Words from the author: This story is also published elsewhere.
Best regards.
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CHAPTER 1
This story goes back to my childhood, movies and novels led me to fall head over heels in love with the girl of my dreams: Emma.
That girl was one of the first I met; we lived in the same neighborhood, and it was called by many the first love.
As we grew up, I noticed in her special characteristics that caught my attention, her warmth when smiling and the kind ways in which she treated animals added to her beauty made me seek to approach her in a sentimental way.
I remember perfectly the day I realized that Emma was not like the others. We were on an excursion with the school, walking along a path full of cypress trees. She, as always, went to the front, looking carefully at every detail of the landscape. His warm smile lit up the surroundings, and every time he saw an animal, no matter how small, he stopped to observe it tenderly.
At one point, we found a small sparrow that seemed to have fallen out of its nest. As everyone went on their way, Emma bent down without hesitation. Carefully, he took the little bird in his hands, looked at it with a mixture of concern and tenderness.
"We can't leave it here," he said with a worried face.
The rest of the group insisted that there was nothing to be done, and if we stayed any longer, we would miss the bus that was leaving for the city. Even the tutor mentioned letting nature take its course. But I stayed with her. Her determination made me see her as a beacon in a storm. We decided to look for the tree from which it had fallen. And during that moment, as Emma talked about the duty we had to care for the most vulnerable, I couldn't help but admire her passion and the gentleness with which she treated the little animal. When we finally found the nest and returned it. Emma looked at me and smiled in a way I'll never forget.
From that day on, something changed inside me.
His way of being his warmth and that sparkle in his eyes awakened an interest in me that went far beyond admiration. I knew I wanted to be close to her, learn from her sensibility, and maybe share more than just a friendship.
At the beginning everything was going wonderfully, she was quite receptive when I accompanied her home, I even helped her carry her backpack, I lent her my notes, and occasionally I read poems to dedicate to her one day. There was not a day that I did not think of her and that brought me happiness inside.
Trust grew between us, he told me about his family problems, his dreams of being a great professional in the future and his fascination with taking care of animals: I was, so to speak, his best friend and now that I think about it that condemned me.
Her love for animals led her to help at a dog shelter, and I, as her best friend, followed her in her noble cause. There we met Dante, a dog who was always hungry, he was quite friendly. And although he did not belong to that place, he always appeared at lunchtime, no one knew his owner, but we did know that he existed because of the red strap around his neck.
I particularly liked the animal, because when he was present Emma was always glad to see him. Time passed, many dogs left and arrived at the shelter, but Dante was special, I never saw him fight or be aggressive with those around him, always respecting that the food arrived in his lunch box to start eating and as every time he wagged his tail as a sign of joy when Emma approached, and she reciprocated. The three of us spent long hours talking and laughing. We seemed like a perfect family.
Time continued to pass, and the time came to decide the future, Emma was always a diligent student and although she had a scholarship to apply to good universities in other states, she decided to stay and apply to the local university. She never told her parents the reason, but I guessed that it was to stay close to the hostel. I wanted to do the same, but my parents were stricter with my education and inevitably I had to leave in a month. With time running out I tried to spend more time with her.
The cycle of life in nature is always in constant change, the autumn wind announced that the beating of the leaves would become more and more constant, they would take on a browner color, like Dante's fur, I realized that the brightness of his best times had gone along with his vigorous walk. He was walking slower now and had a small limp on his hind leg. I understood that it was about old age, in the end they tend to live less than humans.
But Emma thought differently, she couldn't stand the idea that at some point he would leave this world. And he did not leave him alone under any circumstances, this led us to follow him to the place where he slept, a small house on the outskirts of the city, in that place we met its owner.
He was a dangerous-looking man, he had a lot of tattoos on his body, and he could tell he wasn't much older than us, but his bad habits had taken their toll. When he saw us, he behaved aggressively, hurling some insults to get us to leave and forbidding us to go near his dog again, but Emma tried to reason with him and they agreed that, if we gave him about twenty dollars, they would let us spend more time with Dante.
Distrustful, I set out to investigate that man, I asked in many nearby places and got his name, I checked his social networks, I was surprised that they were full of publications and images that denigrate women, I was disgusted and understood the reason why he had neglected his pet.
A few days passed and the poor animal could no longer stand, and its condition worsened, so Emma stayed in that austere place longer, for my part I had to do some paperwork to enter the university so I could not accompany her, and I advised her that she should be careful with the man, since his presence gave me a bad feeling.
"He is usually not at home because he apparently walks the streets," he replied with a smile.
That left me more serene. But there was still something that did not leave me calm, and it was like a bug that bit me inside, and that is that I was deeply in love with Emma, many years had passed and I still felt the same, I liked everything that had to do with her, and with the passage of time that feeling had increased. I decided that the time had come to stop being a coward and finally declare my love for him.
It was an ordinary Sunday, but something in the air told me that it would not be at all. The day had started slowly, with a coffee in his hands and the first light of dawn sneaking through the windows. I looked outside and the streets were quiet, as if the world had decided to take a break with me.
I turned on the computer and, with no clear purpose, let my playlist start playing. That's when "DJ Quads -- Missing Someone" started filling the room. The initial notes, soft and melancholy, seemed to take me to a hidden corner of my memory, a place I hadn't visited in a long time.
Suddenly, I felt it. Something inexplicable, as if a spark had ignited my interior. Then I understood that it was time.
"Today is the day," The words came out of my mouth with a force that carried determination in its simile.
