Walking back from the evening market, I couldn’t but stop looking at the house. An old, lonely house surrounded by empty lands filled with thorny bushes. It stood there still, overlooking the constant gush of waves from the Arabian Sea. Rundown and dusty, is there anything more pathetic than this structure? I should say yes, the one who lives there and that would be me. I had always been a loner and felt comfortable that way; I didn’t have a lot of friends, never found love and wasn’t good at socializing. But in recent days this loneliness was overwhelming. I craved for a company but there was none. As I unlocked the house and got in, I could feel the heat from the scorching rays of the sun through the windows facing the sea. I pulled the thick blinds that shut the light completely. There, in that dark room I slouched on my armchair and at some point fell asleep.
When I woke up it was morning. I realized it wasn’t the usual alarm that roused me. It was a meek whimpering and it came from outside the door. I got up and opened the door to find a furry little puppy curled up on the veranda. As I moved closer I realized he wasn’t whimpering, it was his peaceful snore. When he woke up I gave him some milk and he hungrily gulped it. But he did the same with the loaf of bread I gave him later and also a pack of biscuits. He was always hungry and always on his toes. He ran around the house the entire day and followed me for every step I took. In the afternoon, when I sat in the armchair and read a book, he snuggled beside my feet and licked them to his heart’s content.
In the evening, I woke up when the sunrays fell on my face and realized I had fallen asleep reading. As I stood up to pull the blinds close, the puppy came running and started pulling my hands. He wanted me to go with him; his enthusiasm surprised me and brought a smile on my face. I followed as he ran outside the house and through the bushes to the beach. I noticed that the bushes had bloomed with tiny and pretty flowers. He had reached the waters before me and in all merry was running around playing with the waves. Suddenly he turned to look at me as though beckoning me to join, his golden yellow hair shining like the sun. Behind him I saw the sun gradually moving towards the sea. The seagulls were flying back to their nests. I sat there to devour the moment in all its glory and felt the setting sun’s rays light up my heart. After living my entire life by the sea, today I saw my perfect sunset. ‘Sunset!’ I called out and he quickly turned around and dashed to my side. My perfect, precious sunset.
