It's been a week and Brennan hasn't showed up. It's the next weekend and it was like her presence from last week was simply my imagination and I probably dreamt the entire situation, but the gloves and mask that were laid out on my desk confirmed my thoughts. Of course with the days that went by, I didn't think too much of her and focused on the things I did before she came into my life—I got prepared for the multiple tests that I'll be joining for college, got some college applications sent out already since I needed a head start.
"Daniel, I need to go to the office tonight, you okay alone?" My mom asked, peeking her head from my door. "There's leftovers in the fridge if you want to eat, I also left some money in the drawer."
"It's alright, mom, don't work too hard," I told her with a small smile, to which she replied with a nod before she bidded goodbye. I watched as she drove out of the neighborhood before closing the door. As of three years ago, all my mom had was me after my real dad got in an accident during a business trip and never came back. She remarried a year and a half after his death, in hopes of forgetting, they had a baby girl but it didn't work out in the end. He got custody over my little sister, and lived in Vancouver and I've been with my mom in Portland since then. She's been doing well, unlike how she was the first year after my dad's passing, but I fear that she'll break at any moment. Despite the vision of mother's being the strongest person we know, they're still human and their ability to break at any point is as possible as everyone else.
I guess that's why I can't stray too far from home, I need to be here for my mom. I might not know when she'll break, so it could be at any given moment.
So she distracts herself with work, but is still able to make time for family. She works in the finance division in one of the town's largest cooperations, and because she needs the distraction, when someone asks her to take their shift, she doesn't think twice about it.
Nonetheless, I'm glad she finds ways to distract herself.
I ended up heating up the leftovers beef stir fry from this afternoon, and heated up some water to make tea. I was hoping to finish my recent geography homework, when a knock sounded from my door. Confused, I glanced at the clock to see that it was eight at night. Did mom leave her keys again? I swear I added it to her car keys. Pulling the door open, a girl about two inches shorter than me with cotton candy pink hair and her back to me appeared in front of me. "Uhm, may I—" I then took notice of her ear that had her hair pushed behind it, noticing the long earring and a few other piercings. "Brennan?"
She faced me, her eyes bright with adrenaline as a small smile that revealed a bit of her teeth was placed on her face, but she was breathing heavy. My eyes then went down to see that she was holding something—and by something, I mean, an animal. An animal that was covered in thick mud, that if you were to see it on the side of the road, you'd think it was just a pile of mud.
"Daniel, hey," she let out in one breath, before explaining all a bit too fast, "I was driving around and saw something moving a ditch, turns it out was this guy—" she lifted the dirt-covered animal "—and because your house was the nearest one in the neighborhood, I decided to come here, so—" she inhaled a large breath "—can you help me bathe him?"
"What?"
"Did you honestly not hear what I just said?" Her tone was slightly annoyed and breathy.
"No, no, I did—"
"Then please help me bathe him," she demanded, but her tone was desperate.
"I- I don't have any equipments for this situation," I fumbled with my words as I took a step so that she could come in.
"All we need is shampoo to be honest, I don't think he has a preference," she mumbled the last bit to the animal in her arms as they stared at her with wide eyes. "It'll only take twenty minutes—max." I stared at her, contemplating whether to agree or not. My mom won't be home until eleven, the next morning the most, but that didn't matter.
"You disappeared for a week and pop up suddenly with a stray animal and expect me to help you?" I asked, finding it amusingly dumb.
"Uh... yeah?" She answered unsure. "Please, Daniel, please!" She pleaded, widening her eyes and jutting her bottom lip out exaggeratingly. I would've disagreed either way if I hadn't looked down to see the animal giving me the same look, and I swear, I think I heard a whimper from it.
Clenching my jaw, I groaned, grumbling, "Fine." I lead them to my bathroom, not wanting them to ruin anything in my mom's or the guest bathroom before looking through my things and finding a shampoo. "Are you sure this is okay? Why didn't you bring it to a vet or something?"
"I couldn't, I don't have my wallet on me and also, the nearest vet is thirty minutes away, why go there when I can come here for free service?" She grinned, the dimple appearing. I rolled my eyes, shaking my head at her as we stood by the sink, filling it up with warm water and began bathing the animal.
"Why did you take it in?" I asked as we were scrubbing the mud off its fur. "Never thought you were one to have a soft spot for animals."
"I've always wanted a dog, you know? Or any pet that wasn't a fish or a bird, something I could hold," she mumbled. I couldn't help but stare at her, watching as she scrubbed the mud off with so much concentration, a crease appeared between her brows and her bottom lip was pulled between her teeth as she scrubbed at a stubborn spot by the ear.
"Daniel?" I looked away, a blush appearing on my cheeks and my ears burning in embarrassment of being caught.
"Yeah?" I squeezed my eyes shut, afraid to look her in the eye, but when I opened one eye to check, she wasn't even looking at me but down at the animal.
"I honestly thought this was a stray dog," she said.
"What do you— oh." We both stared down at the creature in the sink, it's face clean of any dirt or mud, its eyes glimmering under the bathroom light.
"I saved a damn fox."
this chapter was inspired by that one picture of a really dirty animal, that one might've thought was a dog, but when they washed all of the mud off, it was actually a fox
if how i described it confused you, here's the pic:
and also, in my books (previous works and all) i never stray too far from having an animal included in them
and also, i'd imagine something like this happening to people like brennan
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