Ray of Hope

With great effort, I opened my eyes. All was dark. Then I saw a tiny ray of light, igniting a tiny ray of hope in me. I freed myself from all the rubble and debris. "At least I'm still alive," I thought.

But what about him? I wondered, a shiver running down my spine.
Despite my best effort to think positively, I feared the worst.

Could anyone else have survived this?

I was lucky. Was he as lucky? Would I ever see him again?

I was hit with a bout of loneliness and despair. Desperate, I pushed away all the small rocks and stones around me, clearing a path towards the tiny hole representing my freedom. I dug my fingers into the dirt, scraping my hands and elbow in the process. But I ignored the pain. The physical pain I experienced was nothing compared to the pain of losing him.

I first met him five years ago. As cliche as it may seem, it was definitely love at first sight. Watching him just made my face split in a wide grin. I was happier than I had been in a long, long time. With him in my life, the loneliness I had been suffering from disappeared like rain clouds after a storm. We were inseparable ever since.

The tiny hole slowly gave way and more and more sunlight streamed through the opening I had made. But its significance was lost to me as I continued to think of him.

He had always loved "Tom and Jerry" the animation. Every time it came on the telly he'd be right there sitting next to me on the couch. He would never say much during these episodes. We would just sit in companionable silence and I would just savour the feel of the heat of his body pressed against my thigh. Anyone looking at the both of us would certainly be unable to hold back a smile.

Ironically, there was no smile on my face when I finally broke onto the surface. I was free and alive, yet I felt dead inside.

I sank to my knees and let the tears flow.

"How can I go on without you?" I sobbed into the ground.

A yelp forced me to lift my face up. And when I did, he was there. He was right there. I got to my feet, blinking in disbelief, praying this was no cruel joke that my mind was playing on me in my grief.

But when he barked three times in succession and ran on all fours towards me, my heart leapt! And I knew this was real.

As I hugged his soft furry white body to mine amidst all the wreckage around us, I somehow knew, that everything was going to be all right. :)

© LISA KWAN 2011 ; All rights reserved.




p.s: This was a "Complete the essay" question for my Language Awareness final. I wrote down as much as I could remember writing, which is about 90%. :P All except the first paragraph was written in about 40 minutes in Lobi Utama, DECTAR, 29/04/2009.
Hope you like it!
And more importantly, hope my lecturer likes it and gives me full marks!
(I need all the help I can get >.<)