SAD

• Kayla Bowles, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2009

Hi. I used to be sad. I didn’t have a home, I didn’t have a family, or friends.
I didn’t even have a name. I was just sad.

The sad was big; huge like the sky. And like the sky it was always there. Above me, around me. The darkness smothered me like a dark and toxic fog.

Then one day. IT, happened.
I learnt something.
I met someone.
I met her. Kyoko Sasaki.

“Hey kid,” She said, when she saw me sitting on the ground.
I got up, ready to run. That was my first reaction. The primal reaction I got when I saw people. Whenever I saw someone I’d be ready to run. But for some reason I stopped. I looked at the girl. She had a strange face. A face I saw people make when they were together.
She was smiling.
At me!

“What are you doing on the ground kid?” The girl asked. She was still smiling.
I frowned.
She smiled.
The girl laughed. She offered me some food. “Here, take it.”

I snatched the food away greedily. Staring suspiciously at the girl as I ate the food.
The girl laughed again. “Don’t you know how to smile?”
“Smile?” I asked.
The girl playfully pushed up one side of my cheek. “Yeah, smile.”
I slapped her hand away. “I don’t think I know how.”

“But you must know how to smile.”
I tilted my head at the girl. Why did she want me to smile?
“Everyone knows how to smile!”

The girl knelt down to meet my eye level. “ It’s easy.” She said. “All you do is feel happy and make your mouth curve upwards!”

Then, my lips twitched.

And an amazing feeling came over me. It consumed me from head to toe.
A feeling which relinquished all others. Including the big sad one.

The feeling was light and bubbly and, as it made its way through me, I felt my frown disappear and my lips move. I looked at my feet and tried to understand this feeling.
Could it be that ‘Happy’ thing the girl had mentioned?

Yes, yes! That was it!
I was happy!

Happy and smiling!
“Ahh, so she can smile!” The older girl said. “C’mon.”

“So what’s ya name kid?” She asked.
“I don’t have one.”
The girl thought for a moment.
“Then we’re gonna have to change that. Eh?”

That was all a long time ago. Four whole years ago. It seems like forever since the big sad.

I have a home now.

And a family.
With Kyoko and her mother, father and sister.

And lots of friends.
At my new school.

And a name. Akini Sasaki.
That’s ME!

And ... every now and then ...

I see someone who’s sad.

And I smile at them.

And my smile says, don’t be sad.

Be happy ... and ...

SMILE!!