(prompt: 'child' 26/9/2019)

"It's all about shooting stars," he explained. "You must never point at them, not ever, the legend goes. In ancient times the belief was unquestioned that supernatural beings looked down from the heavens—"

"Like gods, or angels, maybe?" Helena's ravaged eyes held the first hope he'd seen in days, as she'd kept a long and painful vigil alongside her mother's bed... before the final, most painful moment.

"Quite possibly. And the ancients feared the angered spirits bringing their attention to Earth and the worst bad luck to the family and loved ones of the pointer. Some whispered even of death if those beings on high were offended enough."

A tremor passed through Helena's slight body at the word 'death'; her feelings were too raw yet to say the word at all, though she fancied she'd glimpsed the Grim Reaper himself somewhere low on a horizon so dark she couldn't tell where land finished and sky began. "No," she said and the tears spilled over those red rims yet again. "NO! That's SO old... from another time and place. Sean? Isn't it?"

Hastily, realising his distraction had only worsened her grief, Sean agreed. "YES! Most definitely. Why, it was SO far back it was written on parchment paper in one of the most impressive magnificent illuminated manuscripts I'd ever seen." His confidence grew as he saw a flicker of interest in her face. And he embellished his story by building a picture of the ancient tome safely stored behind glass with two quill pens - one from a wing feather of a goose, the other from a swan [for larger lettering, the small sign said].

A dreaminess had crept into Helena's eyes as he talked, and she said, "I thought you were going to tell me another story about the Rainbow Bridge—"

"The Rainbow Bridge? Where the pets all go to wait for their owners?"

"Yes-s-s! That one," and she smiled. The tiniest lifting of the corners of her mouth and a crinkling around eyes turned warm and sentimental now... just enough for a perceptive and loving 'other' to see a glimmer of happiness deep within.

"But, shooting stars AND the Rainbow Bridge?"

Deeply buried beneath her sorrow, Helena felt a tiny glimmer of satisfaction. Sean's turn to learn something? Really? The glimmer turned into a glow... as it always did imagining reunions with her beloved furries some faraway day.

"Seeing a shooting star is good luck and you should quickly make a wish," and now there was a real, if tremulous, smile lightening her sad face. "Some believe it's another soul, released from earthly bonds to go directly to Heaven." Her voice faltered, but a deep breath and straightened shoulders helped her to continue. "... so why not our beloved furries, too?"

Sean frowned. "And the unloved and unwanted, the deserted and mistreated?"

"Same as a star shower just waiting to happen." And Helena's eyes shone again, no longer filled with tears as she told him another story. It involved a vast number of exactly those previously unwanted and unloved furries already waiting over the Rainbow Bridge. A call went out especially for them. A call for volunteers to be the forever friends of a great number of people arriving together. All ages were coming, from the youngest child to the old and infirm. City folk - most unable or unaccustomed to having pets. Nonetheless, they were coming, and their need was desperate....

"It is said they caused the biggest shower of shooting stars seen from that side of the sky in a long, long time. The date was one that would never be forgotten. 9/11... a disastrous day embedded in hearts all around the world - although none more happily than in the souls of the  new forever friends, over the Rainbow Bridge."