The Last Dream…

 It was a Monday morning. I woke up to the sound of tweet-tweet outside my window. I rubbed my bleary eyes and found a dozen sparrows chirping outside on the ledge. The light from the sun filled up my room.

     It was my fifteenth birthday. Thrilled with excitement, I ran down the stairs so hurriedly as if someone was chasing me with a gun. Bright- coloured balloons and streamers covered the walls of the room. A cake covered with black chocolate, lined with white cream, and the top decorated with pink crème flowers was kept on the glass table.

    “Happy Birthday”, everyone shouted in joy.

   Oblivious of everything my eyes were still searching for the present I was promised to receive.

  “Dad, where is my gift?” I asked.

  “Behind you”, dad replied

  I turned around to see my brother holding a big bamboo basket. I approached him and found a black little face peering out from the basket. He was a two-month old Labrador, with brown eyes like a pool of honey and black lustrous fur to make any girl jealous. His paws were covered with pads of soft fur with a tufty straight tail. I called him Tyler, he was my first pet.

   Tyler had a playful and friendly face. Everyone in my family and neighbourhood adored him. He would wag his tail every time he saw his favourite green ball which had his teeth marks all over it. With his pointy white teeth, Tyler had already chewed up most of my dolls, my father’s slippers, my brother’s frisbee, and some of the kitchen storage containers. His personality was so proactive that he would chase a dog, twice his size. Every time he heard the ring of our doorbell, his floppy ears would erect, with a wolf-deep rumble bark he would run towards the door with his graceful body brushing against everything that came in his path. At night he would sleep with me. I loved him the most.

      Then, there came the incident that turned the happiness into sorrows. It was midnight and Tyler was missing from his place. It was a stormy night; the roar of the thunder gave me chills, the wind was howling. The plants were lashing against the windows. In the flash of lightning, I saw the door opening. I took my flashlight and reached the door. Amidst the sound of the rain pouring down, I heard a soft moaning. It was Tyler, sitting near the main gate. He was soaked up in the water, shivering from cold.

  “Tyler, Tyler…”, I called out. He looked towards me with dreamy eyes.

  “Tyler, come here”, I exclaimed. He was now growling in pain as if he was in pain. I could sense some unexplained whining . I tried to reach him but my feet felt heavy, something was stopping me. I froze to my place still calling out, “Tyler come here it’s raining. You will fall sick.”

   “ I will miss you”

  Tyler was talking.

  I jolted back shocked. He was growing bigger and bigger. His chin turning grey. Looking old, now he started to walk away, he took small steps showing that he was in pain

  Unable to move I kept pleading, “Tyler don’t go.”  For a moment he looked back and disappeared. I fell on my knees crying.

  I woke up to someone sobbing. It was my little brother. The thought that it was just a dream satisfied me but the loud wails of my brother worried me. He dragged me towards the main gate. I was mortified and paused near the gate.

  I could see my father standing near the road with Tyler lying beside him. His mouth wide open, eyes shut, and body swollen like a balloon. His right hind leg broken with a pool of blood surrounding it. He was gone.

  With my eyes welling up with tears I mustered to speak. “But it was just a dream, how could he….” I stopped mid sentence and heard someone say “I will miss you.”