It was a bright and cheery morning when Lum woke.  Ataru was 
already out of bed.  As she flew downstairs she caught sight of him 
hanging up the phone with a strangely neutral expression on his face. 
 a little later he had hi jacket on and went out.  Lum expected him 
to be getting ready to go on one of his girl hunts again so she went 
to make ready to check all his usual haunts.

	Lum was getting flustered.  first she had checked all his known 
stomping grounds then checked them again just to be sure.  Then she 
had started checking with everyone who knew him.  No-one had seen 
him.  Thinking he may of been kidnapped, she started on her way back 
home to prep the saucer, when she just happened to glance over as she 
felw by Tomobiki cemetary.  Lum caught sight of Ataru speaking to 
someone over by what looked like a recently dug grave.  She saw him 
give the other person a hug, and thinking it was some other girl 
prepared to give him a zapping he would not forget soon, but as she 
got closer she saw that the other person was a guy.  Wondering what 
was going on she flew in for a better look.  Just as she landed the 
two of them walked thier seperate ways.  

	Ataru saw Lum land as he walked towards the exit.  When he saw the 
questioning look on Lums face he said "Ok, before you overreact let 
me tell you a short story.  A long time ago I had a friend who I did 
just about everything with. Well for the longest time he lived with 
his grandmother.  I would spend the night every so often at his 
house, and his grandmother would treat me as if I were another 
grandchild of hers.  She would give us bars of chocolate and when we 
went to bed she would sing to us.  She sang the most lovely lulibys, 
they made you feel safe and loved.  Well a few years later he had to 
leave as his parents had finally decided to send him to a boys 
school.  Well after that I never went over much.  I hadn't heard from 
him till this morning when he said he was back and wanted to know if 
I wanted to get together with him and see his his grandmother again.  
Well I was getting ready to go out when the phone rung again.  He had 
just been told that his grandmother had died in the hospital a few 
minutes earlier, 3/4 of her stomach had been cancerous but no-one had 
known because she had never complained. " Ataru stoped for a second 
,tears leaking slightly from his eyes, to regain his composure and 
continued.  "He asked me if I would go with him to the funeral with 
him and I told him yes.  This is where I have been most of the day, 
saying goodbye to someone who cheerished me and loved me though I was 
not related to her.  Lets go home Lum, I don't have the heart to do 
anything today."  Lum lifted Ataru and and carried him home.

***********************************************

Authors notes.

I just had to write this.  I found out thursday that my grandmother 
had died that morning and that her stomach had been mostly cancerous. 
What made it worse was that I recived a copy of the death certificate 
on saturday.  I lived for eight years with my grandmother in germany 
going to school there.  Even after I was in the military and came 
back for the occational visit she would still sing me lulibys when I 
went to bed.  I never think I will outgrow those and when I close my 
eyes I can still hear her voice singing to me.  To my pre-readers I 
will be sending it out a little later than expected.  the way I am 
now I can't write it the way I want to.  any C&C you care to do, is 
fine by me.  This short is dedicated to her memory

Rabbit

My grandmother 1910-1998
Oma I'll never foget the lulibys,
I miss you.