Hi everyone! My name is Sunny. I am a 13 year old Bernese mountain dog. I am about to tell you the story about my unique journey to becoming immortal…
⤁
I let out a large yawn as the door
to the room slammed shut. It took a while to adjust to the darkness inside this
new home of mine, but the lights from the Christmas tree in the corner helped
out. I was the new to this shelter and was anxious to know what the local dogs
would think of me. As I was about to lay down when a low bellowing voice from
the kennel across the room spoke out.
“Hey newbie! Names Sasha. What’s yours?”
The shape of a beautiful border collie appeared before my eyes. His eyes were
sunken and he looked quite old.
“Uhm, the name is Sunny.”
“Well, Sunny. I see you’re quite
young compared to all the locals. I am sure that you will get adopted pretty quickly
with that smile of yours. I do have one question though since you won’t be
around long and I don’t want you to suffer the same fate as me being in here. Have
you ever heard of immortality?”
“No, I am afraid not.” I returned
an answer to this strange question.
“Well you see, once you are
adopted you can gain immortality. All you have to do is a simple task in order
to gain this magical gift.” Sasha’s voice slowed down and hung on the last few
words
.
“What is the task!?” I yearned for
immortality because I simply feared death. I mean, who doesn’t?
“It’s simple… Become a good boy.”
With those words, Sasha laid down and fell asleep.
⤁
The next morning was a complete
blur. I was contemplating what Sasha had mentioned the night before but kept
getting distracted from the humans walking around. As dogs next to me got adopted
left and right, I finally gave up and laid down to rest. I can’t believe how
some of these dogs last in here for months. I wanted out… Now!
Just as all hope was lost, a young
man and woman walked up to my kennel. A few good scratches and licks later, I
was in their car with my head out the window. I was well on my way to becoming a
good boy for my humans.
The car finally came to a stop and
I sat in my seat waiting patiently to not get in trouble. I mean, my first
impression had to be good so I can become immortal. All of a sudden, a smell
caught my nose. I resisted and resisted but my oh my that smell! It smelled
like heaven. As my new owners opened the door, I couldn’t take it any longer…
I jolted as quickly as I could and
was on the trail of this delicious smell with my new humans following right
behind. When I arrived at the end of the smelling trail, I saw what it was. It was
the most delicious looking prime rib I had ever seen. I stuck my tongue out to
lick it but I remembered that I needed to be a good boy.
I couldn’t help it though. I mean
this prime rib looked amazing! So before my humans got to me I gobbled up about
half of the prime rib. I was ashamed… I couldn’t even resist this my FIRST day with
my humans. I felt my tail go between my legs and I slowly walked to the
corner.
As soon my new humans reached me,
I heard the anger in their voices. I knew I was in trouble. I mentally prepared
for my punishment when all of a sudden the young woman got on her knees and
spoke to me.
“Aw hun. Our pup must be starving!
They must not be feeding him anything in that kennel. Let me cut off some more
for him and we can all celebrate our Christmas Eve dinner together.”
As she put some into my bowl, I
heard her say those magical words.
“Here’s your food Sunny. You are
such a good boy!” My face lit up with excitement. I was well on my way to
becoming immortal and happy forever!
⤁
Now as I sit here 11 years later
breathing heavy, looking into the eyes of my humans I love so much, I finally
understood what Sasha meant. Being a good boy did not actually mean immortality.
What it meant was having the best possible life and getting to spend every
second of it with MY humans. I mean hey, that feels like immortality to me…
Author’s Note: This reading is
based off of me reading The Monkey King. The stone ape in this story tries to
become immortal but constantly suffers from not being civilized enough. I
wanted to play off of this and have my main character be a dog who couldn’t
resist simply being a dog. The stone ape eventually gains immorality, but he
never really became civilized. Therefore, I had Sunny do something as easy as
becoming a good boy and gaining not immortality, but a great life with his
humans. I felt that having a dog live forever would have been unrealistic,
therefore, I decided to be more grounded in my story. In contrast to the
original story, I made Sunny happier and not so stuck on himself. I felt the
original stone ape solely wanted immortality for himself, however, by the end
of my story I wanted the reader to understand why Sunny wanted it. He simply
wanted to live forever with his humans.
In terms of characters, symbols,
and the setting, I tried to keep some portions similar to the original while I
changed others. The prime rib represented The Peaches of Immortality that the
stone ape ate without permission. Additionally, Sasha was the great Master that
the stone ape heard of immortality from. Finally, I wanted it to be set in the
modern world for the reader to be able to connect better with the story.
