Goldie eagerly waits at the door, her little golden tail wagging to and fro. “Mummah homsie soonsies! Mummah homesie soonsies!” she chants.
Her mummah adopted her only a week ago, but Goldie already loves her like she’s known her more than forever.
The yellow filly’s eyes light up as she hears the faint sound of someone walking up the stairs outside, the sound growing louder as they near the door.
Her excitement grows as she hears the familiar click of a key being inserted into its hole, followed shortly by the door creaking open to reveal Goldie’s favorite face in the world.
“Yay! Mummah homesie! Hewwo, Mummah! Gowdie am so happy tu see yu!” Goldie gleefully exclaims.
Katya smiles faintly. “Hey, Goldie.” She reaches down and ruffles Goldie’s mane, making the filly giggle.
“Mummah wan pway gamesies wid Gowdie?” the filly asks eagerly.
Katya sighs. “I can’t now. I have homework.”
Goldie’s enthusiasm falters. “Oh…” Goldie doesn’t exactly know what ‘homework’ is, but she’s long figured that it must be mean and hard and that Katya doesn’t like doing it, but has to do it for some reason.
“Maybe later, okay?” Katya tries to reassure her.
Goldie perks up a bit. ‘Later’ isn’t now, but it’s never too long when Katya says it. “Otay!”
After a few hours, Katya finishes her homework. She closes her notebook and goes to open her door to let Goldie into her room.
Goldie notices that Katya took a little longer than usual, but the filly just assumes it was even meaner and harder homework this time.
“Mummah donesies?”
Katya nods. “So what game did you want to play, Goldie?”
Before Goldie can open her mouth to answer, she is interrupted by the sudden sound of a slamming door.
Both Goldie and Katya fall silent.
Goldie tries to speak up to ask about the scary noise, but Katya places her hand over the filly’s mouth and firmly whispers, “Be quiet.”
The door slam is shortly followed by a series of muffled shouts, thumps, and crashes. All these sounds seem to be coming from behind the wall right next to Katya’s bed.
Katya holds Goldie close and explains while keeping her voice down, “That’s the neighbor. He does a lot of bad stuff and is mean to his special friend a lot. He’s screaming at her again.”
As the muffled sounds continue, Goldie swears at one point that she hears a fluffy’s voice cry out, though she can’t quite discern what they’re saying.
“Don’t listen,” Katya tells her quietly. The girl then puts her earbuds in and listens to one of her favorite songs, as she’s done every time something like this has happened. She looks to Goldie for a moment before taking out one earbud and placing it on Goldie’s ear.
The music is loud, but Goldie likes it better than the scary sounds from behind the wall.
Another hour passes, and the sounds from the neighbor’s apartment don’t stop. Katya’s parents still aren’t home yet despite the sun beginning to set, but neither she nor Goldie pay any mind to this. Goldie had quickly learned that Katya’s parents’ ‘later’ is longer than Katya’s ‘later’.
The music helps, but Goldie still can’t completely keep her mind off the scary sounds.
A loud, very different scary sound suddenly comes from outside. It gets louder and louder until it ubruptly stops, only to be followed by the sound of someone rushing up the stairs. Goldie figures that this must be a big human and not a little human like Katya, since these step sounds are much bigger and louder than Katya’s. But at the same time, they don’t sound quite like either of Katya’s parents’ step sounds.
The next sound is a loud knock, though Goldie can tell it’s not coming from their door.
Goldie can hear the sounds of several big humans talking. She tries her hardest to make out what they’re saying, but it’s too muffled. Katya notices her doing this and tells her again, this time more urgently, “Don’t listen!”
After what seems like forever to the young fluffy, the sounds finally stop.
“Mummah,” Goldie says, still trying to be quiet like she was told, “Am quiet now. Scawy noisies am gonesies. So am otay? Tomowwow be bettew?”
Katya answers plainly, “I don’t think so.”
