How it Feels to Die

Anne met a boy in the woods. He was tall and muscular and his voice was deep and smooth. He was dressed in a white shirt, and black jacket and black pants. He had no shoes though, and his eyes were stormy grey and his hair was darker than the sky at night. She liked this boy Anne decided, he was cute and he looked like Alex, the boy from her school that she also liked. So she asked him lots of questions, because that's what Anne liked to do. Ask lots of questions.

"What's your name?"

"Charlie."

"Where's your mum?"

He pauses, looks around the sun lit trees for a moment, before looking back to the curious child.

"She's dead…I guess."

"And your Dad?"

"Him too," he starts to play with little twigs beneath his feet, frowning.

"What happened to them?"

"I don't know," he said. His frown deepened, he was getting annoyed.

Anne was only 5 but she was old enough to know that when someone dies, people get really sad. And Charlie looked really sad. And when someone died you told the loved ones of the deceased that you're sorry and then you hug them, because it showed you cared. Anne cared, she really did. Charlie was very cute and she didn't want to see him sad. Once, when Alex started crying because Letty bit him, Anne started crying too.

"I'm sorry," Anne replies, and she reaches towards him. But she never got to hug him.

"Anne! Anne?!"

It was her mum; she had to get back to their camp site. She and her family were on vacation and her mum didn't want her straying too far away in the woods.

"I have to go! Goodbye Charlie!" and she ran away.

"Goodbye."