The little girl that lived in our hearts as our princess and our daughter had arrived. As usual, she plopped her book-bag on the couch, and walked into the kitchen, opened the fridge and said: “I’m hungry.”

We were seated on kitchen chairs. Our expressions were priceless. We had not gotten ready and now all was ruined. It had been a surprise party, after all. She was not a big people person and so we had only invited Glenda, her best friend, who was to arrive very…

The doorbell rang. With panicked looks to one another, we shot up out of our chairs.

“You get the door and I’ll…” my wife pointed towards the den.

“Alright. I’ll stall everyone.”

“Ten minutes?” Cheryl asked.

“That’s pushing it. Five?” I responded.

“Done.” she said and I headed toward the door.

Brixie was already at the front door, and gabbing away with them, curious as to why Glenda was there with her mother and why Glenda was trying to give her a present.

“For your party.” She exclaimed. And I had a lot of explaining to do suddenly. Brixie wasn’t having any of it.

“I told you Da, I wanted to not have a party.” Her arms stretched out in disgust. “I wanted this to be a specia…”

But her words never finished, for at that time, a most majestic tone of trumpet and organ sounds filled the room. The wall unit had begun to play music, then a melodic and booming voice followed directly after.

“Be it known that the most honorable Brixallyn Maeve Charlington has hereby today received from The Supreme Nibbler Conservatory of Wellston Park Limited, the most coveted of all gifts that a little girl may receive, her first Nibbler.” The voice was still and the music stopped. Then there was a little hiss and the panel on the farthest left of the box slid upward and was silent.

My wife, Cheryl took my hand. She had come in from the dining area. She gave it a little squeeze. No one moved. Glenda’s mother, breaking the silence uttered a “Well?” To which I responded: “I don’t know.”

And then it came out. Soft green eyes and squeaked like a toy. It wasn’t white, it wasn’t brown, or black, or even gray. It was all of those colors with a dash of red and it looked like a chinchilla, a ferret and a sugar glider had some sort of contest to see who could make the weirdest offspring. It didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen before but it was cuter than any of them.

“Meep?” it called and climbed and danced to the top of the top of the cabinet it had come out of and meeped again. Brixie immediately went up to it and it hopped into her hand. And then it disappeared. Literally disappeared. Ceased to be seen. Gone. Vanished.

And then suddenly, it was back. Not even a shimmer or a special effect. No sounds or flickering lights. Not even a tremor in the house. Just one second, not there, and one second back. She looked up at me with a sadness in her eyes, and held out her new pet. It was dead.

My wife fainted.