AVOCADO’S FIRST CHRISTMAS
A tribute to Carpdime’s Avocado
(continued from Chapter 5 and Buttercup)
A loud and shrill sonority pierced through the Friday air, as its sound reverberated throughout the daycare. It was a sound that was familiar to children in any circumstance, and on this day, in an elementary school, throngs of excited children were getting ready to depart for home. It was the beginning of the winter break, signifying a long holiday that included Christmas and, of course, the New Year. This jubilation applied not only to children, but also to the fluffy ponies of East Side Day Care, as the prospect of Christmas had been rich in their minds, and they too had been awaiting the end of school.
“Alright, little ones,” said Amber, addressing her class, “remember to have a good break, but don’t forget to do your homework!” As she said this, she was busy shuffling some papers, as she was getting ready to prepare the handouts that were to be given to the individual fluffy owners. Homework for foals was a simple affair, and optional, as it was more a means of determining if a foal could pick up additional skills in future. Working fluffies like Candy were usually ones that stood out as foals, as they’d possess a level of memory retention and comprehension above the average fluffy. Of course, not all fluffies have these skills, and the most important role of the daycare for foals was to teach them how to be well-behaved.
Not long after the class had ended, three foals were busy chatting among themselves. There was the yellow foal, a strong and agile one, who was coping with an early life of difficulty, but was getting accustomed to living with a kind-hearted owner. There was a blue foal, who was naturally timid, but wanted the best for all his friends. And there was the green foal who was naturally friendly, outgoing and very curious. Avocado had developed a bit of a reputation within the daycare as one who was often too curious for his own good but was able to answer questions that some fluffies couldn’t or notice things others couldn’t. There was the one time that Avocado finished a jigsaw puzzle entirely on his own, and also noticed a missing tile on the roof of the daycare.
And the one thing that Avocado was most curious about now was Christmas. His daddy had told him all about Christmas day, and how it was one of the big days for the humans. Even his grandparents had started adding decorations to the house, and had put up a big tree, filled with all kind of baubles, trinkets and other cute decorations. Avocado remembered how some of the humans celebrated Halloween, and he himself went trick-or-treating on the day itself. However, his grandparents didn’t really decorate their house with pumpkins the way some of the other folk did (though they did give candy to both foal and child alike). However, for Christmas, everyone in the town was getting ready for it.
“Daddeh say Kwissmas am gonna be da bigges and bestest day! Guud fwuffies get pwesents!”
“Fwuffy am scawed of Kwissmass. Fwuffy nu wike cowd.”
Of course, Blueberry would find something to be afraid of.
“Shuw, snow am cowd, bu’ fwuffy can pway in snow! Wotsa fun in snowy time!”
“Does snow hab munstahs?” asked Buttercup. It was the one thing that was always on his mind.
Avocado thought for a moment.
“Mebbe dewe am munstahs. Bu’, if fwuffy pway wif mummah ow daddeh in snow, mebbe dewe be no munstahs!”
After all, one thing that fluffies had to remember was that, despite their overabundance of fluff that helps keep them warm, snow could still be a hazard for fluffies in a similar way it is to humans. (And of course, no foal should play alone in snow without supervision)
“Babbeh stiww hab saddies,” said Blueberry, as he looked at the ground. Avocado, feeling a little confused, asked “Why hab saddies, fwen?”
“Babbeh wiww miss fwen. Babbeh wan hab Kwissmas wif Avo and Buttahcuwp.”
Upon hearing this, Buttercup too looked to the ground. Even though he had only been in the daycare for a month, he had developed a strong friendship with Avocado and Blueberry. Even though the holiday was two weeks at most, a day alone feels like forever to a fluffy.
However, Avocado smiled. He uses his left hoof to bring Blueberry closer to him, and his right hood to bring Buttercup closer to him. He gives the biggest hug he can manage to both foals, and then follows it up with a big hug to Buttercup alone, and Blueberry alone.
“Fwens wiww be fwens,” says Avocado, remembering a song taught to him at the daycare. Beaming, he adds “wite tuu da end!”
Both of his friends start to smile, seeing the truth to his words, as they sang in unison, “wite tuu da end!”
~
It was Monday. Avo woke up from his pet bed and could get a sense that the day was colder than other days. Scampering out of his room with his tiny hooves, he rushed out to the living room, and looked out of the window. A blanket of pure white covered the lawn, the gardens, the gates, and the other nice housies. Remembering the lessons that Amber taught him, Avo knew what this meant.
“Snow!”
As he rushed towards his grandfather’s room, he giggled excitedly as he exclaimed “Gwandaddeh! Gwandaddeh! Dewe am snow!”
And within a few hours, Avocado was outside. His grandmother had knit for him a nice beanie, as well as earmuffs, to protect his ears from the cowd. As his grandfather carried him to the front of the house and place him down, Avo jumped up, and felt the cold but soft snow. Using his hooves, he slowly rolled the snow, until he managed to make a snowball, about the size of a fluffy.
Grandad, looking at Avocado in joy, felt a sense of youth that he did not feel in a long, long time. Since he too was dressed up, he got onto the snow. Avocado was a bit surprised, as he watched his human grandfather flail about in the snow, waving his hands and legs against the snow.
“Teehee, gwandaddeh bein’ siwwy!”
Avo’s grandfather smiled, as he got up. Avocado then realized that his grandfather had created something in the ground. Waddling towards the area, he noticed the outline that’s his grandfather created in the snow, but in the shape of the figure of a being with “wings”. It reminded him a lot of the “wingie-hummeh” that Granma had placed on the tree.
“That’s a snow angel, Avocado.”
“Oh?”
Avocado then looks up at his grandfather, as he asked “What am an angew?”
“A wingie-hummeh, as you call them. Wingie hummehs that do good.”
“Oh. Can Avo meet dem wingie hummehs?”
“No Avo, wingie hummehs don’t exist. They are a fairytale, a story, much like My Little Fluffy.”
“Can gwandaddeh teww fwuffy about wingie hummehs?”
Grandad sighed. Avocado was a really curious fluffy and seemed to enjoy learning stuff. It was sometimes hard to answer all his questions, but, having seen how ignorant the average fluffy was, this level of innocence from Avocado felt endearing at the moment.
“Oh sure Avo, we can do that later in the day.
But first, I want to teach you how to build a snowfluff.”
And grandad went up to the little snowball that Avo made. And for the rest of the day, Grandad and Avocado had fun.
~
Avocado wasn’t sure what went wrong on Tuesday.
He remembered getting up with a very bad case of head huwties. He wasn’t sure why he was feeling this way. He remembered having a good day the day before with his grandaddeh. He played in snow for the first time, then sat by the fireside, and listened to his grandfather tell him all about the angels. Granma made him a cup of nice cocoa, and then she brought him to bed.
So why was he having the wowstest sickies?
Avocado tried to walk, but he was feeling heavier than usual. His legs felt heavier than usual, and he could feel that he had to do good poopies soon, but he was too far from the litterbox.
“Feewing poopies…”
Avocado was only halfway across from his pet bed when he felt a stream of warm liquid come out from his poopie place. It felt terrible, like as though wawa was coming out of him. And, just when he though the terrible feeling stopped, the wawa poopies came out again, creating a terrible smell.
Avo was scared. Not only was he sick, and having the head huwties, he just made bad poopies. He had only been put in the sorry box once before for bad poopies, but he knew it was not a good thing to do. However, Avocado felt too weak to move any further, and just fell to the ground, crying.
“Babbeh, am bad babbeh… chirp…”
Granma was a bit worried. An hour had passed, and Avocado normally would be excited for breakfast. However, the usually exuberant fluffy was late this morning. As she went into Avo’s room, she was greeted by the sight of Avocado, having made a mess on the floor, and crying terribly.
“Sowwy gwanma…chirp… chirp… fwuffy make bad poopies… am bad fwuff…” softly sobbed Avocado, fearing that he had done something terrible.
However, his grandmother was not angry. Rather, she seemed to be worried, as she instinctively asked, ‘Avo, are you okay?”
“Avo nu feew guud,” cried Avo.
As he said this, the warm liquid erupted from his bowels again. After that happened, Avocado sobbed. “Babbeh make bad poopies again.”
~
Grandmother did not scold Avocado. Instead, Avocado was surprised to find himself being placed inside his pet carrier. Grandma had placed a bowl inside the carrier as well, and she told Avo, “try to do the poopies in the bowl.” Though he could vaguely make out what was going on, Avocado could sense that he was being taken to the car, much like how his grandfather brought him to the school.
“Bu’ dewe is nu skool,” whimpered Avocado.
Placing her hand inside the carrier, and feeling his fluff, covered in sweat, Granma gentle massaged Avo.
“Rest now Avo.”
She then started to hum a soft lullaby. Listening to it, Avocado started to relax, and fell asleep.
~
“He’s got food poisoning. Nothing that a day of rest won’t fix, but he does have a bad case of diarrhoea.”
Avocado was looking up at the nice mistah. He was dressed in a white coat and was talking to his grandparents.
“How bad is it?”
“Its not very bad, but his gut flora has been affected. He’ll need to take some probiotics over the next few days, and he might still have bowel problems up to Christmas day.”
“Oh dear,” said grandma, as she brought her hand to her lips.
“He will get better though. However, for the next few days, I recommend that he wears a diaper.”
“A diaper?” asked grandad, “I thought only newborn foals who weren’t toilet trained wear diapers.”
“Yes, but fluffies that suffer from incontinent bowels also need to wear them. Of course, they shouldn’t be reliant on diapers, but in cases of sickness or really old fluffies, these kind of diapers are recommended, at least until the fluffy recovers.”
~
Tuesday and Wednesday passed. Avocado spent most of his time in bed and wasn’t feeling well. Sometimes, grandma and grandpa would come in to try and cheer him up, but Avo just felt like sleeping. In his feverish dreams, Avocado dreamt of his friends, Buttercup and Blueberry. He imagined the two of them going on a big adventure to fight an evil griffin. In other times, he dreamt of a wingie hummeh, one who looked like Amber, who taught about all the wonderful things in the world. With her was Queen Candy, his fluffy teacher, dressed like the fluffy Queen from My Little Fluffy, who was the source of wisdom to all fluffies.
And sometimes, he dreamt of daddeh. He sometimes dreamt of daddeh, going to school, just like him, but learning from a human teacher that resembled Candy. In his dream, daddeh was learning how to be a good human, and how to do things like hold hands when crossing the road, doing proper business in the toilet, and reciting his A B Cs. The more Avo thought of daddeh, the more Avo missed him.
“Wan daddeh…”
~
It was Thursday evening, the evening before Christmas. Although Avocado had spent most of the day in his pet bed, he was starting to feel a bit more awake. He could sense that there was activity going on around the house. Feeling a bit more active, Avocado got up. He noticed that he was wearing the diaper that grandma had placed on him. It felt soft and comfortable, and, from what he could tell, he had not done any bad poopies yet.
Trying to understand the sounds that was coming from outside his room, Avo walked out of the room. He saw his grandparents, well-dressed, and getting ready to go out.
“Whewe am gwandaddeh and gwanma going?” asked Avo.
“We’re going to Church, Avo.”
“Wut am Chuwch?”
Before his grandfather could reply, his grandmother answered,
“Its where humans learn about Sky daddeh, as well as the wingie humans.”
The gears slightly turning in Avo’s head, the comparison seemed apt as he said, “Sounds wike skool.”
Both grandparents heartily laughed, as Grandpa said, “I guess it kind of is.”
Grandpa then went up and knelt down beside Avocado. Feeling his forehead, and sensing a lack of fever, he naturally asked him “How are you feeling, Avo?”
“Avo feew guud and make no bad poopies.”
“That’s good.”
Avo reminded him a lot of a cherub, but green, and with a lot of fluff, Grandpa then naturally asked him, “Would you like to go to Church?”
“Harold…”
“Its fine dear,” said grandpa, reassuring grandma. “If anything happens, he’ll still have the diaper.”
~
Avocado had never seen anything like what he saw in Church. He had been to the airport before, and there were more people at the airport, but the Church had a lot people, sitting down on odd chairs of sorts. Around him, he could see a kind of coloured glass, showing images that reminded him a lot of his cartoons, but drawn in a different style. He kept seeing images of a bearded man, sometimes with the winged humans, and sometimes doing things, like giving bread to people, and walking on wawa. Avo was seated snugly in a pocket on his grandfather’s coat, and he noticed that there was a man, dressed in a gown of white, who kept talking and using big words. Human speech was already very hard for Avocado to understand, and whatever this man was talking about was even harder. After a while, Avocado decided to just fall asleep in his grandfather’s warm pocket.
“Wake up, Avo.”
Avo blinked and rubbed his eyes with his hooves. He crawled up from the pocket. The lesson from the man with the big words had ended, and most of the people were leaving the “school”. However, grandma and grandpa were in front an exhibit of sorts, with all kinds of toys. The toys were that of various humans, surrounding a housie. In the housie was a mummah, and a daddeh, and a human babbeh.
“Who am babbeh, gwampa?” asked Avo.
Grandad smiled, as he explained, “That’s Jesus. Today is his birthday.”
Avo, curious as to why this baby was so special, asked, “Who am Cheesas?”
Grandad thought for a while. Summarizing two millennia of Christianity, along with its denominations and its complications would be beyond the mind of any fluffy, but he could think of only one thing, as he stroked the chin of his green little cherub.
“He was the only human who talked to the winged humans. He was very special, and there was no one else like him.”
~
Avo was deep in thought. While on the trip home, he was thinking about what his grandfather said about the baby in the exhibit, and how that one baby was so special. It made him wonder why the humans had to have a special school about this baby, and it made him wonder if his daddeh was going to a school like that one. It was a lot of questions, but the biggest on his mind was what made that baby so special, and if anyone else in the world could be as special as that baby.
Upon reaching home, Avo noticed that the lights were on in the house. Even though it was late at night, tonight, on this very special night, everyone was still awake. He noticed that some of the houses also had their lights on. And, he noticed that there was somebody waiting to meet them. As he noticed the red hair, he realized who it was.
“Mummah Scawwet!”
Scarlet smiled, as she said, “Hi Avo!”
As Grandad got out of the car, Scarlet went up to him and exclaimed “Uncle Harold, its good to see you again!”
“Hello Scarlet,” said Grandpa, as he asked, “How did you get in?”
“Oh, Mark is here!”
“He arrived already?”
“Yeah, just a few hours ago. I was actually going to come later, but Mark arrived a bit earlier.”
Mark. That name sounded familiar to Avocado, but he wasn’t quite sure who Scarlet was talking about. That said, and since Scarlet was here, Avocado felt inclined to ask,
“Iz Buttewcup hewe?”
Scarlet replied with an enthusiastic “Of course, Avo! He is my fluffy! And he’s waiting for you inside!”
~
“Avo!”
“Buttewcup!”
The two friends hugged each on the floor. Even though it had only been a week, it had felt like forever. As they hugged, Avo heard a familiar voice.
“Hey Avo.”
Avo turned around, and saw the figure of the young man, standing in front of the kitchen. He was dressed casually and had been busy preparing the Christmas supper. But, to Avocado, Mark would always represent the one thing most important to him.
“Daddeh!!”
Avocado ran up, reunited with his owner once again. Mark smiled, as he knelt down, and let Avocado leap into his hand. Bringing his hand up to his face Avo, now twice the size of a guinea pig, hugged his father’s face as best as he could.
“Merry Christmas, Avo.”
“Mewwy Kwismass, Daddeh.”
~
The TV blared in the background, as both Avocado and Buttercup were watching a Christmas show, while eating spaghetti-flavoured kibble. Though there was a lot of nice treats, Avocado was still recovering, and Buttercup preferred to eat kibble as he disliked sweets and treats.
At the dinner table, Mark’s family was having their annual Christmas supper.
“So I heard Avo got sick?”
“I think its my fault” lamented grandma as she explains, “I just wanted to make a nice cup of hot cocoa, but then I realized that it expired.”
“Yeah you don’t have to remind me, woman” complained Grandpa, as he noted, “I’m surprised I didn’t get sick. Poor Avo!”
“Well, what matters is that we’re all here,” said Mark, beaming happily.
After the humans had their supper, they gathered for the gift exchange. Scarlet had bought an exercise wheel for Buttercup, as the fluffy seemed to enjoy running. Both grandma and grandpa had gotten books for Avo, as he enjoyed reading. Sadly Mark, since he rushed to get home in time for Christmas, didn’t get a chance to get a gift for his little foal.
“It otay daddeh. Habing daddeh hewe am bestest pwesent.”
As Avo said this, one of the plastic baubles placed on the Christmas tree fell down. Avocado, feeling a little distracted, played with it, prancing at it like he was a cat.
Mark was amused at Avocado’s playfulness, as the little foal chirped, “Daddeh! Awocado wuv bawwbwe!”
Then, Avocado had an idea. Grabbing the bauble with his two front hooves, and standing on his hind legs, Avocado walked up to his daddy, and presented with him the bauble.
“Dis am Awo’s pwesent, daddeh.
Mark, feeling a little humbled, took the bauble from Avocado.
“Thanks Avo. Merry Christmas.”
“Mewwy Kwissmas, Daddeh.”
