Proof of Life

The door closed with a faint click. The morning sun streamed through the window, softly filtered through gauzy pink curtains.

The room was decorated with pastel peach, pink, and white furniture. The walls and carpet were a light peach color.

The leader raised his head and waited for the footsteps to recede down the hall, then silence. His sharp ears told him that the group had the solitude needed to conduct their meeting. He dragged his chair under the window and jumped on top of it, where the others could see him. They lined up on both sides of the table and carried it before the leader's chair. Each member stood in their assigned place around the table, and Oliver stepped to his place beside the leader.

"It's time for roll call; when you hear your name, raise your hand and say "here," Oliver said.

"Ambrose?"

"Here."

"Blumfield?"

"Here."

"Whitley?"

"Here."

Oliver turned to the leader, "All members present, Lord Rutledge."

"Thank you, Oliver," Lord Rutledge said. He turned toward the society members watching him with bright eyes. "Let us recite the oath." He raised his arms. "We pledge ourselves to this Brotherhood!" Lord Rutledge said.

"To keep the secret at all cost." The members replied. "To blend in and serve until our time is done, and we go to Tachusgool!"

"We pledge ourselves to the Brotherhood!"

"Thank you all." Lord Rutledge said. "This meeting is called to order. The first order of business..." He stopped, seeing one of the board members had raised her arm. "The chair recognizes Sister Whitley."

Sister Whitley lowers her arm. "I want to raise a motion to add the words "and Sisterhood" to our pledge."

Lord Rutledge smiled at her. "We will take a vote. All in favor?" Everyone raised their right arm. "All opposed?" No one raised a hand. "Wonderfull! The motion carries. Oliver, please amend our pledge to include the words and Sisterhood."

Olver nodded and wrote in the notebook he carried.

"Oliver, what is the next order of business?"

"Black Friday, sir. The beginning of the Christmas shopping season." Oliver said, flipping to a new page, to take notes.

"The shopping season seems to come earlier each year." Lord Rutledge said sighing.

Oliver cleared his throat and continued. "It has been three years since the arrival of our newest member, Sister Whitley, and the departure of our brother Wallace, to his new home on Tachusgool island."

Everyone bowed their head for a moment, remembering Wallace fondly.

"That means that we might have a new member this year, and one of us will graduate to Tachusgool to join Wallace and the others who have gone before." Lord Rutledge said.

Whitley raised her hand again and waited until Lord Rutledge recognized her. "What is Tachusgool like?"

"No one knows," Oliver replied. "No one has come back from there to tell us. I am certain it is a beautiful place, where our kind doesn't have to hide. We know it is an island, and I am sure it is beautiful.." He broke off because Lord Rutledge held up his left arm, the signal for silence. Lord Rutledge could hear footsteps approaching the door. "Quickly! She is coming back! Everyone put the table back where it was, and return to your previous posts!" Lord Rutledge said in urgent whispers.

There was a flurry of activity that instantly stopped as the door was flung open, and a small girl wearing a pink dress ran in, her brown hair in pigtails with matching ribbons. Her mother stood behind her, and they both surveyed the room with narrowed eyes. A stuffed bunny lay on his back near a plastic chair. Near the rabbit, a stuffed owl lay next to a drawing pad and crayon. The other stuffed animals were propped against the pillows on the bed. After a moment, the girl's mother spoke.

"See, honey? Just like you left them. I told you that your stuffed animals aren't alive. Everything is just as you left it. Please stop making up stories, and finish getting ready for school." She ushered her daughter out and closed the bedroom door behind her. "Don't forget to clean your room after school; I have asked you not to leave your toys all over the floor like that."

"They are fast, mom, they can hear us coming, their hearing is a lot better than ours, and they are magic. They get still and quiet when they hear us coming, so we can't catch them and won't know they are alive."

The voices of the little girl and her mother grew fainter as they moved farther away. The mother said something in reply to her daughter, but her words were indistinct.

Neither the little girl nor her mother heard the sigh of relief that came from inside the bedroom. Lord Rutledge, the stuffed rabbit, sat up and put his chair back under the window. Oliver, the owl, picked up his notebook and crayon and stood next to Lord Rutledge's chair. The other members, Whitley, the rag doll, Ambrose the raccoon, and Blumfield, the pink hippopotamus, pulled the table back to its previous position.

Lord Rutledge cleared his throat. "The next order of business, I believe we talked about Black Friday when the girl's mother would start her Christmas shopping. Oliver, you have the little girl's letter to Santa, so we can anticipate who the newest stuffed arrival might be?"

"Right here, sir." Oliver pulled the letter from his notebook with a flourish of his talon. He began to read the letter out loud.

"Dear Santa,

I want a new doll for Christmas..."

"Already? Does that mean I will get to go to the island?" Whitley interrupted.

"That isn't fair!" Blumfield, the hippo said, sounding upset. "I have been here longer than any of you, except for Lord Rutledge, I should be the next to go to the Island!"

"Sshh! Keep your voices down," Lord Rutledge said, waving his paws. “The girl and her mother might still be home, don’t let them hear you.”