My Little Runaway

As the Headmistress here at the Foster Monsters Orphanage and Home for Wayward Monsters ,  it is my responsibility to find good homes for the monsters in the Orphanage in a timely manner. However , in the Orphanage's history  there have been a very , very small number of "permanent orphans" . These are monsters that I have , in some way,  deemed un-adoptable.  Sometimes this is for practical reasons , and sometimes it is very personal.  This story , dear readers , is on the personal side of things.

Sometimes monsters are born , and then they grow up a little and leave. I am always sad to see them go , but this is part of running an Orphanage , and I am comforted by the knowledge that my monsters go into loving homes.  Sometimes monsters are born , and I don't know until much later that they have shaped my own life , that they are special beyond words. This was the way it was when Eeli was born , about two years ago.  Now readers , I am not sure I can go into why Eeli is so special. Suffice to say , it is a matter of great heart .

Though Eeli is his given name ,  I always called him Dum Dum.  You see the truth is , when he was born , I thought he was ugly and horrible and , well , dumb.  In fact , this sign that you see him wearing started off as a punishment for being a bad monster.  But love works is mysterious ways , and this monster that I once chastised for being terrible worked his way into my icy Headmistress heart. Soon enough he was dining  with myself and Ms. Jackson in the kitchen instead of eating rotten meat in the cafeteria with the other orphans. He even moved out of his tiny room in the Orphanage and slept on my bed.  And that is only part of how deeply I loved him.

But sometimes we take the people and monsters we love for granted , and I did.  I started to neglect poor Dum Dum  , and it wasn't his fault.  His ear fell off and I never repaired it. His eyelids were getting droopy. It hurt me to see him , and I moved him from my soft bed back into his  drafty and windowless room in the Orphanage.

I even lost one of his paws somewhere.  I am ashamed to admit that I let it get so bad , I truly am.  I didn't want to ever lose Dum Dum , but I couldn't take proper care of him either.  I wanted to tell him I loved him everyday , but I couldn't. It is so complicated , friends. The heart is an orphanage with many rooms , many treasures of love ,  and many secrets. Surely you can understand.

 Anyways , it came as no surprise when I woke one morning  and Dum Dum was gone. Just gone. An empty room with no trace. Just his one ear that I had never sewn back on. A heartbreaking reminder of what I had and had not done.

I was awash in a flood of tears.  I feared I would never see my precious Dum Dum again.  I hadn't wanted him to runaway , but couldn't love him enough and I knew it.  I had let him down.  He ran away and left me with both despair and relief.

 A few days later , this letter came in the mail. I opened the envelope with trembling hands. What would it say? That I was a bad Headmistress , a bad person? That he hated me and would never forgive me for the way I had treated him? I was so afraid.  But no , my sweet Dum Dum still loved me , he just had to go. And I knew from the words in the letter exactly where he had run away to , and it put my heart at ease.