It had been a few days since Maple’s miscarriage, and she was getting better, but not much. Physically, her tummy had returned to normal and stopped hurting, but the hurties inside her heart and thinkie places were still horrible. She couldn’t remember the last time she fell asleep to anything but the feeling of wet tears on her cheeks, it must have been so many bright times!
She heard Roger putting his boots on across the room and decided to open her eyes for that, watching from her bed. It was always interesting as she watched him tie the strings together.
“I’m headin’ into town, honey. You want anything special while I’m out? Maybe a treat or somethin’? Yer worth it, honey. Yer gonna be okay, too,” he told her, crouching down and reaching behind her to gently scratch at her mane.
For the first time in a few days, she responded to it a little, grumbling softly and closing her eyes. “…Can Maypo hab bwoobewwy nummies?”
“Of course. I’ll getcha some.” He stayed there for a bit longer, relishing the moment to feel a semi-positive response. Slowly, he rose to his feet, heading into town. He had an idea today, and blueberries were only a small part of it as he set out.
The speaker above the door played a little sound as he pushed it open, stepping into the FluffMart. “Hewwo!” said the voice of a little fluffy, follow by a swarm of similar greetings from the adoption bin immediately to the right.
Roger did his best to ignore them as he walked right over to the counter, happy to see the same girl from last time. “Howdy, ma’am. I uh… got a bit of a problem to try and fix.”
“Oh? Did something bad happen with little Maple?” she asked, leaning toward him on the counter with a genuinely concerned look.
“She miscarried a few nights ago and she’s all torn up about it. She thinks it’s all ‘er fault and nothin’ about it could’ve just been an accident or bad luck, and I was wonderin’ if… I could adopt a foal that looked like her and give her some special pills or somethin’ that could let her produce milk to take care of it?”
She immediately nodded. “Ah! Yeah. We can do that. So… you don’t even have to give her pills,” she started, heading around the counter to the back and bringing back a special white bag, nondescript and plain-looking. “This is a special food given to mares that are used specifically for breastfeeding and never have foals of their own, so it should be about right for your needs.”
“Fantastic. That’s perfect…” he said, nodding his head and picking it up to read on it. The ingredient list was a nightmare, but so was most of this shop.
“I like to give ‘er a lot of simple human foods, too, though. Produce stuff. She likes cucumbers, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, apples… can I keep feeding her all of that stuff, too?”
“Sure can. She’ll just be much healthier than most fluffies, you’re taking pretty good care of her diet.” She smiled at Roger and gave him a thumbs up, looking over at the bin beside him where one of the fluffies was trying to climb out of the enclosure to get to Roger.
“NICE MISTUH!” it called out to Roger, flapping it’s little wingies with wide eyes. “Nice mistuh bestes daddeh! Dem nummies sound wike bestes nummies fwom bestes daddeh! ‘Ou wan be Wobsta’s daddeh, tu? Wobsta wub ‘ou foweba an’ eba an’ eba… an ‘eba…” His words slowed when he realized Roger looked away and wasn’t even paying attention to him anymore. “Hey! Hey! Mistuh! Nice mistuh!” Despite its best efforts, it would go the rest of its life with no further attention from Roger.
The clerk laughed a little at Roger’s response and facial expression, hurrying along. “Alright, so… you’re paying in cash like last time, right?”
“Yeah. Somethin’ we gotta talk about?”
“Yeah… technically I’m not supposed to sell you foals that young, but if you want it to be a little baby and imprint on her first and treat her like mommy, then we have to do it that way and we have to be careful about it. We also don’t want a paper trail, so you aren’t getting a receipt today.”
“Fine with me,” he told her, following her as she gestured for him to come into the back. She paused for a moment, looking up and to her right as she nudged a box a little bit to block the view of a security camera, bringing him down an aisle to a little cage.
“Alright, mister. I can tell you don’t like fluffs much and you just happen to like the sweet one you have at home, so I have an idea here. One of these mares is actually a pretty good fluffy as far as they go, and I think her last litter was with a pretty decent fella, so these foals are decently likely to be like Maple for temperament and personality.”
She lowered her voice, leaning toward him before they got to the cage she had in mind. “The trick is to get them to part with a foal that young; they’re likely to protest and tell you it’s too soon and the little babies still need their mom. Which, they do. But… we might be able to sell it.”
She took another step forward. “Bella! I have a special visitor for you, sweetie cutie pie!”
Bella, a light purple earthie with a darker purple mane lifted her head up with a big toothy smile, soaking in the praise. “Wisa! Bewwa su happies tu see ou! Bewwa hab nyu babbehs wast dawkie time, nao Dey dwinkin’ wots o’ miwkies! Gon’ be big, stwong babbehs!” She wiggled her little legs excitedly at the thought, trying not to wiggle so much that it was hard for her nursing babies to stay latched on.
“…Yes sweetie, I know, I was here helping you deliver them,” Lisa responded with a little giggle, her name having been outed by the fluffy mummah. “I’m here for a special request for you, though, okay? I know you’re a big, pretty girl with a big, pretty heart. There’s another mare out there who is having the worstest hurties in her heart for many days and nights now. She was going to be a mummah like you, but she had her babies too soon by accident and they died.”
Bella’s jaw dropped, her eyes welling up with tears. So did Roger’s. It hurt even more because this story wasn’t accurate. He was the one who killed Maple’s babies, and he was taking that to the grave.
“Dat happen tu Bewwa! Weawwy wong time ago! Bewwa hab stwangest tummeh huwties and den make wowstest poopies! Wen Bewwa tuwn awound dewe was Bewwa’s tummeh babies! Bewwa gib dem wots ‘n wots ob huggies buh dey nu wake up!” She sobbed softly to herself, that little huu-huu coming out under her breath She reached down to one of her nursing babies, picking it up between her front hooves to give it huggies and clutch it to her chest.
Roger liked her. Maybe he’d like her baby too.
Lisa spoke up again. “I’m so sorry to remind you of that, Bella, but I have an idea. That mare belongs to this nice mister right here. He’s her daddy, and he wants to give her a little baby she can love and feed and hug and sings song to… and all of those special things. Your little brown foal looks a lot like her. Would you consider letting us-”
Bella immediately nodded her head enthusiastically, her tears stopping. “Yes! Nice Mistuh can be nyu daddeh fow poopi- bwown babbeh! Can take babbeh tu bwown mawe!” They didn’t even tell her Maple was brown.
Lisa covered her mouth to stifle a laugh, leaning in and opening the cage as she gently scratched under Bella’s chin, helping guide her baby back to her teat as she reached past her into the corner. A little brown foal, it’s eyes still closed, cheeped quietly in her hand. It hadn’t been starved, but it certainly had much less milk than the others. Carefully taking it into a padded box, Lily poked little holes so it could breathe.
Roger looked back over to Bella. “Hey… Bella… I just wanna say thank you. My little girl at home, Maple, she’s awfully torn up over what happened, just like you were. I think this’ll help her a whole lot.”
Bella’s bright smile flashed her teeth once again in a mix of genuine compassion and color prejudice. “‘Ou wewcum mistuh! Pwease be gud, wuving daddeh fow widdwe babbeh!”
“I will,” he told her with a little smile as her cage was locked back up, Lisa leading him back to the front.
“Alright, so here’s your story for Maple to make this work, okay? You have to tell her you found this baby in the city and that the mother was yelling at it to crawl away and never come back and calling it a ‘poopie baby’, that’s the only way she’ll buy the story. Got it?”
Roger silently nodded to her.
“Good. Now, give me a hundred in cash and take your bag and your box. You were never here and if you were, you only bought food.”
Roger silently nodded to her again, sliding over a bundle of bills that totalled a little more than that. “Appreciate ya,” he told her, heading out and clutching the little box to his chest.
Maple laid on her side, staring at the pretty flames in the wood stove in the middle of the cabin, trying not to think about it. Anything other than it. Flowers. Dead babies. Daddy taking her on walks in the warm times. Dead babies. Flower nummies and warm bright times. Dead ba-. Daddy! She felt the cold wind roll across her fluffy as daddy came in, and she heard a quiet peeping. That… No… Please, thinkie place! Please don’t torture Maple with hallucin- peep! Peep! Chirp!
“Maple, honey! I need yer help. I went into the city and I got some stuff… I forgot your blueberries, honey, something happened and I needed to get home quick.”
“It otay, daddeh. Maypo heaw chirpies…”
“Yeah. I brought home a little baby, Maple. I was walking in the city and there was this big red fluffy, she was shouting and saying mean words to this little brown one,” he told her, unwrapping a little towel with a baby in it, having already ditched the box back in the truck. “She kept calling him a ‘poopie baby’ and told him to go away and have forever sleepies. I uh… scooped the baby up. Will you… be his new mom? I couldn’t bear to just leave the little one there to die alone.”
Maple’s eyes went wide as she slowly took it in. This had been a really rough, high-stress time for her, but the blank expression on her face slowly turned into a smile that Roger hadn’t seen in days. She approached slowly at first, her little feet tapping along the floor as she hurried over and sniffed the little chirping brown foal. “Maypo… Maypo nu hab miwkies… buh…”
“That’s okay. I went by the store and told the lady about it and… she gave me some special food that will help you make nutritious milk.”
Maple’s eyes glazed over with determination, looking up at him and raising up her hooves. “Maypo num dose nummies, den! Pwease daddeh? Widdwe babbeh need miwkies an’ huggies an’ wub. Maypo gib babbeh huggehs fow nao.”
She was a mummah with a plan, picking up the little baby and rolling onto her side as she clutched him to her soft chest fluff. The little one happily snuggled into her, but still chirped and peeped out of hunger
Roger wasted no time to quickly fill a bowl with the new kibble, though it looked and smelled strange. He put a few thin slices of strawberry and banana on top to make it more palatable for her, and she watched with a smile in appreciation, her little nose twitching from across the room as be brought the little dish down to her, taking the little baby into his own hands as she sat up to eat. He cupped it in his hand, slowly rubbing along its tummy until its little legs wrapped around his finger in embrace, opening its mouth and suckling at his fingertip. Roger didn’t like it, but he also noticed how Maple was beaming at that interaction.
Maple was so happy! Everything was coming together, somehow. Daddy realized that babies are great, and he loved this one. He was going to take care of this one. Together, they would be a family.
After her meal, Maple sat up and prodded at her teats with her hooves.
“Daddeh, how wong tiww Maypo hab miwkies?”
“I don’t know, honey, but at the moment the baby’s asleep. Shouldn’t have to wait too long. Do you want to curl up with ‘em in yer bed? Maybe when it wakes up you’ll be ready.”
“Daddeh su smawt!” She nodded to him excitedly, going over to her bed and grabbing her blanket in her teeth, laying on her side and dragging it over herself. Roger lifted up the other corner, nestling the little foal against her tummy. In its sleep, it cooed softly, nuzzling her body and going still.
“Maple?” he whispered quietly.
“Daddeh?”
“I love you.”
“Maypo wubs ‘ou tu, daddeh!” she said, her face grinning and full of a newfound joy. The world was warm and perfect, and her smile radiated like soft sunshine on to the man who killed her babies.
First Chapter | Next Chapter to be written