For @SamSpadeSlater
“Sofie, honey, can you come down stairs please? We need to talk to you.”
Your heart sank. You set down your cellphone and started making your way down the stairs. Did you get a bad grade or something? It was Christmas break though! Everything was turned in weeks ago, what could possibly have changed? Maybe you did something bad and forgot?? As you searched your brain for answers you entered the living room to see your parents sitting on the couch, your younger brother Percy standing nearby.
“What’s up?” You asked, trying to hide the anxiety in your voice just in case you needed to play innocent.
“It’s about one of your Christmas presents.” Dad said. “We ordered something big this year, and we need to talk about some expectations.”
Both you and your brother perked up at the mention of presents.
“Since both of you are old enough to not really need the play room anymore, Dad and I decided that we, as a family, could get a fluffy.”
“Really?!?!” Percy shouted, jumping up and down. “A fluffy?! A real one?!”
“Yes!” Mom said, grinning. “We just placed the order.”
Percy hugged you, lost in his joy. You patted his back, trying to keep your own excitement under control. Being 14 you needed to be more mature than your 9 year old brother, even if you were about to burst with excitement.
“We are all going to share this responsibility, though.” Dad said. “We’re going to make a chore chart, the litterbox and saferoom are going to need to be cleaned every day. We aren’t going to let anyone just do the fun parts, okay? Pets are a lot of work.”
“When will it be here??” You blurted out.
“A few days before christmas.” Mom said.
“Some of the supplies for the saferoom will be getting here tomorrow, we want your help doing the setup as well.”
You grinned wider.“Of course! This is awesome, thank you!”
“What color is it?? Is it a pegasus?? I love pegasus, they’re so cool!!” Percy chattered excitedly.
“You’ll just have to wait and see!” Dad clapped a hand on his shoulder before getting up. “Tonight why don’t we sort through your old toys to see what you want to keep, what we can give to our fluffy, and what we should donate.”
The two of you followed him into the downstairs playroom, envisioning your new best friend. Maybe you’d get to have a unicorn! Purple and pink even! Though Percy might be unhappy with those colors, so they might not have gotten that. Blue would be a safe choice though, you both liked blue.
The next few days were spent in a flurry of preparation. The chore chart went up outside the safe room, you and Percy alternated cleaning Monday through Thursday, mom and dad would take care of it Friday and the weekend. The carpeting was ripped up and replaced with adhesive linoleum tiles. The toys were sorted and fluffy-safe ones were left in a basket by the door. When the fluffy supplies arrived you argued with Percy about the best placement before deciding on the bed next to the toys, the litterbox by the door and the food and water as far from it as possible. While waiting for the fluffy to be delivered they seemed to taunt you; the “no mowe teaws” shampoo by the tub, the big bag of SkettiMAX kibble in the kitchen, the leash and pinch-free harness hanging by the door. Percy asked about it every single day, you tried to be more patient but secretly you had a list of names picked out in your diary, sorted by gender and color.
Finally, the day arrived.
“Kids! They’re here!!” Dad called.
You ripped your headset off, not bothering to leave the chat. Your online friends could wait, you had a fluffy to meet!
Percy beat you downstairs, running circles around Dad excitedly.
“Hold on, let’s give him some space. He’s a rescue, he might be a little scared.”
“He!! He’s a boy!!” Percy shouted.
Dad shooed him away before pulling the tape off the box. You held your breath as it opened, trying to guess the color.
A small brown head peeked out, a dull yellow mane attached just behind his copper horn. Your heart sank. This wasn’t the kind of fluffy you could show off. Even if he was a unicorn.
“Cmon out, we won’t hurt you.” Dad said, tipping the box gently.
Slowly the fluffy stepped out, skinny with patches of fluff missing. His wings were even more sparse, only a few feathers remained. He kept his tail tucked between his legs as he scanned the room.
“ALICORN!!” Percy shouted before you could realize it yourself, making both you and the fluffy jump.
“Hey, inside voices.” Dad scolded. “He’s just so excited to be your new friend.”
“Fwend?.. Fo’ fwuffy?” The alicorn said softly.
“Yes!! I’m your best friend!” Percy not quite yelled but still said loudly.
“Any name ideas?” Dad asked.
“Bean.” You blurted out. It was on one of your lists but you had assumed it would fit a green fluffy.
“Am Bean?!” He asked, tail wagging.
“Can I hug him Dad?? Please?!” Percy asked.
Dad looked to Bean. “You need to ask him, not me.”
“…” Bean looked up at Percy, tears welling in his eyes. “Bean wan’ huggies!”
Percy scooped up bean, holding him tightly to his chest while screaming with joy. Bean hugged him back, sobbing openly. You quickly took out your phone and got a picture to send to your group chat to explain why you just bailed. They would understand. Even if he didn’t have the best colors, an alicorn was still a big deal.
Bean fit into your family very quickly. He was initially very nervous around lots of things, including the water bowl and litter box. Dad explained to you privately that Bean had come from a drug testing lab where they did lots of bad things to him. Someone broke in to rescue him and put him up for adoption. You felt bad for him, he screamed and cried at bedtime because he thought this was a dream and he would wake up back in his lab kennel. It was agreed that he would sleep with Percy at night at least until he felt more comfortable being alone.
The day before Christmas eve, a few days after getting Bean, Percy started coughing. Not just like something was stuck in his throat, a heavy, wet cough that just wouldn’t stop. Mom and Dad were worried about him, they asked you to do the safe room cleanup for him because he was too sick. You agreed, you were worried too. Bean stayed steadfast by his side, giving him the best healing huggies he could. That evening when Percy finally had enough cough syrup in him to sleep, you heard Mom and Dad talking about taking him to see a doctor. You tried to distract yourself by showing off pictures of Bean to your friends but you had trouble sleeping as well.
The next morning everything went to hell.
“Percy?! Percy wake up!!” You awoke to your mom yelling. “Henry, I can’t wake him up!!”
“Percy, buddy, we need you to get up now.” Dad said, trying to sound calm. “Percy, can you hear me??”
“Wittow Daddeh!! Nu gu fo’ebah sweepies!!” Bean cried.
You slowly walked down the hall towards the commotion, heart in your throat.
“Percy!! My baby!! No!!” Mom wailed.
You came in to see Dad lightly push Bean away from where your brother lay limp on the bed.
“Can you grab Bean, honey?” he asked.
“I got him.” You darted in and scooped the distressed fluffy up, ignoring his struggles and protests.
“Thank you, Sofie. Honey, go get the car ready, we’re going to take him to the hospital and they’ll fix him. Okay?”
Mom sniffled, nodding before hurrying down the hall.
“He’s going to be okay.” Dad said, carrying Percy out. You couldn’t tell if he was talking to you, Bean, or himself. “You two stay here. I’ll… I’ll call you when we know something.”
You watched them leave, Bean wailing in your arms. You had never seen someone get so sick so fast. Eventually you realized that you needed to get Bean calmed down before he had a heart attack.
“Hey, why don’t we go cuddle?” you asked.
“Nu wan’… Wan’ Wittow Daddeh…” Bean wailed.
“He’s going to go see the nice doctors and they’ll make him all better.” You said as you sat down on the bed. “You don’t need to worry a bit.”
“Nuuuu!” Bean cried. “Doktows bad! Doktow gib huwties and sickies!!”
“No, silly fluffy!” You wrapped a blanket around the two of you. “Doctors get rid of sickies and hurties.”
Bean shook his head. “Doktow gib pointy huwties an den fwuffies ge’ sickies!! Coughie sickies wike Wittow Daddeh!!”
You froze, processing what he just said.
Bean continued. “Sumtimes huggies fix, sumtimes fwend gu fo’ebah sweepies! Nu wan’ Wittow Daddeh ge’ mowe sickies!!”
“Did… did the doctors at the lab do that to you?” You asked, throat dry.
“Yus! Nee’ gib bestest huggies tu Wittow Daddeh!!”
You let Bean wriggle out of your grasp and run out of the room. You needed to tell someone. You needed to figure out what they infected Bean with, but how would a fluffy know?
You reached for your phone, frantically dialing your Dad’s number but a coughing fit cut you off before you could hit call.