In a not so far away land, with an all too familiar setting, a boy is about to be given a gift
A gift that he will love, that will bring him great joy and bring great joy to others too
With this gift, he is told, comes great responsibility, and the boy must take care
For if he is reckless with this gift, it will lose its true importance and destiny:
To be given away by the boy, for as much as the boy will enjoy this gift
It does not compare to how much joy it will bring someone else when it becomes theirs
The gift, it turns out, is a puppy, and at first the boy is disappointed, everybody has a dog
But he was told that this gift is different than any other gift that anyone can give him
And though many people can have what he has and enjoy it, this gift is special
It turns out the gift was special, for anyone who saw the puppy was entranced by it
Some just wanted to play with it, some wanted to buy it, others to steal it, while some,
Some people wanted to hurt or even kill the puppy, but the boy would have none of it
He took care of the puppy and kept it safe from all the people who tried to take it away
And for this, the puppy loved the boy, the puppy trusted him and favored him
This brought much happiness to the boy and he wanted to always protect his puppy
But then something happened to the boy, something inside of him changed
All of the sudden, one day when he was playing with the puppy, he did the unthinkable
No, he did not just leave the puppy unprotected while he went and did something else
He did not let someone else take the puppy for their own selfish enjoyment
Neither did he sell the puppy and make money off of his wonderful gift
Instead, he himself abused the puppy, he kicked it, not just once, he kicked it repeatedly
The puppy was shocked, and he closed his eyes hoping that this was a bad dream
But this was no dream, the boy who had taken care of the puppy all of his life
The only boy that the puppy ever loved, the only one he ever trusted, his caretaker
Was inflicting more pain than the puppy had ever felt or ever imagined feeling
The puppy yelped, pleading for the boy to stop, but his cries fell on deaf ears
Whatever was making the boy do this had a tight grip on the boy, and the boy’s rage
It was like a passion, something that felt so right he could not stop, he could not quit
The boy’s eyes were wide open with a perverse fury, and the puppy feared for his life
As quickly as the rage started, the boy tired and relented his abuse of the puppy
The puppy lay whimpering, bruised, battered, bleeding, still alive but not by much
The boy quickly ran from the park in which he and the puppy had been playing
He ran until his legs cramped and gave up and his throat felt like burning hay
He collapsed in a field and just lay there like a baby all alone, crying and lost
He could not believe what he had done, how could this be, how could…he…
Somehow he himself did what he had protected the puppy from for so long
And he did more severe damage to the puppy than most of the people would have
The boy could not live with himself, he was so scared, he felt so paranoid
In the field where he collapsed he saw a flower so remarkably beautiful
That he could not believe his teary eyes, he wanted to go closer to the flower
To wonder at the amazement that the flower radiated, to smell its sweet smell
To touch tenderly its velvety pedals and caress its tender stem, for he had seen others
Yes, there were many flowers in this field, some possessing incredible beauty
But none as beautiful as this one, and the boy longed for the comfort of the flower
For surely this flower is amazing enough to make all his pain and troubles flee
Surely there is something in this flower that could rescue him from himself
Surely laying down with the flower would be enough, but the boy knew better
He knew that if he picked the flower, it would be beautiful and bring him pleasure
But only for a little while, for taking it away from its source of nutrition would…
Well, it would soon kill this oh so lovely flower, and the boy knew, and he left it
He left it to be picked by the right person who could care for it and admire it as the boy
But also keep it alive, but if the flower could not help the boy then what could
The boy knew that he needed to find the man that gave him the puppy
But so many things held him back from that, for where would he find the man
And how could he tell the man that he himself had hurt the innocent puppy
The boy ran back into the town where he met the man that gave him the puppy
He was so frightened and so ashamed, but he knew this was his only hope
He did not know where to find the man, but he did know he had to find him
God here I am. I have run back to find you. Finish this story, because I am too lost and scared
to imagine what happens next, but I know to trust you, and I lay my life before you.
