FARE WELL

Art by MOrtiz. IG: _miiart_

He hid under the couch and wished with all his might that they wouldn’t find him. Maybe then, it wouldn’t happen.

“Pablo? Where are you? Pablo?” His mom’s voice slowly faded away as the kitchen door closed behind her. Pablo sighed in relief. A small cloud of dust wafted up, causing Pablo’s nose to itch. Pablo sneezed as quietly as he could, shifted his weight off his slowly numbing right arm and lay flat on his back.

Pablo stared right up the bottom of the couch. It wasn’t very interesting, just a mesh of white nylon thread crisscrossed in a chaotically ordered pattern. He wished he brought a comic book or one of his toy soldiers to keep him company. Surely his most favorite officer, Lance Corporal James, could keep boredom at bay.

It was a mistake to think about Lance Corporal James, because it made him think of Andy. Andy was Pablo’s best friend and he was leaving today.

 Pablo didn’t know where Colorado but he knew it wasn’t in their town or even in the next town. His mom said Colorado was somewhere really far away, a place so far they’d have to take a plane to go there. Which was ridiculous, they could never do that, because they weren’t pilots. At least, Pablo wasn’t and he was pretty sure his mother wasn’t.

“Did you see Pablo, Mrs. Santos?”

“Sorry, Andy. I didn’t.”

Pablo froze. He slowly stretched his neck forward, trying to hear a little better.

“Could you tell him goodbye for me? And that he’ll always be my best friend?”

“Of course, dear. And I know he feels the same way about you.”

Pablo heard a car door slam and a car driving away. He listened as the engine noises faded into nothing. And then he waited some more, hoping to hear the engine noises come back.

And then he waited some more. Until he realized there would be nothing more to hear and a tear finally fell from his eyes. 

“Bye, Andy. I’m sorry I’m not a pilot.”