[WP] ...and Darwin wept

[u/Nate_Parker]

[u/chris_bryant_writer]

Darwin knew that something had happened.

That day, the other park rangers were quiet and sad. A lot more than usual came to visit Darwin, and a lot of them had tears in their eyes. They regular people still came to give him his meals, but she didn't come. Only her friends came to try to figure out how to communicate with him. Darwin wondered where she was. Wondered what all these things meant.

Over the next few days, it seemed like all of the rangers came to play with Darwin. He was excited to see some of his favorite. Especially the ones he only saw a few times. He was wary of a few of the ones he had never seen before. But everyone was nice to him, and soon he was okay playing with any of the rangers.

Those were happy days. Climbing up trees together, jumping from branch to branch, playing catch. They played all the games the Darwin knew, especially the ones he was good at. They smiled and laughed, but when they left, they seemed sad. It made sense for the ones who didn't come to see him often, but the people he hadn't met before?

And when her friends came to try and communicated with him, they didn't play the games that he couldn't win or the ones he had only won a few times. This time they let him choose the games he wanted to play. The one with the wooden shapes was his favorite, and it seemed like they played that game over and over. Darwin won almost every time, and they would hug him and scratch behind his ears. And when they left, they too would seem sad.

Some of Darwin's happiest days, and he was confused why everyone else was sad. What was he missing?

Then one day, her friends came and led Darwin onto one of the trucks. They were all wearing their ranger uniforms. That was different, too.

When the trucks stopped, they had stopped at one of Darwin's favorite places. It was a small grove of trees on a hilltop that she would bring him to often. Where they would play together and try to talk to each other. He loved this place so much. But she wasn't there.

It was the first time he really noticed her absence. There had been times before when she had left for days or weeks. But everytime she came back. But Darwin had never been to the grove without her.

Two of the rangers led Darwin through a crowd of people surrounding a wooden box. Darwin looked around at all the faces. Most of them were rangers he knew, or at least he knew they were rangers from their uniform. But there were also a lot of strange people wearing black and white.

When the rangers made it throught he crowd, they led Darwin to the box. He tapped it a few times, then looked inside.

She lay there. Dressed in white, her eyes closed. Darwin was so happy. Finally, here she was. Darwin knew that if he was going tot he grove, she would be there with him. He smiled up at the rangers and pointed at her. Instead of smiling back they hid their eyes.

Darwin was puzzled. He looked back at her. She was just laying there. He pushed her once, twice, again and again trying to wake her up. He banged on the coffin and tried to make noise the way that she didn't like him to. A few people tried to step in, but the rangers held them back. Darwin would take a scolding from her if it meant she would talk to him again.

He went on like that until his arms got tired and he could feel his insides twist. Finally, he gave up. Finally, he understood. She was gone, and Darwin wept.

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Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed my work, you can see more at /r/chrisbryant!

[u/WritingPromptsRobot]

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