The next afternoon, Jeremy sat down on his bed and started crying. He sobbed and sobbed and sobbed even when it made his lungs, throat, and chest hurt, and made his face sticky and his eyes swollen from all the tears. Jay swooped in (he had just been getting worms to eat) and landed by Jeremy’s side. Why are you crying? Jay thought. Jeremy took his head out of his hands and looked down at Jay. “I feel miserable,” he sniffed. “I’m hungry, thirsty, weak, and if my life changes at all, it’s going to get worse.”
Your life isn’t that bad. But then again, I’ve never lost both of my parents in such short time, and my food is plentiful. Jay thought. Jeremy sighed. “Sometimes, I wish that I was in that car crash with my mother, like in my dream,” another tear leaked out of his eye. “But then I wouldn’t have met you,” he added.
He stroked Jay’s feathers and walked outside. He shivered and stood in the backyard, looking at the blanket of snow covering the frozen ground. Winter was going to be rough this year.