Sometimes I feel so bad for hoomins.  Lately, I have been thinking
about Emilie.  She's a good hoomin who has many fuzzies, and I've had
to welcome more than one of her babies, all very recently.  I knew that
she must feel very bad about the loss of her babies, and with each one
her heart must break just a tiny bit more.  I wish there was a cure for
broken hoomin hearts.  Hoomins could sure use it down there.  It seems
the Hoomin world is just a place of broken hearts, sometimes.
 
But not up here at the Bridge.  This is a place of fur and wings and
hearts made whole.  Here we understand what life truly is - not this
fragile thing which hoomins often see, but a thing of beating hearts,
bright eyes, and lifted spirits; this is what makes up this wonderful
thing called life which gets its start back in the Hoomin world.  If
only hoomins could know how important they really were.
 
From time to time, we experience pain and sorrow up here in the
Afterworld, but it's only because we mirror the sorrow of the ones we
love in the Hoomin world.  When the Boss named this place "The Bridge,"
he knew what he was talking about.  Where we are is truly a bridge, a
place where fuzzies meet up with their hoomins and continue the lives
they started elsewhere.  It is a bridge, not between places, but between
hoomin and fuzzy hearts.
 
I was talking to the Boss about a very special fuzzy that would be
arriving today.  The Boss was in such a serious mood this morning,
mulling over a fuzzy named Eloinor.  Eloinor was six years old.  He
decided last night that it should be her time.  He told me that sometimes
fuzzies are sick, and sometimes they're not, but that is not always the
reason he decides their time.  He told me that he pondered over taking
Eloinor for a very long time, but he just didn't know how to approach it
until last night.
 
I didn't ask the Boss why he decided to take Eloinor.  I never ask the
Boss why.  The last time I asked him about something of this nature it
took him about a week and a half to explain it to me, and my head hurt
for about a month afterwards - and after all that, I didn't really
understand anything he said.  I decided that I would not ask him about
such things.  I am only a simple fuzzy.  I certainly would not want the
Boss' job, believe me.
 
I left the Boss to go greet Eloinor, but not before he gave me a little
wooden box that I was to give to her.  He gave me special instructions
and told me it must not be opened until I gave it to Eloinor.  This box
must be a very important box, indeed, but it was so light that I wondered
if there was anything inside of it.  I wanted to peek, but one dare not
peek.  I would find out soon enough.
 
I arrived at the Bridge to find Eloinor already there.  She was curled up
inside of a blanket which must have come with her from the Hoomin world.
She was still sleeping; I could see her breathing slowly and deeply, her
whiskers and nose twitching every once in a while.  She was sound asleep.
I could smell her strong, warm smell, the smell that fuzzies leave on
their blankets when they have been sleeping on them for a long time.  My
goodness, I hated to wake her up.  I called out her name softly.
 
Eloinor raised her head a touch, never opening her eyes, and laid it
back down again.  It is not easy to wake a sleeping fuzzy, let me tell
you.  I called her again, a bit louder.
 
"Eloinor, honey, it's time to wake up."
 
She raised her head up and looked towards me with her eyes still squinted
and closed, as older fuzzies often do.  When she opened her eyes, I could
tell by her expression that I was not the one she expected to see
standing here.  It would be a confusing thing, indeed, to go to sleep in
one place and wake up in another.
 
I told her who I was and immediately she asked me where Emilie was.  I
told Eloinor that she was here at the Bridge and that Emilie was where
she belonged, still in the Hoomin world.  At first, she didn't understand
that she was here at the Bridge, but slowly it began to sink in.  The
more it sank in, the more upset she got.  She told me that this wasn't
fair; how could she be here and all of her family be somewhere else,
somewhere she could never reach them?  I felt so bad for Eloinor that
she was here, and then I thought about how hard it was for the Boss to
bring her here.  If only I could explain it to her, but I couldn't.  I
didn't know why, myself.
 
I did my best to comfort Eloinor.  I told her of all the wonderful things
we have here in the Afterworld.  I told her that she would be getting her
wings, but that only made her ask if she would be able to fly back to the
Hoomin world to see her family.  I told her that it doesn't work that
way, and that she would have to stay here and wait for the time when
Emilie would come to join her.  It hurt so bad to tell her that, but I
had to tell her the truth.  I asked her what I could do for her to make
her feel better.  Eloinor told me she never got the chance to say
goodbye.  She was asleep when she was taken to the Bridge.  She said that
saying goodbye to Emilie would have been the only thing that would have
made her feel better about being here, but now that was never going to
happen.
 
I looked in Eloinor's face, her fur streaked with tears.  She looked
tired and worn out.  This was not how a fuzzy at the Bridge was supposed
to look, especially a dignified old lady such as Eloinor.  Usually, the
Boss gives newly-arriving fuzzies brand new bodies, but Eloinor still
had the same one she took with her from the Hoomin world.  I thought to
myself how was that possible?  Had the Boss forgotten her?
 
Upon thinking that last thought, I heard the Boss whisper in my ear.
 
"The box."
 
The box!  I had forgotten that the Boss had given me a box to give to
Eloinor.  Oh for Pete's sake, I had been so caught up in trying to make
Eloinor feel comfortable here that I had totally forgotten about the
box.  I had been holding it in my paw the whole time.
 
I told Eloinor that the Boss had something he wanted me to give her.  I
handed her the box.  She took it from me softly, gently rubbing her paw
over the intricate carvings on the lid of the box, and she told me to
tell the Boss "thank you." I smiled and told her that she probably just
did.  She looked up at me and gave me a little smile.  Anxiously, I
waited for her to open the box.
 
Eloinor slowly raised the lid of the box and after just a few moments
her face lit up, excited!  I looked into the box, but it appeared empty.
Eloinor got more and more excited and started to speak.
 
"It's Emilie!  It's my mom Emilie!  I can hear her!"
 
I didn't understand.  I didn't see anything in the box, and I couldn't
hear anything.  I could not figure out for the life of me what was
making Eloinor so excited.
 
"Can't you hear her?" she said.  I shook my head.
 
"It's my mom, Emilie!" she said, "Her voice is in the box.  I can hear
her talking to me!"
 
I left Eloinor alone with the box.  I never heard anything, but things
are not always what they seem here in the Afterworld.  The Boss had
made a special box, indeed, and later I understood that for just a few
minutes Eloinor and Emilie were able to talk to each other.
 
Back in the Hoomin world, Emilie was fast asleep and dreaming.  She
dreamed that she was finally able to tell Eloinor goodbye.  As she slept,
very happy tears ran down her cheeks until they reached the corner of
her mouth, and her lips moved ever so slightly as if she were talking,
a smile on her face...
 
I came back to Eloinor after a few minutes, but Eloinor was not the same
old Eloinor.  She had a beaming smile on her face, and attached to that
beaming smile was a brand new body!  Ah, she looked so much better now!
She still had the look of a dignified old fuzzy in her eyes, but her
body was young again.
 
Eloinor asked me if we could go see her brother Fraser who was already
here at the Bridge.  She said that Emilie told her that I would be able
to help her do that.  I nodded my head and we started to head off to
find Fraser, but before we got too far from the Bridge, Eloinor handed me
the box.  She told me to make sure that I thanked the Boss for her when
I saw him.  Silly fuzzies, don't they know the Boss is always listening?
 
I held the box out to her and asked her if she didn't want to keep it,
but she told me no, she didn't need it any more.  She thought that now
she'd be able to wait for Emilie to join her one day.  I watched her
walk away with Fraser, who was going to take her to the canyon to learn
how to fly with her new wings.  They would have a lot of catching up to
do.  I took Eloinor's box and headed back home.
 
Sandee
[Posted in FML issue 5147]