“Here comes Good-bye”

          Based off the song “Here comes Good-bye” by the Rascal Flatts

By: Aljan Darkmoon aka R.S.D

Balto looks from the bow of the ship he called home for many years, his yellow eyes taking in the city of Nome, a city of ember glowing against the starry night sky.  Always he had watched from afar, the city of dreams, the city of hope, a city of life; and never has the view been the same; always…different, a beautiful beyond comparison.

His grandson, Hawkeye, sits next to him, the pup’s brown and white fur stood fine on his head but became rough from the neck down, a dominant trait from his father, Balto’s son-in-law.  He smiles; the white and brown fur and the wolfish expression came from his daughter, Alue, one of many pups from a litter, the progeny of himself and Jenna so long ago.

Hawkeye walks to a storage compartment on the old boat.  Balto watches his grandson.  After rummaging through artifacts of time, he emerged, carrying in his mouth a cat shaped dog-toy with wheels.   Balto smiles, a glow upon his gray aging fur, his right ear falling slightly while his left remained erect, a small cocky-affectionate expression his Jenna had loved ever since their first meeting.  The toy had been a gift from Boris, Aniu bless his soul, a Russian goose who had raised Balto since puphood and continued to live with the family, raising Balto’s pups till they too had grown. 

He was missed dearly by all who knew him.

“Uncle Boris used to tease me with that toy,” Balto begins to say, his voice still strong despite the years.  Hawkeye looks at his grandfather with intelligent eyes.  “He would wind it and watch happily as I would chase it.  He always found ways to lighten my spirit, even when I was an adolescent.”

Hawkeye set the toy on the wooden deck, his dark eyes watching the cat—as if it was going to spring to life and roll around the ship. 

“After he died,” Balto sighs, “I put it next to him and promised him, that all of his nephews and daughters will remember him for what he did for me.  He gave me hope…he gave me life.”

Hawkeye’s ears twitches picking up the sound of a pair of paws coming to the ship, a sound Balto’s ears could barely hear.

In the distance, two shadowy shapes walked towards the boat.  Both of them bearing the resemblances of their parents—one brown and white fur, piercing yellow eyes of her father but feminine slender form of her mother; the other, the opposite, red and white, his eyes the eyes of his mother but had the muscular form of his father. 

“Sometimes life seems like chapters of good-byes,” The words come as slow as each step his children made towards the boat, their eyes not filled with joy, laughter, and happiness as they had been in puphood…but in sorrow and loss.

“I can hear the truck tires coming up the gravel road
And its not like her to drive that slow, nothings on her radio
Footsteps on the front porch, I hear my doorbell
She usually comes right in, now I can tell”

Alue looked at the old wooden boat, its bow though slanted on the land, stood proud and strong despite the years.  Her yellow eyes burned with unshed tears, tears that threatened to fall from the depths of her soul.  Many years of memories she had known here…here, at the place her dad called home.  Other than her father, she of all her litter loved and held this old rotting boat as the place she had truly called home. 

A sob escapes from her throat and she realizes she had been holding her breath.  She felt Kodiak lean against her, his muscular form dwarfing her but bringing comfort at being with her brother.  She leaned against him in turn; she can feel he feels the same way.  Papa…

“Here comes goodbye, here comes the last time
Here comes the start of every sleepless night
The first of every tear I'm gonna cry
Here comes the pain, Here comes me wishing things had never changed
And she was right here in my arms tonight, but here comes goodbye

“I can hear her say I love you like it was yesterday
And I can see it written on her face that she had never felt this way
One day I thought I’d see her with her daddy by her side
And violins would play here comes the bride”

Kodi closed his eyes as he feels his sister lean against him, his heart threatening to burst with the grief with each step he took towards his dad’s boat, his dad’s home.  It was here he had grown up as a pup with Alue, was here his dad had ensured the continuation of the Sled Dog Postal Service, and it was here under the eyes of the Aurora Borealis his dad and mother witnessed the exchange of mating vows between Kodi and Dusty.  Many events took place here at the old ship, memories Kodi cherished and loved.  Dad…  

“But here comes goodbye, here comes the last time
Here comes the start of every sleepless night
The first of every tear I’m gonna cry
Here comes the pain, Here comes me wishing things had never changed(d)
And she was right here in my arms tonight, but here comes goodbye”

Balto watches his son and daughter step on board the ship, their proud stature falling as they trod upon wooden planks of memories.  He sees tears now run freely from Alue’s closed eyes; Kodi’s barely held back.  He closes his eyes but opens them as Hawkeye nudges him with his nose.  Balto glances down, his grandson gives him the faintest of smiles, a smile of reassurance, love, and guardianship.

“Are you ready?” asks Hawkeye.  His voice sounds young, but it is filled with wisdom and protection.

“What’s it like?”  Balto asks not with regret or worry, but with curiosity—with eyes born anew. The question falls deafly upon all but his grandson, who leans against his grandfather.  In the distance, the rays of a new dawn began to pierce the sky of shadow and cold.

“Why does it have to go from good to gone?
Before the lights turn on, yeah and you're left alone
All alone, but here comes goodbye”

Hawkeye’s dark brown eyes begin to glow, filled with the sun’s rays that now filled the surrounding winter wonder land, casting a magenta haze against the slow moving clouds in the northern sky. Balto’s eyes glows yellow and, suddenly, he feels young again, the years of age disappearing from his bones.  He and his grandson stands hundred yards from the boat he called home.

Hawkeye looks up at his grandfather. Balto looks down at his grandson.  Dark eyes and yellow eyes look deeply into each other’s depths, into the other’s soul.

“There’s no more good-byes,” Gently do the words leave the pup and enters the grown hybrid, warming him. 

Balto smiles.

“Oh-oh-oh-oh”

Alue stood before the ship’s cabin, her senses enveloping her with what memories remained in the old ship.  She walked to the center of the cabin to where two heaps lay under a blanket, protected from all elements and all scavengers by a single blanket—a blanket her father had used for many years.  Kodi stood beside her now; he can feel her trembling. 

“Here comes goodbye, here comes the last time
Here comes the start of every sleepless night
The first of every tear I'm gonna cry
Here comes the pain, Here comes me wishing things had never changed
And she was right here in my arms tonight, but here comes goodbye”

The wind blows through the entire ship, casting the blanket off what it was protecting.  Alue laid down in front of the bones that lay there, sniffing in what remained of whom she loved so deeply.  Kodi now stood at the entry way, his presence mainly to comfort. 

Alue closed her eyes, imagining her father as if he was there in front of her.  That nearly broke her.  She looks to a pile of bones, smaller, laying next to her father.  She lost all control and she wept.  Kodi walked to his sister and laid on top of her, comforting her with his warmth, sharing her pain for the loss both felt so deeply. 

Alue looked back at the bones of her father then found the strength to speak, her voice cracking at the strain.

“You tell my baby I miss him so much…”

Alue stood, Kodi standing beside her.  Together they leave the boat, heading back to Nome, the ember lights disappearing in the dawn of the new day.

In the distance, two canine figures—one pup and one dog—ran through the hills of snow drifts, a golden sun lighting there way.  

Balto characters are © property of Universal Pictures, no infringement intended

“Here comes Good-bye” is © property of Rascal Flatts, no infringement intended

This story and character Hawkeye is © property of me, Aljan Darkmoon aka R.S.D.