Fragmented Hope

First day

He was kept in a prison cell.

There was only a small window, too narrow for him to escape through, at the top of the wall facing the sun. Light came in through that opening - a beacon of hope. 

Mid-week

He was getting used to the food, the water. They gave him cold broken rice grains as his meal, with icier water to drink and bathe with. He learnt how to proportionate his food and water wisely. He had a daily visitor now. Each day a sparrow would arrive at the small opening at noon. It would enter the cell and accept the few rice grains he had for it. As if to thank him for his kind gesture, it would leave a twig in his cell. He had company, a little friend - would it be too presumptuous of him to think that?

Last month

They stopped giving him food recently. Perhaps the war outside has worsened. He was now alone, without anymore broken rice grains. All that was left of him was his broken spirit. The sparrow, it never came back.