Red Fox (14 page)

I felt him shuffle back in
the bed and then, stop.

“
What the fuck?!” he
yelled.

Startled, the fox leaped
off the bed and dashed towards the door, which had been open the
whole time.

Dex leaped out of bed,
dragging half the blanket with him, and hollered frantically,
“Will! There’s an animal in here!”

He followed the fox out the
door, then turned and ran back to me. I still couldn’t move, I
still couldn’t breathe. My eyes and body were locked
down.

“
Hey!” He jumped on the bed
and shook both my shoulders. “Perry, are you OK?”

I tried to answer but
couldn’t.

“
Answer me! Perry! What
happened?”

He kept shaking me, then
took my head in his hands and physically moved my face to the left
until it was facing his. His eyes – as crazy and worried as they
were – brought me a sense of reality. I felt my limbs coming back,
hot flashes of nerves climbing up and down them.

My breath followed. I
gasped loudly as if I had been underwater for the last five
minutes. He held my face steady, hands warm but firm.

“
You’re going to be OK.” His
voice matched his grip.

There was a commotion in
the hallway and Will appeared at the door. “What happened, is she
OK?”

“
She’s fine,” Dex said
quickly and gestured with his head, “the animal went
downstairs.”

Will nodded and took off
down the hall, the walls shaking from his lumbering run.

Dex looked back at me, my
wide eyes searching his as all the fear came rushing in.

“
Hey, you’re fine,” he said.
I started to shake and he brought his hands to my arms and held me
there. “You’re going to be OK. But we need to go find out what that
was.”

I shook my head violently.
I was still unable to speak.

“
We have to,” he said. “And
I am not leaving you here by yourself. Will has his baseball bat.
Whatever it was, was small, we’ll be OK.”

He climbed off the bed and
walked around to my side. He looked down at me, smiled to himself,
and picked me up in his arms.

I tried to protest but my
mouth was still full of numbing cotton balls. Despite his slight
frame and my rather dumpy one, he lifted me with ease. He carried
me past the bed, stooping down to pick up his camera from the
dresser and then we were out of the room and into the hall. Will’s
door was open, as was Sarah’s.

We had made it to the
bottom of the stairs when I felt fine enough to walk.

“
Please put me down,” I
croaked in a pathetic whisper.

He stopped and lowered me.
My legs felt like jelly but at least they felt like my own again.
He held the camera with one hand and gripped my hand with the
other. We walked slowly through the downstairs area. The lights
were all off.

“
It was a fox,” I said, my
tongue feeling unused and awkward. We peeked around into the empty
living room.

“
What the fuck was it
doing?” he asked.

I shook my head. I didn’t
know, but I knew what it was going to do. Eat me alive.

We flicked on the lights
and saw neither fox, nor Will, nor Sarah. A breeze rustled in
through the holes in the kitchen window. The clock on the microwave
glowed 3AM.

The front door was wide
open, so we walked over to it and cautiously peered around the
doorway. I couldn’t see them but I could hear Will, Sarah and
Miguel all talking excitedly in the dark.

WHOOSH!

A huge white owl flapped in
front of me, inches from my face.

I screamed and ducked as
Dex stuck his arm out and thwacked it. He hit the owl square in the
chest. I peered up, hands around my head. The owl squawked and flew
off into the night. I looked up at Dex. He took back his clenched
fist and let out a low breath. He was just as freaked out as I was.
He looked down at me and offered his hand.

“
What a hoot,” he joked but
his voice was pinched with nerves.

Seconds later, Will, Sarah
and Miguel came around the corner to see what happened. I explained
as much as I could. The owl part of the story paled in comparison
to the fox. It turns out that they hadn’t seen either creature. Out
of all three of them, I knew Will was the one who believed me
whole-heartedly. Sarah had only a few choice words and a couple of
poignant sighs but for the most part she didn’t argue with what I
said too much. I knew she didn’t want us there at all but I finally
saw that she believed what was going on. And Miguel, well Miguel
was a sneering, sniveling son of a bitch. But even he walked back
to his quarters looking more wary than before.

And that was the end of the
night for me. I wasn’t about to go to sleep again and neither was
Dex. So we stayed up, sitting on top of the bed and playing games
with a bunch of cards we found in one of the drawers. We stayed up
until the sun began its quick rise above the mountaintops and the
fears of the night were washed away by the desert light. Only then
was I finally able to close my eyes for a few minutes.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The next morning was
understandably sluggish. Miguel and Will were taking up most of the
kitchen, fixing the windows, so our breakfast consisted of dry
toast and cereal. Dex and I ate it at the dining room table with a
giant pot of coffee. Between two caffeine addicts, it didn’t
sustain us very well. I thought he was going to fight me for the
last cup but I convinced him I needed it more.

And I did. I was tired and
drained from only getting about two hours of sleep and the last
thing Dex needed was more stimulants. He was already jittery from
the lack of medication and his four cups of the black drug just
made it worse.

“
So, have you figured out
the plan yet?” I asked as he flipped through a bunch of ghost and
history books he brought in from the car. His foot was tapping
again to a fast, imaginary beat and he was chewing his Nicorette
(while drinking coffee, mind you).

“
Yes,” he answered quickly,
scanning the pages like a speed reader.

“
Does it involve a
nap?”

He grinned and looked up at
me. His eyes were red, his complexion ashy. For once, he didn’t
look too good.

“
What am I? 80? I don’t need
sleep. You worry too much,” he said and went back to
reading.

This was true. But
considering what happened last night, his withdrawal from
medication, and the day ahead of us, lack of sleep wasn’t something
to scoff at. I had every reason to worry about him. Besides, it
made it easier to forget about what happened to me. I hated seeing
those spiteful fox eyes every time I let my mind wander.

“
I thought my job was to
read the books,” I said, wanting him to relax a little
bit.

He shook his head. “I’d
like to know what the fuck is going on.”

He glanced at the kitchen.
Will and Miguel were busy hammering away at something.

“
I think they know a lot
more than they’re telling us.”

I nodded. I felt that way
too.

“
So, how do we get them to
spill the beans?” I said, lowering my voice.

He shrugged and went back
to his book. “Dunno. But I think Max might be able to help us out
with it.”

My Led Zeppelin ringtone
went off and I jumped in my seat, my coffee spilling out of the
cup.

“
Easy there spaz,” he said
and tossed a napkin at me. Maybe I didn’t need that extra cup.
Maybe I should start putting my phone on vibrate.

I quickly mopped up the
table and fished my phone out of my jean pocket. It was my parents.
If I didn’t answer it, they’d call every five minutes until I
did.

“
Hello,” I said and got up.
I needed privacy.

I walked outside into the
apocalyptic heat and shut the front door behind me. It was hard to
believe that this arid yet outstandingly pretty place, with its
detailed peaks, ridges of green and dots of sheep, was all so scary
last night.

“
Perry, it’s your father,”
he said from the other end. “Just wanting to make sure everything’s
OK. You never called last night.”

“
You never called me,” I
reasoned.

“
Do you want us to call you
more often?”

“
Hell no.”

“
Perry,” he warned me. And
then he went off into a big long spiel about how if I was going to
be a responsible adult I would have to start acting like one and
that meant checking in with the elders every night. If he only knew
what I was really up to, he’d be bit more understanding. Actually,
he would be a million times more paranoid. Though it felt wrong to
lie, the truth would do nothing to help them in this
situation.

“
How is this Dex fellow, is
he treating you well?”

“
Sure.”

“
You’re not sleeping with
him are you?”

My jaw dropped. My dad had
never brought up sex with me before.

“
Perry? You
there?”

I laughed, astonished.
“Yeah, I’m here. I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say, dad. What the
hell kind of question is that?”

“
Stop using that
word.”

“
Dad?”

“
Perry, I am
serious.”

I wiped the sweat off my
forehead and looked back at the house, where Dex was probably still
flipping through the books. I guess technically I was “sleeping”
with him, but…

“
No, dad. I am not sleeping
with him, sheesh. He’s kind of my boss in a way.”

Now that was a weird
thought.

He sighed, long and heavy.
Silence hung in the air. I knew better than to say
anymore.

“
I just don’t see why you’re
doing this, that’s all, pumpkin.”

“
Oh, so you thought I was
doing all of this for sex, is that it?”

“
Ghosts don’t exist Perry.
You know they don’t. Anyone who says they do are after something
else themselves. You’re chasing after an illusion and the sooner
you drop this charade and start putting your extra time and effort
into your career, your job, the better off you’ll be. You need to
get serious about your life.”

My turn to sigh. It was
amazing how being in a wind-dusted barren field, with an azure
cloudless sky, could feel so restrictive. Cell phones were the
devil.

“
Dad. We can talk about this
when I get back. I’m here now, this is what I’m doing, I’m smack in
the middle of it. You’re just going to have to deal with it for
now.”

The front door to the house
opened and Dex came out, the bigger camera hoisted on his shoulder
this time. I raised my finger at him to indicate I was busy, if he
couldn’t already tell, and turned my back.

“
And by
the way, it’s not cool to call me when I’m out here
working
and lay all this
stuff on me,” I hissed into the phone. “That’s not being very
adult.”

My dad started to say
something back but the phone was suddenly snatched out of my hands.
Dex put it up his mouth.

“
Hello dad!”

“
No!” I yelled and tried to
take it back from him but he just pushed me away with the
camera.

“
Yes, this is Dex.” He
grinned, looking far too pleased with himself. I felt
sick.

“
Oh, I’m taking real good
care of your daughter,” he said in a tone my dad was bound to find
sarcastic. “Actually, I should say she’s taking real good care of
me.”

“
Please give me back the
phone,” I pleaded.

He gave me a dismissive
look and listened to whatever my dad was saying.

“
Oh, I know career is very
important,” he said, winking at me. “Believe me, if I found out
that she’d trade in a good job for what we are doing here, well…I’d
probably call her an idiot.”

At the mention of idiot, I
knew my face fell. Dex didn’t know about my situation still and I
didn’t want him to know but at that exact second my face probably
said it all.

But if he picked up on it,
he didn’t show it. He watched me as he continued, “She’s a smart
girl though, you raised her well. She knows what’s important. Yes,
I’ll make sure she calls you tomorrow. Okay, see ya
pops.”

And with that he hung up
and tossed the phone up in the air. I scrambled for it and barely
caught it before it smashed on the hard earth.
It’s just my freaking ultra-breakable, irreplaceable iPhone,
no big deal, you stupid jerk
, I thought
wildly.

“
What the fuck, asshole?” I
exclaimed, and wiped down the screen.

“
You’ve got good reflexes,”
he said nonchalantly and started off towards the car.

I stayed put. “No I mean,
don’t you dare talk to my parents again.”

He stopped and gave me a
lazy look. “What’s the big deal? I only said nice
things.”