Short, sweet or scary

Stardust

He took everything with a grain of salt. Opinions didn’t matter to him; nothing was worth the effort. He maneuvered through Life with one mantra: if it’s getting dramatic, RUN!

So, he zigzagged through, caring less and eating away the pain inside that burned his soul.

With chalk, he drew lines on the pavement to shove others away from him. At the shore, he yelled at sea to never cross that signature in the sand.

Nobody dared to approach him. Everybody left him for what he was: one lonely individual.

Until that autumn day, he was making a cheese omelet with the one egg at the homeless shelter.

Looking out of the window, he spotted a hedgehog.

The little creature sat in the middle of the backyard, enjoying the sun. Beams were tickling its pointed defense, his head reaching upward, and his nose was moving to the left and right as if it was smelling the air and checking it out.

Suddenly the critter looked up and stared him right in the eyes.

Ouch!

“Why are you so hard on yourself?” The hedgehog asked him with a tender voice. “Don’t you know that Life has too much meaning just to ignore what’s good for you?”

He shrugged his shoulders and walked away from the scene—no hedgehog telling him how to run affairs.

Those next 24 hours, he noticed some little changes in his behavior and other people’s.

He felt a little less awkward, and there was even one incident he had to smile, taking in his surroundings with more interest than ever before. He even enjoyed himself that instant.

That night he dreamt the hedgehog threw stardust over his body.

Waking in the morning, the anxiety was gone.

He promised to give Life another shot.

WC:300