Where Is My Soul?
Dylan Everett never had a chance to feel real joy. He sat on the edge of his bed, thinking... He was nine years old. His parents had died in a fire soon after he was born. Various people and families took him in, but they all soon decided they didn't want him. Then he was sent to an orphanage.
For a year, Dylan had stayed at this orphanage, and all he did was eat, sleep, and sit on his bed, thinking. The people working here paid him no mind. The only time they ever noticed him was every day at meal time, when they would bring up their trays of food and force him to eat. Often, Dylan would find himself looking around at the other kids. Most of them would occasionally smile, or laugh quietly, talking to eachother. Dylan didn't understand this. What was this thing... What was laughing? He recalled asking one of his foster parents this question one time. All they had said was "well, it's something your obviously not capable of." Dylan remembered being beaten. He remembered people yelling. He also remembered one house before coming to the orphanage... there was another kid in that house. Dylan often saw her crying in a corner, as her parents yelled at eachother in one of the other rooms. Dylan didn't understand crying either. Why did people do it? What was the point? What did crying accomplish?
Suddenly, Dylan made up his mind to ask this question to one of the kids he had seen crying earlier. He stood up from the bed and walked over to the kid. The boy looked up at Dylan from where he was laying, a little surprised and startled.
"Why do you cry?"
Dylan asked.
After a few seconds, the boy answered, a puzzled expression on his face.
"Because I am sad" the boy said.
Dylan didn't understand this sad thing either. He knew it had something to do with people crying, but that certainly didn't help him any, so he asked another question.
"What does it mean to be sad?"
The boy looked down and thought for a little while. He then looked up and said-
"Well... when things trouble you, you feel sad." "Its like... well, when your soul feels troubled, it makes you want to cry, and you just hurt inside."
Dylan thought about this. Looking down at the boy in his bed on the ground, a puzzled expression still on his face.
"What is a soul?" Dylan asked.
"Well... It's what's inside you. It's what makes you feel and shows you who you are as a person."
"Hhmmm" Dylan muttered, before turning around and walking back to his own bed.
Dylan thought about this soul thing for a long time. "It's what makes you feel..." he thought. "It shows you who you are as a person."
Later, Dylan fell asleep. He dreamed of strange little lanterns dancing all around him, all lit with a pretty little flame. Some flickered and swayed, others spun and jumped. Dylan looked down at himself and saw a lantern, but no flame. His lantern was dark and motionless. It didn't dance, it didn't sway, it just stood there making no light of it's own. Then Dylan woke up...
