So, he laid very still and waited for Girl to come and take him away from this dark place that had once been Home.

He wasn't sure, exactly, how long he waited. Days, maybe. Weeks? Time was meaningless to a soft toy. There was Awake Time, which was bright and filled with warm sunlight that danced across the room. Then, there was Sleepy Time, which was dimmer, not dark like this place, and he would wait for Girl to come home from the Outside and snuggle with him in the soft blankets.

But, it seemed as if he had waited a very long time. Maybe Girl couldn't find him! He had fallen very far, for a very long time. She'd never know to look for him under all this rubble.

With renewed determination, he tugged and pulled and shifted, until he had crawled from beneath the debris. Aching, he looked at the gash on his hind leg and the tumble of stuffing that was leaking out. He'd had to pull very hard to free his leg and his fur had torn with a great RIP!. He squeaked with each step, but finally he was able to pull himself up onto a board and rest for a moment.

Then, to his surprise, he saw light. Very faint, but it was there, far above his head. And light meant Awake Time, so maybe Girl was looking for him!

Hooking a trotter over another board, he climbed.

And climbed.

And climbed.

He climbed until the light went away, so he rested and waited until it came back.

He didn't understand the devastation all around him; Girl's house was never this messy, but somehow he didn't think he was in Girl's house anymore.

When the light came back, it was brighter than ever before and he could see that it looked like the same light that would shine on the bed in Girl's room. Teddy had called it Sun Light. And Sun Light was a very good thing because it kept the monsters away.

He wasn't afraid of monsters, though. He just wanted to make sure that Girl could find him.

And, so he climbed.

Many Awake Times and Sleepy Times had passed by the time he reached the source of the light, a small hole. A very small hole. He pressed his face against it and looked out, but all he could see was a blanket of blue. He managed to squeeze one trotter out of the hole, but it was much too small to fit his body through.

He flopped back on his rump and thought hard. He hadn't climbed all this way to give up now. Girl might forget about him! She might've moved on to another pig! Or, worse yet, a doll! Ewwww! He didn't like dolls, with their beady eyes and prissy ways.

He nudged the hole with his snout and squeaked in surprise when the light disappeared. He backed away in terror as he saw a single, black eye stare in at him. With another squeak, he buried his face in his trotters.

There was a loud CRACK from above his head and he tried to squish himself as far away as he could. Some kind of creature, with round black eyes and a sharp pointed snout, pecked at the hole, trying to make it big enough so that he could reach the terrified pig. But, after many minutes of frenzied pecking, the creature gave up and in a great WHOOSH of black wings, flew away.

Unsure what to do, he stayed hidden and didn't venture near the hole until almost 3 Awake Times later. Finally, he crept closer and found that the creature had chipped away enough of the opening that he could fit his head through.

It was the Outside. An unimaginably vast stretch of rubble stretched before his shocked eyes. He was in the middle of a big hole filled with broken things. Girl would NEVER find him here!

He looked for the creature, but there was nothing to indicate that it had returned. With a struggle and a squeak, he managed to squeeze out of the hole and stand up.

He had seldom been Outside. He was a pampered pig, always safe within the confines of Girl's room and sometimes Red Fur would take him into her room, especially that time that Girl was gone for a long time.

But it had been even longer than that now. He hadn't seen anyone in a very long time and he figured that they'd just moved away when the Outside went BOOM. He began to wonder if Girl would ever be coming for him.

Ever?

It took nearly as long to cross the big pit of rubble as it did to crawl out of it and even then, he had to climb up again to get out of the pit. He was exhausted and filthy and heartsick.

The day that he finally emerged from the pit, he crawled over to a small rock and collapsed. His hind leg had finally lost all of its stuffing and simply hung limply behind him. One ear was torn and his fur, once so pink and soft, was a matted, muddy mess. If Girl found him, she would never recognize him.

Or want him.

---

Many Awake Times passed, so many that he had long ago lost count. She wasn't coming for him. Despair filled the little pig as he slumped against the rock and sobbed. The blue rental car stopped several yards away from the edge of the crater that was once quaint Sunnydale, California. Shutting the car off, Xander turned to look at Buffy. She smiled softly and got out of the car, a bouquet of wildflowers in one slender hand.

Buffy walked to the edge of the crater and knelt in the dust that covered what was once the main highway into town. She lay the wildflowers down on the crumbled asphalt and once again pictured Spike as she had seen him last. Bathed in the amulet's holy light, the look on his face as he gazed at her had been serene, enraptured.

At peace.

Tears filled her eyes and she bowed her head in silent prayer.

---

For so very long, all he had to listen to was the mocking whisper of the winds. He lay quietly, crumpled on one side, with no reason to move or to continue on. He merely waited for the End.

But, a loud noise woke him from his perpetual half-slumber. A crunching noise that made him think of the Big Noise, so many Awake Times ago. Then a thud and footsteps.

He managed to turn his head in the direction of the noise, confident that he was well-hidden under the rock's shadow. He saw People legs first, bare and tan, dressed in a fluttering skirt in a soft shade of yellow.

Then, to his utter shock and joy, the legs bent and knelt in the dirt and he could see the People's face.

GIRL!!

She was here! She'd come for him! He knew it! He knew it!

He couldn't contain his squeaks of joy and he tried to wiggle into the light, but he hadn't moved in so long that his little body had grown stiff and brittle. He sobbed in frustration as Girl lay down her bouquet of flowers and got back to her feet.

Oh no! No!

He renewed his struggle, as she gave one last look at the pit, then turned away. She was leaving!

With a mighty lunge, he tumbled out of the rock's shadow and let out a tiny squeak that was swallowed by the breeze. He rolled out into the blinding Sun Light and prayed that she would notice him, but she was already walking away.

Buffy started for the car, but something gave her pause. A sound maybe, carried on the wind, or maybe the feeling that something was watching her. She turned around and scanned the ground.

The dusty road leading to nowhere, the bouquet of flowers in Spike's memory already wilting in the harsh sunlight, a lizard on a rock, a stuffed animal laying by the rock...

Wait.

Buffy narrowed her eyes as she walked over to the rock. "That wasn't there a minute ago..." she said to herself as she knelt down to pick it up.

It was a stuffed pig, just like Mr. Gordo, who had been lost with the rest of everything she'd owned when Sunnydale was destroyed three years ago. Same little earnest face, black button eyes...this one was a little faded, quite dirty, and one leg was torn and missing all of its stuffing. Otherwise, it could've been the same toy.

With a nostalgic smile, she turned the pig over and looked for the manufacturer's tag. When she was in second grade, she'd taken him in for Show and Tell and her mom had made her write her initials in black permanent marker on his tag. Her little hand had slipped and left a small mark on his pink rump as well...

Buffy felt the blood drain out of her face as she spotted the faded black mark and her initials, BAS, on the tag.

How? How could it be? Her house had been close to the school and thus, had been buried deeply in the wreckage of the town. Nothing, least of all a stuffed toy, would have survived to see the light of day.

She turned the pig upright and looked into its face. With a gentle fingertip, she brushed the dirt off the still-shiny black eyes and felt an almost imperceptible quiver from the in her hands.

When she was little, she'd lay in bed and snuggle with Mr. Gordo, spilling all of her secrets and fears into his tiny furry ears, wishing that he was alive and could talk to her. Tears filled her eyes as she looked down into the beloved little face. She didn't know how he'd found his way to the surface, but she knew it was a miracle.

"Come on, Mr. Gordo...let's go home and get you fixed up."

Mr. Gordo nestled in Girl's arms and sighed in contentment.

It sure was good to be a pig.

 

The End

 

<< back