NANOWRIMO 2020

11.28 Goodbye Gouda

Mackenzie gazed solemnly at those gathered in her family's backyard. Of course there was her mother and father (Betty and Dan) seated on her tiny tea time stools, her pet tortoise Chad lounging in a patch of grass and sun, and Mary, Louise, and Eleanor, her stuffed toys casually propped against each other in the first row of guests.

She paced back and forth, little hands held at her back and her head held high despite her trembling upper lip.

"Oh no, she looks like she's about to cry," Betty whispered. "I should get tissues."

"Sit down," Dan hissed back. "It's starting soon. She might make us start over if we leave now."

"But my baby looks so sad," Betty moaned.

"Dearly beloved," Mackenzie stood in front of them and looked over their heads, beginning the long-awaited ceremony. Coming in clutch at just under 3 feet, she was a pillar of power in her dark Sunday clothes topped with a strawberry picking hat she found in the closet last night.

"We need to stop watching crime dramas when she's awake..."

"Shh she's talking!"

"We are gathered here to remember our fallen friend: Gouda," Mackenzie intoned, sniffling.

Betty wiped away a tear while Dan looked perplexed. "I'll be honest here, I thought its name was Hamtaro," Dan whispered.

Smack.

"Gouda was my best friend and the bestest cuddler," Mackenzie continued. "She always kept me company at night and she loved carrots and hay the mostest."

"Isn't that what she only ate?" Dan mumbled, which was well received by his wife with another healthy smack to his arm.

"Gouda was a very good girl and she loved to play in her wheel but sometimes she would play in her wheel too loud at night and mommy and daddy didn't like that a lot," Mackenzie continued.

"Rest in peace," Dan saluted.

Mackenzie nodded at her father. "Rest in peace Gouda," Mackenzie repeated. "You were my favoritest hamster friend and we will remember you and your time with us. Thank you for being the best and I hope you're having lots of fun wherever you are. I hope they have the biggest hamster wheel in your new home."

Mackenzie clapped her hands and Dan and Betty followed suit.

"Baby that was beautiful," Betty wrapped Mackenzie in a hug and buried her face in her daughter's sundry hat. "So so beautiful. I'm sure Gouda would have loved it."

"I think so too mommy," Mackenzie scrunched her face shut to keep herself from crying.

"It'll be okay champ," Dan kneeled beside them and brought them into his massive bearhug.

"Daaaaaddy your beard," Mackenzie squealed. Dan feigned surprise and brushed his chin across Mackenzie's face and her screams intensified and burbled into laughter.

"What what what? What do you mean, babygirl?" Dan began to tickle Mackenzie but she escaped her parents' embrace and ran to the other side of the lawn, Louise her stuffed rabbit plush dragging behind her.

"No!" Mackenzie squeaked. "No more tickles or scratchies!"

"Rawrrr," Dan roared. "I don't know what you mean!" He lumbered after her like a Godzilla monster on vodka. Betty laughed and began to clean up their little wake. She scooped up all the toys and brought them inside.

She returned to find Dan still chasing Mackenzie around the yard and she smiled to herself.

"Mommy mommy wait," Mackenzie called out. "Daddy daddy stop haha I don't wanna play anymore," she giggled and ran away from her father, who pantomimed a broken heart and collapsed onto the grass. Chad crawled over to nibble at his shirt.

"What's wrong Macky, did daddy hurt you?" Betty shot Dan a poisonous look but he continued to play dead and rolled away in the opposite direction.

"No no, but but we have to give Gouda a good goodbye," Mackenzie said, out of breath.

"We already did sweety," Betty brushed some hair out of Mackenzie's face. "And it was an amazing service."

"Don't we have to cream mate her?" Mackenzie looked up with big eyes.

"Cream mate?"

"Cream mate! Like on those shows you and daddy watch!" Dan tried to tiptoe past his wife to the backdoor.

"Oh," Betty said. "Dan. Dan. Macky wants to cremate Gouda. What do you say?" She turned to look at her husband with a raised eyebrow. Well? It seemed to say. What do we tell her?

Dan opened and closed his mouth. Blinked. "We have to wait for dark to cremate Gouda then."

Mackenzie cheered while her mother put her face in her hands and Dan sidled back inside to await the wrath of his wife.

4 hours later and a quick trip to the grocery store brought nighttime and all the kindling necessary to give Gouda a good goodbye.

Dan arranged the wood shavings into a neat pile and added a block of wood in the middle to make a resting point for Gouda's little box. It was a cute little thing, the size of a coffee mug and decorated with flowers and scribbled with crayon in misshapen letters and shapes, which Dan assumed was his daughter's last farewell to Gouda. There were some odd looking stars and jagged shapes that Dan frowned at but he placed it in the middle of the fire pit and stood back.

"Uh," Dan began. "Any last last words?"

Betty nursed a headache near their wicker furniture and shook her head but Mackenzie walked up to it and kissed it. "Goodbye for now Gouda," she whispered.

Dan nodded, lit a match and set it on the kindling.

They all stared at it for a few seconds as the flames crawled up the teepee of kindling and wrapped around Gouda's box. Dan held Mackenzie's hand back to their mother and they curled up together to watch the box glow and shrivel in on itself.

Mackenzie watched it with intense eyes. "Rise from the ashes, Gouda," she whispered.

"What?" Dan lowered his ear to hear his daughter's words over the crackle of the fire, but she just shook her head, staring intently at the box.