Unicorn Forgotten
“Strewth mate,” Said Bruce in an exhausted voice, “Is it always like this?” The two girls lying beside him on each side nodded yes, both too drained to speak, but each looked totally satisfied as they traded looks and smiles. Bruce curled a massive arm around each and lay back for the moment, he could not have been happier.
Meanwhile, back at his and Jola’s home, Uni could not have been sadder, Jola had taken a job away from home, she had been working 24/7 and he had barely seen her, let alone talked to her since.
He knew what she was trying to do, she was trying to force him to return to the unicorn herd she has mentioned when they were in Cookie’s time, but she had never given him the time to explain that they had rejected him, not the other way around. He was from a different time, so much so that they were almost a different species. He could never return to the herd.
Every day Kasandra cried for her momma, she had decided that it was her fault her momma had left, because she had eaten the white carnations at the reception, that she was being punished. No matter how often Uni tried to explain, she just cried. Once she said to him, “I be good if momma comes back,” but Jola didn’t come back, not for her husband who loved her more than life, or her daughter who didn’t understand.
He had thought seriously thought of leaving and returning with Kasandra to the world where had once met Jola, of taking Kasandra to the forest where she could frolic, and play with the forest animals.
But his love for Jola was too deep to just walk away, too strong to ever leave her, so he waited on the front steps, unhappily waiting for her to return, and finally Kasandra sat with him. They said nothing, just sat together, holding hands, looking up the road to where they imagined she would come from.
Every night Uni and Kasandra wrote Jola a letter, sometimes Kasandra added a squiggle to Uni’s letter, and sometimes she drew a picture for her, Uni, who was still awkward and slow at writing, took a long time to compose his letters, making sure he put their days events into each one and adding their love for Jola. The next day they walked to the post office together, to post their recent letter and to see if they had received any replies, but there were never any replies to collect.
One day as they arrived home from the post office, a car pulled up at their front door, and Jola stepped out. Uni and Kasandra started to run before she had noticed them, and suddenly she was in Uni’s arms and Kasandra was nuzzling her hand, she squealed in delight, and hugged them both with a large smile on her face, and then handed Uni a large bundle of letters, the ones he had sent, “All replied.” She said with a large smile, “I thought we could read them together this way.”
Uni just smiled and nodded, he needed time to calm his emotions before he was sure he could speak, with his arms tightly around both of his ladies they all at on the front steps together, Kasandra still clinging tightly to Jola’s hand in case she tried to go away again.
Uni’s eyes were blurred with tears, so Jola read them to him, each starting with her love for both of them, and commenting on the drawings, and what Uni has said in each letter, finally Uni, who had not even realised just how much his heart had been breaking, started to cry bitterly.
Jola kissed him and out her arms tightly around his neck, as she started to realise just how badly he had been hurting inside. Kasandra, still holding tight to her mother’s leg asked, “Why daddy cry?” and she suggested they all go inside, where Kasandra and herself could prance for Uni.
Kasandra clapped her hands, and all three headed into the living room, the remaining letters still sitting on the porch, where they both pranced to the special man in their lives. Jola stopping every so often to kiss Uni, and assure him of her love, she had not understood just how much both had been missing her, but now that she did, she resolved never to neglect them like this again, to return each letter she received with all the love she felt as soon as possible.
When the sun finally went down it saw three people, still hurting and holding each other tightly, but smiling at last.
