Chapter Four:
Back on Sesame Street, most everyone had remained gathered outside of Hooper’s Store waiting together for news of how Cookie Monster was even though Gordon had told everyone to go home.
At first they all tried, but no one could stop thinking about him, so one by one they showed up back in the Courtyard. Ernie, Bert, Grover and Herry sat up on the stairs. Zoë and Elmo shared the tire swing. Big Bird and Snuffy paced back and forth.
“Do you think he’s going to be all right?” whispered Ernie to Bert. No one seemed to want to talk out loud.
“I hope so. It was pretty scary seeing him put in the ambulance,” said Bert.
The group continued to sit their silently together when I happened upon them on one of my many visits to Sesame Street. At first no one noticed me, which is unusual; I was expecting to be toppled over by Grover.
As I approached the group, I immediately knew something was wrong.
“Hey everyone, what’s going on?” I asked.
“Oh hi froggy baby. We have had a very bad day here,” said Grover.
“Really? Tell me what happened,” I said.
“Well Kermit, we were playing kickball here, but there was so many of us and….” Big Bird started to say and then started to cry.
“What Big Bird is trying to say is that we weren’t playing very safe and Cookie Monster ended up out in the street and Oscar was driving down the street…..” continued Snuffy and then also started to cry.
“Guys, what are you saying?” I asked when everyone started to sob.
“Mr. Grouch hit furry blue monster with his car,” whimpered Elmo.
“Oh no! Was Cookie Monster hurt badly?” I asked. Judging from how upset everyone seemed I knew this could not be good.
“They took him away in an ambulance and all of the adults went down to the hospital,” said Bert.
“What about Oscar? Is he ok?” I asked.
“Yeah, he went with them. I think he actually feels bad. Bob said it was an accident, I guess something was wrong with Oscar’s car,” said Ernie.
“Wow, that’s too bad,” I said. This was unbelievable. But, I knew what I had to do, since all of the other adults had gone to be with Cookie Monster, I knew I needed to calm the group down and cheer them up.
“You guys do know that the doctors are going to do everything they can to help him right?” I asked. I saw some heads nod.
“Nothing like this has ever happened here before,” said Big Bird.
“Well, actually I think we’ve had some bad things happen before,” I said.
“Like what?” asked Abby. Since she was new to the street I figured she didn’t remember some of the things.
“Well remember when the hurricane came here a few years ago?” I asked.
“Oh yeah! I sure do, my nest was destroyed,” said Big Bird.
“Everyone helped clean up and rebuild it though, remember Bird?” said Snuffy.
“Wow, a hurricane, that sounds scary,” said Abby.
“But everyone worked together to get through it and now everything is ok,” I said.
“We had a fire in our apartment once. Ernie and I were on vacation when it happened, but I understand that was pretty scary,” said Bert.
“I remember that. Gordon and Susan had some damage,” said Grover.
“We all helped them clean up their apartment and put things back together,” said Ernie.
“That’s right, and everything turned out fine,” I said.
“I remember when Mr. Looper died. I was so sad and I was afraid things would never be the same. Some things weren’t but some things were. I always have my memories,” said Big Bird.
“That’s right Big Bird. I am sure that Cookie Monster is going to be ok,” I said.
Soon everyone began reminiscing about good times they had had with Cookie Monster and everyone was smiling and laughing. There were even some things I didn’t even know about and was hearing about for the first time. I even told them some things that they didn’t know about Cookie Monster, such as when I used to give letter lectures and he would come and eat parts of the letter. W’s became N’s, B’s became R’s, it was crazy! We hadn’t even realized it was getting dark.
Soon, Gordon and Susan came home and found all of us together.
“Oh Kermit! I’m glad to see you, I suppose they filled you in on everything,” said Susan.
“Yes they did, I’ve been keeping them company,” I said.
“I thought I told you all to go home and wait,” said Gordon.
“Sorry Gordon, we just needed to be together,” said Ernie.
“It’s ok, I’m glad that Kermit was here with all of you. And since you are all here, Susan and I have some news,” said Gordon.
“How’s Cookie Monster?” asked Big Bird.
“We’ll tell all of you, but you have to let us speak,” said Susan as she went over to hold Elmo and Zoë who were almost falling asleep.
“Sorry,” said Big Bird.
“It’s ok. Well, the good news is, Cookie Monster is awake and alert. The doctors say he suffered a pretty serious head injury, but he should make a full recovery,” said Gordon.
“Gordon? What is a head injury?” asked Elmo tripping over the word “injury.”
“Well, it means he got a big bump on his head and that bump also hurt the inside of head, where his brain is,” said Gordon.
“What’s the bad news?” I asked.
“Well, the bump is causing him to have memory loss,” said Gordon.
“Memory loss?” asked Grover.
“Yes, he doesn’t remember who he is or any of us. He doesn’t know where he lived or anything,” said Susan.
“But he will get it back right?” asked Zoë.
“The doctors said he might, or there’s a chance he might not,” said Gordon.
“Elmo doesn’t understand,” said Elmo.
“It’s ok Elmo, we don’t understand either. But what we need all of you to know is when Cookie Monster comes home, he might not be the same as we all remember. He might not know who you all are,” said Susan.
“He’s going to stay with us for awhile until he’s ok to be on his own again. You are welcome to come and see him, the doctors said it might help bring his memory back sooner to be around the people he loves,” said Gordon.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked realizing the other adults hadn’t returned yet.
“We could only see Cookie two at a time so we went first so we could come back and tell all of you what was going on,” said Susan.
“Now you know what we know. It’s getting late, you should all be getting home,” said Gordon.
“Gordon? How soon before Cookie Monster leaves the hospital?” asked Ernie.
“A few days, not too long,” said Gordon.
With that everyone slowly started leaving the courtyard. I have an apartment in town for when I visit, but I didn’t feel like being alone so I actually went to Grover’s. In spite of everything going on he was so excited to have me.
I laid awake a long time that night thinking about everything. I suddenly was worried about Oscar. I hoped I would see him the next day. Mostly I hoped that things would go back to normal very quickly.
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