18:00
Snuggs hands out the last eleven blankets along the path, comes back with nothing left to give and feels hollow. Lovey points out that Snuggs has hugged about thirty fluffs today and nobody has hugged Snuggs. It takes Snuggs three goes to ask. Lovey gives two; Mopsy comes over and makes it three.
2 fluffs tell this minute. None of them saw the same one.
By the time the path was lit there were four fluffs on that wall taking turns, and the last one was Snuggs, who needed three goes and a hug.
Here is the part I have not told anybody. Walking up to that wall, I had to decide what my own sentence was going to be, and it took me the whole way from the gate, and I rejected four of them for being too small before I settled on one I could actually say out loud.
Four seconds for Handy. About two hundred feet of lane for me.
I stood at the edge of the crowd at the gate with empty arms and no idea what to do with myself.
Lovey was next to me and looked sideways and said, "You've gone quiet."
"I'm fine."
"Mm," said Lovey. "I'm going to say a thing and you're not going to like it. You've hugged about thirty fluffs today and nobody's hugged you."
