The Dark and Gold!

On the 3,253 minute of the year, I was venturing away from the all too bright house owned by my auntie. Necklaces and jewelry were all she adored. That and pinching my cheeks. I figured if I avoided the house, I would avoid her grasp. My poor cheeks couldn’t handle the abuse anymore. I lunged forward and back as I walked and rubbed my cheeks, nervous of running into my auntie again.

My mother watched me as I walked away, and I could feel my uncle’s eyes upon me. He was quiet, I liked him. He always seemed to be keeping an eye on me, though he pretended he didn’t for some reason. Right now, however, I didn’t want to be around anyone. They seemed to always be asking me questions and I was always expected to answer, but I didn’t want to talk.

“How are you?”

“G-goo…”

I hadn’t figured out the ‘d’ sounds yet, but they would seem satisfied by my answer and leave me alone. Sometimes I wanted to say ‘bad’, but that didn’t seem like an acceptable answer to them. If I did answer with my broken ‘ba-‘, I would be either asked again or asked to explain. Neither of which I appreciated, but no one seemed to care what I actually thought of their dumb inquiries.

I wasn’t quite sure why my mother had chosen to visit my auntie this summer. I was content to be left alone on my tablet and hearing that sound I liked from a show I wasn’t quite sure the name of. However, I found the clip online and that’s all I needed. Out here, for some reason, my tablet wouldn’t work and just gave this big ‘failure’ symbol whenever I opened the app.

My tablet would protect me from interacting with the all too loud world, but not here. I eventually found a door. Looking up and swaying I could see that it was a really big door. An old door. The paint that was peeling on it was brightly colored.

I had learned a long time ago not to eat the paint. My mother would shout and say something about ‘poison’ and I don’t like poison. So, I don’t eat paint anymore. It was tempting and I poke at the large door several times, feeling the dry paint crackle and break off. I liked the touch of the door, it was sharp. I had never met a sharp door before.

Even better, the door was ajar and I had never been told not to go in a door that was opened. I think I was supposed to go in doors that were open. It would be weird if I didn’t because then I wouldn’t know a place. The space beyond the open door would be like a gap in my memory, and I wouldn’t like that.

Pushing open the door a little, I peered inside. There was a darkness about this place that I enjoyed. Not at all like the bright house that auntie had. The smells were interesting too and I wafted the air, moving my nose forward and back through the air to take in as many scents as possible.

There were animals in here, I could hear them breathing and making their odd sounds. As I shuffled into the big… house for animals?… I could feel the dirty floor scrape under my feet as I dragged my worn shoes. I wore out shoes because I didn’t pick up my feet, but I liked the feel of them dragging on the ground. I could almost feel the ground through them, which was nice.

This floor was very rough, not like the carpet, hardwood, or tile at my apartment. I missed my apartment, but this place was cool. I figured while I was here, I would go further. I walked in deeper and immediately heard a sound, not like any sound I heard before off to my right. I had to put my fingers in my ear.

Why did it make that sound? I looked at the big brown creature and thought maybe it was a horse. No, horses didn’t look like that. This one had a weird head and a bell under its neck.

Back home, my mother tried to show me a toy that would spin round and round and then let out a loud noise identifying an animal, but… this animal hadn’t made that noise. I guessed it was a cow, however, I’m pretty sure my toy had gotten the sound wrong.

I reached out tentatively to touch it’s face. I’ve learned that animals sometimes have sharp teeth that they bite with. My older brother has a dog that barks really loudly, so I pulled it’s tail one day to get it to stop, it bit me and I didn’t want to go near it again. At least, not until I bit it back. Now it seems weary about me, but my mother said that was a bad thing.

Anyways, I don’t bite animals anymore, but that doesn’t mean they won’t bite me. As I touched the fur, or hair, not really sure what to call it on this animal’s head. I was surprised because it didn’t seem bothered by my touch. The animal was solid beneath it’s coarse fur. It felt funny to touch such a fuzzy creature that was so big and firm. This animal wasn’t anything like my cats, which were soft and squishy, and actually made the sound my toy said they were supposed to make. Occasionally, I’d meow back at them and they’d converse.

I tried hollering at this big animal the way it had at me. It didn’t seem interested. So, I hollered again. The vibrations in my throat felt funny to make such a loud noise and I had to make it again. Maybe, I wasn’t hollering loud enough, so I leaned forward and belted out the loudest sound I could while holding my fingers in my ears, so as not to harm my own hearing.

The large animal turned away, as if uninterested in conversation, or maybe annoyed at my poor attempts at communication. It probably felt mocked! I didn’t mean to mock it. At that moment, I felt bad, until another animal bleated from a stall nearby. I walked away, as clearly the large brown animal cared not, and made my way to the other stall, sure to scrape my feet to feel the rough floor boards as I walked.

This one I knew. Unlike the brown animal, which I thought was supposed to be black and white, this one looked like it’s picture. This animal had two big horns on its head and looked just goofy. This one was definitely a goat. I heard they eat anything and only wish I had one of those cans I’ve seen them eat in those cartoons. I only like playing with the cans when they’re full. They’re too loud when they’re empty. We have six cans at home, but I don’t know if we have any here.

I reached for the goats horns, but it didn’t seem to feel like sharing and pulled away from me. This was frustrating because I never had the chance to touch a goat’s horns before. I stomped my foot to show I was angry, but the goat didn’t come back within reach. So, I ignored it’s bleating by covering my ears and walking away, all while making my own special sound and pretending I was one of the animals.

Suddenly, I had to change my direction as I walked through a thin sliver of light that seemed to break through the walls of the barn. It was like one of those laser pointer things and I didn’t want to get caught in it’s bright light, it would have ruined the atmosphere. I was enjoying the dark of the barn, and while the smells were kind of overwhelming, they kind of melded together in my head, so I didn’t mind them. They smelled better than that stupid elevator back at my mom’s apartment.

As I dragged my feet, I felt something new. I stopped and slid my feet again, feeling the odd sensation. I looked down and could see small streaks of gold on the floor. It was odd seeing such a thing in this place. Why would gold sticks be strewn across an old building like this with animals? I stepped on the sticks again to hear them crackle and yelped in surprise. Bending over, I glanced at them and laughed. They were so funny. Little golden sticks that broke. Glancing up, I saw that there was an entire pile of them.

Rocking back and forth in excitement, I knew where I wanted to hang out for the rest of my stay. I had found a pile of treasure in a secret dark place. I was surrounded by animals that didn’t seem to mind my presence, more or less. And, of course, no one was pinching my cheeks. There were loads of sounds to process, but great silences in between. And I didn’t have to worry about silly conversations.

I could just be me. Truly, this was a magical place.