Sadie-Lake Chalmers
September 18, 2020 5:13 AM
I really feel like I'm losing my best friend by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
A year-long project had sounded like such a long time when Professor Marsh had said it, but now it was over far too quickly. The Jackelbunnies had shed their antlers, had their final vocabulary test, and the students had turned in their project reports. It had been the longest and most detailed piece of schoolwork Sadie had ever put together, but she thought she honestly wouldn’t care even if she got an ‘O’ for it. Jack-Jack wasn’t a grade or a project to her. He was her friend. Unfortunately, that wasn’t how the rest of the world saw it, and she would get her neatly written project file back but was supposed to say goodbye to the real thing.She had already asked Professor Marsh if she could do that outside of class. She knew she couldn’t do it in front of everyone, because there was absolutely no way this wasn’t going to involve a lot of tears. She hung back as her classmates filed out and went off to lunch, pretty sure she couldn’t eat anything right now. Far too soon, it was just her, the professor and the bunnies. Their final class had been helping to set up their travel crates, and the only reason she’d got through it with only sniffling rather than full on sobs was because she knew that wasn’t the real goodbye. Not yet. She still had this lunchtime.
She let Jack-Jack back out of his crate, scooping him up and setting him on her desk so they could talk face to face. She petted his strange, smooth head, running her hand across the space where his antlers had been before. It was odd to be able to snuggle without safety goggles.
“Sadie Not Useless!” he burbled. She had done her best to unteach him his mistakes, but he was getting quicker at copying, and the first way she had phrased it had stuck. That had been a bit embarrassing to explain to Professor Marsh, and sort of awkward in front of her classmates, but Sadie couldn’t help but feel a little confidence boost every time she heard it. It was nice to have someone in her corner.
“Thanks Jack-Jack,” she told him, in a choked voice, putting her arms around him. She brushed her fingers through his fur. “You’re a good jackelbunny.”
“Sadie Not Useless. Good jackelbunny,” he echoed. Her face had little drops of water on it, so he licked them. They were salty which was a lovely flavour. Her face was making him little treats because he was a good jackelbunny. She was magical. “Goodjackelbunny,” he said again, because he still didn’t know how you told people they were goodjackelbunnies but she very definitely was one.
“We have to say bye-bye,” she told him softly.
“Bye-bye,” echoed Jack-Jack. He was getting better at picking up new words when he heard them. And he knew ‘say’ meant that he was supposed to repeat what was next. What was a bye-bye? Were the salty treats bye-byes? He thought he might like bye-byes! He licked a few more of them off her face.
“Yeah,” Sadie, nodded, her lip trembling. That was right. He’d got it right and he was a good jackebunny but all those words were sticking in her throat refusing to come out. She waved her hand, wondering if that would help show him or explain to him what she meant. “This,” she waved to draw his attention, “This is bye-bye.”
Jack-Jack blinked at her hand. There wasn’t anything in it. Where was the bye-bye? What was it? Was that part of a human called a bye-bye? He supposed it was a nice and important bit of the human. It gave the treats and petted the ears.
“Bye-bye,” he repeated, nuzzling his nose into it.
And now she was making new noises. They did not sound like the rest of the people noises. They were gaspy, shaky noises, like an animal in distress. And she was putting her arms around him, and the little salty licks from her face were going into his fur instead of his mouth, which was not as nice, but he didn’t run away because he wouldn’t ever want to go away from Sadie Not Useless.
“Bye-bye,” he tried again. She liked it when he copied. But that just made her make louder versions of the new noise. Maybe he was supposed to copy those now? He nuzzled into her shoulder, joining in with her cries to reassure her that he was there. He would always be there. They would spend their time together like they always had done and then he’d be able to learn properly what a bye-bye was.
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Sadie-Lake Chalmers
I really feel like I'm losing my best friend
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