Alicia kim's blog

A big drop of water hit me suddenly. I looked up and saw big drops showering over the city. I sat in the dark, alone, even though I was soaking wet, and looked over the city, the shining lights from tall buildings. There was a huge dark cloud in the sky. It reminded me of the day my mom died on the streets. 

The day my mom died, there were huge dark clouds making big thunder sounds. My mom and I had been walking through the streets, looking for food to eat. We had been starving for several days at least, and we couldn’t go without food anymore. It was severe to the point that we could have eaten anything, anything edible. We ran through the streets, looking through the trash cans, under benches, in front of restaurants, for any leftover food. All we found were a leftover can of tuna, bread crumbs in a sandwich bag, and a leftover, bitten apple. After quickly gobbling down all of the food, we still craved more. My mom decided to go find food on her own, as it was daytime, and it was indeed dangerous. 

She said, “I’ll be back soon. Wait for me.”

I replied, “Be back soon.”

That was the last thing I said to her. Later, a few hours after she left, I went to find her, as she wasn’t coming home. I hurriedly scampered across streets, between trash cans, over roads, and more, but I couldn’t find her. I had to run through those terrible humans’ long legs, towering over me like giants’. I was terrified they would walk on me. 

In desperation and fear, I searched for her for what felt like minutes. Finally, I spotted her. She was laying on the side of the road. I crazily ran toward her. Then I slowed my approach, as there was no reaction from my mom. I carefully looked at her face, but only to find it calm. I nudged her to wake her up, but she wouldn’t wake up for some reason. 

I stayed there for a few days, without eating, patiently sitting on the side of the road, for her to wake up. I waited days and nights for her to wake up, and prayed that it was all a dream. She couldn’t possibly be dead. I sat there through rain, snow, and wind, looking solemnly at the ground and the humans.

Humans were complex creatures. As I have heard and learned, there are two types. The first are humans who bully our kind, our species, and hit us whenever they want. They would try to get rid of us if we were living in their houses. The other kind are better; they provide us shelter and food. They are the kind of humans that are gracious enough to provide us a can of tuna or a slice of bread. They are extremely gigantic, with towering legs and big heads. They are also smart, like us. They created all of the buildings in the city, including trash cans, our primary source of food, and benches, our favorite spot to snuggle up on at night. I guess we could say they created all of our environment—but cut down all of the forests our ancestors lived in. 

I sat on the roof that whole rainy dark night. I fell asleep like that.

I woke up suddenly from a nightmare of my mom’s death. It was vivid, like it was real once more. I shook my head and jumped down to the staircase along the wall. The rain had stopped. I slowly walked to the nearest trash can I could find and searched for any possible food that I could consume.

After searching for what felt like hours, I got out of the trash can and went to a nearby park. I walked into the morning air, again, seeing the towering legs and big heads of the giants. I realized again they had big steps, ten times bigger than mine, and I had to sprint with my small tiny legs to catch up to them. I arrived at the park finally, and I looked there for any type of food. I had been starving for approximately three days, and the last thing I’d eaten, or rather, consumed, was rain water.