A different ending by María del Pilar M.

for The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

Chapter 25: What Happened To My Happy Ending?

Days passed and the snow stopped falling down, as the flowers started growing. Matt marked yet another twig signalizing the end of the month. Matt often questioned this decision of staying behind to wait for his family but brushed it off and distracted himself. Now that it was spring the weather was much warmer and he could go out of his cabin. He practiced with his bow and arrow almost every day. He also invented a protective barrier around his house after another bear attacked him. The next weeks he ate as a king.

“Attean!” Matt called out the dog he named after his best mate. The dog, who had been barking wildly at the road, looked at Matt and then started barking again, louder and wilder. If he hadn’t known Attean JR, he would have been scared. “What is it? Are you all right?” The dog smelled the air and tensed up. Matt approached the place where the dog was giving a deadly glare at, and was surprised when he saw a small chubby man walking up to him. He had never seen him before and the only human company he had had apart from the Indians was Ben, who had ended up robbing him.

“Sorry, sir, but are you Matt Halloway?” The fatly man asked, startling him. Nobody had called him by his surname since he left his last house. He struggled to remember him from the past but those memories were so blurry and seemed so far away …

“Yes, I am. Who are you?” his bluntness seemed to distract this man for a few seconds. When he recovered from the shock he stared at Matt with surprise.

“Don´t you recognize me? I´m Doctor Mongerstern.” And then something clicked inside his mind and realized he was his family´s doctor, whom he had visited since he was born. He felt pretty embarrassed that he hadn´t recognized him, but honestly he hadn´t thought once of him since he met Attean. Neither had he thought of his friends or the people he used to know.

“Oh, yeah, sorry Doctor, but, with no intention to offend you, why are you here?”

As he said this, Matt spotted a hint of empathy in the doctor´s gaze.

“I came to tell you why your family hasn´t come back yet.”

Oh. This was the moment he dreaded. Matt preferred not knowing, so he could just imagine. He always thought of his family being sick, or that something had happened to the baby or something like it. What he had never thought came out of the doctor´s lips. Matt knew it was the most possible one, but he was in denial. It felt as a punch in the gut when those two words were registered by his brain. All colour drained from his face. “They died” He said it just like that, as if they were talking about the weather. Matt lost it.

He was furious with him for just mentioning it like it was nothing. He was enraged with his family because they left him all alone but most of all he was infuriated with himself. They had died and he couldn´t do a thing about it. They had died and he was all alone. He was so innocent. What else could have happened? He felt so naïve.

         He knew his anger was just to cover up his sadness. After seeing all red Matt realized it made no sense to be mad. He couldn’t do a thing about it. He then thought of the Indians.

         With all the pain in his chest he spat “Leave me alone”, trying to stop the tears that threatened to escape his petrified body until he saw the doctor walk away. Once he was out of sight, he broke down. He fell to the floor. His mind was crashed with a wave of emotion and he couldn´t hold it together. His lips trembled slightly as he tasted his fresh salty tears that leaked from his eyes. No matter how hard he tried to stop the tears that never seemed to cease. Out of the blue he felt something soft brush his hand. When he uncovered his face he saw Attean, his dog, crying and wondering what had happened to his master. He tried to put a straight face but ended up as he was at the beginning, a sobbing mess.

         He was slowly running out of tears. After a few minutes he stopped crying as the flashbacks started. As he tried to stop the crystal-like tears from arising again he saw the doctor come back.

         “I know this is not what you want to hear right now but I have to take you to the adoption center; grab your things and let´s go.”

         Matt went to the cabin and only took with him  his book, Robinson Crusoe.

“C´mon, Attean,” Matt called the dog. The doctor shook his head letting him know he couldn´t take the dog.

         He straightened up and put on a brave face. He petted Attean´s head and turned to look for a last time at that house where he had met his soul brother, learnt to be independent, and heard the worst news. Both his families were gone, in different ways but both forever.