What Has Been Forgotten

It’s a beautiful sunny morning outside today. The birds are chirping and squirrels roam the lawn. As I finish my breakfast I decide to walk Sunny once I’m done. She watches me as I scoop the remains of my cereal into my mouth and put my bowl away. I go over towards the front door and grab Sunny’s leash and call her. 

“Sunny!” I call out, “Do you want to go for a walk?” At the word walk, nails scraping on tile floors can be heard from the kitchen where she had stayed in. Sunny’s tail wags hard, whacking the shoes on the shelf by her.

“Are you excited?” I ask in a high tone as I put the harness on her and connect the leash. I open the door and hastily grab my phone off of the counter before she drags me out of the house. I manage to lock the door and she starts dragging me excitedly. 

“How about you choose where we go today?” I ask her. She smiles up at me as if saying yes. She takes me on our normal route, along the neighborhood street towards the nature trail. Once we get to the nature trail, we see it bustling full of people walking, and biking. Sunny pulls us towards a side trail where there are less people. We walk for a few minutes and I pull out my phone to check the time. Suddenly Sunny tugs at the leash and out of my grasp. I drop my phone and the leash. She runs away barking, chasing after a squirrel and I run hastily after her yelling her name.

“Sunny, slow down!” I yell at her. I run after her as she runs after the squirrel. A few people move out of the way, and someone tries to catch her leash but doesn’t succeed. The squirrel runs off of the trail and into the woods, followed by Sunny and then by me. I chase after her but she gets farther and farther away. The squirrel goes up a tree and gives me a chance to catch up to Sunny. She anxiously waits at the bottom for the squirrel. I walk to her, catching my breath. Something moves in the bushes as I get close to Sunny. As I reach down to grab the leash it lurches away following Sunny who is now chasing a rabbit that was in the bush I had passed. I start chasing after her again, still yelling at her to stop. She’s usually a calm dog but it was raining for the past week and I couldn't find the time to walk her. With all the energy stored up in her from the past week, she runs double her normal speed and I struggle to keep her in my vision. Her leash gets caught on a branch and she stops. She tugs against the branch breathing heavily. I get to her and grab the leash. The rabbit is gone so Sunny doesn’t try to run away again. We both sit down trying to catch our breaths.

“Don’t... do that... again!” I yell at her in between breaths.

Once both of us are rested I look around to see we’re lost. There’s no sign of the nature trail we came from and I can’t tell which way we came from. I get up and look around. Sunny gently tugs on the leash and we start walking. After a few minutes of walking we find a narrow path. It’s overgrown with all sorts of plants, making it look very old. We follow the path, hoping it leads to another, bigger, path. The woods around us thin out and we’re in an open, rectangular area. The grass goes up to my knees and there are tall and oddly shaped bushes around. I see bits of yellow, red, blue, and green through the bushes. I walk through the tall grass towards it. I move the bush aside and find the colors scratched and faded. I move Sunny aside and tie her leash to a branch. I go back to the structure and move the bush. Once it’s off I can tell it’s a playground. The play structure is overgrown in vines, bushes and other plants. Although I don't know why, I feel a sense of familiarity. I move some more bush to the side, and tear vines off. Sunny looks at me curiously and lays down. I walk up the steps. The more I remove from the weeded structure, the more I feel nostalgia. I’m not sure why yet, but I move more vines. I move back to look at it from afar and suddenly my mind gives me a flashback and a sense of deja vu. The playground was one I once used to play with. I see little me run up the steps and to the slide. A little boy chases me and pushes me down the slide. I look around more and remember what all the structures once were. Off to the side there’s a bush resembling a seesaw, and I remember where there was once a merry-go-round. I have another flashback where me and the boy play on them, bouncing on the seesaw together, pushing each other in circles on the merry-go-round. Suddenly a name pops into my head. Mikey. The boy’s name was Michael, but I called him Mikey. We would always play here together when we were kids. I moved away and never saw him again. I can’t believe I forgot him. I look at the structure again and notice scratches on it. Some of them are words. I try to distinguish what they say and I notice the words “Anna” and “Mikey” on them, written in a poor manner. Sunny whines. I’m brought back to the present and I go to her. 

“Sorry Sunny.” I say to her, and untie the leash from the tree. I remember the way out to my old house. I walk on the abandoned path towards my old home. I look up at the trees from a new perspective now. They used to look so much bigger. I hear cars in the distance and see the sun peeking through the end of the path. I push my way through a bush and end up on a sidewalk by a main road. My house used to be across this road, but as I look up, I just see apartment buildings. Sunny pulls me down the sidewalk and I numbly follow. I try to remember what my old home looked like, but the memory is completely lost. I think back to the present, but as I look around and don’t recognize where I am. I reach to grab my phone but notice it’s gone. 

“Oh no!” I whisper in a panicked tone. I check all my pockets again and remember dropping it when Sunny ran. I sit down on a bench nearby and put my face in my hands. Tears drip from my face. Sunny licks my arm trying to make me feel better. Suddenly she stops and I look up to see why. I see Sunny sniffing a fluffy white dog next to us. I see the dog has a collar, and a leash that goes up to right next to me. I see a familiar man sitting next to me. I recognize him but I’m not sure why.

“Hey, are you that girl that ran by earlier?” he asks. I nod as I wipe at my tear stained face. “I think you dropped this.” he says, and gives me my phone. I look at him shocked. 

“I- what- um- thank you.” I stammer. I look at the phone in my hands and realize why he looks familiar. “Oh! You tried to catch Sunny!” I say as I realize why he’s familiar.

“Oh right,” he says, and chuckles “sorry I couldn’t catch her.”

“It’s okay!” I say, “thank you for trying to catch her for me.” He smiles at me.

“Oh, my name's Michael by the way,” he says raising his hand to shake mine, “but I also go by Mike, or Mikey sometimes.”

“Mikey…” I mutter, thinking about the playground.

“And you are…?” he asks looking at me expectantly.

“I’m Anna.” I say smiling, and shake his hand. I think for a second, and consider asking him if he’s the same Mikey.

Before I get the chance he asks, “Are you lost? I noticed you were crying, so I thought maybe…”

He doesn’t finish the sentence but I reply with “Yes.”

He offers to take me back to the trail where we bumped into each other. I thank him and he takes me that way. 

“What’s your dog’s name?” I ask him as we walk.

“This is Moon. Moon say, ‘hi Anna’” Moon looks up at me and barks twice. “Good boy!” Mikey says to Moon, and pets him.

“That’s a cool trick!” I say, “I ought to teach Sunny.”

Suddenly both Moon, and Sunny tug towards a fence. I look up and see many dogs running and playing. 

“Oh, this is Moon’s favorite dog park!” Mikey exclaims, “have you and Sunny been?”

I shake my head no, and he leads us in. We let our dogs play together and we sit on a bench in the shade. We started talking, and I mentioned the playground I had seen while I was lost in the woods. I mentioned my friend Mikey from back then, and he suddenly remembers something. 

“You’re Anna Luff!” he exclaims. I’m shocked at how he knows, then realize this is the same Mikey. We talked all morning about what happened after I moved.

Mikey had never left town and moved into his own house near the college we both attended. I tell him about where I had moved and lived for so many years, and that I moved here for university. We talk for a long time, but our dogs get tired and wanted us to take them home.

After that day, Mikey and I meet often to talk and let our dogs play together. Moon and Sunny got very close and became best friends. I took Mikey to the playground one day and we decided to clean it up together. 

It’s been a year now, Mikey and I are dating, the playground and trail we cleaned up is being used once again, by children just like us when we were their age. 

After finding the playground, reuniting with Mikey, and fixing the playground, I feel at peace with a part of my mind. I had never fully accepted moving away as a child, but now I’m happy with where I am.