Dolce`s Story Chaiir: A Bridge to be Crossed

Dad: I promise to complete "Jingle and The Wishbringer" but stuff happened and I want to tell another story.
Dolce: I brought catnip cookies.
Baci: I has the leafy greens.
Bella and Chloe: We have the Niptinis and Meowgaritas for the adult cats on the left arm of the Story Chair.
Dad: I don't think my stories are that bad...
Bella: They're not. We are serving singles for now...
Chloe: If the plot line drags too much, we may jump to doubles.
Dad: Girls are so mean...
Baci: Just tell the story. I can see that Magoo has already arrived and is sitting next the feathers. Oooh! Fevvvvers!
Dad (nodding to Magoo): Before Baci attacks the feathers, here is A Bridge to be Crossed...



Summer is supposed to be at time of growth; a time when all things apon the Earth are trying thrive. It is a time when flowers bloom and birds fill their nests and the air is filled with scent of potential that has not yet been fufilled. This current summer had a potential that no one in the McCoy family was anticipating or yearning for it fufill; their beloved matriarch of eighty-two years was slowly slipping from this earth and reaching for the next.

Around the beloved mother, grandmother and great grandmother stood three generations. Each was called to bear witness to passing of a beloved member of their family.

Off in the corner hovered two angelic beings; one was darkly robed and had wings that glistened with the colours of the night, the other was simply robed with wings of purest white.

"Are you ready, dearest sister" the darkly winged being asked his companion.
"Yes." The other angel replied as she pulled a small glowing ball of energy from beneath her robes.

The dark robed angel hovered over the bed of the elderly human. He pressed his fingertips onto her forehead. The woman's eyes widened as she beheld something that she could not share with her family. The angel and the elderly woman smiled at each other and they both waited patiently.

"Now me know, beloved of God." the dark robed angel softly spoke, "I am the Angel of Death. I have come to release you of all your earthly burdens. I come not to destroy but to give everlasting peace. Will you accept my gift?"

The elderly woman gave a faint gasp and then her body laid peacefully still.

The Angel of Death looked to his companion and nodded.

The other Angel held out the glowing orb of energy and placed in onto the elderly woman's chest.

"By your vow." the Angel sang. "I bind thee to your promise."

The orb crackled and flashed. A small piece broke off and hovered in the air over the woman's body. The remaining portion elongated until it covered the elderly woman's entire body. A final electic snap separated the woman's physical from her spiritual being.

There before the two Angels stood an human female. She was now longer cowed by the ravages of time of her earthly existence.

"What happened? the woman asked.

"It was your time." the dark robed Angel replied. "I no longer have claim apon you. What you must do next is up to my sister, Elbereth."

The Angel of Death bowed to his sister and then he disappeared into the ether. The woman looked at the other Angel.

"Are you to decide my fate?" the woman asked.

"Oh No!" Elbereth replied, "You decided your own fate. I am here to remind you of a promise you made. Actually a promise you made several times over the course of your life here on Earth."

Elbereth pulled the small remaining orb from the air and placed it in the bewildered woman's hands.

"This is yours." Elbereth stated. "You will need it to call your friends."

"My friends?" the woman asked incredulously.

"Yes." Elbereth replied, "Each time one of God's creatures that you took into to your heart passed from the Earth, I visited you. Each time, I took a small piece of you spirit and gave it to them. It caused that ache you felt as you watched each one slip from the Earth. I told each of your beloved ones that what I took was not so that you remembered them but so that they would remember you. Now that you have also passed, it is time for you to call your beloved ones back to you. Will you follow me?"

The woman was stunned at the small orb that hoverd over her trembling palms. She could not find any words. She nodded affirmatively. Elbereth smiled and placed her hand on the woman's shoulder.

In a heartbeat, they both stood at the edge of a vast meadow. As far as the human eye could see, there were animals running and playing amongst the multitude of flowers.

"Cast your orb onto the ground." Elbereth instructed.

The woman looked warily at the ground then to the small orb in her hands and then back to ground. She could sense all of the spirits of her beloved pets as she held the orb. Her relunctance to toss that feeling onto the ground was noticable.

"Remember." Elbereth said, "I took this from you not so that you would remember your friends but so that they would remember you. Cast it onto the ground! Let them know you are here!"

The woman did not cast the orb onto the ground; it more or less rolled off her paralyzed fingertips and dropped to the ground.

As it hit, the orb dissipated into a faint blue wave that rolled across the vast meadow of the Rainbow Bridge. Every creature stirred as the wave washed over them; but unless they were bound to this human, they went back to their playing and cavorting amongst the flowers and the grass.

Four creatures did not return to their playing. Their ears perked up and their noses twitched with excitement. The first to respond was a small little beagle who was missing one ear and had a scar apon his right foreleg. He suddenly bayed at the smell that blasted into his nose. The two cats that were regarding the new sensation with a stern dignified resolve suddenly remembered days of snuggling and catnip treats and chicken pieces. A long flopped eared bunny sniffed at the air and thought of leafy greens and playing on a large well kept lawn.

The woman felt the presence of her beloved friend and she ran across the meadow to meet them. The beagle jumped and yapped happily at her. The cats rubbed and entwined themselves around her legs. The bunny sat and patienty waited for her to pick him up and cuddle him as she had done so many years ago.

Elbereth smiled and she gave the bunny in the woman's arms a loving scratch behind the ears.

"Beloved friend." Elbereth smiled to the woman as an angelic tear slid down her cheek. "The Bridge is open to you. Cross with your friends and be content forever."

"Thank you." the woman cried as she and her companions stepped onto the first shimmering stones of the Rainbow Bridge.

"My thanks to you." Elbereth replied, "It always warms my heart to see a human cross with their beloveds."

As she watched the woman cross the Rainbow Bridge with her beloved pets, Elbereth felt a large furry body rub against her robe. She looked down at smiled at the large grey cat that was butting his head against her leg and purring feverishly.

"Yes, Magoo." Elbereth smiled, "We can go and listen to a story."