THE FALL SUNSHINE played long shadows over the backyard of Wilson Steele’s home, warming and comforting, the air still, the leaves going to reds and gold.
An informal semicircle of chairs arced around the shallow end of the reflecting pool. Emily sat at one end, then Wilson, then Hazel, and Gretna at the other end. None of them had talked much—they simply sat, warm, full from lunch, enjoying an autumn environment that would soon turn to gray and cold.
But not today.
Today was near perfect.
Hazel had found an apartment in Shadyside, only minutes away. She began to talk to Wilson…talk to her father, about returning to school.
“You will get a family discount, you know,” he told her. “After all these years, I can finally take advantage of that.”
This afternoon, Thurman sat in the middle of this arc of humans—smiling, eyes shut, tongue lolling to one side, happy, deliciously happy.
Wilson spoke, quiet, firm.
“It will be a long journey. I know that much. The journey that all of us are on. Are now on.”
Hazel nodded her agreement.
“But we have started,” Emily said. “And that is what is important. We’ll get there.”
“And I think your friend, Dr. Killeen, has already helped so much,” Hazel said. “Helped all of us.”
There were nods from everyone, including Thurman, who stood up, stretched mightily, and began to growl and whisper.
God.
“And of course, faith,” Emily added. “Thank you, Thurman, for reminding us of the obvious here. That without God, we would all still be lost.”
Thurman smiled, nodded in acknowledgment, and began to dance, just a little.
Muppet. Muppet. Muppet.
It had become one of his most favorite words. He walked and danced around the pool—sniffing, looking, sniffing again.
“Go ahead,” Wilson called out as Thurman got to the far end.
Thurman waited.
“I said it’s okay,” Wilson added. “Really.”
At that, Thurman launched himself into the air and into the water, the splash well removed from his humans. He paddled about, snorting and smiling, the water rippling off his fur, making tiny kaleidoscopic jewels on his black fur. He swam for a bit, then made his way to the shallow end of the pool, the safe and warm end of the pool, the end of the pool where all his humans gathered.
He closed his eyes, then smiled to himself and then tilted his head upward and smiled to God above.
Happy Muppet. Happy Muppet.