All That Is Left Behind

I took my dog in my arms, and I made my way to the boy. I was no older than four of five, and there was absolute distress written all over his face.

I made sure to have a good grip on my dog as he could get exited easily, and I knew a lot of people, including children, are easily intimidated by dogs, especially the overly expressive ones.

“Hey there,” I said.

The boy didn’t even look at me.

“Are you lost?” I asked him.

He didn’t turn around, but I knew he heard and understood me as he pointedly put his back to mine. There were silent tears in his eyes, but contrary to most children I’ve encountered, he wasn’t expressing his sadness very openly, which I found quite strange.

“You see,” I began. “My dog is named Miki, and he kept asking me to come around here. I really don’t know why. Do you? Maybe there’s a tennis ball hidden here somewhere. Would you help me look?”

He finally turned around, but his eyes were automatically drawn to Miki.

Miki gave him a doggy grin and waved his tail so hard, his little booty went side to side in my arms.

The boy had brown hair and gorgeous large brown eyes. He was wearing good clean clothes too that fit him perfectly. And he looked at the dog, hypnotized.

“Do you want to pet him?” I asked.

He said nothing, but I knew he heard me. He didn’t look at me, still glued to Miki.

“Here, let me show you how.” Then I spent the next minute showing the boy how to pet a dog.

“Do you want to try?” I asked him.

dared look at me. It was brief, and he returned his gaze automatically to Miki. It gave me the strange vibe you get with autistic children. He

on him to make sure he would not get too close to the kid and spook him, whom eventually caved and gave the first pet. It was short and just one finger on the forehead

repeated the exercise a few times, and he did more and more every time.

he talked, and given how he ignored me when

Granted this communication method was pretty rudimentary, but at

crying either, and as minutes went by and he interacted more and more with the dog,

is your name?”

His smiled disappeared as he looked briefly at me.

have to tell me if you don’t want to. I’m Mila. I live with Miki not far from here. Miki loves parks very much, so we came here for a bit

I thought that if I shared information first it could make me sound more trustworthy,

bag, and next to my drawing pad, I found

was going on, and suddenly ignore the kid and turned to

I took a treat out

contain his excitement and sat, shaking his weight from his left paw to his

above his head and made him lie down. I had to say it twice until, his desire for the biscuit overcame his excitement and then

child looked at this scene in

you want to try it?” I asked.

nodded.

managed to make the kid

him to sit though,” I said as Miki was now back on his paws going in circles and then sitting, but going back

It took a lot of coaxing out of me to finally make the kid talk. I guessed that if he was more interested in the dog than me that he might be more willing to talk to him rather than

had to be done, but he

treats in a

normally not encourage so much feeding, but it was working really well, and I had heard the boy say at least four words now, and they were not as

the treats were all gone,

know what Miki