Three Furry Creatures, Two Souls, and a Coat (Part III)

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fairy tale

This is the last part of a “partially true fairy tale” my volatile brain decided it needs to write (the first and the second part to be found here and here). Any resemblance to real persons is most probably purely coincidental. However, there is considerably more truth in this story as one would normally find in a usual fairy tale.

– Part III: The Words That Remained Unspoken –

Chapter 9, in which Mindful Soul buys a Fantar

From here on, Mindful Soul knew exactly what he needed to do. Next day, he went out and bought heavy drapes for the windows. New locks were installed. He started picking up extra hours at his fur ball factory, leaving early and coming back after dark. He fed Hush double portion of cookies for dinner, pretending not to notice Ary P., who was not getting any food. He vacuum cleaned every day trying to get purple hair, which now seemed to be everywhere, out of the carpets and furniture. He even put Ary P. in a cage and covered it with a blanket, hoping to at least keep it out of sight.

But nothing seemed to help. Ary P. would always escape and appear in front of Mindful Soul in the most unexpected moments. One day, he returned from work early and caught Hush feeding the cookies to its new purple friend. Its once perfectly white fur now had a small but noticeable purple spot.

It was time for extraordinary measures. Same night, Mindful Soul went to the pet store and bought a Fantar, last remedy against all the colorful creatures. These big black monsters were so scary and loud that any other creature would hide while they are around. ‘Hush won’t be thrilled,’ – was Mindful Soul thinking, – ‘but at least the purple thing will be out of sight. And once it’s gone forever, I’ll bring Fantar back to the pet store, and it all will be back to normal’.

Fantar was indeed very scary. It was roaring and groaning so terrible that Ary P. didn’t dare to leave its cage and was sitting trembling in the corner. Hush also didn’t like its new roommate and often even refused to eat its cookies. Its fur lost most of its glow and was hanging down, thin and grey.

Mindful Soul had some of once sparkling white fur of Hush stocked, but the reserves wouldn’t last forever. His only hope was that his methods would work, and work soon.

Chapter 10, in which somebody forgets to lock his door again

Meanwhile, Gentle Soul couldn’t but notice the change in the behavior of Mindful Soul. Now it was her who tried to catch his gaze when she came to his factory, but he seemed not to notice her at all. She also saw the thick blinds on the windows, and every time she came knocking at his door it looked like nobody was home. But Gentle Soul was not one of the Souls who gave up that easily.

One day, Mindful Soul came home and found Fantar running around the house roaring, with Ary P. nowhere to be found. He was hoping the annoying creature had finally left and opened its cage to make sure it was not again hiding, when he heard a noise behind him. He turned around and saw Gentle Soul standing in the hallway.

In that very moment, Ary P., who was indeed still hiding in the cage, jumped out of its little prison and ran towards Gentle Soul. Fantar saw the purple creature escaping and stormed after it, roaring and groaning. Like two crazy squirrels playing catch on a tree, both creatures made several circles around Gentle Soul, who froze on the spot taken by surprise by this furry hurricane, before they disappeared in the basement.

The whole incident took no more than couple of seconds and was already over, but the two Souls were still standing there looking at each other in silence. Some time had passed before Gentle Soul finally said: ‘The door. It was open. Can I come in?’

Chapter 11, in which an unpleasant conversation happens

‘Did she notice?’– was Mindful Soul thinking following Gentle Soul into the living room. She sat in his favorite chair again, like the very first time she came by. However, there was no tea served that day, Hush didn’t come to sit beside her, and in general it was a very different conversation.

Gentle Soul got straight to the point (she was never good in small talk). She had been looking for him, she said, wondering if he was alright as she hadn’t seen him for a while. Mindful Soul mumbled something about being busy at work. Gentle Soul nodded, pretending to believe him. ‘She didn’t notice a thing’, – was he thinking meanwhile, feeling relieved and disappointed at the same time.

Very soon, she left. Closing the door behind her, Mindful Soul knew it was their last conversation. He also knew it was for the best.

Chapter 12, in which Gentle Soul hides a treasure

The first thing Gentle Soul did when she came home was to carefully collect all the black and purple hair the two creatures left on her coat, making sure not to miss any. She looked at it one last time. No, she didn’t imagine it. The purple hair was definitely from an Ary P., and the black hair was from a Fantar. ‘But you can’t fool me, Mindful Soul. This Fantar is not yours. You got it from a pet store.’ – she thought and silently sighed. ‘I hope it was worth all the money.’

She placed the small ball of purple black fur in a little box she then closed tightly and hid in one of the drawers. Not as a memory (as if she would ever forget!), but because she simply couldn’t throw away the fur of this rare and precious creature Ary P. that belonged to Mindful Soul.

Chapter 13, in which we learn the secret of Gentle Soul

From that day on, she and Mindful Soul had never spoken to each other. Although they still lived in the same neighborhood, they managed to find new routes to avoid passing by each other’s houses, so that they would only catch a glimpse of one another occasionally, far away from the opposite ends of a street.

What Mindful Soul never got to know was that Gentle Soul could still see him. In fact, she saw more than he thought she ever did from the very first time they met. She just never told him, as some things are better to remain untold.

In her house, she had a magic mirror. It was her grandmother’s, the one people said she looked very much alike. That mirror would show the other Souls whom Gentle Soul would meet during the day. It chose itself what to show, and there was no way switching it off.

In that mirror, she saw Mindful Soul doing the exercises Wise Souls from the Hidden Lands of the mountains taught him, hours after hours, sometimes till dawn. She saw him waking up in the middle of the night unable to breathe, because Ary P. had escaped from its cage again and was sitting on his chest watching him sleep. And one time she saw him in his living room, sitting on the couch, simply staring at that purple creature in hopeless silence, as if not able to figure out what else he could do, his by that time visibly smaller and thinner Hush chewing on its own fur nobody would guess had ever been white.

In these moments she wished she had never moved to that city, or at least that she could switch off that magic mirror to make the pictures disappear. Her own Hush was not doing well either, and going outside, she would now always wear her fur coat tightly buttoned, for nobody to see what was underneath.

Epilogue

Unfortunately, I don’t know what happened to Mindful Soul, his Hush, Ary P. and Fantar. I wasn’t there anymore to see how this story ended. But I assume Ary P. finally left, and Fantar is gone, too now. How else could it be? As for Hush, he is probably as white as new again. I guess a lot of time will pass till Mindful Soul will be careless again to leave his door open. He must be even more certain now: He doesn’t like colors.

The only thing I know is that the pictures in the magic mirror of Gentle Soul got fewer and blurrier with time, and her Hush started to recover. But sometimes, on long winter evenings, she takes out that little box with the purple black fur. Black faded a bit by now (these store bought creatures were never of any good), but the purple hair still sparkles. While she looks at it, her Hush glows light blue. Gentle Soul doesn’t mind. She likes colors.

The End.