summary of Chapter
2: Cold Hearts and Cold Nights
Leo is
heartbroken. He falls into a deep sadness, refusing to eat or play, and soon
becomes physically ill with fever. Meanwhile, Misty, lost and scared, struggles
to survive. The autumn weather turns bitter, and she gets soaked in a cold
downpour. Huddling under an abandoned porch, she grows weak and sick. Back
home, seeing Leo’s condition worsen, his parents feel a pang of guilt. They try
to cheer him up with new kittens, but Leo turns them all away. “Only Misty,” he
whispers.
Chapter 2: Cold Hearts and Cold Nights
Inside the house on Maple Lane, the silence grew thick and
heavy. Leo’s sadness was not a loud crying, but a quiet vanishing. He moved
through the rooms like a ghost, his eyes perpetually red-rimmed and distant.
The untouched peanut butter sandwich on his plate at lunchtime was a white flag
of surrender. The treehouse stood forgotten, its rope ladder still.
The vibrant, laughing boy was replaced by a listless shadow. He
spent hours curled on the window seat, staring at the empty garden path, his
fingers tracing the braids of the blue hair-tie around his wrist. The chill of
the autumn seemed to seep through the glass and into his bones. First came the
shivers, then a dry cough, and finally, a fever that burned through him like a
silent fire. His skin grew pale and hot, his dreams a chaotic mix of chasing
tails and the disappearing taillights of a car.
Across town, in a world of looming fences and unfamiliar dog
barks, Misty was fighting her own battle. The first night, she’d hidden in
terror. Hunger was a sharp, new claw in her belly. She scavenged from
overturned trash cans, flinching at every sound. The clear autumn days turned
grim. A week after her abandonment, the sky opened up with a cold, relentless
rain that soaked through her grey fur to the skin.
Shivering violently, she stumbled through the downpour, her paws
numb. She found meager shelter under the sagging porch of an empty house. The
space was damp and smelled of mildew and earth. Here, curled into the smallest
possible ball on the cold dirt, her own warmth failed her. The shivers turned
into a deep, aching stiffness. Her breathing became a raspy effort, and her
bright eyes grew dull and crusted. The brave, playful cat was reduced to a
small, sick creature, alone in the dark.
Back home, Leo’s feverish murmurs of “Misty… come home…” finally
pierced the armor of his parents’ resolve. Seeing their son physically
diminish, his small form swallowed by the big bed, cracked their certainty. The
vase, the scratches, the mess—all seemed like trivial grievances against the
stark reality of Leo’s broken heart and failing health.
“We have to fix this,” his mother whispered, her hand on Leo’s
hot forehead.
Their attempt at a solution came in a cardboard box lined with a
soft towel. Inside, a duo of tiny, mewling kittens tumbled over one another—one
fluffy and orange, the other black with white socks. They were undeniably
adorable.
“Look, Leo,” his father said, his voice unnaturally cheerful as
he placed the box on the bed. “New friends. You can name them.”
Leo turned his fever-glazed eyes toward the kittens. The orange
one batted at his limp hand. For a moment, his parents saw a flicker—not of
joy, but of painful recognition. These were not his friend. They were a
replacement, a living eraser trying to remove Misty’s memory. He saw no
adventure in their eyes, only a strange, empty novelty.
With a strength that surprised them, he turned his face back to
the wall, pulling the blanket over his shoulder. His whisper was hoarse but
absolute, a vow carved from sickness and sorrow.
“Only Misty.”
from free book "
The Choice of a Hero: A Boy and
His Cat's Story of Courage and
Home
https://sites.google.com/view/gumroad-123/health"
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