{"id":340,"date":"2026-01-27T17:55:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/varelasoft.com\/argoslatino\/?p=340"},"modified":"2026-04-11T20:07:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:07:23","slug":"rainbow-bridge-by-bella-velasco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varelasoft.com\/argoslatino\/dynamic-parent-category\/rainbow-bridge-by-bella-velasco\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainbow Bridge by Bella Velasco"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tip: Play this melody as you read to feel the story unfold<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A short story by Bella Velasco<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It was the last week of June. The sky was soft, and summer had just begun to stretch its arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was home, and everything felt calm. I woke up to my alarm, but absolute silence from beyond my door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The air was warm already, the kind of warmth that sticks to your skin even in the shade. I stretched, rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I rose up and changed into my morning clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I fixed my hair and walked quietly to the kitchen. The floor was cool under my feet. I poured a bowl of cereal, and sat at the table while the sunlight crept across the counter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The house was quiet, but not in a strange way, just peaceful. I remember thinking it was almost a perfect morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t know that everything was about to change. Then I walked over to the laundry room and saw her. That morning, Lily, our family dog, died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She had been with me for as long as I could remember, a quiet, reassuring presence with gentle eyes that seemed to understand everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had said our goodbyes before, we knew she was fading. Just the previous day she was in pain, and couldn\u2019t seem to lift her legs off the ground again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I found her still and gone, the world seemed to stop. I didn\u2019t cry right away. I just stood there, numb, like my heart was holding its breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The room suddenly felt too still, too loud in its silence. I ran and woke up my family, and told them that Lily had crossed over the rainbow bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the summer moved in slow motion. Light still poured through the windows, but it didn\u2019t feel as warm as before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her empty bowl, the silence where her paws once tapped across the floor, all of it felt like sad echoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Grief didn\u2019t come sneaking in like I thought it would; instead, it settled quietly, like dust on everything Lily loved. Like her old bed and her sparkly collar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It taught me how fast time moves, how strong love can hurt, and how easy it is to take a presence for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had never lost something that hurt that much before, and a piece of me went with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in mourning, something else grew. I became closer to Romy, we all did, our other dog\u2014Lily\u2019s best friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As days went by, Romy waited for Lily by the door. She looked for her all over the house, but sadly, Lily was gone. We grieved together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I stayed close to Romy the way Lily would\u2019ve wanted. We were both missing her in different ways, but we found comfort in each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That summer was different, but it also helped me see that grief is love in a different form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And sometimes, when the house goes quiet, you finally learn how to listen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tip: Play this melody as you read to feel the story unfold A short story by Bella Velasco It was the last week of June. The sky was soft, and summer had just begun to stretch its arms. I was home, and everything felt calm. I woke up to my alarm, but absolute silence from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[0],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dynamic-parent-category","tag-genz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varelasoft.com\/argoslatino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varelasoft.com\/argoslatino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varelasoft.com\/argoslatino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varelasoft.com\/argoslatino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varelasoft.com\/argoslatino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/varelasoft.com\/argoslatino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1372,"href":"https:\/\/varelasoft.com\/argoslatino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions\/1372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varelasoft.com\/argoslatino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varelasoft.com\/argoslatino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varelasoft.com\/argoslatino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varelasoft.com\/argoslatino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}