“Take care, we’ll be back home by midnight. Make sure to sleep on time, and yes, most importantly, don’t forget to eat your dinner. Bye, sweetheart!” said mum while kissing my forehead.

“Yes, mum!” I said smiling.

“Lock the door, and don’t worry, we’ll be back soon,” said dad.

“Sure thing, dad!” I said and locked the door behind them. I was home alone while my parents went to my grandmother’s house since she had a high fever. I thought of having the night of my life and stay up watching TV.

I decided to finish my homework first, which was completed by 8pm. I felt hungry so I quickly microwaved my dinner, brought the quilt to the couch, turned on the TV and connected to Netflix. I decided to watch Harry Potter, and started eating my delicious spaghetti.

Just an hour or so passed when I heard the sound of rain and thunder, and with it, the atmosphere also turned quite cold. I felt nervous, because I didn’t expect the rain. The rain lashed the living room’s window, while thunder cracked the concrete roads.

I felt a bit scared, but jerking off the scary thoughts, I tried to remain engrossed in the movie. I soon started to get a little sleepy, so I decided to turn off the TV, make a hot cup of chocolate milk and enjoy the rainy weather while sitting in front of my window sill.

The thunder with heavy rain made the evening very cold and dark. I was enjoying the weather when suddenly, I heard a knock on the main door. I walked to the door, wondered who could be at the door at this time of the night, if it were my parents, they would already have entered the house because they had the keys. But this knock was unusual.

I went closer to the door and asked who was out there. There was no answer. I asked again. I heard a slow bark. I opened the door and looked outside. There was no one. I tried to close the door, just then, I saw a small adorable, but soaking wet golden retriever puppy sitting at our doormat. I couldn’t resist the loneliness in that puppy’s eyes, so I took the puppy in.

I grabbed an old towel and dried up the dog with it, wrapped it in old warm clothes. The puppy felt comfortable. I took it into my room and brought some milk since the puppy seems hungry too. I decided to give it a name: Storm, since I found it on a stormy night.

I asked Storm to sit with me on my bed for the night, and it understood what I said and followed my command immediately! Storm was pretty smart.

With Storm and me tucked in the quilt on the bed, we fell asleep instantly. Sometime later, I suddenly woke up and saw Storm wasn’t there with me! I searched the whole house, calling out, “Storm!”, but Storm wasn’t there. Strangely, there was no window open, nor any door. And my parents weren’t even home that they might’ve left it outside. I couldn’t think of anywhere it could have gone, because it was too strange to even think.

Where could my little buddy be? I wondered and became worried. I desperately wanted my parents to be with me at that time.

In a little while, there was some noise at the main door. I got scared, but then I realised that they were familiar voices and ran towards the door. I left a huge sigh of relief as I saw mum and dad entering in to the house. I hugged them. They became worried seeing me so anxious, and asked what had happened. I couldn’t even wait for them to come inside and told them the whole thing.

It’s been months since that stormy night, but I still can’t understand how the cute little puppy came as a storm and vanished as a dream.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 23rd, 2021