The narrator hears a boy named Joel screaming in terror and sees him curled in a ball in the kitchen corner, begging not to be hit while his sister Alicia looks on in fear. The narrator approaches Joel gently and whispers comforting lies to soothe him. Recognizing the loneliness, pain and grief in Joel's eyes that mirrors his own, the narrator embraces the boy in a hug, remembering his own desperate need in the past to simply be held without letting go.

1. Makoto Abe
All I Needed
I heard screaming. The terrified screams of the boy with pain and grief filled in his beautiful dark blue
eyes.
Joel.
“Don’t hit me!” he screamed as he trapped himself in the corner of the kitchen, wrapping himself into a
tight ball. Alicia just stood in front of him, her eyes wide in fear. She too was in total panic.
When I am lonely what did I want?
A caress on the cheeks?
A lingering kiss on the forehead?
Or sweet words dipped with melted chocolate?
Slowly I approached Joel and touched his head gently as if to soothe him.
“It’s alright” I whispered lies, “everything is alright so please don’t be afraid.”
“I didn’t mean any harm so please…” he begged as he stared at me with those dark blue eyes, “please
do not hit me!”
Loneliness. Pain. Grief. The same as me, the same, the same.
Without thinking I wrapped my arms around him, wondering about those times when I desperately
needed someone to simply do this. Just simply hug me and never let go. And I knew Joel too wanted this
because he is so much like me.
A boy haunted by loneliness.