Elias's Source of Resilience to Life: Ponies

Part Five

In My Life and in The End

I walked into Gages familiar house. He said I could go into his room and set my belongings in there. So I undressed from one of my doubled sweatpants, my sweatshirt, and one of my doubled over t-shirts. I went out and saw Gage in his mom’s room talking to his mom.

“Eli is here,” he said to his mom.

“Really!” she exclaimed. Gage’s mom was always very nice and always enjoyed my company. She also was a very acceptable person which is why I came here. She walked into the living room and said “Hey,” to me in an excited way.

“Hi,” I responded to her. I gave out a sigh as I knew I had to explain myself “Well, I ran away,” I said I looked at her and she surprisingly stayed calm at the fact I just stated “I needed someplace to stay without having so much conflict. You guys were the only people I could think of.”

She took notice of the pony I had with me.

“This is Rainbow Dash,” I said and still, she had a calm look on her face. Like I said, she is a very accepting person. “I found her one day and decided to keep her. My mom wouldn’t let me keep her so I ran away. So I ask of you a big favor, can Rainbow Dash and I stay here? She is tame and she is basically potty trained. Also, if it helps, I have food for her to eat along with some food for me,” I explained.

“Sure thing,” she said. Oh thank goodness. This is exactly why I came here; because I knew she might say yes. “Go ahead and make yourself at home,” she said.

“Oh, thank you so much. You don’t know how much better this makes things,” I said. Gage and I joined in his room and played a bit of some X-box, the rainbow pony at my side.

“So, why is the pony rainbow?” he asked.

“I found her that way,” I answered. “Anyways, I need to let her outside,” I said and walked out of Gage’s room, the filly in my arms. As I walked down the hall, the door to the left side of the wall opened.

“Mom, is Elias here or something,” said Gage’s sister, Lyric, “I keep hearing his voice?”

“Yeah he is. He is going to be living here for now,” responded Charlene, who was Lyric's mom.

“Oh, ok,” replied Lyric, a tone of confusion in her voice. She turned around and saw me behind her. “Oh, hi,” she said with a smile on her face.

“Hey, how’s it going?” I inquired.

“Good,” she replied. She then took a look at what I was holding. “Oh my gosh, what is that you’re holding?”

“This is Rainbow Dash,” I said holding out the rainbow-maned pony in front of her.

“Wow, she’s so cool,” she said.

“Yeah she is pretty cool. 20% cooler than the average pony,” I said “Well, I’m going to go to let her outside.”

“Ok,” she said; and with that, I let her outside. The sky was a dark, expanse of gray. I never really liked clouds. They always darkened my days, naturally, and brought my spirits down. Once the pony was done, I went back inside and back to Gage’s room.

“So, how has school been?” I asked “Is Ian still living around here?”

“Yeah, he is still living here,” he replied.

“Have you won Mellissa’s heart yet?” Gage had a crush on a girl name Mellissa.

“Unfortunately, no,” he said, a look of sadness on his face. Gage was like me: never had a girlfriend.

“Oh that sucks. How about Lucas? How is he doing?” I said. Suddenly, Gage’s expression changed to an even sadder look.

“Lucas… Lucas is… dead,” he said “He blew his mind out in a car.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. One of my best friend that I knew since the second grade was dead. I thought about all the memories we had together. How we would walk down the halls telling each other jokes and why we weren’t comedians. How we would talk about Minecraft together. I couldn’t stand what I was hearing.

“No…,” I stammered out. “He can’t be dead.” I felt tears going down my eyes. There also was a tear going down Gage’s eye.

“Come with me,” he said as he got up and walked toward the front door. “Mom, Eli and I are going for a walk,” Gage called out to his mom.

“Ok, that’s fine,” she responded. Gage and I walked out. We went down a few roads until we came upon a cemetery.

“No,” I said. Gage led me into it until he stopped at a specific gravestone. It read “R.I.P. Lucas Neurburg, 1998-2012” I didn’t want to look at what I was seeing, but, I had to. I broke down onto the ground and started bawling my eyes out. I have never experienced a friend dying. I held onto the pony that I brought with me for some type of comfort. Gage, who was also crying, kneeled next to me and patted me on the back. I made myself calm down and stop crying. At least I got to experience the life of a good friend instead of missing out on having a friend like Lucas. At least I had my other friend to share the everlasting love of friendship between Gage, Ian, Lucas and I. This made me feel a bit better.

“There are places I’ll remember, all my life though some have changed. Some forever not for better, some have gone and some remain. All these places had their moments, with lovers and friends I still can recall. Some are dead and some are living…” I started to choke on those last words “In my life, I loved them all,” I sang. Gage was looking at me as I sang. This meant a lot to Gage and me. Another song came to my mind. This one meant a lot about the love all our friends shared with each other.

“And in the end…” Gage started to sing along “The love you take. Is equal to the love… you make,” I started to cry again, even the rain joined in. My hair fell lopsided, as I have long hair. Gage and I cried together, but, this crying felt different. It was like half sorrow half joy. I had joy for the friend I used to have but sorrow for his passing. I managed a smile and hugged my friend and Dashie. I got off my knees and so followed Gage and the friend, Rainbow pony, and the exhausted kid from his journey walked to their home.

La la how their lives go on.