Page 4 - The Daily Builder - Day 07

KindrEd spirits
By Delilah S.
Dawson
The tingling began just
after lunch. Aubrey had been
waiting for it all day—or, more
accurately, for all eight years of
her life. It could start any time
on her birthday, her mom had
told her, but she was glad it had
happened while she was still
at school. There was a certain
attention given to the kids who
left school for such an important
reason—and it made Aubrey
feel like royalty. It was even
better, she thought, than losing
a tooth.
Soon her mother picked her
up, and they drove home, talking
excitedly about what was to
come. Her mother’s kindred
spirit, Leopold, rode in the back
seat. The shepherd mix was
always well-behaved and polite,
but he did lean forward to award
Aubrey with a special lick,
sharing her excitement.
“Tell me again how it will
work,” she urged her mother.
“Well, we don’t really know.
Why it works, I mean.” Her
mother shrugged and sighed; she
was a doctor, and she preferred
to know how things worked.
“But the day you turn eight, you
form a connection to an animal.
They’re your soulmate, your
kindred spirit, and he or she is
4 Donate!
somewhere nearby. And then any sort of tug, which at least
you get the tingling. It’s almost meant that her soulmate wasn’t
like… coming home from one of her brother’s hermit
school and smelling cookies crabs. She found the thick brown
baking before you can see the robe in her closet and wrinkled
oven light. You just sense it. And her nose. No matter how many
you follow it. And then you find times her mom had washed it, it
them, and they find you, and…” still smelled like an old barn and
She adjusted the rearview mirror mothballs. It had been passed
to smile at Leopold. “And then down through their family for
you’re both happy. We’ll start at generations, and even though no
the animal shelter, then hit the one really knew why you were
pet stores.” supposed to wear a stuffy brown
“I know! I’ve been thinking robe for your Soulmate Day, no
about them for the last year. one ever tried to do anything
Maybe it’ll be a Saint Bernard!” differently. No one was willing
Her mother sighed as she to risk messing up the magic and
turned into their driveway. “Or a going through life without their
nice hamster,” she said. “Maybe kindred spirit.
a canary.” Seeing her mom snuggling
“And then they live forever,” with Leopold or Mr. Jock next
Aubrey said dreamily. door hobbling through the
“They live as long as you do, garden with his aging ferret,
sweetie,” her mother reminded it was easy to imagine what it
her. “Now hurry upstairs and put would be like, always having
on your robes.” someone with you who just
Inside, Audrey didn’t smell understood. Who didn’t need to
cookies, but she also didn’t feel ask questions, complain, argue,
or say the wrong thing. Your door and charged down the tears of joy into her white pit
soulmate would just understand, rows of kennels, past dozens of bull’s neck, and that only made
and they would settle in with curious noses and patting paws her feel worse.
you and comfort you, and then and friendly barks. She saw “What now?” she asked as
the world wouldn’t be so dark. plenty of dogs and cats that she they walked back to the parking
Her father had loved his python, would love to be bonded with, but lot.
and they were buried together she didn’t feel anything special, “There’s another pet store,”
in the cemetery downtown. nothing like the call of cookies her mom said. “Maybe half
Aubrey didn’t remember much in the oven. After her second an hour’s drive.” She looked
about either of them, but she circuit, her mother appeared, her worried, though; was Aubrey
could see their devotion to one brow furrowed. having more trouble than people
another in old family pictures. “No luck, huh? Let’s try the usually did on Soulmate Day?
She hoped her soulmate would pet store.” Mom had found Leopold in the
be something more… cuddly. On the way to the pet store, first animal shelter she’d entered,
Slipping on the robe, she Aubrey wasn’t quite as excited. in the very first kennel.
snapped the old clasp and flew Everything at the pet store was Was there something wrong
down the stairs and back into small, and most of the creatures with Aubrey? She dashed away
the car. As her mother drove would be less cozy. Sure, it could tears, knowing kids should
to the local animal shelter, she be a rabbit or a guinea pig, but never cry on such a special day.
bounced on her seat. The dogs it could also be a tarantula or a It just happened, and it would
and cats in the shelter were frog or a fish, none of which she happen to her, and she just had
strays, and plenty of people had personally wanted to hug. to be patient, as her mom was
pets that weren’t their soulmate. She waited until the car was forever reminding her. She
Some people ended up with a stopped this time and followed wished she could hug Leopold,
finch when they had longed to go her mother inside. She was more longed for that sense of calm and
running with Labradors, and you tentative this time, going from security her mom found in the
could still love your pets, even if tank to tank as tiny black eyes gentle dog’s presence. Soulmate
they weren’t your kindred spirit. peered back at her. But again, animals had an unusual kindness
It wasn’t their fault, of course, nothing called to her. Nothing and understanding about them,
and they probably hoped to find felt special. Nothing tugged. As as if they understood their
that connection just as much as she passed the last fish tank, her soulmate and could act almost
humans did. They pulled into grin came back. “Now the other like people. And Leopold was
the parking lot, and Aubrey was animal shelter!” never harsh with Aubrey, but…
out of the door before her mother But even at the shelter across well, he wasn’t hers, was he?
had stopped the car. When she town, she didn’t feel a tug. The As they passed by pastures,
shyly stepped into the lobby, the dogs yipped at her, paws on Aubrey began to wonder what
receptionist gave her a kindly their gates, as she slowly walked it would be like to have her own
look. up and down the aisles, hoping horse. Not as a pet of course.
“Soulmate Day, eh? Well, go she’d missed something. She They lived in a small house in
on. Find your forever friend.” passed a boy hugging a chubby a neighborhood, and the law
Aubrey pushed open the glass white puppy as his mother cried said that her neighbors would
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