Summer Skye
“I am really looking forward to the upcoming fireworks show, teacup!” Tia chirped.
But even as she beamed at her best friend, her own smile dwindled. Well, one can hardly blame her; a heartbroken Skye sat across from her, staring at nothing and aimlessly tracing her paw along the patterns of the patchwork table.
Tia sighed and looked outside at the perfect picnic weather; the flowers sparkled and the trees were littered with cicadas. Indoors, her phonograph overtook their cries.
She breathed deeply, gathered her courage and spoke gently, “Skye, I’m not trying to lightly or temporarily cheer you up; I do want you to get better, but I know these things take time. And if there’s anything at all I can—”
“Tia, thank you, sweetie.” At this, she looked into the elephant’s hopeful eyes. “I appreciate it…I’m really grateful, but now I’m making you sad, and even you can’t make tears into tea! So I’ll be going now, sweetie.”
As the wolf quickly stepped towards the door, Tia gave her a hug. “Well here—take this: 1000 Types of Clouds is quite enlightening!” Tia sprang another smile and Skye couldn’t help but return it with a small one of her own while she pocketed the book. She turned the handle and opened the door with a loud yelp.
Immediately, Skye flushed with embarrassment and stammered, “Oh, I-I’m so terribly s-sorry, Kabuki. Excuse me, sweetie.”
With narrowed eyes, Kabuki watched her scamper away. “‘Sweetie?’ And I thought ‘airmail’ was annoying.”
“Kabuki, please excuse her—she’s not well. Would you like some tea, teacup?”
“What else, da~nya?” he grumbled as he took to the patchwork sofa. “Gah, is she still pining for that guy? He had the right attitude, but his house was a mess!”
Briefly, Tia clenched the teacup and handed it over with a taut smile. “Everyone has their own preferences,” she stated matter-of-factly.
Kabuki sputtered, “It doesn’t—” There was a rapping and the door swung open to an astronaut.
Tia chimed, “Time for tea! Hello, Mayor! Kabuki dropped by so it’s a tea party, teacup!”
The Mayor replied, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but have you seen Skye? I just heard a rumor that she’s moving!”
Tia froze with shock, and though she began quietly, her voice crescendoed into a yell. “Sh-she was j-just here. This is the first I’ve heard of it. Mayor. Skye is not herself and I don’t know what to do! And couldn’t have you stopped it?! Why oh WHY did you let Chief LEAVE?!”
Suddenly, she swerved and bashed the phonograph. The cicadas chorused as her own throat swelled and her heart sank. She closed her eyes and softly meditated with a phrase learned from Francine: “I have to remind myself, I’m an elephant named Tia. A powerful elephant named Tia.” The anger subsided, but tears welled and made everything blurry. She didn’t want anyone to see her like this, and just as she was going to ask them to leave, the Mayor patted her shoulder.
“Tia, you are doing the best you can; that’s all any of us can do.”
Tia wiped her face and sighed.
“But this’s been an awful summer, right, Kabuki?”
“Really Mayor? This time of the year is always like this. Overpriced entertainment and sharks ruining the beaches. Hot weather, hot tempers, and romantic flings that that don’t outlast the fireworks, da~nya.”
Tia scrunched her trunk. “Kabuki, summertime also brings special opportunities to be spent with friends. It’s like Pinky says, ‘Time with friends is time well spent.’”
Kabuki raised an eyebrow. “Oho so the other seasons aren’t friendly? Gah, it would matter if you had friends.”
“But Kabuki, we’re all friends, teacup!”
For a moment, his expression softened but then he abruptly resumed his grumpy disposition. In fact, he appeared to be even more bitter. “Yeah. Hey, I gotta go. Later, da~nya.”
After he left, the Mayor turned to Tia, but she insisted that she wanted to be alone. So the astronaut took one small step outside.
“Hey Mayor, do me a favor da~nya!”
“What now, Kabuki?! Didn’t you cause enough damage?”
“Me?! YOU in that obnoxious outfit blurted out that Skye was moving!”
“I…”
“Anyway, deliver this to Tia.”
“Her house. is. right. here.”
“Gah, she’s mad at me. Before the end of the day, okay.”
“Okay…Mr. Bossy.”
“Bossy?! YOUR’E the Mayor, and—hey! Mayor! You can do it!”
“…What?”
“Like you said—the best we can, da~nya! We’ve gotta make her happy—we’ve gotta convince Skye to stay!”
“Yeah—make her happy and then she’ll stay!”
Kabuki’s voice dropped and the sun dropped as they walked and whispered through the town.
The next morning a jester staggered into The Roost and plopped down onto a seat with a yawn.
“Usually, you only walk out of here like that.”
“…Oh, morning, Francine. I was just working late.”
“You? Working? That’s a first.” She took a sip and then scribbled and erased and scribbled before crumpling something up and starting over.
“Francine. What are you writing?”
“A letter for Skye, imbecile. That poor dear is frowning more than that sulky poof of a squirrel, and I’m debating if the truth will make it better…as I told you yesterday, I don’t want her to leave; who’ll water my garden?”
“What truth?”
She sipped and curled a smile. That…that Chief didn’t like Skye. Romantically. Well, they weren’t an official couple, but everyone knew of her fondness for him. He thinks he did her a kindness, but, well, this is how things are. Oh, and poor Kabuki—but does anyone else have no idea?”
At this the Mayor hastily removed the mask to stare down the rabbit’s smirk.
“Wait—what?”
“Oh my! What’s in this drink? I’m all sentimental. And Mayor, that is hush-hush. Besides, don’t you have work to do? Not much happens here, so the fireworks better be amazing.”
“But what—”
“Perhaps we should discuss how you snuck out of town last night. Is that related to the new house plot, imbecile?
Brewster! Seriously. What do you put in this?”
“…”
Francine sipped as the Mayor scurried out and bumped into Kabuki, who wanted to visit.
At the Mayor’s castle, the cat da~nyaed in surprise. “Whoa, it’s a stinkin’ beach in here! So you’re like the rest? This is what summer means to you?”
“I, uh, well…what does summer mean to you?”
At this, Kabuki rumpled his eyebrows and stared until sweat dripped from his fur and he fake sneezed. “I guess there’s no flinching with a mask on. Whatever. You’re just a cosplaying weirdo.”
“Soooo, there is someone you’d like to impress?”
“Gahaha, look at the time! Keep working on the town, you joker!”
And so the Mayor did. The next days seemed to fly by as a superhero, a ninja, and a pirate frantically worked until the long-awaited night finally arrived.
The Mayor sprinted to Tia’s, barely missing the white and purple pansies.
“Mayor, I think Skye is going to love our matching shirts; you should design more. Anyway, let’s go, teacup!”
They raced towards the wolf’s house…but she wasn't there. Worried, the two searched around, and found a new zen garden adorned with blue pansies and white lilies. Just north of it was a bench, where Skye was reading and sniffling.
No one knew quite what to say when a gong from a great bell caught their attention. They warmly smiled at Skye, and altogether they crossed a new bridge and went to a plaza peppered with zen lanterns.
At a wink from Isabelle, the fireworks erupted in all their splendor. Everyone was awed and delighted as they saw their own faces light up the night. Then, a faint whimpering was heard. Skye was fighting to hold back the tears, but they began to stream. “Tia. Mayor. I-I had been planning to move away—I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you, but how can I leave such great friends! I’m staying, sweetie!” Overwhelmed, Tia began to cry with joy and flowers seemed to blossom around her.
Skye changed her shirt, flourished, and smacked her paw into something…hard? “Oh, I am so sorry! Sir, I…oh my…”
“Haha, no worries. This beak doesn’t crack under pressure. Say…you must be Skye, right? I moved in a few days ago, but I haven’t seen you around. Name’s Avery.”
“You’re an eagle! You um, fly?”
“Uh, yep, that’s standard, but I do aim to be a professor and study Every sky and cloud out there. Say…it seems to me that the 1,000 Types of Clouds left out the cutest one.”
“Oh I adore that book! So…what do you think of how different parts of clouds have different electric charges?”
“That’s a Very interesting…”
With a grin, the Mayor stepped away and quietly articulated, “Good job, Mayor. And it was all thanks to…to…hey—Where is he?”
The Mayor briskly strolled around and glimpsed Pinky dancing with three boppers atop her head whilst Marshal had rotten luck with the fortune cookies.
Following a path flanked by carnations, familiar round smoke could be seen in the distance. Upon approaching Kabuki’s house, voices could be heard and the Mayor strained to listen; it was too muffled. Mostly ignoring the guilt, the Mayor crept to the far side and found Francine carefully sliding open the window just a sliver. She motioned to join her, and the two of them peeked inside.
“You should be *cough* out there having a good time. I’ll be better by tomorrow. I’ll be fine, so—” *cough cough*
“Do you really think I would do that, teacup? I appreciate what you and the Mayor did for Skye, but you ruined your health in the process. You are also a precious friend, Kabuki, and now you need some rest. And, of course, some tea. Are the cups in he—”
“DON’T OPE—” *cough cough hack cough*
Kabuki’s eyes and mouth grew wide with horror as the inside of his red regal armoire glinted with mounds and mountains of teacups. He was feverish before; now he was so scarlet that you could barely distinguish the stripes of his face.
Unperturbed, Tia took two, closed the door, and proceeded to serve the gaping cat.
“Kabuki. Surely, even I would eventually notice that you take your cup every time you visit. That you cultivated those ridiculously difficult purple pansies around my house. That you put up a tough guy front because you assume everyone is put off by your appearance. That you get me riled up so that I can let off steam. Because everyone expects me to be cute and happy and kind all the time—but I’m just a normal elephant! But you!…You could be nice to me directly, you know.”
“Gah, you’d spout some nonsense about not deserving it da~”*cough*
“That’s not…no…you’re right…”
“You said you appreciated what I did…*cough* The festival provided a unique opportunity, but, to me, summer isn’t all that fancy stuff. It’s more like a feeling, a warmth. Unfortunately, the strongest source isn’t as simple nor as consistent as a hot teapot. *cough* But, Tia, I don’t want you to put on a show and pretend to be happy. I want you to smile from the bottom of your heart. If you can do that, then no matter what the season, it can always be summer for me.”
Now Tia was blushing; she was positively radiant.
There was an especially loud CRACK of a firework, so Tia and Kabuki glanced outside as hearts and stars brilliantly exploded.
Luckily, Francine and the Mayor were able to duck out of sight just in time. She excitedly whispered, “I knew it! Hahaha, did you? Oh well, ta-ta, imbecile!” She bounded off quite pleased with herself as the Mayor gazed at the fireworks dazzling across the endless summer sky.
