it into
 
the single pocket of her pajamas. Going back to her room, passing the living room
 
window, she saw her favorite bird, a crow pecking at the window at this late hour.
 
Karasu shrugged and moved on.  Sitting on her bed, she took out the tape
 
recorder. It was turned on. That meant that it was recording. She stopped it, and
 
turned it on again to listen to the recordings. The recording said, “May I have
 
some water, ma’am?” Karasu was so spooked that she broke the recorder. She
 
hurried to the living room window to see what the crow needed. When Karasu
 
peeked into the window, the crow flew away, and she saw a black toy poodle.
 
                * * * 
                Karasu then knew at the sight of the black toy poodle, that Stormy
 
was just saying thanks, and that a good deed is never wasted.
 
                _______________


                Victoria ( 10 )