Little Wolves (gxg)

Chapter 11 - Whoops

My mom gently shook me by the shoulder. "Nel," she whispered. I had to force my eyes open. I winced as the afternoon sun blinded me momentarily.

"What?" My voice came out harsh and barely there. I cleared it and repeated, "what?"

"Come on with me to the store, you've slept long enough," she said. I blinked hard a few times before creasing my eyebrows together.

"What time is it?" I asked. My body felt like it weighed five-hundred pounds. All my limbs were heavy. I didn't want to move.

"You must've been exhausted. It's nearly two in the afternoon."

My eyes nearly bulged out of my skull. I could not believe I slept until two in the afternoon. That is entirely unlike me. With protest from my bones, I got on to getting ready to be seen in public. Making sure my bed-head wasn't too visible and all.

To my surprise, the Holly's truck was parked out front. I glanced around to try to find Keating or Kiersten somewhere, but I didn't see or hear either of them. Mom hopped in the drivers seat and turned the thing on, furthering my confusion.

"Isn't this the Holly's truck?" I asked as I hesitated to climb in. My mom nodded and shuffled some papers around on the dash like she was looking for something.

"Yup. Lent it to us to get some furniture. She's waiting for us at her store, hurry on in," she ushered. I did as she said. 

The hot interior of the truck was suffocating as we bumbled down Myrtleberry Lane. The thing had no working air conditioning so we had the windows down, but the truck kept spitting up dust from the wheels so bad I had to crank mine half closed. 

My mom was loving the country driving. Had her arm out the window and everything as we rolled into town.

I didn't know Oregon could get this hot. I swear I thought it was mostly snow and rain in this state, but boy was I wrong. You could see heat waves crawling off the road like those big blow-up noodle men they put outside car dealerships.

Mom switched the radio on halfway to Kiersten's store and the weatherman had said it was ninety-two today. I should've known. It took all of five-seconds for the back of my shirt to stick to my skin like glue. Once we had gotten on the paved road I slid my window down again. The breeze was nice until we got to a stop. Made the heat even the more unbearable.

"Mornin' Nel!" Kiersten called. She was coming out the cornerstore door with a table-fan attached to an extension cord. I watched her set it up in front of the truck like it would do anything to keep the old thing from overheating. I gave her a nod and tried to hide the skepticism from my face as I stared at the little fan.

"You look rough," Keating said, coming out the door. Kiersten walked back inside with my mom.

I chuckled and said, "I slept too much."

"Oh, I've heard." Keating laughed, too. "Your mom's been talking about you sleeping the day away like a broken record." I smiled because I didn't know what else to do. I wasn't really in a talking mood. I felt a bit like a zombie.

A sign caught my eye. Posted to a bulletin board right outside the front door of the store. It was a sheet of paper, yellowed and crumpled from time outside, with a vintage drawing of a fox. One of those colored ones from old books that had to have been hand-painted. The title of the paper read in big, fat jet-black letters:

BEWARE:
RABID FOX

The next few lines were bulletpoints about rabies, about what to do if you get bit by an animal with rabies, what to do if you encounter one, and the warning signs of rabies in humans. I read them over and kept staring at that illustration of the fox.