Apotheosis
A Spontoon Island story
© 2005-2023 by W. D. Reimer and M. Mitchell Marmel
All characters © their respective creators

Thumbnail art by  sailoranna, color by  marmelmm


Five.



As the funeral party stepped off their water taxis, Rosie overheard a white-haired mink in a seersucker suit and straw boater hat shaking his head ruefully. "And to think I always said the guy was gonna die alone and obscure."

His pretty blonde wife shrugged and hugged him. "Better this way, Michael."

Michael nodded reluctant agreement as they moved off the dock towards the festivities.


***


That evening, Rosie stuck her head out of the kitchen door. "Franneleh?"

"Yah, Mom?" Franklin Aurelio Stagg said, turning away from the earnest conversation he’d been having with his half-brother. Benjy’s ears twitched up as he smiled at Rosie.

“Si, Tia Rosie?" Francesca Theresa Marguerite duCleds piped up.

“Yes, Grandmother?" Franklin Junius Buckhorn asked politely.

"Gah?" Franklin David Tupua, Antoinette's boy, gurgled from his mother's breast.

Rosie rolled her eyes. "I'm gonna number you, I will. Anyway, will one of you drive down to the village and get another couple blocks ice? We're running low."

Franklin Junior jumped to his hooves. "I'm on it, Mom. Come on, Benjy, I’ll show you around."

The rabbit laughed. “I’ve been down here for vacations every year, Frank. It’s not like I’m a Euro or something.”


***


That night there was a gathering at the Stagg home, as the families and friends met to hold a wake. Rosie called it ‘sitting shiva,’ and had instructed her daughter to cover all the mirrors in the house. Toni had almost objected, but had glanced at her brother and complied.

Lady Willow Buckhorn walked up to her one-time 'principal', Lt. Colonel Leslie duCleds, USAF ret. and CEO of duCleds Chemicals, and gave him a firm hug. "Nice work, Les."

Inocenta duCleds, a tad broader but still vivacious, snorted good-humoredly. "As if my Leslie-puppy would stay away from the servicing with no good reason!"

Willow, long used to Cupcakese, grinned. "True, true. Say, Les, I saw the Madrid Momma at the airport the other day." She gave him a speculative look. "You still got Bruinings hidden in the nose of that thing?"

Les, going a tad grey at the temples but still elegant, bowed courteously to his 'older sister'. "Well . . . Lady Buckhorn . . . it's still a dangerous world out there."

Willow snickered. "Heinrich would be proud of you."

The evening passed with convivial chatter. Memories were shared. Toasts to departed family and friends were drunk. Reggie played the piano, and limited himself to only two drinks.


***


It was close to midnight when Rosie finally said her goodnights. The duCleds family and the Buckhorn sibs would be staying at the new Shepherd's, while Reggie and Willow stayed over in the guest room 'to keep her company'. Frank had headed back to his own house nearby, and Toni (with her husband and infants) were staying in the twins' old room.


***


"Oy." Rosie sighed as she got into bed. It was going to be strange, sleeping alone. Nu, she'd have to get used to it. Hopefully, the hot shower she'd taken would help somewhat.

A rustle of sheets. "Scoot over."

"Willow!"

"Figured you could use a cuddle."

"Does Reggie-"

"He sent me."


***


A little later:

"Willow-?"

"Hrm?"

"Just WHAT are you doing to your dear elderly stepmother?"

"S'mthng I shlda dne in thrry-sx. Nw hsh, mp'lite fr m' t'tlk wf mouf full. Mom."


***


Rosie had to admit, it helped her to sleep.


***


Later that night, Rosie stepped out of the house and walked down the path to the beach, leaving Willow sleeping the sleep of the deeply contented. Once she was at the beach, the cheetah doffed her light robe and slid naked into the moonlit water. After swimming for a short time, she emerged and sat on a rock a few yards from the surf line.

Then she was no longer alone.

“Hello, Diana,” Rosie said, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her calves.

“Hello, Rosalie,” Diana Stagg said as she stood off to one side. “I think this will be the last time you and I will talk for a very long time."

"Hunh!" Rosie snorted. "What makes you think I'm not gonna keep swimming until I can't, anymore?"

Diana considered this for a moment. "Because there are too many others you would hurt if you leave that way." She smiled gently. "But you knew that."

Rosie burst into tears again, slumping down on her stomach (still in reasonable shape, despite the extra blinis, she remotely noted to herself).

Diana reached out, but could not, of course, actually touch the weeping widow. Eventually, the storm ceased. "Better?"

Rosie sighed. "I hate it, you know."

"You also know the pain will lessen as time goes on," the ghostly doe admonished gently. "There will be always ones to help." She smiled. "In any event, I came to . . . thank you."

“Thank me?” the cheetah asked. “For what?”

The doe's smile widened a bit. “For giving Franklin a new start. A second lifetime, if you will. Time moves differently here, but I can see that you and he have had a good life together.”

“We have,” Rosie conceded. “And now . . . I’ve given him back to you, just as I promised I would.”

“That’s another reason I want to thank you,” Diana said with a chuckle. She slipped an arm around the waist of her husband.

He said, “Hello, Rosie.”

Rosie stared, her tail bottling out. Apparently death suited him; all of the old burn scars were gone, and he no longer seemed to favor his hoof. He was so handsome, and she felt her heart ache for him. “Hello, Franklin,” she said softly as tears began to flow unheeded into her fur.

“Hrm. Exhibitionist."

"Aw, yiff you," Rosie said, smiling through the tears despite herself.

The ghostly Stagg snorted a laugh. "Ahem. I . . . wanted to tell you a few things, before I . . . Well.” He paused for a few seconds, gathering his thoughts. “You know, I hated you at first, after . . . that time in Meffit's office. I mean, I was almost back with Diana, and-" Stagg looked abashed. "B-but I forgave you everything when Toni and Frank were born. I want to thank you for helping me live to see them grown, and – “ he smiled a bit shamefacedly as he looked from one wife to the other “ – I wanted to say ‘I love you’ before I said good-bye.”

"Oh," Rosie breathed. “Not good-bye. Never good-bye. Say, ‘until we meet again,’ my love.”

She reached out for his ghostly paw even as he reached out to her.

“Very well. Until we meet again, my love.”

And she was alone on the rock.


***


The next morning Antoinette was awakened by the sound of surf and the soft playing of the piano in the solarium. She slid from her bed quietly, leaving her husband undisturbed, and after pulling on a robe left the bedroom.

Her mother was there, playing an old love song on the instrument as Willow lazily napped on a couch. Rosie hadn’t been crying, but her smile was wistful as her paws traveled over the keys. The solarium’s windows were open, and the cry of seabirds and the gentle surf provided accompaniment to the piano. “Hi, Mom. Sis.” she said.

Willow grunted a 'mrning', smiling at her half-sister sleepily.

Rosie looked up and her smile widened. “Morning, Toni. You’re up early.”

“Yeah, well, I could never sleep when you were playing or singing,” her daughter pointed out as she slipped onto the bench beside her mother. “You . . . okay?”

Rosie smiled a little lopsidedly, her ears dipping. “I . . . I will be,” she said. “It will take a while to get used to him being gone.” She sighed and looked out at the sea as the breeze stirred the gauzy curtains. “I think though,” she said slowly, “that no matter what happens, he’ll be near.”

Willow opened her eyes again. "Damn tootin'."

Toni nodded, taking over the playing from her mother. Changing the tune to something a bit closer to jazz, she remarked, “Everyone says that Spontoon is different from any other place on earth."

Rosie snorted. "It would have to be,” and she winked at Willow.

The three of them laughed, and Rosie hugged her daughter as the sun rose higher and shone down through a slightly overcast late summer sky.

Reggie stumbled into the solarium, a tad blearily. "I say, anyone seen the orange juice?"

As always, life went on.



END




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