Bandit held little Bluey in his arms, trying his best to entertain her with funny faces and animals sounds. It was proving a little bit trickier than most times because right now the toddler seemed to want only mum. Fortunately, baby Bingo was sleeping soundly in her cot.

"Good, little mate! Now repeat after me: Kangaroo"

"MUM!"

"Hey kiddo, your mum is not a kangaroo!"

"MUM!"

"We can jump as a kangaroo if you want to! Lets pretend Im a kangaroo mommy and you are the joey in my sack. Now... jump!"

"MUM!"

Bandit sighed. "Cmon Bluey, your mum is a little bit busy right now, see? I bet if you play with me a little longer, time will pass in a jiffy!".

He hoped so, yet it seemed it will not be that fast... all he could hear from the nursery room was the muffled sound of somewhat raised voices... This last visit of Brandy had not gone well...

He wanted so much to intervene, yet he had to watch the girls, besides, Chilli wouldn't like that, she had always tried to resolve her problems on her own, and this was a "sisters thing", as she had laconically call it.

"Aww man! Was that a door bang?!".

--

"Brandy, we need to speak about it. You need to speak about it! It will help!!"

"Oh, really?! You have always been like this: It will help, it will heal, youll be ok in the end. Since you was little. You are such a tiresome optimistic!"

"And you have been always like this, dragging your sorrows behind you like a martyr wears her mantle!"

Brandy gasped.

"But you know?", Chilli continued, "martyrs reach heaven in the end! Please allow yourself to do it!".

Was there anguish in Chilli's voice? was it a plea, or was it a rebuke? Brandy couldn't tell, yet she could tell it hurt, nonetheless.

"Dont speak to me about sorrow little sister...", she said with barely contained anger.

"Ha! REALLY?! As if I didn't know sorrow myself!!", the youngest said while fighting a lump of tears in her throat. "I have been in the same swamp you are! I have also had the same fears you have; and I had felt LIFE INSIDE ME, only to have it SNATCHED AWAY!!".

Chilli was tearing up by now.

"I... I had wanted to die Brandy... Not even Bandit knew it, I didn't tell him, yet you knew it... I can tell. And I can tell you this: IT WILL PASS, but you cannot just shut yourself from the people who loves you and their happiness, that doesn't help you!".

"I'm not doing that!"

"YES, YOU ARE! You had shut away yourself from your friends and even from Dad! And now you are shutting yourself away from me! Don't do that, Brandy!"

"HA! SEE?! IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU! And of course, you can call me to order, you can ask me not to run away from other people's happiness! Because you are happy now!!

Damn, Chilli you had always know how to be happy in the end dont you?! Since you was a pup!".

Brandy huffed in exasperation.

"Of course, you can tell me to not to close myself to feel happiness, because YOU ARE SO DAMN HAPPY!

I had not CHOOSE to be like this, Chilli!

What will happen when I go away with my sorrow? Youll go to your loving husband, who will kiss all your tears away, Bluey will wag her little tail at the mere sight of you and she will nuzzle your snout with hers until you laugh, and now you have little Bingo to cuddle into your fur, with that sweet baby smell she has...

You are Mum now... Of course, you can tell me how to feel, and what to do!".

Chilli was taken aback and kept silence for a moment.

She sighed, calming herself.

"I dont pretend to tell you what to feel or what to do, you yourself know your own ways... Im sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you ..."

She sat heavily on the couch.

"And yes, my struggle had a happy ending, and YES, IM DAMN HAPPY right now!... I will not pretend Im not".

She looked at her still glowering sister. "You have always accompanied me through sorrow, Brandy".

Brandy looked down. "You have done the same for me, always..."

"But my happiness has always been uncomfortable to you, doesn't it?", she added timidly, as whispering about a secret fear, as referring to something that should remain unspoken of.

Brandy looked aghast. What was Chilli saying?! Yet somehow it ringed true...

"You had never needed me when you are happy", she limited herself to say, her throat suddenly thigh.

"Oh, I have always needed you in my happiness! I have always needed to share it with you! ... I will not hide my happiness, not even for your sake, not anymore Brandy... because yes, Im damn happy".

Chilli looked so painfully like her ten years self in this moment, so little... like a mouse...

"I love you sister, please don't walk away...I want my daughters to love you, let them be a part of your life...", she softly pleaded.

Brandy fought her tears. She didn't know what was more painful to her right now, Chillis motherhood or the realization that she had begrudge her own sisters happiness from a long time ago, she only knew that whatever it was, it was hurting a lot.

And she felt anger.

At life, for being unfair to her.

At Chilli, for her unfathomable knack for happiness.

At herself, for her raging hurtful emotions.

So, she said the first thing that came up into her head.

"I don't want to"

She was surprised for her own voice, cold as a knife.

Chilli stood up, angered and hurt, not at all like a mouse anymore.

"It's that so?", she asked back at her, in the same fashion despite her teary eyes.

"Yes"

"Well, that's where I draw a line, Brandy, and you have crossed it".

"Goodbye, Chilli", was all that Brandy said while leaving the Heelers home.

Once the door was closed, the two sisters wept woefully.

--

A forty-year-old red heeler was waiting in front of a desk.

Outside, the sound of children playing and laughing in the spring afternoon offered a sharp contrast to his serious mien and yet resigned demeanour.

"Ah, Mr Cattle... I'm sorry for the delay... How are you doing?"

The principal's compassionate glance was almost too much to endure.

Mort sighed. "We try our best..."

"Oh, I'm sure of it...", agreed the elderly educator.

"...Mr. Sheppard... I assume you want to talk about my daughters..."

"Yes... I'm afraid so.

You'll see Mr. Cattle...Brandy and Chilli have always been excellent students, but after their mother's death, their conduct has changed. Of course, we understand that you are all mourning, Mr Cattle, but we worry about them..."

Mort held his breath while fidgeting with the hat on his lap, bracing himself for whatever the principal wanted to say to him.

--

The playground was a busy place, and kids likes to gossip as much as adults do.

"Chilli was a nice girl, her older sister also was nice, yet they're both freaks now, it's a pity"

"Yeah, but their mother died..."

"And we all tried to be nice to them because of it, but they ended up being freaks anyway".

"Yeah, such a waste!"

Chilli could heard it all.

She didn't know if it really mattered to her. That was one of the reasons behind why she had stopped talking to other kids, or rather to anyone in school, unless it was an absolute necessity.

She spent her free time there, drawing. Flowers, landscapes, bugs, birds, characters from tales and ...horses... since the day she returned to school, and everyone hugged her and showered sympathies and sad glances over her...

She didn't want that.

She truly preferred when they said: "That's the freak little girl" over "Oh! Her mum just died!"...not that she liked to be called a freak either, but to be looked at with pity was so much...uncomfortable...

Brandy knew it, of course, and she bullied everyone who would dare to speak in that way near her little sister, well... she bullied almost anyone near her, to be true.

Chilli knew that it was not the done thing, but she appreciated it, nevertheless.

Brandy had a loud bark and a sharp tongue; she had discovered once they returned to school.

Had that brought problems to her? Yes, but it had served to keep bratty classmates away from little Chilli.

…Her little sister... she was a very defenceless sort of pup. She wouldn't bark too loudly, nor defend herself from other kids.

She could see her right now, sitting all alone in a bench, drawing... that was something she loved to do with …

...Mum.

Chilli had keep doing all the things she loved to do in the company of their mother, she clung to those activities as a drowning pup would cling to a drifting wood.

She on the other hand... she couldn't. The pain of her mother's absence was too strong to even dare herself to pick up a pencil or a crochet...

Chilli searched for her mother desperately, in everything, in every possible way, without really finding her.

She, on the contrary, tried to push the pain away by pushing her remembrance away... always in vain.

She sighed... at least she had Chilli to take care of.

She noticed the gossiping girls near her, she didn't hear them, yet she knew what they were talking about.

She made a defying gesture to them.

They became silent at the instant.

It felt good to have the control over something for a change.

Suddenly something unexpected happened.

A pup from... the fourth year, was it? came to Chilli. She looked like about one or two years younger than her at most.

She caught her sisters eye. Chilli nodded. So, the pup can stay, its ok, it's safe...

Nice pup, she seems a lovely little girl, she thought, while watching the petite cream coloured spaniel wagging her tail in awe at Chilli's drawings.