Grateful - Judy Albietz

I learned about evil when I was 6 weeks old. My sister Sheba and I were sold to the terrible man with the hat. We were some sort of gift for his girlfriend. Some gift. He beat us with anything he could get his hands on in the apartment. Neither of them ever smiled and there was no light in their eyes. They never slept and they were so thin you could see their bones sticking out. Always with that brown hat, the man smelled of smoke and the woman smelled of fear.

When they walked into a room, I saw the shadow, that horrible old spirit which came with them. Sheba was too scared to look at it. I had to explain to her that it was a spirit which fed on cold revenge and blind hatred. It had awakened after being dormant for thousands of years and found a home with the man and woman who had welcomed it into their lives.

I knew we would die soon since they usually forgot to feed us. One day they left and didn’t come back. After the third day without food or water, Sheba and I curled up together in the corner of the filthy kitchen to die. The next thing we knew the landlord was giving us food and water and then some men carried us out to live in a cage at the SPCA. After a few weeks, we were moved from the cage with the sharp medicine smells to another cage. Sheba was taken away a day later. I haven’t seen her since.

You can't even believe how grateful I was when Lindsey showed up on what I heard was my last day. I knew what that meant. When Lindsey smiled at me I must have wagged my entire body so hard I lifted off the ground. I was delirious when I saw Lindsey felt the same way. I’m also grateful in a strange way for my bad experience because it taught me how to recognize a good thing. I hope my sister was able to find her Lindsey. I dream about her with a family of teenagers who take her out to a field to fetch her tennis balls. I see her with a big dog who loves her to pieces. She never quite gets over the bad man with the hat. I know she and her family will have a hard time with that. The big dog helps to keep her calm. I know we will be together again someday.