Sarah

Written for https://sundaywhirl.wordpress.com/2024/08/25/wordle-669/

Three months recovering from my nervous breakdown, and three in my holiday home by the sea. I am ready for my fresh start. Graham would ask me to be happy, and I am living a life my brother Joe couldn’t.

A sense of calm shelters in my mind. A wizard of a name. Merlin. An angel in paw form, helping my thoughts quieten to nothing but silence.

I keep my arms still, allowing him to join me; if he wants.

He sniffs before my feathered breaths, brings him closer.

‘Hey, nice to meet you.’ My words stutter, but grow in confidence. ‘I’m Sarah. Do you want to live with me? I promise long walks on the beach and lots of treats from my best friend Tony.’

His golden eyes, unusual even in a German Shephard, soften my fears. I scratch his cold nose, and he all but smiles at me. Keeping to my right, he instinctively understands half of my world is in shadow. The brittle bones sweep the branches of hope into place.

Black on his back, his paws tanned, he tilts his radar like ears turn to my voice.

He isn’t the first guide dog I met, but I think he might be my last.

‘I give you my word. I will protect you, just as you will protect me.’

Tears gather on my cheeks; I am not ashamed.

We are bonding.

Whatever I decide to do, Merlin is my chance to be Sarah again.