Fourteen

Alijah got into the kitchen, poured the last of her oatmeal into a bowl, added some milk to it, and made her way back to the room where she had left the stranger and his cat. She shook her head as she realized that the cat she had grown fond of would no longer be hers since the owner would want to go back for his pet when he was leaving. Even if the cat wanted to stay with her, she was sure the man would insist on taking the cat away.

She would miss the pet. She had come to rely on the companionship the cat gave her. Now, there would be no one she could talk to and tell all her worries. She would return home to only her furniture and the silence her house provided her with. She sighed as she tried to shoot the depressing thoughts away. She was already used to being alone for most of her life, so returning to that circle again shouldn't be such a hard thing for her.

It was a hard thing, she thought. Whether she admitted it out loud or not, whether she thought of it in her mind or she d