Just One More Time

Honey For The Heart - 20

Overladen clouds hung low over Whispering Woods, weeping since dusk…like the sky had finally let go of a sorrow it couldn’t carry anymore.

Night draped her ink-dark cloak as Bumble and Piggy huddled beneath the ancient banyan, its trembling leaves barely shielding them. Paws tucked in, eyes on puddles gathering below, they watched as rain stitched a quiet yearning into the earth.

Piggy spoke, his voice almost lost in the rainfall.
“Do you ever miss your parents, Bumble?”

Bumble didn’t answer. His eyes drifted far.

Piggy twirled a yellowing leaf.
“Ma used to say… when the rain falls like this, the sky is missing someone.”

“I wonder,” Bumble murmured, “if someone up there misses us… or if we forgot to tell them how much we do.”

“I scampered out every morning,” Piggy said. “Didn’t stop to nibble. Just wanted to be out — anywhere but our den.
But Ma always waited. Fresh berries gathered, warm leaves spread… a tale resting on her breath.”
A pause.
“Pa had this silly line he loved repeating. I’d hide my face every time he began…
Now, I’d give anything to hear it. Even just once.”

Bumble’s voice came like wind through hollow bark.
“Pa would walk me to the glade, even when his paws ached. He’d listen like my ramblings were forest prophecy.
And I never once asked how his day was.
If I could go back… I’d hold his paw tighter, and thank him…before my forest fell still.”

Piggy whispered,
“Ma sang while stirring berry nectar. Off-key. Sweet. I’d plug my ears with moss to escape it.
Now… I press into silence, hoping to hear her hum again.”

“We always think there’s time,” Bumble said. “One more hug. One more dinner.
But sometimes… they vanish like morning mist, before we even realize our sun has slipped away.”

Piggy looked up, eyes glistening with things unsaid, “do you think… they felt how much we loved them?”

Bumble reached over, curling his paw around Piggy’s.
“They always did. That’s what parents do…
Love us even when we forget how to show it.”

As the rain deepened, two hearts let go…
of guilt,
of grief,
of all the words left unsaid.

Wishing…
if only the rain could take them back.
If only…
just one more time.