I’m Aka and life hasn’t been kind to me and neither have the people in it. I’m 12 and I’ve never loved anyone. I’m withdrawn and scared, and I carry the trauma of 10 lifetimes, not one. I don’t need to go into them right now, especially since, I don’t know if you know, traumatized souls have great trouble being communicative and direct. How could they not, when so many people have hurt them?

Frankly, I don’t know if there’s anything more I can ask you to do for me right now. I’m at the end of my life, and I’m afraid I’ll never know what it’s like to trust someone. So please at least listen to my message, because I say it from the bottom of my heart and with great sadness: do not abandon uncommunicative people or dogs, those who are clearly suffering and who clearly cannot open up, those whose behavior has been reshaped by trauma. We all know that they can be unbearable at times, but they too need what we need: connection and finding a way around all those walls between us.