Shivering in her chair,
she wished that she had taken the afgan from the couch.
She didn't understand why she was so cold.
Earlier the little house had seemed so warm...
but now, her hands folded in her lap felt like ice as they touched each other.
And her face and her legs...
so cold!
But then
her mind began to drift again...
back to the day where her memories had left off...
back to the events of the day her forever friend had gone to the Rainbow Bridge ahead of her.
Yet, in her heart she knew that this day was as much a part of their friendship as any other day,
and for this reason she had learned to cherish even this,
the day of her beloved departure to the Rainbow Bridge.
May 9th. was Mother's Day that year and promised such a beautiful start.
She had awaken to the sound of birds singing in the trees outside the open bedroom window and the wonderful aroma of pancakes being prepared in the kitchen.
Arriving downstairs she was greeted with "Happy Mother's Day" by her husband, who was being the "chef", and her daughter setting the table for their breakfast feast.
After greeting them, she had gone to the back door and looked out,
checking the food bowl to see if Shoo had come during the night.
He hadn't. The bowl of food was still full, as she had left it the night before.
"Did your bunny finally come last night?" her husband asked as he saw her looking out the back door.
When she said that he hadn't and that the bowl hadn't been touched, her husband had replied with his usual sense of good humor (that had calmed many a storm for her!)...that Shoo was just "full" and had taken the "night off".
She remembered trying to smile as she sat down at the table but was still obviouslly very visably worried.
Her husband placed a pancake on her plate...blueberry, she remembered,
and asked her if she remembered a time once before when Shoo hadn't been seen for two weeks.
She said that she did remember and her mounting worries were somewhat eased.
She thought of this story now, and
if the story was to have a title, she would have entitled it:: "The Sprig Of Parsley."
As her husband had reminded her, it had been a little over two weeks since she had seen Shoo-Fly that time and she had been beside herself...
terrified that something had happened to him.
She had seen a rabbit in the yard once during that time but he had run when she walked out the door to greet him.
She had told her husband that Shoo had forgotten her.He had run from her..
Her husband had replied that if the rabbit ran...it wasn't Shoo-Fly.
"Shoo-Fly" would never run from you", he had said.
But with each day that passed with no sign of him she had become more and more distraught.
Then one night, disregarding what her husband had said,she sat crying alone in their upstairs bedroom, holding the little sprig of parsley that she had collected the day after their first meeting.
"Shoo", she had whispered holding the little green ever so tight,"if you are alright, please let me know. I am so worried about you. Please Shoo. Somehow let me know that you are o'k."
The next night as she sat watching television, her daughter and friends had come charging into the house saying that they had seen a bunny on the side of her house. Coming outside she was just in time to see the rabbit scamper through the fence and into the back yard.
Their back gate had been sticking, so she had to go back into the house and through to the kitchen to get to the backyard.
As she walked out the door the little rabbit began to run.
She stepped out onto the patio and called his name..
"Shoo!"
The rabbit stopped as if on a dime and turned in her direction.
She had run toward him crying and he had hopped toward her, meeting together at the apple tree.
"Shoo!" she breathed his name again.
"I was so worried about you. Where have you been?"
Turning toward the house with Shoo-Fly on her heels, she had gone into the kitchen through the back door while her friend waited for her on the step as usual.
Coming out bearing treats in one hand and a cut up apple in the other,
she had sat, once again,
under the moonlight with her forever friend.
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