Things had been very quiet at the Bridge and No. 421 used the time
to finish planting his garden. Now he was on his way down to Bakin'
Berthas for some cookies and sweet tea. Bakin' Bertha had opened a caf
and she had the cutest waitress. No. 421 was looking forward to seeing
her again. He had to work hard today, as Oliver did not come to his
cabin to help, so a tall glass of iced ferretone tea and cookies would
be nice. As No. 421 rounded the bushes, he saw that Oliver was already
there. He was talking to the new girl ferret and laughing with her.
"How long you been here?' No. 421 asked. "I missed you today."
"Oh, I came for breakfast -- then I stayed for lunch," Oliver replied.
"How about you?"
"I was busy planting our garden," No. 421 said. "You always come up
for supper, and you are always hungry, so I planted extra this year."
Just then, a Bluebird came rushing in and perched on the back of
Oliver's chair.
"I can never find you two when I need you," Bluebird said. "I was at
a caterpillar cookout when I hears the Receiving Angel calling for
Oliver. When he could not find Oliver, he called for me. I took the
receiving ticket from him, and I have been looking everywhere for you.
I might have known I'd find you here. Mark my chirps, you are going to
get fat."
No. 421 took the ticket and read it over. "We have a boy coming in by
the name of Hobo," he said to Oliver. "Get me a bag of cookies. I have
to hurry to the Bridge. We will have tea and cookies at the cabin
tonight."
No. 421 hurried to his post and just slid into his chair when a tired
little boy came wandering across the Bridge.
"Hello there," No. 421 said. "You must be Hobo. I've been expecting
you. Welcome to the Rainbow Bridge."
"H-h-hello," Hobo said. "Where am I? This can't be my home."
"Son, this is the Rainbow Bridge, and you will be here until your
family comes to collect you. We have quite a nice place here, and
the big Boss sees that we feel good and have everything we need."
"Well, I need my family, and I need my friend Feona," Hobo said. "I
only just found a nice forever home, and then I had to leave it. I
want to go back."
"I'm sorry, Son," No. 421 said. "We can send messages back, but we
cannot go back ourselves. If that happened, who would be here to
welcome our humans? Come on son, I'll take you over to the Field of
Dreams and we will build a mound for you to live in. You can make an
extra room for your friend Feona."
Hobo thought about that for a moment. "When my Mom comes for me, then
I can go with her?" Hobo said.
"Yes Son," No. 421 said. "Those of us with families will wait for them
here. Some of us, like me, don't have families, so we work here and
help the newcomers settle in. Oh look, here is Shooting Star, she will
take a message back to Feona and your Mom, Heather for you."
"Okay, Miss Shooting Star, tell them I made it here okay and now I am
feeling much better," Hobo said. "Tell them I love them, and thank my
Mom for taking care of me." And he began to pack kisses and lots of
hugs in a little cloud that was hiding just behind Shooting Star.
Shooting Star touched him lightly on the shoulder and said she would
deliver his message. She took the little cloud by the puff and told him
to stay in the sky even on a real sunny day and drop his kisses, one by
one down to Hobo's Mom. She would know he still loved her when she saw
the little cloud scurrying around on a sunny day.
No. 421 took Hobo over to the edge of the Field of Dreams and he picked
out a nice level spot. The neighboring ferrets came over to see him,
and told him he could have supper and spend the night with them and
they would all help him build his mound the next day.
No. 421 said goodbye, and walked up the path to his cabin. Oliver was
just putting the water on to boil and had the table set for tea and
some of Honey's paw print cookies.
"I'm sorry I did not help you this morning," Oliver said. "You won't
tell the Boss will you? I was having so much fun at the caf I just
forgot the time."
No. 421 sat down to a steaming hot cup on Ferretone tea. One taste of
those cookies and he forgot to be angry. "It's alright," No. 421 said.
"Thank you so much for the delicious tea"
The two friends finished the tea and cookies. Oliver did up the dishes
and No. 421 wrote in his logbook, Mission successful. Hobo is here; he
is happy, and will begin making a home for himself and his friends when
they arrive.
Oliver slipped into bed, and No. 421 blew out the candle and the two
friends settled down for the night.
[Posted in FML 6333]
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