Chapter 25: Dreaming for a Brother
Trigger Warning: Prepare to cry. Probably.
An hour or so had past after we had taken the trash out for the night, it was nearing the Heeler family's usual bedtime routine and despite her obvious fatigue, Bluey made her protests against bedtime very clear as a child her age more often than not would. Heck, even I was a bit stubborn at times at her age when it was time for me to go to bed.
Whilst waiting for Bandit to retrieve Bluey and drag her to bed, I was in her and Bingo's bedroom, drying off the little red Heeler in question with Chilli's hair dryer, a towel wrapped around her after having just taken a pre-bedtime bath.
"Nathan?" Bingo asked glancing up at me.
"Yeah, Bingo?"
"How come humans only have hair on the top of their head?"
That question took me a moment to think, given what me and Bingo were currently doing, it did seem to make sense that she'd ask this now of all times.
"Well, that's a good question actually. I think it's because hair keeps a human's head warm. And believe it or not, humans don't just grow hair on their head, some guy humans like me sometimes get hair on our faces, like a beard or a moustache. In fact, when humans grow up, they actually get hair on a few different parts of their body, like the chest and arms." I explained, remembering what I had learned about puberty in school, leaving out the one detail about how humans grow hair on… "somewhere else" for obvious reasons.
"Like the hairs around dad's mouth?"
"Yep, just like Bandit!" I confirmed, making Bingo giggle.
More giggling was heard, but this time from Bingo's sister who Bandit had managed to catch, playfully dragging her across the bedroom floor and to her bed where he lifted her up by the leg and let her flop onto her mattress.
"Bed. Sleep. Now." Bandit demanded in a playfully blunt tone.
"Awwww, but I'm not tired…" Bluey complained, only to drone out the last word whilst rubbing one of her eyes before falling limp with a little "Bleh" and snoring less than a second later as Bandit draped her blanket over her.
"Night, kids." Bandit whispered to us as he left the room, getting a response of "Night, dad!" from Bingo and a wave from me just as I had finished drying her off.
"Alright little missy, time for you to sleep as well." I said as I picked Bingo up off the floor and carried her to her own bed, tucking her in.
"Can you tell me a story?" Bingo requested, I was about to ask what she meant until she continued. "The one about the fireflies you told Muffin once?"
I suppose Muffin had told her about that story at some point, good thing I was still able to remember the fable in detail even if it had been years since I was last told about it. I nodded and sat down on the floor next to Bingo's bed and began.
A long time ago, long before humans would fly into space, where valiant knights roamed the lands for maidens to romance and dragons to slay, there was a young English boy who lived in an old cabin with his father.
Very recently, the boy had been struck with great misfortune, for his father had fallen ill to the point of being bedridden, the poor man had been put through many sleepless nights, been made delirious and his image cursed with the sight of swollen parts of his body.
On one particular night, the boy had left home in search of something he believed would be able to cure his father, but no matter how further and further he travelled into the woods, he would still remain empty handed.
The boy was feeling down and was very close to giving up all hope, until a miracle came in the form of a faint glowing green light. The boy followed and found out that it had belonged to a large firefly with a set of horns on it's head that looked like a crown.
The creature had been trapped in a chain link cage by poachers hoping to sell the creature as the goo inside that made them glow was as precious and valuable as diamonds.
Concerned about the insect, the boy opened the cage and letting the firefly free, the glowing bug however didn't flee however, instead faced the boy and spoke with such regality in his voice.
"Young sir! Your kindness glows like me and my children, your act of rescuing me, Lucia, king of all fireflies will never be forgotten. For repayment, I forever bless you with tremendous fortune that will rest within you and those close to you for the rest of your life. Now make haste to home before you are caught! My sons and daughters will light your way."
Without question, the young boy obliged to Lucia's word and quickly ran off back home, several fireflies approached and led him in the right path to his home.
The next morning, a great miracle happened, for the boy's father had miraculously recovered from his illness and was as healthy as a young horse! True to King Lucia's word, fortune had come the boy's way and it continued to do so for years as the boy grew up into a fine young man and began a business in selling home made quilts. The man became rich from the business and in turn became a very wealthy and popular person in the land.
Years and years continued to pass as the man became an old man until the eventual day of his passing as somewhere else in the land, Lucia too would draw his last breath.
However, as the king of fireflies had said, his savior's story would never be forgotten, for all of Lucia's children who grew up knew what would be the best way to honour both their father and their one human companion.
As the fireflies' final hours drew near, they used what little energy they had left to fly off high into the night sky which would be lit up with hundreds of small dots.
And yet, as the fireflies' life dwindled away, their lights did not, for they had became a part of the night sky which every human would be able to marvel at for years to come.
"And that, they say… is how there are stars in the night sky." I finished the story, noticing that Bingo had her hand on mine and was struggling to keep her eyes open, but had a smile on her muzzle.
"Do you think the boy got to see your mum and dad…?" Bingo asked very sleepily, getting a smile from me.
"I'm sure he did." I replied gently before Bingo finally closed her eyes and I, perhaps instinctively, gave her a small good night kiss on the side of her head.
"Good one, Nate." Chilli, who had been standing by the doorway listening to the whole story whispered to me, patting my head before wishing me good night.
With nothing else left to take care of, I too retired, getting into my usual sleeping bag on the floor.
[Third Person POV]
Bingo opened her eyes to see a lush green field of grass, the orange colour of the sky from the rising sun giving the ground an amber glow, looking around, she seemed to find herself the only living being present in this dream-like area and as a result, she began to feel nervous.
Where were her mum and dad?
Where was Bluey?
And where was Nathan?
That was when she noticed something among the sea of green strands, a single flower with yellow petals slowly swaying, disturbed only by the gentle breeze of the wind. For some reason, it was seeing that one lonely flower that put Bingo's fears at temporary ease, as if she felt that everything was okay despite her current situation.
Suddenly, a tall shadow hovered over the flower and Bingo, making her look up and smile with relief upon seeing that it was Nathan and Bluey, the former appeared to be holding something in his hand as he knelt down and turned said hand on it's side, a transparent shiny liquid that looked like the freshest spring water flowed out and onto the flower, making it grow, the stem a few inches taller and the petals longer and more defined.
All three of them suddenly felt a strong rush of wind against them as it blew against the flower until a single petal detached itself from the bud and floated around Nathan as if it was attracted to him.
That gave Bluey an idea as she noticed another flower, this one red which certainly wasn't there before, and tapped it, making a loose petal float off and join the yellow one dancing around Nathan. Bingo followed suit by gently poking a purple flower that too had just appeared as it shed one of it's petals.
Within seconds, Nathan was surrounded in an aura of petals of varying colours as Bluey and Bingo watched in awe. The human, out of curiosity, held an arm out as the petals shot forward like a swarm of insects. He then moved his hand left which the cluster of petals followed, making it clear he was able to actively control their movement. He had even noticed that the cluster had brushed against a few more flowers in the distance, one petal from each of them joining the swarm, making it bigger.
With an intrigued smile, Nathan swayed his arm left and right and up and down, making the serpent of petals surf across the sky in the distance like a Chinese dragon, both girls cheering and laughing at the sight.
Nathan seemed to get another idea as he brought the petals back to them, the cluster now bigger than him as he manipulated it to go under him and slowly but surely lift him off the ground, using a few stray petals to lift Bluey and Bingo up onto the floating platform.
The next thing they all knew, the three were soaring across the morning sky on the makeshift magic carpet of flower remains, strings of stray petals soaring alongside them like small schools of fish until they started to approach a blanket of very thick fog that hindered their vision.
The fog didn't stretch out for long as they reached the other side, only the entire scenery was very different, instead they were now an arm's reach above the ocean, surfing just above the calm waves of the deep blue, which were disturbed seconds later by a school of dolphins that breached the ocean surface, leaping just beside the Heelers and the human, letting out communicative chirps with each other.
Bluey and especially Bingo were just in absolute awe of the whole scene, the latter even carefully reached an arm down, watching as her fingers brushed against the water.
And then one particular dolphin made it's presence known, it was in the colour of one toy Bingo had and cherished, dubbed "Graydancer". With a newfound bout of bravery, Bingo stood up onto the platform of petals and leaped onto the back of the dolphin.
"OOOOOOooooooohhh… Biscuits…!"
Bandit let out a very pained groan as his hands were clasped over his groin where Bingo had unknowingly jumped onto in her sleep. After recuperating from the painful rude awakening, he picked the still sleeping Bingo up off his and Chilli's bed, carried her back to the kids' bedroom and tucked her back in, seemingly unaware that his wife was now in Bluey's bed, the only one who hadn't moved so far was Nathan.
Just as Bandit was trudging back to his own bed, Bluey who was at the separate restroom grabbed his attention.
"...Dad, can you sing to me?" She asked a little desperately, needing a bit of help getting back to sleep.
"Ninety-nine bottles of thing on the wall… Ninety-eight bottles of thing… on the wall…" Bandit reluctantly started to sign, but was very quickly trailing off, slowly falling asleep alongside Bluey.
Bingo was now back on the flying platform of petals with Nathan, but she now had a gut feeling that was telling her that something was wrong. Looking around as if trying to find the source of the growing worry, she noticed that the dolphins were gone and the ocean had turned from a vibrant blue to a murky tar black, the morning sky replaced with an armada of thundering grey clouds, several of the serpents of stray petals suddenly turned grey and disintegrated into ash one by one until all that was left was the platform they were riding on which too suddenly collapsed into dust.
But instead of falling into the inky ocean, Bingo ended up landing roughly onto a wet concrete road assaulted by immediate rainfall, the scenery had changed into a dark bleak cityscape, only a few lights from either neon building signs and street lights stood out from the darkness and even they were flickering once in a while as if they hadn't been maintained for years.
The ever growing dread inside Bingo didn't falter either as she pushed herself up and no longer saw Bluey with her, Nathan was standing a few feet away from her staring at the window front of an office building, his back facing the red Heeler.
Bingo slowly walked up to Nathan to see what he was looking at and took quick notice of the silhouettes of two adult dogs conversing with each other with one of them handing papers to the other. Wanting to see if anything about the building would give her an answer, Bingo slowly looked up to the awning that had the logo of the building's associated business.
...Her biggest fear came true when she figured out that it read "Canistralia Foster Care Solicitor".
And then out of nowhere, two long metal chains with wrist cuffs on the end lunged out from the dark fog in the distance, the cuffs clamping down on Nathan's wrists like cobras as whatever was holding the chains pulled, forcefully tugging Nathan.
Bingo gasped in horror as he leaped forward and wrapped her little arms around one of Nathan's legs, trying desperately to stop the unseen force from taking the human away.
The fog in front of them cleared as Bingo saw a dark desolate old large building as the chains continued to drag Nathan towards it. Bingo, unable to hold on any longer, as if something was prying her off fell to the ground again and could only watch as Nathan was dragged towards the building, whilst slowly turning around to face the little Heeler, with a look of broken misery on his face, uttering out something before finally vanishing into the architectural void.
"…Goodbye Bingo…"
Bingo didn't know what it was that terrified and hurt her the most, whether it was that the one human she looked up to like an older brother had been taken away to foster care against his will…
Or the fact that he was so resigned to his fate that all he could do was give a sad goodbye to her, as if even he couldn't stop it.
Little Bingo, seeing the human she loved the most gone, couldn't hold in her emotions anymore and painfully waved towards where Nathan once was, finally letting out a few audible sobs.
[Nathan's POV]
I ended up stirring awake to the sound of faint crying. Blinking away any sleep dust from my eyes, I sat up and looked over to find Bingo in her blanket-less bed, one of her arms out waving as she sniffled.
It didn't take me more than three seconds to realize she was no doubt having a rather unpleasant dream, I dreaded to think about what it probably was. Rubbing my eyes, I slowly got up and quietly walked over to the young red Heeler, who was still whimpering in her sleep. I could wake her up like I did with Mackenzie that one time, until I figured out a better way to approach this.
I slowly went down on my knees by Bingo's side and carefully held her hand, slowly letting out the first lyrics that came to mind in a lullaby.
'Sunny days and starry nights… and lazy afternoons'
'You're counting castles in the clouds and humming little tunes…'
'But somehow right before your eyes, the summer fades away'
'Everything is different… and everything has changed'
'If you feel lost and on your own… And far from home…'
'You're never alone, you know…'
'Just think of your friends, the ones who care'
'They all will be waiting there…'
'With love to share… and your heart will lead you home…'
'Funny how a photograph can take you back in time…'
'To places and embraces that you thought you'd left behind…'
'They're trying to remind you that you're not the only one…'
'That no one is an island when all is said and done…'
[Third Person POV]
Bingo heard a gentle voice snap her out of her moment of sadness, making her look forward to suddenly see Nathan in her sights, only he was now stepping back out from the void and actively fighting against the chains on his wrists with a look of rage against the force pulling him.
'If you feel lost and on your own… And far from home…'
'You're never alone, you know…'
It was like a game of tug of war, and Nathan was clearly struggling as both him and the opposing force seemed to be equally strong, that is until Bingo saw the likes of Zara, Missy, Lila… and even Banjo appear and rush to Nathan's aid, grabbing his legs and pulling back with him.
'Just think of your friends, the ones who care'
'They all will be waiting there…'
And then finally, with one last tug, the chains snapped as Nathan fell back onto the ground still wet with rainfall. Nathan slowly turned back around to Bingo, now with a relieved smile on his face which Bingo shared before running over to him and jumping into his arms, the human embracing her close to him.
'With love to share… and your heart will lead you home…'
'There'll come a day when you're losing your way and you won't know where you belong…'
As both Heeler and human held each other close, the rain finally slowed down to a stop, the clouds parting as the bleak darkness was dissipated by the revealing sunlight once more, allowing them both to see Bandit, Chilli and Bluey now nearby as they joined in, turning the embrace into a group hug.
'They say that home is where the heart is, so follow your heart and know that you can't go wrong…'
'If you feel lost and on your own… And far from home…'
'You're never alone, you know…'
'Just think of your friends, the ones who care'
'They all will be waiting there…'
'With love to share… and your heart will lead you where you belong…'
'I know your heart will lead you home…'
As the final lyrics trailed out of Nathan's mouth, he finally succumbed to tiredness, both him and Bingo now sleeping peacefully without anymore worries.
The only one who wasn't sleeping at this point was Chilli who had heard Nathan's lullaby and watched him, listening to every word before walking over to the now sleeping human and draping Bluey's blanket over him and sitting down next to him, resting one arm on his chest before she whispered some final words to the human for the night.
"Your mum and dad would be so proud of you…"
And almost instinctively, like a mother to her child…
…Chilli gave Nathan a tender kiss on the cheek before finally falling asleep herself.
Author's Note:
I vehemently apologize for the possible increase in your bills for tissue costs.