Meadow

I DON'T WORRY, WORRYING DON'T AGREE
THINGS THAT BOTHER YOU, NEVER BOTHER ME!

“Oh, you know…” Talya trailed off, head tilting as her blue eyes reached toward the sky.

She wondered if it should worry her that the sun was slowly dropping toward the horizon and Mamapapa had yet to return. She wondered if she should worry about what he was doing. Almost immediately she cast the thoughts aside, deciding it was easier not to think of it at all. Instead her attention returned to Nobody, who she glanced curiously at to see the mare had her eyes closed.

It was very easy for Talya to do what she wanted to do when she wasn’t being watched. She smiled and perked up a little, then remembered she hadn’t answered Nobody’s question.

She remembered hearing the tight, gasping breaths as a little body wheezed desperately beside her, nostrils clogged with snot. She remembered how much it’d hurt – more pain than she’d once ever thought possible – that day she had to lay in the shadowed underbrush she’d found and push the moving thing from her belly. She remembered the yellow mare, and how much the yellow mare didn’t like the name she’d chosen.

She remembered when there were no more wheezing breaths. No more movement at all.

Talya’s heart sank and tears pricked at her eyes. “I can’t talk about it.” She said, and her voice was lackluster and sad.

Oh, she was so very, very tired of being sad. Talya blinked the tears from her eyes and glanced Nobody’s way. Nobody was good at playing pretend. Perhaps she would like to keep playing with Talya… she’d pay attention for Mamapapa’s return and make sure to run back to her hiding place the second they saw him coming.

“Nobody?” She asked, moving closer to her new friend, eyes bright and curious. “What’s your favorite game?”