“Good afternoon, Elijah,” smiled the friendly Health Frog
from behind the counter. “Broccoli, three Apples, and a Purpple as usual?”
“Yes, please,” Elijah smiled back shyly.
The young shadow Lupe watched as the Quiggle put his groceries in a bag for
him and wrapped them up. Handing over his Neopoints and politely waiting to
get out of the shop amidst the crowd, he tried not to notice that there were
hardly any Neopets in the shop, and the ones that were, were with their owners.
Humans everywhere, holding up their cherished pets to the shelves so they could
select their favourite things, humans being led by eager pets, humans and pets,
humans and pets.
And Elijah, alone.
Elijah walked down the busy street back
to his Neohome, carrying the bag of food in his mouth. Nobody noticed the dark
Lupe as he slunk next to the buildings, out of the way of the brightly coloured
pets with their brightly coloured attitudes and brightly clothed owners. Near
the end of the street he popped into the pharmacy and emerged carrying something
in a well-wrapped little package.
Elijah turned off down a dusty road, and
continued walking. Alone.
Jay was sitting in the darkened front room
of his Neohome, waiting for Elijah to turn up. He was a very small blue Pteri,
but today he was something else. He was a very small hungry blue Pteri. When
he finally caught sight of his shadowy Lupe brother padding up the driveway,
he dashed to open the door ready for him.
“Elijah!” he breathed in an excited whisper.
“What did you get? I’m so hungr-”
But Elijah cut him off, snapping his beak
shut with his paw.
“Shh, Jay,” he said, with a stern look
at his little brother. “You know it needs to be kept quiet. And dark. Did you
leave all the lights off?”
“Yes,” came Jay’s somewhat muffled reply
from underneath Elijah’s paw. “I checked on her about an hour ago – she was
still sleeping.”
“Good. Thank you, little blue-jay.” Elijah
said, and hugged his little brother. It was his most affectionate name for his
only friend and helper.
After Jay and Elijah made a meal out of
the vegetables and had eaten their share, they waited until the last portion
cooled until it was lukewarm. Jay painstakingly diced every last morsel until
it was very fine and easy to swallow. Finally, it was ready, and the two brothers
crept up the pitch-black stairs, Jay riding on Elijah’s shoulder, as candles
were dangerous and they did not own a torch.
Elijah gently put his soot coloured paw
on a door and pushed it gingerly. The door swung open surprisingly easily and
without a sound. A strong smell of medicinal soap wafted out of the room.
There, lying in a snowy-white bed with
all covers freshly laundered, was a teenage girl. Her brown hair lay all over
the pillow and her face looked deathly pale. Elijah and Jay made their way silently
to the bed and by the girl’s side. This was their owner – a wonderful person
they loved more than the world. The only problem was that she was very ill and
could not get out of bed. She had been very worried about caring for her pets,
but she needn’t have been, as her two pets cared for her with undying love and
devotion.
“Cara,” whispered Elijah, gently stroking
her cool, clammy forehead. “It’s time for tea.”
The girl opened her eyes, which were a
startling shade of green, and smiled at the Lupe with the Pteri on his shoulder.
Their hearts instantly melted – her smile transformed her whole face, even though
she was very ill.
“Elijah, did you get this? Thank you so
much, my darling Eli,” she said and reached for him. Elijah gave her a comforting
lick and gave her a spoonful of the vegetables. Cara closed her eyes and savoured
the taste.
“Mmm… delicious,” she said and looked at
Jay. “And that’s my little blue-jay’s cooking,” she smiled, and he fluttered
down to nuzzle against her cheek as she continued eating. When she had eaten
half, Cara shook her head at Elijah trying to give her some more. “I couldn’t
eat another bite. I can’t thank you two enough – you take such good care of
me.” The two Neopets and the human embraced tightly for a long time.
The next day, Elijah was sitting in class
when his teacher made an announcement. “Tomorrow, as you know, is sports day,”
said Mrs. Owen. “Every pet will participate, and bring your owners, to watch,
or take part, or both! I will put the list up on the wall for you to sign up
your name against your chosen event. Good luck!” Elijah felt a sinking in his
stomach and sank back into his chair. He couldn’t bring his owner. Filing out
after the others, he couldn’t help but overhear snatches of conversation.
“My owner, he’s so good at Gormball, I
bet he’d beat your owner any day!”
“…She’s really nice, you’ll love her, Mandy,
you really will, she makes the best smoothies…”
“I’m getting my owner to bring my pet Meowclops
along, too!”
“…We train together every Sunday, we’re
really good at running now…”
Elijah’s black ears visibly drooped. He
caught sight of the sports day list out of the corner of his eye, and skimmed
over the events. He signed up for running, as he’d never been much good at anything
else, but was used to running up and down to the pharmacy for medicinal soap
for his owner’s bed bath.
All night Elijah said nothing about the
sports day, although he would have dearly loved his owner to come, even though
he knew she was too weak and needed bed rest. Jay and Cara sensed something
was wrong, but didn’t say anything either. Elijah dabbled a paw in the jam absent-mindedly
and thought about his secret. He had never told any of the other pets about
his owner before. He doubted anybody knew. He wanted her to be safe, as if someone
broke into the house, she would be powerless to stop them.
However, unbeknownst to Elijah, both Cara
and Jay had a secret, too.
Elijah was sitting behind the other pets,
who were all pointing out their owners to each other. It was a fine day for
a sports day, not at all hot and not too cold. A lot of Neopets had gone over
to their owners, chatting animatedly, and the owners had begun to mingle with
some of the Neopets ready to start their events. Elijah watched despondently
for a while. He didn’t have any friends at Neoschool, so nobody asked him where
his owner was. He just wasn’t a very sociable Lupe.
Finally, after what seemed like hours,
Mrs. Owen called out “Runners! Runners over here, please!”
Elijah filed over with the rest of the
Neopets, most of them looking eager and excited about the race. Elijah dropped
to his knees, concentrating on putting his paws in the proper position for starting
off, but not really caring whether he ran well or not.
“ELIJAH! ELIJAH! OVER HERE!”
Elijah’s head snapped upwards immediately.
He knew that chirpy voice…
Then he saw what had caused all the commotion.
The crowd of owners were suddenly smiling kindly at him and parting to let someone
through…
Like in a dream, two humans came pushing
what looked like a chair on wheels, and the girl sitting in it had a Pteri on
her shoulder. Everybody was grinning at Elijah now. The shadow Lupe’s jaw had
dropped.
“Cara!” he gasped, for Cara it was, looking
much better for the fresh air.
“Eli!” she breathed happily, and held out
her arms for him. The race all forgotten, he bounded into her arms and hugged
her gently.
“What are you doing out? You should rest-”
he started worriedly, before she waved a hand at him to stop him.
“Darling Eli, don’t worry about all of
that. You have taken such good care of me…but a couple of Jay’s friends got
together and got me this wheelchair! Now I can go outside, I feel like a million
Neopoints. Soon, I’d say I’d be able to walk again.” She smiled at him with
those dazzling green eyes.
Elijah’s eyes were brimming with tears
of joy. He never dreamed someone else would help…he turned round to try and
thank the smiling owners all around him, but Jay had fluttered down from Cara’s
shoulder and was gently nudging him.
“Elijah, the race!” Jay said urgently.
“Oh, right!” Elijah remembered, and bounded
off to the starting line again. He was feeling tingly warm, all the way from
his nose to the tip of his tail. He hadn’t felt so good for a long time. He
dimly saw Mrs Owen counting down the runners to go, but in his mind’s eye he
saw Cara, sitting bravely in her wheelchair, watching him.
Suddenly, he was off, and he could see
Cara cheering him on along with a lot of people he had never known before. His
heart swelled so much it threatened to burst, and he suddenly decided he would
make her proud of him. He put on a sudden spurt of speed and could see the finish
line, and before he knew it, he was over it, and a huge cheer erupted all around
the field. Some other pet’s owners were pushing Cara towards him as quickly
as they could, but that was unnecessary. Elijah took a flying leap into her
arms and Jay joined in the melee as they all squeezed each other tight.
“Eli!” exclaimed Cara. “I’m so proud of
you… well done, and thank you and Jay both for looking after me so well, for
so long.”
Elijah didn’t need to hear any more praise
than that. He was happier than he’d ever been before.
The End |