Chapter 3: Mourning Smurfs
FOUR DAYS LATER…
It didn't take long for the SS Smurf to make it back home, since her crew stopped retrieving objects from the sea. Everyone had been very quiet the entire trip back, even Brainy Smurf barely said two words to anyone. Captain Dreamy was scared to even come off the ship, especially after seeing all the hopeful faces sitting on the dock. Each of them waited for possibly good news from the team's weeklong search.
As soon as the ship pulled up, four members of the crew threw ropes down to the awaiting smurfs on the dock. After when the ship was fully secured into place the crew then let down the ramp so they can walk off safely. Papa Smurf stood at the bottom of the ramp hoping for good news. His heart completely sank as soon as he realized that all the little smurfs coming off the boat had mournful looks on their faces.
Papa Smurf stopped Brainy as he took his last step off the ramp. "What happened out there?" He asked him.
Brainy opened his mouth to speak, but nothing wanted to come out. There is so much emotion in him that it is hard to focus on his words. Finally, Brainy simply turned away and shook his head before walking away. Papa Smurf watched as Brainy sat down on one of the pillars that held up the dock. The smart smurf slumped forward and covered his face with his hands.
This was now scaring Papa Smurf. He wondered even more if the crew of the SS Smurf had found anything at all. Lastly, Captain Dreamy Smurf started coming down the ship's ramp. He held something tightly in his hand. With a deep breath, Dreamy finally was going to face Papa Smurf with his news. This had been something he dreaded the most the entire trip home.
"Papa Smurf," he said handing his leader the object in his hand. "I'm sorry, but this was all we could find."
Papa Smurf looked down and saw a piece of Hefty's bloodstained hat.
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30 MINUTES LATER…While the other smurfs of the village slowly got back to repairing the village, and dam, Papa Smurf sat alone in his home. Even though he had cleaned most of it, there was still mud and broken beakers everywhere caused by the flood. That was not on his mind at the moment, however. He has done nothing but sat on his stool and stared at the bloodstained cloth in his hand.
'This isn't happening,' Papa Smurf thought to himself. 'He can't be gone…not like this.'
He started making a fist, squeezing the cloth in his hand then bringing it up to his face. Tears fell uncontrollably. He hadn't felt this bad since when Wild Smurf went missing when he was a smurfling. A sudden knock on the door took Papa Smurf off guard. He began to wipe his eyes clean from his tears and cleared his throat.
"C-Come in." He attempted to say without sounding like he was crying.
"How are you doing?" Grandpa Smurf said as he popped his head in.
"I'd be lying if I said that I was doing ok with this." Papa Smurf sniffled.
"I understand. The rest of the young smurfs are feeling the same way." Grandpa Smurf stated. "But regardless of the fact, they are still trying to finish repairs of the dam and village."
"Grandpa Smurf, is there a point to this?" Papa Smurf asked rudely.
"The point I'm trying to make is this. One smurf is gone. Yes we all feel a major blow over that. But we do need to smurf back up. We need to rebuild our homes before another storm comes by and causes more damage, and possibly any more deaths."
Papa Smurf didn't want to answer. He got up from his seat to look out his window. What Grandma Smurf had said was true. All his little smurfs, regardless of their loss, worked very hard for the past week and a half to finish the repairs to the dam and village. But now that everyone now knows that Hefty is officially gone, the struggle to stay focused has become more difficult. Papa Smurf hung his head as he let out a long sigh.
"I say after we know the dam is secure, we should have a proper memorial. One that will help bring closure from all of this." Grandpa suggests as he placed a hand on Papa Smurf's shoulder. Papa Smurf, being too choked up to answer with words, nodded his head in agreement. Silently more tears fell down his face.
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Smurfette struggled as she pushed along a wheel barrel full of small debris from along the village. She stopped when she realized that she was walking past Hefty's home. No one has had the chance to clean it up for him yet, not that really mattered now. However, Smurfette felt guilty. She felt that someone should at least clean up anyway.
She opened his door to walk in. Smurfette did feel a bit uncomfortable going into another smurf's home without permission, but under the circumstances she figured Hefty wouldn't mind. Like everyone else in the village, Hefty's house was hit pretty hard during the flood. But also like Hefty's personality, it still stood strong. Smurfette stood, unsure of what to clean first.
Everything had mud caked all over it. After a few minutes, Smurfette decided to get started. She picked up the cleanest cloth she could find, and started to wipe down the furniture. As she did this, memories of Hefty filled her head. Just when she thought there were no more tears to shed from her eyes, more started to form. They began to fall down her face as she kept cleaning.
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A couple of houses away a banging sound is heard from a tool shed. Handy Smurf tried to focus his energy on rebuilding as much as he could around the village. The dam was the most important thing to fix. He did a lot while the search team set out to sea over a week ago. Usually fixing things brought comfort and joy to him, but for good reason he wasn't feeling either right now.
Images of that night of the big storm hunted him. All he saw in these images was Hefty being washed away once the dam burst from the force of the river. Handy saw himself reaching out to his friend, but everything moved so fast. All he could do was watch helplessly as Hefty disappeared under the waves and debris. Handy felt like punishing himself for not doing anything to help his best friend. Everyday, since that night, all he did was ask why didn't he run out to grab Hefty and pulled him to safety. He then began to hate himself for not thinking about doing that.
Handy started to slam his hammer down harder on the 2x4 until the handle broke in his hand. In frustration, Handy threw what was left of the handle across the tool shed. It impacted with a shelf that held up more tools. The entire shelf, and the tools, came crashing down to the floor.
Not even caring about the mess he just created, Handy just fell forward onto the 2x4 and broke down crying.
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Further down the village more crashing sounds were hard from inside another house. Painter Smurf had been feeling both sad and angry at the same time. So much so, that he started talking it out on his paintings, his 'masterpizzas'. He started throwing his canvases across the room. One by one, each of his greatest works was reduced to a broken mess.
Painter held up another painting, ready to throw, but then stopped. He realized the painting he held was of Hefty. The artist's lower lip quivered as he remembered the day when he painted this picture. The picture showed the village's strongest smurf holding up one of his heaviest weights above his head with one hand. It impressed Painter that Hefty was able to hold that heavy object for so long as he struggled to get the shading just right. This would be one masterpizza he didn't have the heart to smash against the wall.
As he placed it carefully to one side of the room he noticed a piece of marble rock standing eight apples high in the corner of his studio. Painter remembered finding this rock. He had Hefty come with him to retrieve it and bring it back home. Hefty didn't complain much, he was more curious on what he was going to sculpt with it. At that time, Painter didn't know what he was going to do with it; he just wanted to bring the marble home. He looked down at his painting of Hefty then up at the marble.
Inspiration had struck. Right away, Painter Smurf ran to get his carving tools and started to chip away at the marble.
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FIVE DAYS LATERAll the smurfs gathered at the spot where the river meets the sea. The sun slowly made it's way down, leaving a peaceful sparkle of orange and pink light cascading over the water's surface. Papa Smurf figured that this would have been Hefty's final resting spot. Each of the little smurfs held a small lily flower, and inside the flower sat a tiny candle, which had been lit up for this ceremony.
Papa Smurf stood on a rock ready to speak. But before a single word could be spoken, Painter Smurf pulls a cart with a blanket covering an object on it.
"What is this, Painter?" Papa Smurf asked.
"My contribution to this memorial, Papa Smurf." Painter answers as he stops pulling. He reaches up at the blanket and yanks it down, revealing an eight apple high statue of Hefty. It looked just like his painting with the strong smurf holding up his heaviest weight high above his head. Below Painter added a plaque that said, 'Dedicated to one of the greatest smurfs of our time.'
Many of the smurfs 'oohed' and 'ahhed' over the statue, while others smiled through their tears.
"That is very beautiful, Painter. Thank you." Papa Smurf smiled approvingly.
Painter smiled in return as he accepted a lily flower and a candle from one of the other smurfs.
Again Papa Smurf took a deep breath before speaking. "As you all know, we are gathered here pay respects to one of our own, Hefty Smurf." Just the mention of his name had brought grieving sobs from the most of the smurfs. "This is the toughest thing any of us had to smurf, but we must all now say goodbye. We need to allow Hefty to find his place in the universe, and to allow ourselves to heal. Each of us holds a lily, and in that lily is a candle. The light of the candle represents as guidance for Hefty's soul. We will release these flowers out into the ocean as our symbol of saying 'your home is always here in our hearts'."
Papa Smurf steps off the rock and walks over to section of the river as it is joining out into the sea. Carefully Papa Smurf bends down and releases his lily in the water. He then turns to face his little smurfs.
"Alright, now the rest of you come down and release your candles too." Papa Smurf instructed.
In small groups the smurfs did as told. Not a single smurf had a dry eye as they watched their flower float out to sea.
"I hate 'goodbyes'." Grouchy Smurf commented tearfully just before he releases his flower out to sea.
The sun's last rays fell beneath the horizon, leaving a beautiful sight of just over a hundred candles glittering on the dark water.