can’t believe it’s almost Halloween! One of the best days of the year. Sorbet survived a whole summer and now it’s time to introduce him to his first autumn! And to a new friend!
Sorbet loved summer time. The big bright ball in the sky was always shining and even the dark times were warm. He loved nights in the backyard, chasing glowy buggy friends and eating toasty warm marshmallows made by his mummah. He even liked splashing in his tiny, fluffy safe pool and taking long naps in the sunny spot on the back porch to dry back off again.
It made him believe that the world was really nice compared to how he first encountered it. Life should always be warm and one’s tummy should always be full of good things, he’d decided. Days should always be sunny and full of playing and running around til you were too tired to do anything else.
But then, one day at the end of his first September, everything changed. He woke up in his little bed with a shiver, his soft orange fluff standing on end, making him look like a tiny puffy pumpkin. It was a sensation he didn’t like and kind of scared him. A wind was in his safe room that only made that sensation worse.
The night before he asked to keep his window open a smidge. So he could “smeww the bwite baw” coming up in the morning. A strange request but one his Mummah didn’t see the harm in. The nights weren’t too cold yet.
But that morning… It was very cold. Though Sorbet didn’t quite understand the concept. He only knew he didn’t feel warm and curled up as tight as he could, snuffling softly and whimpering when warmth didn’t come back. And when mummah finally came to his safe room to get him, he was in full blown tears as he ran to her as fast as his hoofsies would let him.
“Mummah, Sowbay feel not good! Not wawmsies!” He hiccuped, curling up in Betty’s arms when she bent to pick him up and tuck him into the front of her robe. The warmth of the hug had helped a little. And Betty’s soft laughter as she explained that he was just cold put him more at ease.
But it caused so many questions. He’d been cold before. In the freezer that he’d escaped from so many forevers ago. But it wasn’t like this. The whole house was cold!
Politely, he had asked why it was all cold. And then what seasons were. And why wasn’t it summer.
The whole morning had been questions while he ate his kibble. And answers while Betty ate avacado toast and drank her yucky coffee. By the afternoon, Sorbet felt he’d been given a unique education.
Summer had gone away and Autumn- or Fall- had come. And even if it was cold they would still have lots of fun. Starting that day.
Betty had brought him to the store again and got him a warm fuzzy coat and a little red scarf that he thought he looked very handsome in. These were clothsies that would keep him warm on all of their outings until Summer came back. And each day had something new for them to do.
They raked leaves into big piles that Sorbet loved to jump into and took long walks in the park near the house and stopped for warm drinks on the way back home. And each day Sorbet went to sleep feeling like he was learning more and more.
Then came the day when the house was full of skeletons and ghosts.
He’d woken up that morning with even more questions. Was this part of fall, too?
“Why is housie decowated scawy, mummah?” He asked, looking around the living room with apprehension. It seemed like on every shelf there were pumpkins with scary grinning faces and hissing cats and ghosts with wide staring eyes. Sorbet was a brave fluffy, but being surrounded by so much spooky imagery made him shiver a little.
“Because Halloween is coming up!” Betty replied as she struggled to get a large plastic skeleton out of the closet. Despite his fear, Sorbet crept closer to the closet and helped to disentangle a bony foot from where it was stuck on a shoelace. He might have the willies but that didn’t mean he couldn’t help his mummah!
“What’s Halloween?” He asked, his mouth still holding the shoelace as he tugged it free.
“My favorite night of the whole year. It’s a night when we carve pumpkins and dress up in costumes to blend in with all the ghosts and ghoulies that prowl around.” Betty explained as they both finally untangled the skeleton.
Sorbet sat down by the closet door and listened as his mummah told him about the wild, magical night where those who went Forever Sleepies came back to visit the earth once more. It sounded scary, but the way Mummah was so excited about it made it sound so nice.
“And the best part: Trick or Treating!” She said as they walked to the porch to place the Skeleton- who Sorbet had discovered was named Harold- onto one of the rocking chairs on the porch. “Our street is great for it. All the kids get dressed up and go from house to house for candy. Everyone decorates their yards and tries to scare everyone. It’s lots of fun!”
The prospect of candy had Sorbet’s eyes as wide as saucers and made him tap his little hooves in an excited dance. The being scared part didn’t sound fun, but candy? Candy was the bestest nummies after Icy Cweams and Sketties!
“Can Sowbay go Twickie Tweat? Is otay fow fwuffiez?!” He asked excitedly, making upsie hooves so mummah would pick him up. “Oh, pwease say yes?”
Betty giggled as she scooped him up and gave him a hug.
“You betcha, buddy. In fact, we’re gonna get you a costume and go to the pumpkin patch today so we can get you all ready for the big day.”
"Bigges’ heawt happies!’ Sorbet giggled happily, hugging his mummah tightly.
The rest of the morning was a blur. The house was decorated and then they went to a store full of costumes that Sorbet had never been in before. Mostly for hoomans and other pets and it had decorations that surprised and scared him a little. But he was too excited to really react to them.
Who could be scared of Munstahs when there was the important work of choosing the right costume?
That part was so hard. Once they found the section of Fluffy Safe costumes, Sorbet found that picking the right one took a lot of thought. Should he be a little round pumpkin? Or a ghost, a vampire, a mer-fluff? There were so many to pick from and it made his thinky place hurt after awhile.
“How about this one?” Betty said and Sorbet looked up, hoping that it would be just the right thing. And it was! In Betty’s hand was a bag containing a fluffy skeleton costume. It even had little bones for his wingies!
“Sowbay can be Hawold!” He chirped excitedly, making “grabby hoofsies” for the bag. Betty smiled and let him have it, laughing when he hugged it tightly. Now he could trick or treat!
“Now you have your costume. There’s just one more thing we need to do to get ready” Betty said as they took the costume to the front to pay for it. “and that’s to get you a pumpkin!”
“Where we get pumpykins at?” Sorbet asked curiously, echoing the beep of the self-check out after Betty scanned the costume and put it into her reusable shopping bag.
“The orchard has their pumpkin patch set up and they’re having a big event today. It’ll be crowded, so you’ll need to stay very close to mummah, okay?”
Sorbet promised very solemnly as they went back to the car. But inside he was a-buzz with excitement. A whole place full of pumpkins and maybe there’d be treats and fun things to do! What had started off as a scary day had suddenly become so much fun!
He hardly even noticed the world around them as they drove away from the costume store. He was too busy imagining the pumpkin patch and singing to himself about what they’d do there in the slightly off-tune way Fluffies tended to sing.
“Sowbay wub pumpyumpyumpkins an’ Sowbay wub Skellyfwiends~ an’ Sowbay wub Icy Cweams an-- Mummah are we at the punkypatch?” He asked excitedly when the car stopped. His little tail wagging and his ears perked up excitedly.
Betty ruffled his ears and gave him cheekie petties with a nod.
“We are! Now, remember stay close and don’t wander too far, okay?”
“Sowbay pwomise! Be vewy gud fo’ mummah!”
And he’d meant it. Really he had. He even kept very still when mummah put on the collar that let everyone know he was someone’s fluffy and not feral so he’d be safe.
And when they went to the patch, he never strayed from her side. Together they wandered through stalls of huge pumpkins of every color and Betty took pictures of him the whole time. Especially next to the pumpkins that were the same color orange as him.
Choosing a pumpkin wasn’t as difficult as choosing a costume. The right one would let you know, mummah said. And she was right. Sorbet picked out a small, chubby pumpkin no taller than he was. And Betty had chosen several larger ones for the front porch.
And while she was paying for them that’s when Sorbet heard the soft huuhuuing of a fluffy in distress. His little ears perking up at the sound, his natural curiosity drawing him to it. Mummah said to stay close… and the sound didn’t seem too far away. Just inside the barn, in fact.
“Don’t cwy, babbeh, Sowbay am hewe!” He said loudly, trotting to the entrance to the barn.
It was very dark inside. And just behind him he could hear mummah shouting for him to come back so they could go get treats, but something told him whatever was in there needed help. The crying was quieter, as if something was trying not to be seen.
“It’s otay! Sowbay am fwiend! No am munstah! Come out, pwease?” He puffed his chest, trying to look brave even if the dark was scary. “Sowbay gettin’ icy cweams! Wanna come too?”
Betty finally caught up with him, annoyed that he’d run off, and dragging the wagon with their pumpkins behind her.
“Sorbet, I told you not to- huh?” She’d started to scold him when they both froze, noticing something small and black crawling out of the hay.
Sorbet had never seen a fluffy that looked like that! Their coat was shiny and black. Their hooves a bright silver and they had wingies. But not feather wingies like Sorbet had. These were black, same as their fluff, but… different. Like the bats he saw on the nature channel.
“Holy shit…” Betty said quietly. Sorbet wanted to scold her for bad language but he was too busy staring at the new fluffy. Betty crouched down and gently picked it up. Like Sorbet had been as a baby, it barely fit in the palm of her hand.
“What kinda babbeh is that, mummah?” Sorbet asked, toddling over so he could get a better look and snuffle the bundle in her hand. “Have huwties?”
The little thing was so scrawny. And dirty. Betty frowned and looked around the barn to see if there was a feral nest somewhere in the hay. And when she found it, it was long since abandoned. Likely chased off by one of the farm workers. The foal in her hand was probably cast out from the rest of the babies for being, well, scary.
“They do. Wingie hurties and heart hurties” she said sadly, petting the foal softly with her thumb. “They’re a bat fluff. And we’re gonna bring her home.”
To be continued