Kaiser

Life's end

"Mama? Velken? Is anybody home?" there was no sounds of mama's cries when I came in from school that afternoon, none of Velken's complaining, just the sound of paws coming down the stairs, Kaiser certainly didn't seem all that happy to see me, he just limped down the stairs with his head down. At first, he looked guilty, so I started suspecting that he had messed my room, as for my mama and Velken, I guessed that they were at Mr Nagel's corner shop using up the ration tokens, so I started hopping up the stairs, eyes focusing on Kaiser at the same time. When I opened my bedroom door I rolled my eyes and laughed, as it was just the way I'd left it! But there was still a sign of sorrow in Kaiser's eyes, so I searched the room for any misplaced ornaments that might have been moved or broken-but there was nothing wrong. I knelt down beside him, "Kaiser," I drawled sweetly, scratching behind Kaiser's ears, even though he pulled away from me, "what is it my little king, hm? What are you hiding?" he started to whine in a low tone, he'd never done that before. I was quite disappointed that he couldn't give me a clue, so I daydreamed about what it could have been. Maybe he tore up the newspaper when it came in the letterbox, no, he's too clever. I was oblivious to anything else that it could have been, when Kaiser pawed at my knee-he was going to show me something! We jumped from stair to stair until we got to the landing, he then led me to the kitchen where I saw a note displayed on the fridge with a magnet, I grabbed it and managed a paper cut, so it was now a bloodstained note-:
"Anjelica,
           My dear, you may be wondering where on this earth your brother and I are, but the explanation is a little too perplexed to describe on paper, so I'll have to break it to you the hard way. We are in a morgue in Frankfurt. Your papa is dead darling, I am ever so sorry to make it known to you this way, I have known for 4 days, this is why-"
I stopped reading right there. It was all too much. I remember crying in my room. For some reason, my tears weren't for papa, although I had my grief somewhere inside, they were tears of anger for mama. I hadn't read all of the letter, but I read that she had known for 4 days, I felt that she had betrayed me. I went mad. I ripped the curtains, smashed dishes, ripped off the beads from my mama's best pearl necklace, and I shattered every single photo I could find-I even ripped up my mother and father's photo, the best one they had together. I realized right then that I had been foolish, mama just didn't want my small heart being demolished by bad news so soon. I felt like an evil sinner, and it was horrible. I decided to take a deep breath then clean up, but when I turned around, it was too late.
"Anjelica Ftzergerd," my mother's face was red from the hot tears she had cried, she looked terrified, "I thought you were...I can barely look at you. Go to your room and recite the first 10 verses of the bible! At once! And don't even think of talking back!" I felt this was the worst sin to be committed, I felt as if I couldn't move, "Well mama! What did you expect me to do! You have betrayed me! You told your son but not your daughter! You should be ashamed of yourself!" that was my own guilt talking, but I only noticed that after I'd said the other nasty things to her. I had left my own mama to cry in her room. So for another day or two, I had been travelling on a long, long guilt trip, I felt I had no one, and this time, Kaiser couldn't solve my problems no matter how hard he tried.
Then it came to me. My papa was dead, my mama refused to speak to me, and all I had was a dog. But then I realized how I could help, a girl in my class named Elsa had been talking about giving away her dog to the army to help the soldiers. Well? What had I to lose? Kaiser was a clever dog, he knew about the note on the fridge, he was probably the most intelligent in Germany. Great. Now all I had to do was tell mama.