Aurora Returnsfeatured

“Well don’t just stand there,” Aurora chastised, clearly reveling in my mental breakdown trying to process her appearance on my doorstep.  This is clearly a terrible Covid side effect.  Delusion.  Hallucination.  I need to see my doctor.  Or my therapist.  Or get my anxiety meds adjusted.  Possibly all three.

I’d sunk to my knees when the dachshunds came at a run and tackled her with hugs.  “Careful, you fools!  My beautiful fur!!” she exclaimed, but she wasn’t really that upset.

The four of us hugged for a long time.

The dachshunds and I sat in the hallway together, hardly believing our eyes that she was standing before us, made whole; she was real.  Aurora was clearly enjoying all the attention and had a million megawatt smile on display as we peppered her with questions.

Bowie had heard all the commotion and come over the check it out but she slammed on the brakes once she came around the corner and saw Aurora.  Her ears jumped and eyes widened with alarm.  She had heard us speak of Aurora, knew she had died, and had heard Aurora announce her very self upon entering the house.

Bowie began to shake uncontrollably with fear and squeaked, “Are you…a ghost?”

Aurora smirked, wiggled her claws at Bowie and said “BOO!”

Bowie’s eyes slowly rolled back into her head and she slumped forward to the ground in a dead faint.

“Are you a ghost?” demanded Gustav.

“I am a spirit.  The very essence in corporeal form.  A soul, an apparition, a specter, an etherial being. ”  She struck a pose.  “I am a shade who throws shade!  I still have to abide by some rules.  I can’t make stuff move around on its own, or vanish it.  Well, most things anyway.  I can’t solve your problems and wants and whims with a snap of the claws.  Don’t ask me for any magic tricks.  I had to agree to abide by certain things; but we’ve got more important things to discuss now.”

Gustav clutched her with large tears rolling down his snout.  “We thought you were gone, that you had left us.”

“I was in Heaven, you morons, where there are the most amazing shops and boutiques you could imagine.  Every conceivable period of fashion, every accessory, beauty everywhere you look.  But then I got ahold of God’s credit card and maxed it out–”

“You what?” I gasped.

She shrugged.  “You wouldn’t imagine such a thing is possible, but it is so.  There were some other things I got in trouble for but that is neither here nor there…anyway, because apparently Heaven needs a break from my glorious self, I have returned.”

“I would think,” interjected Johann Sebastian, “that it was because you tried to take over the place.”

“Bah,” replied Aurora with a familiar dismissive wave of the paw.  “There are some plots and plans that even I can’t get away with.”  She grinned.  “Is now the proper time to quote Milton?  ‘Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven?’  Paradise Lost.”

Johann Sebastian, ever the theologian, was intrigued.  “What was it like?  Who did you see?”

“Everyone.  Many send their love.  There was also a grey cat who wanted to give me a message to pass along to…a Mr. Parker.”  She made a face as held a small envelope over her head.  “And that brings me to how I find you all now.”

The dachshunds and I exchanged looks.  We knew what she was referencing; it was inevitable that she would demand some kind of an explanation.  I think Ted Lasso said it best with “Divorce is hard.  It doesn’t matter if you’re the one leaving or the one who got left”; I’ll just leave it at that.

“I can’t believe you sold Maplethorne House!” Aurora exploded, shaking her fists with rage.  “The beautiful kitchen, my Throne Room, my walk in closets!!!  All of it, gone!”  She was furious.  “The master bath with the heated floor, my parlour to receive guests!!!  How DARE you.”

I was absolutely not in the mood for this sort of discussion now or ever.  The entire divorce process had been shattering on every level and I was very short as I stabbed my index finger in her general direction.  “That entire topic is not up for debate.  It was all very sad.  This is our home now.”

She sat down in a huff.  “Well…I know what happened.  I saw everything.  I check in on you all, you know, just to make sure you’re ok–er, I mean, just to judge you relentlessly.”  She threw up her paws helplessly.  “I turn around and leave for a few years, and return to find that everything has changed.  I had no say.  I wasn’t even there.  I don’t like that.”  She looked around and surveyed the house, then said “I already have decided that I don’t like Mr. Parker but I’ll give him this, he knows how to decorate a space.  Does this abode even have a name?”

“Copper Lodge.”

“Not bad,” she reluctantly admitted.  Then, “I knew that things would be different when I came back, but seeing it for real…I mean,” she sighed.  “I knew that you would all move on at some point.  It’s just…things are…” she spread her paws before her with a shrug.  “I don’t know what to say.”

We sat quietly in the room for a bit, saying nothing.  Some things just can’t be put into words and after an appropriate amount of silence, I quietly asked her:

“Aurora, why exactly did you come back?  Be honest.”

She deflated a bit and bowed her head.  “Well, it was because…I missed…all of you.”

We held each other for a long time, very tightly…until we heard the engine of a Dodge Challenger coming up the street, hours earlier than anticipated.  The dachshunds and I rushed to the front windows in time to see Jeremy’s car start to take the turn into the driveway…then come to a sudden and abrupt stop in front of Aurora’s two steamer trunks that blocked him from pulling completely into his parking space.

He froze behind the wheel as he stared at the trunks.  Aurora scurried into the den and assumed a regal position in Jeremy’s favourite chair.  The dachshunds and I stood numbly watching the scene as Jeremy slammed the Challenger into park, sprang from the car, paced around the trunks, then saw the pile of luggage still waiting on his pristine and treasured lawn.   Even from this distance we could see his face turning red.

“Uh oh,” chorused the dachshunds.

“He hasn’t found out about the handbag or the jewelry, has he?” asked Gustav.

“Should we explain everything, or hide?”  Johann’s eyes were wide as Jeremy came charging up the front walk.

“How do we even begin to explain this?” I gasped.

“RUN!” shrieked Gustav, and everyone except Aurora (sitting imperiously on the chair) and Bowie (still passed out on the floor) scattered.

—to be continued