The sun is asleep

         



    It was dark, the sun resting behind the mountains so that it could shine bright in the morning. That's what her ma used to say to her when she asked why the sun went away at night. Silver ears rested in a mass of silken hair a dark black color. Grey eyes looked to the mountain where the sun had set. "I wish you'd skip rest tonight," she told the sun as if it could hear her whispers. Her mother flushed in the face from fever but shivering from cold. The little girl stayed by the side of the bed watching the unsteady rise and fall of her mothers chest counting the wheezy breaths and looking to the grandfather clock in the room. The pendulum swung in time but though it was the same as ever it seemed to be moving so slow. The girl could hear her own rapid heart pitter patter in her chest but her ma's breaths were coming out slower. Again the girl looked out the window to the mountains begging the sun to wake up so the doctor would come. Time passed and hot tears of liquid emotion fell from the grey eyes of the child. She pawed at her mothers blankets despritly, "Mama hold on the suns coming," she said in a thick and shaking voice there was no reply from the woman. The girl counted the ticks of the clock 'tick- tock tick- tock' Her tail swung in time with the clocks.



    The little girl fell asleep that night. Waiting for a morning that would not come, as the sun had faded and its magic died. The morning doctor saw a black and white marbled fox laying upon the dead woman. The fox was still and cold with wet cheeks and glassed eyes. After the doctors task was done the cause of death for the woman was the illness in old age the fox, of a broken heart. Both were buried in the yard where the sun first woke and shinned. The old woman, a grandmother to all in heart had no children of blood. There were many who came to greive the woman but none cared for the fox, her pet fox who was to her, the only child she ever had. The one person who even in death would never leave her side.