episode 21: Are We Dating?

-Ellen-

Shigeto and I were sitting up in bed, "He seemed in pretty great spirits today."

I sighed "Yeah, still."

"He needed this," said Shigeto.

"I don’t have to like it."

"It would be best if you learned to."

I turned to look at him. "Why?"

It was his turn to sigh. "He’s not a child, Ellen. Never was — not in any traditional sense. He woke to full awareness and curiosity. He wants to learn about our world, be in it, not just watch it go by. He trusts us, and looks to us as his guide, but if we don’t help him do that, he will try to do it himself. Even if he was our child, that would still be our responsibility – to help him find his way in the world.

"It’s too dangerous, you know that."

"So what? We chain him to the barn? Do you really think that he’d accept that? That we could even hold him if we tried?"

I leaned over, pulling one of his arms around me. "I want to protect him."

"So do I, but that doesn’t mean we can lock him in a box. We have to find a way for him to have a life."

"How?"

"I don’t know," he said, "but I think he wants his world needs to extend beyond this farm. If he finds some friends, well, it will give us time to figure something out."

So you think David is a good thing?"

"Honestly, I don’t know. I would say yes, if it weren’t for that gate in David’s yard."

"You believe him?"

Shigeto laughed, "This is a question from a woman who seems to be raising a talking bull that, apparently, can move between worlds."

"That doesn’t mean it’s true."

"No, but he doesn’t strike me as the type to go seeking magic."

"No, it’s true. It’s not like I didn’t recognize what kind of person David was, leaving a small town, hoping to find a different kind of magic, one that obliterated a history of never fitting in. He had no interest in the magic of the natural world, he yearned for the city. I knew him, because once, I’d been him. I looked back at Shigeto. “What about these practitioners who sent him our way? They might be trouble."

"Perhaps, but again, we need to find a way forwards for Babe."

"I will not advertise him to every half-assed practitioner that David stumbles across."

"I know, I know," he responded, "but David will want help with the gate, and unless you know what’s going on, or you’re lucky enough to find it buried in your mother’s or grandmother’s notes, then we might need some help."

"Bloody hell," I said. I paused. "Is it even our problem, really? I mean, I wasn’t kidding around when I said that there were a lot of stray threads in that spell."

"As I’m well aware," said Shigeto, his voice was very, very flat.

"I know," I said, "I was reckless and I’ve already apologized, and for good reason. But what I do, no, what we do, is experimental, remember? That was part of the point of this place."

Shigeto waved his hands towards the fields "Yeah, but I thought that we’d end up with tomatoes tasting like cherries, or corn that was fifteen feet high. Heck, even a talking bull kinda fits. But passageways to other realms, well, that’s a bit much."

I laughed, "You have a very odd sense of what’s okay, mister." I frowned. "Or is it because of Takara, and that she’s probably Kitsuné? If it’s fairies and talking bulls, it’s all very Disney, but as soon as a Kitsuné from your own mythical tradition pops up, you’re full of foreboding."

"Maybe," he admitted, "but David seems to have found himself at the nexus of all these stray threads, making connections we would avoid. It seems a bit, well, fated. I’m concerned that there may be more than some random gate to another world, and that’s saying something. I feel as if we’re being pulled into this. There may be more going on with Babe and the spell you cast than some ‘stray threads’ and if that’s the case, then this is the magic from the bad old days."

"Hell’s teeth," I said.  

-Interlude-

With each pass through the gate, I remember more of the time before Bregon, and I begin to pay more attention to the world I enter. To see and consider more than the snatch and grab of prizes. The man and that bitch fox are gone, and I am free to explore. My brothers are too timid to leave the sight of the gate.

So, I wander under cover of darkness, see more, remember more. Think more. If I flee, though, I would have to leave my brothers, though they do not remember themselves. I cannot abandon them, though, caught as they are in Bregon’s thrall.

Are We Dating?

 - David -

As we drove away, I asked Takara to look up the hotel that Ellen had mentioned, but she left her phone in her pocket.

“Why not your brother? Or are you ashamed of being seen with me?”

"The fuck?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Whether it’s because I’m Asian, or Kitsuné, or just some city girl, that’s not what your family thinks of as appropriate, eh?"

I looked over at her, a bit disbelieving. I mean, yeah, sure, we’d hooked up, but as far as I could tell, I’d been little more than a casual hookup that had intersected with her desire to keep an eye on the gate. I opened my mouth, closed it. Tried again. "My relationship with my family is challenging."

"So’s my relationship with Grandmother, but you still met her."

"That’s different from spending a night. I mean, I met her at your shop. We were going for drinks. It’s not like she knew we were dating."

"Is that what we’re doing? Dating?"

I glanced over at her as we drove, just to see if she was taking the piss out of me. But, no, she was sitting there, her arms and legs crossed, staring straight ahead, a frown on her face.

"I don’t know. Are we? I mean, there’s been so much going on, Takara, that I just don’t even know where my head is at with how the world works, let alone the details of our relationship."

"Those are completely separate issues!"

"Says the woman who snuck from my bed to hunt the creatures in my backyard."

"I’d think you’d be grateful, considering that I saved your life."

"And I am grateful, but perhaps I might have neglected to go outside if I knew you were lurking there in fox form. Because, on a related note, I think that if we are in a relationship, that this is something you should have told me."

"It’s not exactly something that comes up in casual conversation."

"Oh, and me telling you all about the gate in my backyard, which you already knew about, by the way, wasn’t a great segue to that conversation."

"Then you might think that I was just talking to you to get more information about the gate."

"Weren’t you?"

A moment of silence. "I didn’t have to fuck you."

"Twice," I said, "Which brings us back to the question. Are we dating?"

"For fuck’s sake, that’s what I’m asking you."

I looked over, struck by her sudden vulnerability. "I'm just surprised, Takara, you’re a bit out of my league. I mean, jeez, look at you."

She spared me a glance. "I guess there’s no accounting for taste."

"Well, thank god for that. So, dating, huh? Cool." I glanced over. She had a very, very small lift in her lips. I took another moment. “None-the-less, I’m not sure that staying with my brother is a good idea."

“Oh, for..." she began.

I interrupted her before she could get on a roll. "We can visit. Hell, have to visit really. If he ever found out that I was in the neighbourhood and didn’t, there’d be hell to pay."

She shifted in her seat. I glanced at her, and she was still sitting, arms and legs crossed, but now she was leaning back. "Fine," she said. ‘Tell you what, why don’t you just call them, and see what they have to say about your staying in a hotel with your new girlfriend?”

I pulled over on the shoulder – I guess that was one good thing about country roads – and made the call. I hoped the hotel was nice.

image by Natalie G I via Unsplash