The tale of a little girl

Long ago, let's see, about twenty to thirty years ago, there lived a little girl with her father and mother. On her first birthday, her parents brought a small cute puppy into her life, which changed her usually dull life almost instantaneously. She was instantly attached to the puppy and vice versa. After many months of being together, they were almost inseparable. Neither the girl nor the pup could last far from each other, not even for a day.

Years passed; six years to be exact. The girl and the pup, who grew into a dog now, were still going as strong six years ago. But, tragedy befalls them at an unexpected time. The dog got hold of an illness that slowly led him to his death. Yet he never signaled his master about it—he stayed strong as ever. As we say, everyone has to die once. He too died not so long after. In his deathbed, he saw his cute little master crying over him. Seeing that, the dog wished to last longer, just so that he could see her smile; just so that he could play with her; just so that he could sleep on her lap. But as fate dictated, he couldn't fulfill his final wish.

The dog turned into a spirit. But, for a spirit to ascend to heaven, they either had to fulfill their last wish, which was impossible to most, especially for animals or had to discard that last wish. Many spirits around him discarded their final wish and ascended to heaven. Meanwhile, he stayed strong and chose to fulfill his wish by any means. He stayed by the little girl's side every day, hoping that his master could see him someday, even though such a wish was futile.

As for the girl, she cried and cried every day. She was sad that she didn't know about his ailment sooner. She wished if she could see him one more time, she'd make sure to take care of him, stay beside him and play with him. If only she could! She longed for it, more than anything.

Then a miracle happened. One day, the dog noticed that his master could finally see him. He jumped around. Similarly, upon seeing her beloved pet once again, she grew ecstatic and told her parents about it. Her parents took pity on her and consoled her. But it didn't take for the pity to shift into doubt as her behavior grew odder by their standards day-by-day, thay they finally branded her as a mentally ill person.

Disappointed by her parents, she thought that her friends could see and understand what she meant. Instead, her friends treated her as a lunatic. With none to believe her words, she started hating the world for everything it stood for.

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"Maybe the girl's really a lunatic. Maybe she really was mentally ill, you know?" Tanya said, interrupting the flow of the story and slightly turned back.

"Maybe she was—who's to know? But this is my story to tell, isn't it? So, don't talk back or turn back unless I tell you to, got it?" The person ordered.

"Yea, yea. Continue with your story." Tanya sighed.

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So, in the midst of all this, the said family was blessed with another daughter. They took good care of the daughter so that she won't turn like her elder sister. The young one didn't quite get it. Her sister looked cool to her—she always wanted to be like her.

However, when she stepped out into the world, she heard people calling her sister a lunatic, an insane one, and various other terms. She felt them insulting her sister, bashing her for conjuring up a dead dog from her imagination and trying to act like it was real.

The young one was acting oblivious to it at first. But as time moved on, she felt quite ashamed to live with a big sister who seemed to always be in the world of imagination. She didn't know about the dog's relationship with the girl or that its spirit was not something that she imagined up. So, the more she grew, the more she hated her sister for dragging the family name along the dirt.

The young one, once afraid to talk to her sister about it, finally mustered her courage and faced her. She complained about various things that she hated about her sister. The elder one, who patiently heard it from the beginning, laughed and asked, "So, do you wanna see the dog, hmm?"

Seeing the strange confidence in her sister's eyes, she decided to take up her offer and finally bring back the cool sister she once knew.

"Then grab my hand." The elder one said as she extended her right hand. The young one grabbed on it.

At that exact moment, the young one's point of view about the world completely changed as she saw a bright light in her sister's left hand. Upon close inspection, she saw a very small, palm-sized dog, cozily sitting on her palm.

The young one was startled as the small cute dog pranced over to her and rolled around in her hand. When she let go of her sister's hand in an urge to pat that dog, it was gone. Surprised, she grabbed on her sister's hand again and she could see the dog. Puzzled, she asked her sister about it.

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