‘Why Bella lied? I always thought her to be my best friend!’ Tim, the small pig sobbed.
Tim remembered the good old days when Bella, the small neighbor dog, first came to meet him at the sheep house.
He was only one month when George had brought him from his friend. He was the only pig in the farmland of George. George has a herd of sheep, cows, horses and a few dogs to keep a watch on his flock.
Tim was a sweet pink piglet. It was raining heavily when George had brought him wrapped in a baby blanket and kept him on the huge stack of dried grass under the shed to keep him warm.
Tim was a bit wet; he was shivering. All the sheep and dogs inside the stable were watching him from a distance, nobody came near him in unease. They thought pig is a lesser animal and now he is being added in their group of which they were made suddenly aware of now!
That was the time, when little Bella came towards him. Bella was little elder; she was of three months old.
‘Hi, am Bella, I stay here. Nice to meet you. I saw you are shivering. Stay calm, see the rain has stopped outside.’
Thus, begins an unusual story of two kids; two kids of different origin!
George christened the piglet Tim.
Tim and Bella were often seen hanging out together. They laughed, they played and also shared their treats together.
Not all sheep and dogs were friendly towards Tim. Some used to bleat and bark at him. They all thought neither Tim does any work nor has he any significant contribution in George’s farm. They were left with not a single clue of why George even got Tim here!
The herd of sheep and the fellow dogs of Bella used to dissuade her from mingling with Tim.
It was friendship day, all were merrymaking. The animals at George’s stable were gifting their best friends with the best gifts. But what others could not bite is Bella gave Tim her toy, a little squeaky toy bird, that her mother had given Bella, before she left the world!
‘Oink…Oink Bella, thank you buddy!’ Tim kissed Bella on her cheeks with his overtly moist big pig nose. Tim never parted with the toy after that day, as it was obviously a gift from best friend Bella!
That is Tim remembering and sobbing, sitting outside the sheep shed. It is a dark night!
Tim remembering…
The stable has caught a small fire inside. George was searching the reason; it was Bella who came catching the soft squeaky toy of Tim in her mouth and dropped it on the feet of George!
George’s anger knew no bounds. ‘You worthless pig, day and night you keep hopping inside the stable,’ he yelled, ‘the burning lantern fell inside the sheep shade today, if I wouldn’t have come on time, all my livestock would have died.’
Tim remembered, he has seen Bella swapping the burning lantern some hours back, as if she was trying to make it fall on the dry grass stacks inside the stable.
Biting cold outside, little Tim used to shiver every night. One week passed. Having seen Tim’s punishment, other animals inside the stable felt very happy, in satisfaction!
Christmas was coming. A day before, Tim felt distressed when he heard George calling his friends over phone and inviting them for a pork party at his house on Christmas.
Tim’s eyes started blurring out. He grunted, ‘Oh this was the reason, George had adopted me!’
It was the time, exactly, when Bella comes from behind Tim, and loosens his strings tied to a bamboo stick with her teeth.
She said, ‘I knew this a week back. So, I planned to shift you in cold outside. The place where we will run away together do not have comforts of our stable. I have always loved you and pampered you with comforts as much as I could. You need to learn hardships too. So, I planned to move you outside.’
‘Come Tim, come. Let’s run away together. I know a place, where we will not get the comforts of a stable. However, the place is safe. Together, we will be happy again.’