Small Star Awaits Your Visit
by Eileen Elkinson
It was the first ever marriage to be held on their Star. No one knew what it was, but it sounded like great fun to the felhumans.
Re Admit was a long slender womfel with a gleaming coat of silver and black fur. She had a gentle way about her and when she walked it was as though her paws never touched the ground. She found the prospect of this marriage confusing but was cooperating because En was so enthusiastic about it. There were times when he was much more feline than human, which was one of the things she adored about him.
Her future husband En Counter could only be described as a wondrous example of what a manfel should look like. Among other things, he had the longest, fullest tail in the community, and his chest was always puffed up and proud. Re and En had known each other since tiny felhumanhood. He loved to read and sing. They had much in common and often recited poetry to each other. Re remembered one poem of En’s she particularly loved:
We are surrounded by bright
Lights now
Our hearts understand the plan
To live with each other and
Grow old,
Ascending to when time began.
En’s parents discussed the wedding while licking their paws over a dinner of greens.
“The idea, I think, was picked up by En when the electrical storm touched parts of our star. All he remembered after being struck down was that there were moving pictures of what he called pinkhumans, dancing down an aisle to loud music. Finally the couple stood before a heavily gowned angel who read from a stone and then they kissed, whatever that is.”
Father Ra stopped talking for a moment so he could take another bite of green leaf. “En saw the word ‘marriage’ on a piece of paper one of the guests was holding and concluded he wanted to do the same thing with Re.”
“It does sound like fun, the idea of music and all,” Mother Less responded. “I guess we should begin to plan everything soon. The chorus will need plenty of time to rehearse, and we will have to help them build a space to live.”
It began to snow a week earlier than usual on Star. No fel anticipated it, and they had to rush and gather all of the greens from their gardens, freeze the white drink provided by the herds, and pick the fruitplants that grew from the green twisted sticks rooted in the softer parts of the white floor of Star.
“A marriage, a wedding, celebration, Re and En, can you imagine?” The entire area could speak of nothing else.
One of Re’s girlfel friends asked, “Does En still pose for the artist Mo Nett? I know he had a good job there, a lot of the younger girlfels wanted to have his picture on their wall area.”
“Hard to say,” Ho Hum answered, “I heard Mo Nett moved to the north part of the star. Everything’s pretty white there too, but you know artists, they see many shades of white. From what I hear a lot of fels are relocating to the north. Not sure why, we have plenty of room right here.”
Re was alone in her space, grooming, nervously licking her paws, and thinking about her future with En. It made no sense really, dancing up to an angel, and no one, including her, knew how to dance. Well, maybe En would remember what he saw and teach them. But still, he did say they kissed. Felhumans never kissed, they rubbed ears, maybe noses, but never kissed. What could this ceremony possibly achieve? She would have to talk to En about that too.
The wedding was scheduled for pretty soon, and outfits were being created from whatever materials the fels could gather. It was agreed that every fel should wear a vest and pants too, if it was cold.
Re created a shiny scarf to wear over her shoulders. En would hold a special wand he made, to protect them. “We will never need protection,” he said, “not here in this wonderful felworld, but I made it anyway. It was good to keep my paws and my mind busy.”
The entire fel community spent long spaces building the green wedding box. They wove the greens and used large sticks to hold everything up. It looked beautiful when it was completed. There were layers of frozen white drink shaped like a treat. All was ready for the first wedding on Star.
The wedding day had arrived. Loud, festive music was provided by a fel chorus of womfels and manfels, who together produced a joyous howling that could be heard throughout the community. A few talented fels drummed by hitting big rocks with smaller ones, all in all, producing very good music to dance to.
En took the lead dancing when he started to jump and leap down a lovely white path decorated with greens and fruitplants heading toward the snowfel. The angel needed a stand-in, so they quickly produced the snowfel to fill its shoes. One after the other, the fels imitated dancing as they leapt and jiggled, waving their paws and laughing, until some of them began to slip and slide in the snow. Many began tripping over each other’s long tails.
En never told them how to store their tails properly. Like dominoes, each fel in the wedding party collapsed, all in the direction of the snowfel. Many of the older fels became angry and began to throw the frozen white drink at each other. From all of the jumping around, large pieces of greens were breaking apart and began to fall off of the wedding box, until the box was shaken to the ground.
“It’s all your fault, Fa Tell, you didn’t tie the greens well at all.” Li Are pointed her paw at Fa Tell and the rest of the fels yelled at him and hissed. So there they were, a large mound of disheveled fels covered in greens and snow mush waiting for Re to make her appearance. Some of them laughed, others grimaced, as they tried to look presentable, but it was hopeless.
When she reached the aisle she was not dancing, instead she walked with her head down and asked to speak to En privately.
“En, you know I’m your companion through time, but today you ask too much. This may be a good thing for pinkhumans to do, but we are felhumans and have our own ways. I don’t want a snowfel or angel or whatever it is to marry us, and I really don’t want to kiss you.”
“I understand Re, Mother Less told me you wouldn’t want to change things from the way they have always been. It’s really not important to me at all. Anyway, I never did figure out how that snowfell could have performed the ceremony,” he smiled purring. En put a paw on her ear and rubbed it gently, she leaned forward pressing her head next to his.
The snowfel began to melt, the chorus dispersed and headed back to their spaces, yet all of the remaining fels were still delighted. They laughed and rejoiced at how badly the wedding turned out.
“Well look at how it all went, it was truly horrible, all of the fel wedding party soaking wet from falling in the snow,” Ho Hum giggled and went on: “Then a few fels began fighting and ruined the frozen wedding treat. What else? Oh, yes, then we were covered in greens when the wedding box collapsed, there was no angel present to read the stone. And to top it off, Re backed out.”
Though not a successful wedding at all, it was a typical felhuman attempt to celebrate.
Copyright © 2010 by Eileen Elkinson
