Hi, all.
 
I met a little guy named Tyler a while back.  I was really worried about
greeting him, because in the World of the Living, he was deaf.  Once he
crossed the Bridge, I didn't think he would be anymore.  Would he
understand me?  I didn't want to say "hello" and scare him to bits!
 
The Big Boss actually decided to handle that greeting, that way by
the time I met Tyler the two of them would have worked out the best,
personalized solution.
 
When I finally did meet him, he not only heard me, he understood me, and
he was so happy!  He said he'd spent a lifetime understanding that he was
missing *something*, but he just couldn't imagine what it was.  He could
feel all sorts of vibrations, vibrations when hoomins moved their mouths,
but he knew something wasn't quite right.  He said the mystery never made
him unhappy, just curious, as all ferrets are.
 
I asked him what sort of things would he like to hear first?  Wind in the
long grass?  Fresh, green tree leaves rustling in the breeze?  Dry sand
blowing in a desert?  Rain falling?
 
His eyes lit up when I suggested rain.  He said with no hesitation "A
waterfall.  Take me to a waterfall!"
 
So I did.  I helped him to strap on his new wings, I slipped into mine,
and off we went.  We flew together through the cold clear air, high above
the land.  We flew over fields and lakes, and finally over a dense green
forrest.
 
And what a forrest!  I love coming here.  There are a thousand kinds of
green here; leaves and flowering vines, swaying palms and beautiful
little swatches of moss, like moist velvet.  Birds call from the high
branches, and play games of love and territory.  Busy jewel-like beetles
burrow beneath fallen logs and turn the soil, butterflies light up the
forrest cover like bursts of colored radiance, almost too beautiful to
look at.
 
(Tyler *loved* the birds, I did get a promise from him not to chase
them.)
 
Finally, off in the distance there was a hissing sound.  As we came
closer it became a roar, and finally, it became like thunder!  A bright
seam of water picking its' way down a verdant mountainside, first as a
little spill, then gathering strength, and becoming a frothing flood.  It
fell straight down from the lip of a cleft in the rock, a hundred feet
straight down into a turbulent pool.
 
We settled on a rocky ledge nearby, and even there, from fifty feet away,
the spray flew through the air and settled on our coats as little crystal
beads of dew.  We sparkled!  We sat there, just watching, for I don't
know how long.  We didn't say a thing, there was no need to.  After a
while Tyler looked at me and he just smiled...
 
Later, at the Fruit Bar, we had a conversation after we ate.  He said
that he never needed to hear his Mommy say "I love you" to know that he
was loved, and loved dearly.  Besides, who can speak hoomin?  He thinks
she knows that he loved her, too.
 
The only thing he wishes he had heard in the World of the Living was his
Mommy Phyllis' voice when she sang to him, right before he crossed the
Bridge.  He was comforted by her touch, and by the warmth of her breath,
and by the vibrations of her voice.  He looks forward to a day when he
can hear it himself, a long time from now.
 
I went and checked up on a little guy who hasn't been here too long, his
name is Fritz.  His Mommy wanted to make sure he was settling in O.K.
 
I want to report that he is happy and thriving!  I found him at the
Mountain of Potatos, selecting one to drag away.  (Why do we love to drag
potatos?  No one knows.  We just do.) He currently has four potatoes
stashed in a sleeping sack that he keeps in a field full of fresh
blossomed, bright red Flanders poppies.  He sleeps with them, sometimes.
 
He does spend a certain amount of time with his Business of Maxi, Maxine,
and Booger, but he has made other friends, too.  He spends a lot of time
at the Fruit Bar, and at the Ferretone Fountain, of course.  He also
enjoys the Tube Maze and the Dirt Mountain.  He spent a whole weekend
just tipping over bathroom wastebaskets in the field with perhaps ten
thousand of them, just dotting the landscape for as far as the eye can
see.
 
He wants his Mommy Rosie to know that he thinks of her often, and looks
forward to a day, a long time from now, when thay can stash potatos
together!
 
Sandee
[Posted in FML issue 4350]