The Fire Triangle -- Part II, Oxidizer

The Fire Triangle: Book II - Chapter 50

"From Mike Daehan; I go to..." For a second, he paused, and then went on in a voice tinged with sadness, "...uh, that is, I went to school with him. He's...I mean he WAS my best bud."

Rodenberg's whiskers instantly ceased their twitching.

"Daehan...as in...?"

"That's right, Mike's his son." Conor answered, quickly...a little too quickly, as if he'd given away a secret not meant to be revealed. Searching for a qualifier, he settled instead for a change of subject. "You're not the first rat I ever made friends with, y'know."

Whoops, wrong answer; Rodenberg's paw came slamming down on the tray table where he was sitting, making a noise like a saucepan dropped on the floor.

"Get this through your head, Booby." His voice was a high, guttural hiss, "I am not, repeat, NOT your friend, I am your lawyer-and even that's still subject to review, you got that?"

Conor said nothing for a moment, only gazed at the grey rat in stunned silence. So did Erin.

Rodenberg let this go on for only a few seconds before baring his incisors again.

"That was NOT a rhetorical question, kid. Do! You! Get! It?"

When his answer finally came, it came in a stammering rush of words. "Y-Yes Mr. Rodenberg; s-sorry."

And then hastily finishing the last of his sandwich, the fugitive young silver fox returned once more to his narrative.

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It all went down about the middle of January. I'd been cooped up for like two days in the foster home because of an ice-storm. When it finally ended, it still was way too slippery to do much outside, but at least I could hook up with Jimmy at the library.

When I got there, he was sitting at a table, reading a book...or, I oughta say, pretending to read. That should have been my first red flag; the second one was that he looked about as happy as a kid waiting to get a rabies shot.

I didn't notice either one-what the heck, I was so glad to finally get out of the house, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to anything else. Instead, I waved and started to go over to where he was sitting.

Jimmy immediately waved back...but it was a very different kind of wave; and why was he grimacing and shaking his head like that?

I found out when someone laid a paw on my shoulder.

When I think back on it now, that's the part where I really feel like an idiot. You'd have thought, after all my success at Ringolevio, I'd have known there was someone behind me, but noooooo! If it happened now, I'd know in a heartbeat...but not back then.

Anyway, I got spun around like a fidget spinner...and then guess who it was? None other than her holy uprightness, Sister Mary Louise Carloccia. I had never met her before, never even seen her picture-but I knew right away it was her.

She was small for a marmot, not much bigger than a prairie-dog, but what she lacked in size, she more than made up for in righteous wrath. She was older than I expected; had almost no fur left on her face, and more wrinkles than a wadded-up newspaper. Other than that, she was exactly how I'd always pictured her. She wore these steel-rimmed glasses and the deepest frown I'd ever seen in my life.

Ignoring me for a minute, she looked over at Jimmy.

"So," she said, "Just as I thought, James." Sheesh, from the look on her face right then, you'd have thought she won the lottery or something. "I'll see you outside, right now, young mammal." And then she turned to me, "You, too."