Let us go with a great big shout.

We'll pass through the town and across the hills

Let us go with a great big shout.

We'll pass through the woods and cross rivers, too

With our puppy friends and our kitty friends, too

We'll make a joyful noise and say, "Hey, hey, hey.."

I sang this song as I waited for him to return. It was a song I used to sing before my mother died, before my world started to crumble. I remembered this innocence and felt it like a jewel in my hand. I opened my fingers but I knew, even though I could feel it, it was gone.

Being alone taught me many things. The greatest lesson was of fear.

I was always afraid, but I never showed it. Not that I had anyone to show it to. There was only the reflection in the mirror every morning but I knew my face well enough to hate it. And there were the ghostly silhouettes of people I used to know but were now gone. At times I wondered if they ever existed. I had been in solitude for so long… maybe I... maybe I was the one who disappeared.

Being alone caused me to forget as well.

I forgot how to show expressions, how to be surprised or even angry. I forgot the sounds of voices and people laughing. My memories were turned to black and white and I wondered if they were just all part of an old film I had seen. None of this was real. Slowly, I felt I was forgetting how to live. I was deteriorating from within.

My life was a routine that would slowly kill me and yet, I did not dare change my actions. I took the train to school every morning. I went to class and studied alone. After dismissal, I'd practice archery again and again. I never missed the target and I doubted I ever would.

Because nothing changed around here. Not even me.

I longed for any type of change, but I was stuck in a world frozen in time. I was out of place. I didn't try to feel emotions anymore. I stayed unfeeling and that was fine if I was to be stuck here for all eternity.

Then there was that fated day.

I was staring at the floor of the train station, waiting at the usual time and headed for the usual destination. I felt the wind of the approaching train on my face and I looked up, only to see a boy staring back at me with as much surprise in his eyes as there were in mine.

At that moment, my heart stopped. I wanted to call out to him but I had not used my voice in so long. I was afraid. But my thoughts were racing a mile a minute.

He is real.

Real, a word I had not believed in so long. It rang in my ears like a melody.

But the train stopped in front of me and I couldn't see him any longer.

Just that day, I would not attend school. I ran from the train station and down the neighboring streets of my home, desperate to be greeted by a smiling face or loud voices, or anything that would prove to me that I was not alone. I didn't want to be alone anymore.

There was nothing.

But I knew he was real. I knew… I had to find him. Somehow.

He was my only hope.