A Clump Of Stumps

Plumsweet looked out the train window wordlessly as we rolled on toward Dodge Junction.

I put my arm around her shoulders as I sat on the bench where she lay. "It'll be okay, Sweets."

She turned to me. "You'll just carry me to the door of Cherry Hill Ranch," she says, with pain in her voice, "you'll knock, and when she comes to the door, I'll say, 'Hi, Mom, I'm getting married to a biped from another dimension. By the way, I also lost two legs.' It'll go super."

She sniffled, and wiped tears from her face with her foreleg stump. "I'm sorry, lovemonkey, I don't mean to be sarcastic."

I hugged her tightly. "I understand. I'd be nervous too."

"It's just... that will make it all real," she continued, "I won't be her 'Li'l Plum' anymore." Her head drooped.

"Hey now," I said, "it'll be all right. Shh, shh." I held her head (twice as big as my own) to my chest and ran my fingers through her mane.

I stared at the passing desert wordlessly, my own doubts boiling in the back of my mind..