This is an ongoing story. If you like this story, please let me know. It gives me encouragement to continue it.
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How long did Bossy spend in the nurse’s office with Willie? It was near impossible for her to tell. Though it felt like many fowebbas had passed, no light filtered into this place. The administrative building was built to be windowless except for those rooms facing out toward the pool area proper. This little nurse’s office was lit only by her battery powered camping lantern which had began to wane the longer time went on.
Willie was in bad shape. Even a fluffy could tell that much was true. Wheezing, gasping, coughing harshly. Sweat poured out of him until he was too dehydrated to produce it. it. That sour, acrid smell mixed with the urine and feces which now slicked the cot where the man lay out. It disgusted Bossy. Of course it did. Fluffies wanted to be clean and be around clean things. Yet he did not disgust her. Despite the stench and uncleanly conditions, the brown and white mare clung close to her owner.
The Fluffy Flu which Willie was stricken with was a harsh mistress. Fever, crippling muscle and joint aches, fluid filling the lungs. Throughout the night, her owner had been hallucinating. Asking for his mother, or mumbling about needing to get ready for work. Bossy wished she could find his mummah so he would have some comfort from her.
Now, though, he’d been quiet for awhile. Rattling breath, fingers clenched in a deathgrip against the sheets under him.
“Water…” The old man croaked out. His voice sounded a thousand years old, lips dry as parchment. Cracked and bleeding. Perking up, Bossy stared at Willie in astonishment.
“Daddeh Wiwwie!” She told him,though his eyes didn’t open. Instead he simply moved his mouth as if to say more, creaking whine issuing from his chest.
Wawa. Wawa! Of course he needed wawa. In fact, she needed some too. It’d been a long time since she’d been in that nurse’s office with him. Giving him one longing look, she hopped off the bed and made her way down the hallway of the pool administrative building.
Coming to the juncture where the hall split off two ways, she squeezed her eyes shut at the afternoon sunlight which practically burned her retinas. Compared to the near darkness framed only by the pale glow of the camping lantern, this was like being on the surface of the sun. Bright shapes dancing behind her eyelids momentarily, she let herself adjust to the light before slowly peeking her eyes back open.
To her right was the entrance of the administrative building. To the left was the small gate which led out to the pool proper. Hooking to the left, the fluffy trot out into the refreshing clean air and sunshine.
Willie couldn’t drink out of the pool and neither could she.
“Cwoween.” She reminded herself of the word Willie had taught her. Cholorine. It was exotic. It sounded fancy.
“Cwoween.” It was so pretty. Willie knew all sorts of pretty words. Cwoween wasn’t a pretty thing though. A thing which made the pool nice to swim in but it was poison. He’d asked her if she knew what poison was and she’d nodded. Poison was why she couldn’t eat skettis anymore. Bad, that’s what poison was. Gave you sickies!
Since the pool water was out of the question, she cant her head from side to side before settling on the snack shack. That’s where Willie had gotten food and luckily for her, the door still happened to be propped open with a deck chair. All of the doors they’d used so far had been propped open. Why? Because of what had happened to her mummah…though she didn’t want to think about that.
Making her way into the snack shack and making sure the door wouldn’t close on her, she perused the stuff in here. All of the candy was on top of a shelf and she was awfully hungry.
Perking up, she noticed a small wire pole with packets of chips attached to it. Gently tipping it over with a nudge, it crashed down.
“Eeeek!” Bossy yelled out, scared. That sound was so loud in a world made as quiet as this one.
Tugging a small bag of Ballreichs potato chips off the rack, she put it to one corner. Looked over to the drink cooler which of course had nothing but hot beverages in it now. Wedging the side of her muzzle against the door, she eased it open enough to poke in and nab the top of a water bottle with her mouth and tug it free. It joined the chips.
Right back out of the snack shack and over to where Willie’s clothing lay in a pile. When he’d taken sick, he hadn’t had the strength to get back into it and just lay in his swimming trunks.
“Sowwy daddeh.” Bossy mumbled, feeling awful about getting into his stuff. It took her several attempts to maneuver the worn leather wallet out of his pants and flip it open. Selected a dollar, returned back to the snack shop.
She couldn’t reach the cash register of course so she found a safe place for the dollar: In the corner of the shack where it was plainly obvious she’d left it but where it wouldn’t blow away. It was always important to pay for things, otherwise you’d be stealing. People who stole went to jail!
Though it took some effort she managed to get one corner of the chip bag and the water bottle cap lodged between her teeth. Waddling back to the nurse’s office carefully so as to not drop her purchases.
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Of course Willie was still there. Laying on his back, panting, mumbling something. It was hard to hear what he was saying and Bossy wasn’t even sure they were words.
“Bozzy hab wawa ‘fo daddeh.” She told him, clutching the sides of the water in her hooves. Clenched her teeth against the plastic cap and wrenched around until it finally started jiggling loose and was pried off.
Very carefully, she tried to move the water to his mouth. Some of it drizzled out and trickled against his pale face, causing the man to wince and give a guttural moan.
Fitting the opening of the bottle against his mouth, she gently eased it up. It started flowing into his mouth, and it caused him to sputter. Hack. A misty cloud of it got coughed up right in her face.
“Daddeh! Pwease!” Bossy said with concern and a little frustration. More of it drained into his mouth, and though a lot of it got spit right back up? Some of it stayed down too. That was the important thing.
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When Willie opened his eyes, he wasn’t sure what was happening. His muscles ached so bad and everything was cast in darkness. There was an uncomfortable mattress under him, the smell of shit and piss in the air, and he was so itchy.
“Bossy?” He spoke into the darkness. No response. Groaning, wincing, he reached around and felt the aluminum cot frame. Tensed his sore old muscles and eased himself to a sitting position.
How long had he been down? It was an important thing to know. He had the Fluffy Flu. That much was obvious. Yet there was a period of time when it seemed to have a remission. The idea scared him though he had hope too. A blind hope that somehow he’d been the only one around here to survive the damn thing. Toes flexing, he shakily planted one foot to the ground. Another. Screamed in pain as he made it all the way up.
Hand reaching out to grope along the smooth concrete wall, he did his best to avoid the furniture. Objects crinkled and crackled under his feet during his slow progression to the doorway, doing his best in the darkness. It occurred to him what it was: Empty water bottles and chip packets.
“Bossy girl? Bossssyyyy? Fweet-fweet-fweet!” He whistled out, the activity causing his lungs squeeze tight. Hacking and coughing, he spat out a great glob of mucus.
Finally, he was out into the hall. Stumbling out, calling out ‘Bossy!’ every so often. Fluffy wasn’t in sight though.
Reaching the junction where the entrance door and pool doors were, he did just as Bossy did and had to close his eyes for a few long moments before everything could adjust.
Foregoing the entrance, he instead turned left and made his way to the pool.
As he made his way to the pool, he looked inside the snack shack. Didn’t see the mare in there, though there was a crumpled ball of dollar bills in the corner of the building. Taking a deep breath, he didn’t want to look at the pool itself. Had a horrible vision of finding her in there. Floating facedown in it, tail dragging along the water as she bobbed along.
She wasn’t there though. Thank God. Wasn’t anywhere around.
Stepping over to the wading section where he’d taken Bossy to play in, he stripped out of the filth-encrusted swimming trunks and tossed the offending article over the wire fence enclosing the pool with a weak flung. Easing himself down the steps into the water, he plopped down into the too-cold water and gave a hiss of pain.
Bedsores. From laying in his own shit and…he’d have to have been in that bed for awhile. That meant. Could it be? Watching the water turn cloudy around him, he felt his heart skip a beat.
Longer than the flu took to kill ya. He weren’t no doctor, but it made him thinking on it.
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Bossy had left that morning for one reason: The camping lantern had finally gone out. By some miracle the batteries had lasted longer than they should have but it was finally time to go get another light source.
Leaving daddeh Willie was hard but she was sure that he’d be just fine for awhile. Naturally, she’d returned back to their little campsite at the park. Though it had just been a few days since their departure, weeds and grass fed by consistently great summer weather had clustered around their living area.
Hopping into their tent, she selected a camping lantern and tugged it up by it’s wire grip.
There wasn’t much to say about the trip back to the pool. Without Willie around, there wasn’t much talking to do. By now, too, she’d learned her lesson: Don’t look at anything. Don’t think of anything. If she did, it’d be scary. So scary. Emptying out her think-pwace and simply making her way to the pool was the only thing to do. Otherwise it’d be much too scawy.
Once she was inside the pool administration building, she worked the knob of the lantern so that the dark hallway would be easier to navigate. Light pushing past the gloom, she made her way back into the stinking nurse’s office.
At first she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Aside from the trash of chip bags and water bottles, there was nothing there but the poopy mattress. Daddeh…where was daddeh!?
Had munstahs gotten him? It was dark in there, and munstahs came out for you when it was dawkies.
“Daddeh! DADDEH!” Freaking out, she knew that munstahs lived under the bed. Closets too, but there wasn’t one of those in there. Puffing up indignantly, the fluffy shot under the bed. If there was a munstah under the cot, she was going to kick it’s butt and save daddeh.
No munstah under there though. Just a few crumpled water bottles. Pulling herself out, she looked around. “Bozzy am hewe! Daddeh! Bozzy hewe!”
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Willie was sitting on the steps of the wading pool still. It was hard to move. When he’d woke up, he wasn’t hungry at all. Then it’d started gnawing, and now it was a hollow dull ache in his gut.
Head quirking, he thought he could hear something. The wind? Naw. It was still out here right now. Not a rustle.
EEEEEEEEEE
SCREEEEEEE
Eyes narrowing, he made out something flicking back and fourth across the entrance of the pool. Bossy.
“BOSSY! OUT HERE, OLD GIRL!” He called out to her, speaking so loud forcing a ripping cough out of him.
The flicking, which he guessed was her running back and fourth, stopped. Slowly, uncertainly, a curious face peered out the corner of the doorway to him. Big brown eyes.
Trying to catch his breath, he watched Bossy break out the entrance to the pool. Hooves scrabbling on the concrete under her, totally ignoring the ‘No Running’ signs posted everywhere. Willie watched in surprise as she flung herself right over the edge and splished down into the wading pool. It was meant for children of course so it required actual swimming from Bossy. Or in her case, flopping wildly until she cut across the water.
Getting a word out was hard. That hollering made him cough again, but it didn’t matter. Reaching out over the steps, he extended his arms out and snugged Bossy up.
Front weggies snugging up against Willie, she licked his face happily. “Daddeh Wiwwie! Bozzy wub yew! Yew otay? Nu sickies? Pwease nu sickies? Wub? Wub Bozzy?” She said desperately.
Still unable to get a response out just yet, Willie poked a tobacco stained thumb up to confirm all of it.
His fluffy squealed happily and babbled at him. Usually he’d be kind of annoyed to hear it after a stretch but right now, it was just fine.