Short Stories Collection

My True Freedom

I have no name. I was born in a backyard of a house with 5 other siblings. 2 of them died not long after they came out from my mom's womb, 3 of them were adopted when we were 4 weeks old. I was the only one left at the backyard with my mom.

Most of the time, me and my mom were living in a cage, a very small cage barely fit both of us. I grew up pretty fast, I was more than doubled in size when I was 2 months old. The cage became smaller and smaller every day.

During day time, the cage was hot with direct sunlight. Me and my mom spent most of our time in our cage trying to get some sleep. We couldn't do anything else other than slept though, the cage was just too small for both of us. Sometimes mom would lick me clean and I would do the same for her. She was all I have, in the cage, at the backyard of this house.

During night time, the cage became dark, humid and cold. We were fed during evening when the sky started to grow dark. After that, our owner (that's what my mom told me) let mom out. She said that was her job during night time, to guard the house from bad guys. I asked why I didn't need to, she said I was still young.

When I was 5 months old, mom grew sick. She slept a lot and rarely woke up to eat and drink. Since then, our owner let me out during night time to guard the house instead of mom. At first, I was curious about the place and I spent a lot of time sniffing around. The house was very big compared to the cage, I didn't want to go back there. I wanted to stay outside the cage and be able to run around.

A month after mom was sick, she left me. She stopped breathing. She didn't move an inch no matter how hard I tried to push her to wake her up. I cried and cried until owner came to the cage to move mom away. I didn't know where she was brought, I wasn't allowed to follow. I howled very loud when I saw her body was carried away, I was very sad. Owner poured cold water on me to stopped me from crying. I felt colder that night, with my wet body and without mom around.

One night, I smelled a scent which was unfamiliar to me. I quickly ran to the gate and had a look. A figure appeared at the distance, hidden behind the bush. I barked at it to raise the alarm and to warn the figure not to approach the gate. It wasn't scared by my warning, it moved closer and closer until I saw its wagging tail. It was a black-furred dog about my age.

I stopped barking when it approached the gate trying to befriend with me, it looked friendly. I asked where it came from, it said one of the houses from the opposite. I asked again how it went out, it told me there was a hole in the ground. I thought I should make a hole to go out too.

I quickly found a spot near the gate and started digging. The ground was hard but I continued digging until my paws hurt. When I was exhausted, I stopped digging and tried to squeeze my body through. I failed. It was way too small. I decided to rest and tried again tomorrow.

Next day, owner woke up and wanted to bring me back to the cage. I refused. I struggled hard because I wanted to continue digging the hole. Owner noticed the hole I made and became very angry. He took a broom and hit me hard. I yowled loudly of pain and ran to hide behind the cage, I was scared. Owner punished me by not feeding me that day and didn't let me out.

After a week, owner let me out again to do my job but he warned me not to do silly things again. I guessed he was referring to hole digging. I wouldn't give up, I wanted to get out from this horrible place.

The black-furred dog came back again that night. It asked me where was I the past week, I told it I was punished and locked in the cage because owner discovered the hole I dug. It laughed at my stupidity and advised me to dig the hole at a place which was not obvious.

This time, I learned from my mistake. I found a very secret and safe place to proceed with my escape plan - the ground behind the cage. Since I was born, I had never seen owner went to the area behind the cage. The cage was big enough to be able to conceal the hole I dug on the ground too. So I started digging again. I knew I wasn't able to complete it fast so I dug it every night until I was able to squeeze out from the small hole.