As each afternoon, the mother stood behind the window watching over her seventeen years old daughter, as she rode her bike up the hill towards the old man’s castle. The mother can’t comprehend how her daughter can stand that cranky man and his creepy dog.

The old man is in his 70’s; he has been living in that castle alone with his guarding dog “Spark” for years now. When his wife passed away around ten years ago, he became unbearable even his own son left him and never looked back.

The girl is the castle’s only visitor, one day the dog let her in to the heavenly garden of the castle without harming her and from that day on she visits it every afternoon.

During her visit she grabs all what she like from colored flowers that fills the garden’s entrance, eats whatever she likes from apples, peaches, grapes and berries right from the trees, plays with Spark and enjoys the white headed man’s stories.

He tells her all about his wife, how they met, fell in love, married and had a great life together, he tells her about his son and how much he loves him and he shows her matching photos to each story he tells.

She enjoys his stories, finds him funny and entertaining, although he rarely smiles, always pissed off, well except when he plays with Spark and when he recalls stories, special moments and memories with his beloved wife and son; only then his face relaxes, his eyes shine and a smile could be traced at the corner of his mouth.

That afternoon when she arrived at her usual time, the castle seemed quieter than usual; there was no sight of Spark by the gate. She pushed the gate wide open and walked towards the front door, she knocked, waited, shouted over for her cranky friend, tried to peek through the closed windows for any sight of him inside but no one was there.  She sat on the stairs of the front door, in total silence, waiting for someone or anything to calm this arousing feeling inside of her and thoughts that filled her head.

“Oh kiddo, how long have you been here?” a voice disturbed her thoughts. She looked up, she recognized his face right away, he is the lawyer, she has seen him a couple of times in here, but why is he here now?! He passed her, opened the front door and invited her in.

Inside she stood in the living room, gazing around in search for her cranky friend to appear anytime now. Without any further waiting, he interrupted her thoughts and informed her that her friend was no longer with them.

The news was shocking, she freeze up in her place, tears filling her eyes, down her cheeks and pain arousing to her throat, she never knew that she loved him that much!

“Don’t cry sweetie, he was a great man, you knew that! Can you believe it; he left everything he has for charity, just think about all those people who will benefit from it. I think this is enough to make you smile”, said the lawyer.

Choking with a forced smile on her pale face: “what about Spark and his box of memories?” she asked.

“Well you can have the box, as for Spark”, he stops for a moment, “he left it for his son but when I called him, he said he always hated that dog”.

“So…?”

“I will take him to the nearest orphanage”, he said sadly.

The girl has just lost a friend and wasn’t welling to lose another one she exclaimed right away “Can I have him? Please, I’ll take a good care of him, I promise”.

With a trace of a smile on his face “that’s fine with me” he answered.

With a great joy overwhelming her, she grabbed the box of memories and rushed to Spark’s house in the backyard. She untied him as she noticed a small key clinched to his leash, Spark guided her to the backyard’s room where she found herself in front of a locked closet. She opened it with the key and for her surprise it was filled of money and gold with a note:

“The one who takes care of the last Spark of my life and my lifetime friend …deserves it all”.