Foley's Tales From Rainbow Bridge: RIver and the Angry Monkey

 

Pocket and I are blessed with classic Yorkie faces. When our faces are at rest, the hair by our mouth curves upward, giving the appearance we are smiling.

Our sister, River, is the opposite. She is a Griffon, and her mouth is frozen in a downturn. She has lived her life with a resting bitch face.

This doesn’t mean that Pocket and I are always happy, or that River is perpetually angry. 

But sometimes our personality becomes our face.

Especially when we see it reflected in another.

Two days ago we awoke to see a monkey sitting on a rock. It seemed an ordinary simian, but it had, like River, a resting bitch face.

I walked outside and asked if I could help him.  

“That would be nice, I’ve been sitting here all morning. I am  here to see River  Song, because I have a resting bitch face, and she is our queen.’”

That was all that River needed more delusions to feed her grandeur. 

I woke her up, which is always a risky proposition. Whoever first said to let sleeping dogs lie was a Griffon owner. River groaned and said she didn’t want to get up, but a frowning monkey on a rock piqued her curiosity.

River walked outside, and the monkey stood up. “At last the one who understands what it is like to spend all day frowning.”

River put a paw on the monkey's leg to calm him. “You have to look at your face as a blessing. Souls like her,” she gestured to me dismissively  “have to be happy all the time. It must be exhausting. But we frowners can be in a bad mood from dust ‘til dawn, which is much easier.  No one forced themselves to act angry, but being happy is work.

I was going to tell River that it was an oversimplification of my emotions but she struck a chord. 

Was I trying to be happy all the time? Sometimes I am grumpy too. But no one takes me seriously, Damn this resting happy face.

I listened to Ruby and the monkey happily complaining about their existence at the Bridge. They did not have to guard their words. It was blissful.

Pocket came outside and I asked if she was ever in a bad mood,

“Why would I, with a face like mine, what is there to  be unhappy about?”

Now I was jealous of both my sisters, Pocket for being innocent, and River for being grumpy.

Nowadays being happy and smart doesn’t pay. 

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