Call It An Effort

How it Began

I remember when I was little and my mom picked me up in her arms when I couldn't sleep. She'd rock me and sing to me little lullabies.
I would immediately go to sleep and she'd say,"Sleep, little one. I love you."
Her voice was reassuring and gentle and sweet but after Eralinda was born I never heard that sweet voice rock me to sleep anymore. All I heard were the cries of my little siblings crying for their mother who didn't make it in the delivery room.
You would expect that I would hate Eralinda like in some stories but I didn't. The moment I saw her, I can see what love meant. She looked exactly like my mom.
It still hurts at times to look at her though.
I never knew how something so precious to you can disappear so quickly. All I knew was that if you get too attached to something and it goes away then your heart breaks. Me and my family have managed to make sure that we didn't do that but with each other because we're all we have left of mom.
And besides, mom is not gone. I know because I asked my dad at her funeral why she left a few days after Eralinda was born.
"She's not gone", he answered. "She's our Guardian Angel."
I have always believed that and I always will.
Life has always been normal and I thought it would always stay that way but I was wrong that summer. Who knew that everything would change for the better for all of us......
1st Day of Summer:
My phone gave off My alarm indicating that it was time to get up and get started to start everyone else's day.
I drowsily walk to my bathroom across the hallway. I turn on the light and stared at the mirror. I laughed. My long hair was in a ponytail and yet it was still going ten thousand directions around my head, my pajamas were wrinkled, and I looked dead.
"Lets see what we can do about this", I tell My reflection.
I take a quick shower and brush my teeth. I quickly went to my closet and dressed into denim shorts, a round positioning tank top and my converse. I ran a comb through my long dark hair with my mother's pearl comb my dad bought her on her 21st birthday.
I look in the mirror and was satisfied in what I saw. I have always known I was beautiful. Me and sister look like my mother and she was gorgeous. We may not be drop dead gorgeous like our mother but we were drop dead beautiful. My sister could care less of her beauty because all she saw was the beauty inside. She is everything like our mother. In features and personality and I am the same way but not in personality. I know I'm beautiful and I use it to my advantage.
I don't sleep with every guy because I have one boyfriend that I'm crazy about. The others just always have something I need.
I hear a scream from downstairs. I pop my head out my room and see Eralinda's door wide open. I look down the hallway and see my brother and dad startled as well.
"Daddy!" Eralinda screams.
We all run downstairs and into the living room to see my twelve year old sister trying to pull her stuffed elephant from our dog's mouth.
"Charzard! Let go!" she screams.
Dad goes and tries to open the golden retriever's mouth. My bulldog, Elephant, just sat on the couch and watched the show.
Charzard had enough of the pulling that he ripped himself away from us and through the doggie door.
"Charzard!" Eralinda shouts and she's out the door.
"Eralinda!" my dad calls and is running after her.
Me and my brother look at each other and with a big sigh, we follow. We go outside to see that Eralinda got her elephant back and Charzard in a leash.
"Walk the dog?" my dad asks my brother. My brother takes the weak leash and goes out the gate.
"Wait Shawn! I want to go too!" Eralinda calls following after him. I hear my dad sigh behind me.
"I'll go with them. Don't worry dad."
"Thanks kid."
"Welcome adult", I joke and head out after them.
I walk along the sidewalk looking everywhere for my siblings.
"Charzard!" I hear Eralinda."Come back!"
I look up ahead to see Charzard coming towards me with an elephant in his mouth.
"Neveah!" Shawn shouts,"He's getting away!"
I try grabbing Charzard but He flies pass me.
"Charzard!" I call. I make a run after our dog. "Shawn, how did you let him go?"
"He just grabbed the elephant and ran".
I was so glad I was wearing shorts but I never was athletic. I try pacing myself but it was no use so I used all the energy I could. My dog went past yards and jumped fences and I had to do the same.
"Charzard!" I call again.
There was a moving van up ahead. I was so close to grabbing my dog but I hit smack into somebody's shoulder and we both fell. I only saw black and I am pretty sure that I hit the concrete hard. I open my eyes and a big pain shot through my head. I was pretty sure I was dead because there was this really handsome guy looking down at me.
"I'm so sorry", he says,"I didn't see you and when I did it was too late".
I get up and look around. I felt a pain on the left side of my thigh and when I look down there was a scrape from where it hurts. Charzard is gone and my brother and sister are probably still trying to catch up.
I look at the guy and anger raged up in me.
"You let my dog get away", I tell him angrily. I push pass him and start calling for Charzard.
"My name is Alexander, by the way", he calls.
"I didn't ask for your name".
I thought that would be the last time I would come across Alexander but I was way in over my head.
If I had to tell you a different way how it began, I wouldn't because there isn't another way.
If my dad had never told Shawn to walk Charzard then Eralinda wouldn't have gone with her elephant in hand, I wouldn't have went after them and Charzard wouldn't have led me straight to Alexander.
So in a way, I have to thank Charzard for that.