Chapter 13:
I wake up the next morning, and realize I'm in a hospital. I can feel the cast on my fore arm, my head hurts a bit, but not as bad as last night. I have a full body ache, from all the twisting yesterday. But all in all, I am contented.
At this point I should explain the difference between a chirr, and a purr. A purr sounds like pu-pu-pu, or an old fashion one-cylinder engine. Where as a chirr is like the same engine with a leak on the exhaust system. So, it's a chu-chu-chu sound. As I don't need the bathroom right away, I snuggled in to Grandma, and start to chirr. Grandma wakes just enough to start to purr. We are like this for about 5 minutes before the meal attendant comes in.
The attendant enters with my breakfast and does a double take at what she hears. It sounds like a bunny in the room. And all she can see is two foxes. The chirring stops as I look at her and say, Hello? She almost drops the tray as she realizes that I was chirring. At the word Hello, Vivian wakes up stretches, yawns, and jumps down from the bed, and stands up. The attendant sees my ears, and not knowing what I'm there for, assumes that it had to do with my ears, as they are rounded. You poor guy, did it hurt when you lost the tips of your ears? At this, both Vivian and I burst out laughing. No, born this way, I reply. I start twitching my nose at the smell of the food. She honestly doesn't know what to think. Vivian spares her any further embarrassment. Daniel is a hybrid, part his father and part his mother. The attendant come over to look at me. I show her my feet, ears, and nose. Well aren't you a unique little kit. Yes, I am, I agree. She then places the tray beside the bed. Well you eat this all now. Will do, I reply as she leaves the room. I give the cricket spread and toast to Vivian, and I eat the oatmeal and fruit. After breakfast, we use the bathroom, and settle down to wait for my parents to pick us up.
After breakfast I contact my littermates and tell them what happened. At first, they are mad at me, as they could not contact me last night. All they could sense was a type of white noise. I told them about meeting Gab in the meadow, and they were kind of incredulous, thinking it was all a dream. But I promised them that we would try to go to the meadow tonight and talk to Gab. After a bit we cut the connection as their day was starting with lessons. I hugged them all, and caught a whisper of contact with Susan, Love You, was the feeling I received from her, as the connection was broken. Where were you Daniel? Asked Vivian. You zoned out and were staring at nothing. "Just thinking really hard", I reply. The look on her face said she wasn't buying it, but she would accept it for now.
The doctor comes in about twenty minutes later. He is an older white wolf. Good morning Daniel, how are you feeling this morning? I tell him about my aches, and he checks my head, my arm, and checks my pupil response. Well you appear to be just fine this morning, he says. And who might you be, you lovely flower? Vivian blushes, and responds, Vivian, Daniel's grandmother. Grandmother? You can't possible be that old. Vivian blushes again, and says, yes, she is that old. The doctor reaches out and takes her paw, and gently kisses the back of it. At this Vivian blushes even harder. My name is Peter Howler, good to meet you Vivian Wilde. Goo…good to meet you too. Well I must see to my other patients; will you have coffee with me sometime? Ye…Yes. Good I'll call you later, he says as he jots down her number. I can tell he has a genuine like for Grandma, and I can feel her liking him, I just smile.
Mom and Dad show up about an hour later, with clothes for me to wear, as the old ones were cut off when I was admitted to emergency. I mourned the loss of my jacket, but grandma said she would make me a new one. Dad signs the discharge papers, and we all head home.
When we get home, Vivian and I have another breakfast, and mom and dad hug us both as they head out the door, back to work. Vivian gets out an old heating pad, and turning it on low, puts it in between the sheets of my bed. I then have a hot soak in the tub, no playing today, just to tired. I then get dried off, and put to bed. The warm blankets and soothing heat have me asleep in no time.
When I wake up, I feel a whole lot better. Getting use to the idea of sleeping alone. I can hear voices in the kitchen, and assume mom and dad are home. I use the bathroom, and come down the stairs to the kitchen. Well son, your looking a whole lot better, says Nick. Feeling a lot better, I reply. Judy come over and picks me up, kisses me, and starts to cry. Not your fault mom, I say, as I can feel what has her so upset. See even your son agrees with me, says Nick. Judy lets out a small chuckle, I guess your right slick. Course I'm right, told you, was just an accident. Well we have a treat for you tonight Daniel. It's "pizza night".
What's pizza? I ask. What's pizza? Exclaims Nick, putting a paw to his chest and the other one in the air, Only the most perfect food on the earth, coming straight from the gods. Mom and grandma both laugh at this, it actually come from Tony's down the street, says mom. I laugh as I now get the joke. This square box is taken out of the oven and placed on the table. It smells so good I can't wait to try it. Dad takes this triangle of bread, cheese, and vegetables out of the box, putting it on a plate and handing it to me. I couldn't figure out how to eat it, tell I saw them each take a slice and with their paws, and bring it to their muzzles. "Finger food" I exclaim. Everyone just bursts out laughing, as I try to jam the whole thing in my muzzle. Oh God, it was so good, I could almost believe it came from the gods. I stuff myself full to bursting, I now look like a beachball. I let out a loud belch, and sit there contented, not wanting to move.
After supper, they teach me how to play a board game, "monopolize". It was fun, and Dad was the one to win. I may have lost all my money, but now I had a good idea how to play, I was determined to win next time. After the game we were all tired and headed off to bed.
As I lay in bed, I linked with my littermates, I ask them to relax, and I try to remember how the meadow felt. As my breathing got slower, so did theirs. Eventually I found the feeling of the meadow and willed us there.
I woke up in the meadow, but couldn't see them. I could just feel them over the little rise in front of me. I walked over the rise and there they were, still sleeping. I spooned into Susan's back, and she moved back into me. With her eyes closed, she says, God Daniel, I wish you were here. I'm right here, I say as I start to nibble on her neck.
Well a few things happen all at once at this point. Her ears fly up and bat me across my eye, her free hand punches me in the nose, and she jumps up letting out a mighty scream. This has the effect of waking everyone else up. As I sit there holding my nose, Susan lets out another scream, "Daniel". Then she wraps me in a hug, and we both kiss, and tell each other how much we missed each other. A laugh resounds across the meadow, "Daniel", you defiantly have a wicked sense of humor, say's Gab. Everyone else crowds around me, giving me hugs and kisses. Eventually we stop and look to Gab. I leave the pack and run and hug Gab's front paw. He wraps his other paw around me, and we stay like that for a few. Well children do you have any questions for me? We had lots of questions, some he answered, some he didn't or couldn't.
Now that your questions are answered, are you ready to start training? We all nod our heads to the affirmative. All right, first lesson is mind melding. Mind melding? We ask. Yes, you need to make your brains whole. Whole? Yes, you need to use your whole brain the good and the bad. The bad, is only bad in how you use it. Now I want you all to relax, concentrate on the worst experience you have had, and look at the part of the brain this thought comes from. This is the part of your brain you need to embrace, as this is the primal brain. The primal brain is were most feeling come from, good and bad. If it helps, think of this part of your brain as a small kit, who fears everything. You have to make peace with this part of yourself, and welcome it in to your higher brain functions. Once you have made peace with it, everything else will become easier. Can you not show us how to do this? No, I can't, as this is a personal journey that only you can make. After awhile, we all started to vanish one by one. What's happening? Gab laughs, they are just falling a sleep, and going to dream land. I let out a sigh, this isn't going to be easy is it? It's only as hard as you perceive it to be. With that I fall asleep.