Pointed Love

The door to the shop burst open. The bell jingled urgently. Sable looked up from her sewing machine and saw Tom Nook striding towards her, his whiskers twitching animatedly. He looked agitated. Even his impeccably creased suit jacket was beginning to show wrinkles from uneven movement.

He came to the counter and looked her square in the eye. Mabel had taken a bus to the City to collect a fabric order, and now Sable and Tom were alone together. The atmosphere was uncomfortable. She realised it was the first time they had been in private since before he had left to make his fortune.

“Sable,” he said, “I know that this might sound crazy, but I couldn’t wait another moment.”

She frowned, her own whiskers twitching. “Tom? Are you alright? Did something happen?”

He reached for her paws as she took them away from the machine and clasped them in his. The movement caught her by surprise and she gasped.

“Yes, Sable. Something did happen. I’ve finally realised what a fool I’ve been.”

His words were even more of a surprise. She didn’t think he had ever acted this way before. Once upon a time, maybe, he had been young and rash enough to become carried away by his feelings, but ever since he had returned from the Big City, he had been quieter, colder, more reserved.

Suddenly, it was like the old Tom had returned to her at last.

“What are you saying?” she asked, unable to bring her voice above a whisper.

He squeezed her paws tighter. “I’m saying that I’ve been searching for true happiness, when it lived next door to me the whole time.”

“Oh, Tom. Do you really mean it?”

“More than I’ve ever meant anything in my life. I love you, Sable Able.”

“Oh, Tom.”

Their noses touched above the counter. She closed her eyes to savour the fond moment. It reminded her of their youth together, when they had been so close. She had often thought nothing could disrupt that, and she was sure he had felt the same. Real life had intruded, as it so often did, but now it seemed he was ready to forget the past.

She was ready for that, if he was.

Suddenly, he pulled away, and for a second she thought that she had lost him. But when she opened her eyes, she saw him standing at the door, watching her.

“Come out onto the rooftop with me tonight. We’ll make new constellations together. It will be just like it used to be. I won’t let anything come between us again. Dreams before money. This time, that’s how it will stay.”

And with that, he left the shop. The bell rang again, and Sable felt her heart soar. It was strange, but in less than a single minute, her entire life had changed.

Changed for the better.

She closed her eyes again, but when she opened them she realised she was sitting in the living room in front of the television. She wiped the sleep out of her eyes and tried to remember what had happened.

Had she fallen asleep watching ‘Pointed Love’ reruns? Had everything she had just experienced been a dream?

It certainly seemed like it. The opening sequence was playing now, images of a stunning main cast with glossy quills, shiny eyes and smooth fur intercut with sequences of the quaint little town they called home, a town much like her own.

She was still mired in the space between dream and reality, puzzling over which was which, when the episode began. She saw Esther, the frumpy librarian of the series - which meant that she wore glasses and less makeup than the rest of the cast - sitting behind her desk. Suddenly, Basil, her childhood sweetheart turned cutthroat millionaire hotel-chain owner, burst into the building.

“Esther,” he said, “I know that this might sound crazy, but I couldn’t wait another moment.”

Sable pulled a face. That sounded familiar.

Esther frowned, her whiskers twitching. “Basil? Are you alright? Did something happen?”

He reached for her paws as she took them away from the book she was reading and clasped them in his. Esther gasped. Sable sighed.

“Yes, Esther. Something did happen. I’ve finally realised what a fool I’ve been.”

“What are you saying?” she whispered.

“He’s saying that he’s been searching for true happiness, when it lived next door to him the whole time,” Sable said.

“I’m saying that I’ve been searching for true happiness, when it lived next door to me the whole time,” Basil confirmed.

“Oh, Basil. Do you really mean it?”

“More than I’ve ever meant anything in my life. I love you, Esther Evergreen.”

“Oh, Basil.”

“Oh brother. I really do watch this show too much.”

She yawned as Basil and Esther wittered on about their undying love, knowing all the while that Basil’s estranged and glamorous wife Sidney was due to return and throw them into the seesaw uncertainty of a love triangle.

If they managed to get around that and find their way to the altar, Esther’s boss and casual romantic interest, Ralph, who was missing presumed dead, would probably wake up from a coma somewhere and arrive just in time to interrupt the Priest as he pronounced them porcupine and wife.

And so on and so forth.

She sank down into her armchair, glad that she and Mabel had managed to afford the reinforced upholstery. Once upon a time, unsticking themselves from seats and beds had been an arduous part of everyday life. She’d never asked where Mabel had found such a cheap chair.

Probably Nookingtons, come to think of it.

But in all the professions of deepest affection, Sable realised that there was one thing she hadn’t heard. Basil hadn’t said anything about it being like before. And he hadn’t asked Esther to come out on the roof stargazing with him.

Had her own mind added that part, or...?

She thought she might pop out onto the roof, just to be sure.