23 May 2017 (2AE)
Rapid Transit, Soaring Heart, Coppertop, and the little seven-week-old foal Silvermane were at home in Alexandria, after the memorial services held earlier in the evening to commemorate The Event, now two years in the past. “I may not miss my human family like I know you do. I would like to hear about yours, and I’ll tell about mine, at least the parts I want to talk about.” Coppertop offered, Vanna lying at his hooves.
“Sounds like a good idea, son. I know mine have been on my mind all day today.” Rapid Transit said, Sethra snuggled next to him. The cat was getting old, but she still has a lot of spirit and temper in her. “Ya wanna go foist, love?”
“Don’t mind if I do, Artie.” the pegasus said, making sure the little unicorn colt was still asleep, slipping out of the foal carrier and stretching her wings. She thought some before speaking.
“At the time of the Event, I was in Prescott, Arizona, with my cousin Carrie. I was trying to get in to the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, because I wanted to transfer my university credits in computer sciences to that using wind tunnel designs. I loved flying, and still do.
“Carrie shared my love of flying, but she did not want to pursue a career in it. She came along on holiday while I did my applications. We had spent the day before the Event touring around Prescott, taking in the sights and scenery, enjoying ourselves immensely before turning in at the hotel.
“Back in London, I left my parents behind and a younger brother, all in the restaurant business. My father was senior management in a restaurant chain, having moved to London from Salisbury when I was two.”
“Salisbury? I was there in eighty-three! The Grant made a port call in Weymouth, and I got on a bus tour one Sunday which took in Salisbury, Stonehenge, and the Royal Tank Museum!” Artie said, with some surprise. “I got two stops there, the Cathedral and a restaurant we stopped at, a place called the Wheatsheaf.”
“The Wheatsheaf? That’s the restaurant my father managed, but a couple years after you were there!”
Coppertop laughed at the news. “Looks like you two had connections even before you met!”
“It sure does look like it, son.” Soaring Heart said with a smile before turning to Artie. “Looks like we are going to have to make a trip there, once Silvermane is a little older.” she said, nosing the colt gently.
“Sounds like a plan ta me, lovely. Next year, for sure.” Artie said before sighing. “Makes me glad I missed out on the London trip now.”
“I’ll hold you to that promise, Artie. Now, my younger brother was in University himself, one more year to go before graduating with a history degree. I know everyone will Return some day. I can just hope to see them, and know them when I do.” Soaring Heart sniffed. “Maybe I can get some pictures of them, to help remember them.”
Both Rapid Transit and Coppertop moved to get Soaring Heart in between them for a whole-body soft hug. “Next year, we’ll do that. I promise.” Artie said, meaning it. “I’m going to need some London maps, and road maps from Salisbury to London. Hope the roads are not in too bad shape there.”
“Promise made, heard and witnessed, Artie.” Soaring Heart said. “I’ll hold you to that.”
“Why don’t you go next, Dad? Granted, we know a lot about your family already, because you have pictures, and you talk about them constantly, but is there anything we have NOT heard about?” Coppertop asked.
Rapid Transit thought deeply for a few minutes before speaking. “I have some relatives who were still alive at the time of the Event. One sister in Salt Lake City, another in Los Angeles. My father I was taking care of, and I’m glad he will Return healthy. May I live to see the day.” he sniffed, looking up at some pictures hanging on the wall of his father, along with the cleaver presented to his grandfather upon his retirement forty years before.
“I only had a few friends in Phoenix I really gave a damn about, my closest one dying suddenly about two months before. Brain hemorrhage. Died in bed.” he said sadly, flicking his purple and white tail. “Purple was Jenny’s favorite color.
“Would you believe, I even had a living grandparent? Grandma Josie must be in her late nineties, in a nursing home back in New York. I hope she Returns in a good environment. She’s one sharp-tongued lady who don’t take no crap from nobody!”
“My grampa is like that, too. He’s a leading Physician’s Assistant in Euclid, Ohio. I’m named after him. But, I always went by Willie. I like my name now. It fits.” the young Earth pony said, raising a hoof to brush at his forelock of coppery hair.
“I know we never asked this of you, Coppertop, but just what IS your full human name?” Soaring Heart asked quietly.
“Raymond William Holmberg.” Coppertop said with a little difficulty. “The fifth.”
Rapid Transit was, at the time, having some coffee. When Coppertop said his human name, the mouthful of coffee aerosolized all over the living room, propelled by a surprised cough which led to hacking. Sethra, startled, departed her perch and took off for parts unknown, followed quickly by Vanna. When he could breathe again, he gasped, “Raymond William HOLMBERG?”
“Yes, Dad. What’s so surprising?” Coppertop asked.
“Yes, love, what’s so surprising?” Softer Heart echoed. Silvermane looked up from his nest, fortunately not complaining about the sudden wakening. Soaring Heart nosed him again, the colt putting his head back down, resting his silver and black horn on his butter-yellow forelegs.
In response, Rapid Transit’s horn lit up. One photo album with a red cover and coming apart due to its age, floated in the silver aura from the bookshelf to the ponies. He turned a few pages and pulled out a picture, a polaroid snapshot of four people. He held it up in front of Coppertop. “Is he in this picture?”
“Yes, he is. He’s the one on the right. He was a lot younger then. Why do you ask, Dad? How come you have a picture of Grampa Ray?”
“Ray Holmberg and I were shipmates back in 1980, and housemates from eighty to eighty-three, sharing an apartment in New London. Basement of a house. When he got transferred to Norfolk, I was out on refit, and I got word less than a week before pulling out. It was a scramble with the international phone calls to get my stuff moved elsewhere.
“We got along very well. Did he marry Laura?”
“Yes, he did. Gramma Laura and Grampa Ray both were kind to me. It was my own human parents who never showed me much love the last few years, as I steadily grew fatter despite their efforts. Now that I’m an earth pony, I don’t have that problem any more, I’ve lost all my extra fat, and I’m looking good and FEELING good, thanks to the two of you.” Coppertop told his pony parents.
“You’re our son now, Coppertop. It’s up to us to make sure you grow up stable, healthy and strong.” Soaring Heart told the colt, patting him with an outstretched wing. “Good practice for your little brother as well.”
“Ya know, all this time, I been raising my old roomie’s grandkid and never knew it.” Rapid Transit said, more to himself than anyone else, but they heard it.
“You’re doing a fine job of it, Dad. We mesh well together. You’ve shown more love and caring about me these last couple years than my human parents did before the Event.” Coppertop said earnestly. “I don’t need a trip to Cleveland to recover pictures and memories. The important ones are on my computer. The family I truly love is here, not there.”
“We love you too, Coppertop.” Soaring Heart said.
“But, you already know that.” Rapid Transit said gruffly. “To think, we had ties, however thin, before the Event. After the Event, may nothing tear us apart.”
“Indeed, Artie.” Soaring Heart said, extending her other wing to the unicorn, wrapping her loved ones in her feathers.
“It only took the end of the world to bring us together.” Coppertop said, snuggling up to his mother.
“So, our family ties go real deep. Who’da thunk it?” Rapid Transit said, snuggling up to his wife. Silvermane looked up from his nest and whinnied, seemingly in agreement.
Author's Note
Something for the second anniversary. I did have a grandmother alive at the time. She died last month, at the age of ninety-seven, I think.
Artie does have feelings, despite his exterior. He just keeps them private.
