Why me?

8

"Have you finished already, Alice?", Berta said as she opened the kitchen door and when she saw Alice's empty plate, she came up to her, patted her shoulder ( Alice shrugged uncomfortably) and then squeezed it so much it started hurting. "Now you should go to the garden, I have a couple of plants there that need to be watered and a couple more that need to be re-planted somewhere else. Everything you need is in the shack at the back of the house, now go!", she shoved her from the room as if Alice were just a maid she had no idea what exactly to do with, so Alice started running to avoid her hand and she was soon enough five feet away, so Berta couldn't touch her. A frown went across Berta's face but was soon wiped out when she seemed to notice something she liked in the distance Her eyebrows went up and a Alice could now notice that she was smirking. "If you need anything, you just tell me, but try not to disturb me for a while as I don't want to see that ugly face of yours for at least an hour, got it?" Alice didn't even think of nodding in agreement, so she just turned her back so she too could see what it was that caught Berta's eye. Having exited the house, she closed the door and looked around herself. It was a dark, grey day, very untypical for summer but not so rare as it should be ever since Alice came to this village that seemed somewhat abandoned. She glanced at the church, where she hadn't seen anyone enter ever since she came here, but she just assumed that they went in different times than the people from town as it did not occur to her that it might be completely "citizen-free". Alice took a deep breath in and could feel that characteristic smell of grass and air when everything around her was predicting rain, so she quickly ran to the garden so she could finish her work as soon as possible, as she was sure that Berta wouldn't mind her working in the rain. "Ah... Berta. That disgusting, old hag that is making my life miserable", she thought to herself, but didn't manage to smile, as if she had forgotten how to the second she walked into her grandmother's house. As she started digging up a flower, she felt cold wind blowing against her bare body and shivered, as she had only a t-shirt and shorts on. "Damn. It's cold",  she murmured and then remembered that she will need some dirt so she could re-plant the beautiful pink rose that reminded her of her friend, Samantha, who loved roses, but despised the pink ones and she thought of them as "the ugly side of every garden". Why, Alice didn't know but found this flower truly beautiful. Once again, for the millionth time, she wished her parents were there. As she was approaching the shack, she could hear a commotion in there and froze for a second, thinking it must be Berta. She didn't want to have to see the old witch so she waited a couple of seconds, but as nothing was happening, she slowly approached it. Yes, it was certain... Someone was definitely in there, but who? It wasn't Berta, since she was much taller and her shoulders were much lower that this figure's. "Hello? Who's here?", she asked, her voice trembling a bit. Then suddenly, something very big jumped out on her and threw her on the ground and she felt her head hit the cold, wet grass. She was preparing to scream for help, but as she quickly got up to see whose victim she was now, a big tongue splashed against her face and licked her cheek. At that moment, she smiled. "Sticky, it's you!" The dog barked and licked her again. As Alice got up to clean her shorts, Sticky immediately pushed his head under her palms and started twisting his head so she would pet him. "You're a naughty little doggy, don't you know that?", she asked with a wide smile on her face and she noted that it was the first one ever since she got her. Wind started howling again, but this time it produced a song, whizzing through the holes in the wooden shack. Alice squatted down and hugged Sticky, as she felt her heart fill with joy. "Finally, I found someone here who's going to make it easier for me to live without constantly feeling like I want to die...", she whispered to Sticky.