Walking in, I remember he looked very peculiar. His slouched posture and gimped movement received many disgusted glances. His clothes reeked, as if he had just jumped into a mud puddle. His shiny gold tooth glistened as is stuck out of his expressionless mouth. As I gazed at his face more so, I discovered something distant as he stared back at me. His face, completely drained of colour, made him look withered and old, yet, his whiteness reminded me of Scruff, our housecat.

 This man was very sad, and in turn, made me very depressed. One single tear guided my eye on a path to his. That beautiful and strange flash of auburn I will remember forever. It looked mystical, and glistened in the bright rays of light that poured in from the windows of the bank. At least, that is where my father told me we were. I remember imagining we were off in some faraway land meeting new people and fleeing from bad guys; giving money to the poor, like the guy I liked to call Parrot Hood. The only thing that glued me to reality was a smile from my new friend. I tugged my dad’s hand, and pleaded if I could say hi to him. His response was quick. A hushed, but stern “NO!” prevented me from comforting my sad buddy.

 He had a friend too actually. All dressed in black and walking in step with him. I couldn’t take his sadness anymore. So I slipped from my father’s loosened clasp just as he was about to give money to some weird lady behind the counter. Everything next, happened so quickly. As I grabbed my friend’s hand, he jumped because I took him by surprise, and he then startled his friend. A loud bang filled the room, but I couldn’t hear anything afterward. My head swelled in pain, and a loud ringing sound jostled inside my ears. I felt wet and numb, and not the fun wet like when I ran around in the rain. This was much heavier and ickier.

 I fell to my knees, then in a rushed horror, they all came to me so quickly and intensely; pain, fear, loneliness, desperation, yet, I couldn’t understand what they all meant. Then suddenly, all in an instant, I felt like I was maturing from the moment my friend’s game of cops and robbers ended, to my dad stiff as a board in shock, to me being hoisted onto some bed. I finally realized why my dad did the things he did, and prevented me from doing some things I wanted to do. Yet, as I was strapped down, all nice and snug, I could feel a piece of myself drifting away. Replacing my recent fun of Saturday morning cartoons and mac-and-cheese lunches was an instant racking in my brain. My friend had nothing to do with it, I knew that.

 At least I don’t think he did, because the last thing I remember seeing was my new friend, my last friend, turning to me as he walked away, putting down his badge – I would know because I had recently got one as a prize in my Cheerios breakfast. As he looked at me, his auburn eyes no longer showed the sadness he felt before. It seems he was sad for me. I didn’t have much time to question it though, because as I could feel myself pouring away, I got very tired. So I just stared up into the sky as I was dragged away with my father at my side, crying. The sun was very bright that day, very white, and it only got whiter.