Scrawled on the front: “For Melissa Only.” Inside was a letter and a small key. The note, signed simply “A Friend,” instructed me to go to the red-doored house on Willow Lane. It said Blue had found me for a reason—and that something was waiting for me.

After my shift, curiosity got the better of me. I followed the directions. The house was run-down, neglected—but strangely familiar. Like a place from a dream I couldn’t quite remember. Inside, I found a box of old photos—pictures of me as a little girl. Laughing in a sunlit yard. Hugging a puppy that looked exactly like Blue.

A second letter held the truth: the house was my childhood home. After my parents passed when I was eight, I’d been sent away to live with relatives. The trauma had wiped away those early years from my memory. But not from Blue’s. He had waited. All this time, hoping I’d come back.

My mother’s journal, tucked into the box, filled in the missing pieces. And Blue—the dog I hadn’t even realized I’d lost—had brought me home. That day, I didn’t just find a dog. I found a lost part of myself