Hi, all.
 
Things have been very busy here at the Bridge lately.  I'm sending this
in two parts for that reason.  It might be a little long for the FML
computer to deal with as a single post.  Don't want to get bounced!
 
I want to tell you about a very friendly guy I met crossing the other
day.  His name was Oscar, and his Business of Sherrie, Rascal, and Dusty
stood with me to greet him.
 
Oscar, well, waddled across the Bridge because he was a big guy.  His
Brothers and Sisters in Fur saw him coming and started yelling "Fat Boy!
Fat Boy!", but he didn't mind.  It was an endearment, not a mean name.
Well, 'Fat Boy' just made him waddle faster and faster until he was at a
full gallop, at which point he smiled hugely,(I saw lots of teeth)leapt
up into the air, and *crashed* into us!  He knocked us down like bowling
pins!
 
But it was all in good fun.  We lay there thrashing on the ground for a
little while, trying to get one guys back paw out of another guys snout
kinda thing.  There was a lot of good natured cursing and giggling, lots
of big, frizzy tails!
 
We finally got ourselves sorted out and I gave Oscar my Welcoming talk.
I gave him his strap on wings and his hammie.  He listened attentively,
and then said "Fruit Bar?  I believe you mentioned something about a
Fruit Bar?"
 
Dusty said "Oh, man, you won't BELIEVE the Fruit Bar!  Fresh every day!
Yesterday they had guanabana chunks.  Never heard of them before, but
they were *delicious*!"
 
"Yeah," said Sherrie.  "There's a different featured exotic every
day.  Starfruit, mango, papaya, mandarin orange in heavy syrup...it's
wonderful!"
 
"TAKE ME!," yelled Oscar.
 
So we did.
 
The dwarf bananna chunks in chicken gravy were ...awesome.
 
I met a little girl coming across the Bridge.  Her name was Grandmother
Baby Girl.  I know it's kind of a strange name, but she lived to be
nearly twelve years old in the World of the Living, so she earned the
title Grandmother.  She agreed the name was kind of strange put together
like that, and she prefered to be called just Grandmother from now on.
She only wanted her Hoomins to call her Baby Girl, and she knows that
that day is a long way off.  So for now, just Grandmother.
 
Of course, to look at her, you would never know that she was ever
anything but young.  She even says that old age and blindness seem like
a dream, now.  She says that she thinks that all of the colors that she
is seeing for the first time in a long time are beautiful to her, but
that the sun is the most beautiful thing of them all.
 
Grandmother missed the sun's warm yellow glow.  Its warmth on her back
fur was good, yes, but being able to hold her face up to it and have to
squeeze her eyes shut against its power again is a real treat!  Smelling
the motes of dust baking in a sunbeam is not as good as seeing them
sparkle.
 
Grandmother is really looking forward to the day that she hears her
Hoomins call her by her special name, again, the one that she only wants
to hear from them.  But while she is waiting, she has resolved to take a
nap wrapped up in every last piece of fleece in the Fleece Mountain!
One, after another, after another, after another...
 
Sandee
[Posted in FML issue 4606]