Hi, all.
 
I met a little girl walking softly, so softly across the worn wooden
planks of the Rainbow Bridge.  Her name was Pepper, and in the World of
the Living, she had lost the use of her hind legs, which is why she was
walking so carefully, now.
 
I walked up to her and I said "You are all better now, Pepper.  Your legs
will always work just fine!  You don't have to be quite so careful!" She
perked up at that and said "Really?" I nodded.  Yes, really.  She said
"wait right here!"
 
At that she turned around and dashed back the way she had come, not at
all what I was expecting!  She made a fast 180 and returned galloping
with a TV remote in her mouth, which she dropped at my feet.  "Wait
right here!", she panted.  And turned around, and did it again!
 
Only this time she returned with something considerably bigger, a pink
and yellow stuffed chicken toy, apparently much loved, from its worn
condition.  She dropped it at my feet right next to the remote and said
(you guessed it) "Wait (pant-pant) right (pant) here!  Then she executed
her turn and ran back to the mists at the base of the World of the
Living.  This time she brought an empty hard plastic case, evidently one
designed to hold eyeglasses.  It, too, joined the pile at my feet, and
so did Pepper, who was all tuckered out from her mad dash between the
Worlds.
 
After a few minutes, a grinning Pepper said "My Business will be coming
to meet me, won't it?"  I guess my surprise must have shown in my face,
for she said "I dreamed a lot about this place once my legs stopped
working."
 
"Aha,"I said.  "That explains why you know so much about us."
 
"My Business?",she prompted.
 
"Oh yes!  Theyre'coming!" I said.  Then she looked me straight in the eye
and asked "Help me stash this stuff before they get here?"
 
I think that my jaw must have dropped and hit the ground.  This was *not*
your typical Greeting!  But I did as she asked, and when Maxine, Maxi,
Fritz, and Booger arrived a few minutes later, there wasn't a trace of
Pepper's treasures to be seen!  Was it sibling rivalry?  Was it a case of
OSD?(Obsessive Stashing Disorder?  I may never know, but the story has
been making folks laugh all day!
 
I met a little guy coming across the Bridge, his name was Zippy.  He
didn't have a Business meeting him but he didn't mind, Zippy had always
been a people ferret, especially his Mommy, Joanne's ferret.
 
But he had another love.  He whispered it in my ear, and he and I started
to make plans.
 
About an hour later, there was a crowd gathered around our project, a
blue plastic kiddie wading pool surrounded by about four hundred little
empty jars of baby food and their shiny metal lids.  (The lids were a
big hit, folks were making off with them right and left!)  Noxt to the
wading pool was an ordinary folding step stool, the kind you might find
in someone's kitchen.  This one had a ferret on the top step, with a
beautiful long, fluttery white scarf around his neck and a pair of
aviators goggles on his face.
 
It was Zippy!  And the crowd's expectations were high!  They started up
a chant of "GO-ZIP! GO-ZIP! GO-ZIP!" he stepped carefully to the edge of
the top step and looked down.  Splotches of chicken!  Squooches of peach!
Patches of plum!  Puddles of turkey!  And all for him.
 
Zippy held his arms up over his head and went in toes first, spraying
half of the spectators with a melange of mis-matched baby food!  He came
up happily slurping, the weight of the mess weighing his whiskers down
like so much edible baby cement!
 
It was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
Sandee
[Posted in FML issue 4648]