Chapter 5

Empath’s personal journal, December 30.

A very unusual miracle happened last night that has brought a feeling of joy and excitement among most of our fellow Smurfs, including this smurf and Papa Smurf – all of Papa Smurf’s fellow Smurfs, the parents of this smurf and most of this smurf’s fellow Smurfs, have mysteriously returned from the dead.  Papa Smurf was rightfully skeptical of this miracle taking place, thinking it was all some sort of trick or deception.  But strangely this smurf could sense that these Smurfs were very much real, and they were exactly who they claimed themselves to be.  This unexpected miracle has caused Papa Smurf to initiate a celebration feast, with Greedy and his father Baker Smurf doing the honors of preparing it, that would begin the following morning.  So far, though, as every Smurf woke up in their own homes, the parent Smurfs were still there with us, and Papa Smurf woke up feeling much more happy than he did when he spent his nights in the Imaginarium, because his beloved wife Lillithina was now there for him to spend the night with in actual person.  Of course, Smurfette along with Baby Smurf, Polaris Psyche, and the Smurflings were not present when the parent Smurfs had returned from the dead, so this news will be much of a surprise to them – unless, of course, there’s something about this event that they may find strange, which this smurf hopes isn’t the case.

Most of the Smurfs, except for Smurfette, Baby Smurf, Polaris Psyche, and the Smurflings, were present in the great dining hall where the Smurfs would gather for their meals on days where the weather would prevent them from eating outside.  On a big long table near an outer wall was a banquet of various kinds of food and drink prepared by Greedy and his father Baker, who was glad to be working not only in a kitchen again, but also with one of his sons who enjoyed preparing food just as much as he did eating it.  Everything they prepared for the feast smelled so incredibly delicious, it made Greedy feel so humbled that he could never make such a feast like that by himself.  Right now, the Smurfs present in the dining hall were bowing their heads as Aristotle, Brainy’s father, gave the blessing for it.

“We are grateful, O Mother Nature and Father Time, that you of all the guardians of this forest would besmurf us the blessing of smurfing us, the parents of these fine young Smurfs gathered here, back from the dead to smurf our lives once again with the ones we have smurfed behind in the care of our dearest friend Culliford Smurf, who has adopted them and cared for them as his very own little Smurfs.  Please bless the food and drink that we have prepared to honor this smurftacular occasion, that it may nourish our bodies and smurf us strength to give you honor and praise in everything that we smurf with our very lives in thanksmurfing to all that you have smurfed for us.  Let it be so.”

All the Smurfs present nodded in agreement to the blessing before they gathered around the banquet table to grab their plates and take as much as they wanted from the serving trays that were laid out.  Greedy and Baker simply stood back and watched with pride at the Smurfs as they took their plates back to their tables and began digging in, enjoying the wonderful taste of the delicacies.

“Why don’t you smurf ahead and smurf yourself something to eat, my little Greedy?” Baker invited as he turned his eyes toward his son.  “You desmurf to have as much as you want, because you and me have smurfed it together.”

“Somehow, Papa, I just don’t feel as hungry as I used to be,” Greedy responded.  “Smurfing with you in the kitchen again just makes the desire to eat my own creation somehow less than desirable.”

“Your skills smurftainly have improved since I have been gone,” Baker commented.  “I can see that Empathy’s Papa Smurf must have smurfed pride in your being able to serve an entire village with your own two smurfs.  You even have invented recipes that I have never even thought of smurfing in my own lifetime.”

“I smurfed a little help now and then, Papa,” Greedy remarked.

A short while later, Smurfette had entered the dining hall carrying Baby Smurf with her, who last night didn’t have any trouble falling asleep in her house.  Polaris Psyche and the Smurflings had also entered with Smurfette, and were rather perplexed by what they saw happening.

“What the smurf is smurfing on here?” Snappy finally asked.

“I don’t know,” Slouchy answered. “The adult Smurfs are surely smurfing strange around here.”

“I can imagine any of us smurfing invisible friends, but not any of them, including Empath of all Smurfs,” Nat observed.

Smurfette saw the same thing for herself, and was rather puzzled.  “Polaris, do you have any idea what’s smurfing on with those Smurfs?” she asked.

Polaris shook his head.  “This one is at a total loss for an explanation, fellow Smurfette.  It does appear that they are interacting with people that we somehow cannot see for some strange reason.”

Sassette, however, did see a Smurf that she remembered from her youth before she was trapped in a crystal for about a hundred years. “Papa!” she cried out, seeing Muscles Smurf, the father of Hefty, Handy, and Grouchy.

“Sassy, you little ramsmurfious sprite!” her father called back, as Sassette ran to him with open arms and embraced each other.  “You smurf just as young as you did years ago.  Where have you smurfed when you smurfed away from home?”

“It’s a long story, Papa,” Sassette answered. “I just hope you’ll smurf around to let me smurf it to you.”

“Don’t worry about it, Sassy,” Muscles responded, playfully mussing up her hair.  “Your own Papa Smurf’s back among the smurfing.  You’ll have time enough to smurf me everything that’s been smurfing on with you.”

Empath in the meanwhile saw Smurfette at the door of the dining hall, staring in wonderment about what was going on.  Apparently she must have been seeing this mysterious miracle taking place right before her eyes, though he somehow couldn’t sense what she was thinking at this moment.

“Empathy, what are you smurfing at?” his Mama Smurf said, noticing that Empath was staring off in some direction instead of focusing on his mother.

“Just someone this smurf has always wanted you to meet, Mama,” Empath answered.

“But I don’t smurf anyone there,” his Mama Smurf mentioned, seeing where Empath was looking toward.

“Believe me, Mama, she’s very real and very special to this smurf,” Empath declared.  He then called out to Smurfette, who came over to where Empath and his Mama Smurf were sitting at the tables.

“Empath, what’s smurfing on here?” Smurfette asked.  “I see most of our Smurfs smurfing on a big feast and smurfing with people that me, Polaris, and the boy Smurflings cannot even see.”

“What do you mean, you cannot see them?” Empath asked, uncertain of why she couldn’t.  “This is my Mama Smurf, Lillithina Smurfette, sitting right here with me at this table.” He then turned to his mother.  “Mama, this here is Smurfette, a very special girl Smurf friend that came to the village years ago to become a real Smurf.”

“Empathy, this is some sort of joke, right?” his Mama Smurf asked, still not seeing Smurfette being there.  “All I can smurf is just empty space.”

“This smurf is not trying to play any sort of deception upon you, Mama,” Empath spoke a bit defensively.  “Smurfette’s here, just as you are, as a living flesh and blood Smurf.  Can’t you even hear her speaking to me?”

“The only Smurf I can hear smurfing to me is you, Empathy,” his Mama Smurf answered, still in disbelief.

“Empath,” Smurfette said, trying to get his attention, “something rather strange is smurfing on here, and it’s also affecting you.  I can’t see or even hear this Mama Smurf that you smurf is here besmurf you.  I have an unsmurfy feeling that you and the other Smurfs are being deceived in some way by ghosts or smurfthing.”

“This is no ghost that is sitting right beside me, Smurfette,” Empath retorted. “I can see her, hear her, even touch her.  My third eye is also telling me that she is very much real as you are.  Maybe it’s just you who’s being deceived by some spirit preventing you from smurfing what I’m smurfing right here at this table.”

Smurfette didn’t like Empath not hearing what she was trying to tell him.  “Look, Empath, if you’re not going to smurf it from me, at least smurf it from your friend Polaris Psyche.  He hasn’t tried to deceive you before, and I don’t think he will smurf so today with what he’s smurfing with his third eye about this smurfering.”

“Well, maybe his third eye is also deceiving him as well,” Empath noted.  “In any case, you’re very welcome to join us at this feast.  Greedy and Baker have put on a very smurfy banquet that you shouldn’t smurf out on.”

Smurfette groaned, realizing that Empath wasn’t going to listen to her.  She walked off toward where Polaris Psyche was standing along with Baby Smurf and the three boy Smurflings.

“Empathy, I’m sorry that I couldn’t smurf this Smurfette that you smurf was smurfing right here with me,” his Mama Smurf consoled.  “Yet I couldn’t help noticing that you only spoke in Smurf when you smurfed really emotional trying to smurf this Smurfette what it is you’re smurfing.”

“It’s something this smurf had only realized as of lately, Mama,” Empath explained. “This smurf spent most of this smurf’s life in Psychelia, so normally this smurf would speak in the manner of a true Psyche.  Yet there are times when this smurf’s emotional state would reach a point where this smurf would speak in Smurf rather fluently.  This smurf thought that the part of me that was Empathy died when the Psyche Master erased every memory this smurf had of being a Smurf when I was a baby Smurf, but apparently what he did wasn’t very thorough.”

“Smurfs like Empathy didn’t die after all, like I had thought when your Papa Smurf brought you to Psychelia,” his Mama Smurf mused.

Just then, Papa Smurf joined her and Empath at the dining table.  “Sorry for smurfing time away from you, my sweet Lilly,” he said as he kissed her on the cheek.  “I’ve been busy smurfing with my fellow Smurfs because there was just so much I wanted to smurf to them about what happened since they were gone.”

“I’m not jealous about it, Cully,” Lillithina responded, still smiling.  “Your friends are just as important for you to smurf some time with as I am.  Empathy and I were just smurfing some time together trying to smurf to know each other, though he tried to introsmurf me to someone special in his life named Smurfette.  Sadly I couldn’t smurf anything of this wonderful girl Smurf who is so dear to him.”

“Smurfette is very much as real as you are, Lilly,” Papa Smurf stated. “I’m not sure why you couldn’t smurf her at all, but you can be sure that she wasn’t smurfthing that Empath just smurfed up in his own mind.  She’s smurfed with us for about seven years now, and though she hasn’t fully committed hersmurf to only one male Smurf in her life, Empath tends to be the one that she smurfs about more often than not.  I can smurf that look in both their eyes that these two Smurfs were simply smurfed for each other to be smurfmates for all time.”

“Just like you and I, Cully, no matter what smurfened between the two of us,” Lillithina added, looking into her husband’s eyes with that look that spoke the same truth to him.

Papa Smurf held her hands in his and just simply smiled back.  “It’s just great to smurf you again, Lilly.”

Smurfette in the meanwhile rejoined Polaris Psyche, Baby Smurf, and the Smurflings, apparently frustrated.  “Empath smurfs so convinced by what he’s seeing, hearing, and feeling that he smurfs that I’m the one who’s being deceived,” she reported sadly.

“He’s not the only one, Smurfette,” Snappy pointed out.  “Look at Sassette! She thinks that her own Papa Smurf is there among those Smurfs that we’re not smurfing, we can’t even tell her that what she’s smurfing is not real.”

“It would seem that there’s some kind of influence at work here among our fellow Smurfs that’s causing them to have powerful hallucinations that are so real, they are unable to see them for what they really are, my fellow Smurfs,” Polaris pondered.

“Hallucinations?” Slouchy asked. “You sure they’re not just smurfing ghosts here?”

Polaris shook his head.  “Such apparitions would be much easier for this one to detect than whatever it is going on that they’re experiencing, fellow Slouchy.”

“Could it be that the Imaginarium is being smurfed to make these ‘hallucinations’ appear, Polaris?” Nat asked.

Polaris rubbed his chin in thought.  “It may be possible, fellow Nat, though this one isn’t entirely sure how.  We might as well study this phenomenon for ourselves to see what may be causing it and possibly find a way that we can bring the Smurfs to see these hallucinations for what they really are instead of what they think they are seeing.”

“Well, one thing’s for sure…those Smurfs smurftainly seem happy about whatever it is they’re smurfing,” Smurfette commented, still looking at Empath having a conversation with someone she couldn’t see.