Chapter 9: A Mother's Remorse


Stone has dinner with his mother and discovers something important about her past.


Growing up, it seemed to Stone Kole that his mother Susan was always working. She held down several jobs at once, employed as a maid for a couple of the smaller motels and sometimes a night clerk at another. Being a single mother and a small fox was a challenge, simply because there just weren't well paying regular job opportunities available for her. He and his brother Storm grew up always being shuffled from different family member or friends almost on a daily bases while she worked, but their mother was always there to tuck them in for bed every night. Life was tough for both he and his brother, but they both knew she was doing her best and they loved her deeply.

The young pups had learned not to ask for too much, but to take what was offered. When she gave him his first board for his fourteenth birthday, he was excited until he saw the pain she was in that night. It was obvious what she had done to raise the money to buy the board and Stone wished that she hadn't gone that far to "earn" the cash from that perverted warthog. His brother Storm was furious and soon after that, the warthog just disappeared. When he asked his littermate if he knew what had happened, the Storm just shrugged and said that the warthog should have kept his paws to himself. It was years later when Stone finally realized that this was when his brother began working for the gangster Salazar, his brother's first steps down a road of crime which would led him to jail.

"So Stoney, what exactly is going on between you and that sand cat?" his mother called to him from the tiny kitchen inside her small apartment. Her "kitchen" consisted of a propane stove and a small refrigerator. There was an oversized pot on the stove's burner and she stood on a stool so she could reach and stir its contents.

"Karen?" the fox replied with a smirk. "We're just friends." He grimaced because even he could tell from his voice that he wasn't telling the truth.

"Don't lie to you mother!" she laughed. Her laughter was always music to his ears, something that he missed when he moved out. "I saw that interview and you leaping off the podium to kiss her!"

He looked over at his mother, she was still petite and young looking despite the fact she was in her early forties. The haggard look he remembered she used to have was now long since gone since she no longer had two additional mouths to feed and didn't have to constantly work. He sniffed deeply at the smell of the stew that she was cooking and it made his mouth water. "Everyone saw that interview dear," she added with a grin. "So is my pup in love with a cat?"

"Mother! Please, you raised me to be a genitalmammal and as I said, we're just friends."

"Ah, I see…just friends. Your tail gives away more than your mouth does my dear."

His ears wilted in embarrassment when he realized that when she mentioned Karen, his tail began wagging and he didn't even know it. "Damn, betrayed by my own body!" he snapped.

She laughed at him again, before stirring the pot. "You never were able to keep secrets from others, unlike your brother." Her ears dropped at the mention of Storm and she sighed.

He looked at her and decided to quickly change the subject away from his brother. "Okay I confess! I really…really like Karen!" he told her, grinning as her ears shot up and she quickly looked back at him.

"I know that she's a cat, but still…" he continued.

"There's nothing wrong with cats!" his mother interjected. Then she grinned and asked the question he knew was coming. "Have you two mated?"

"Mom! Geeze, I can't believe that my own mother is asking me such a question!"

"You didn't answer my dear! Should I take that as a yes?"

"No, we have not! She's not that kind of girl!"

"Oh, I see," his mother replied, her ears flicking slightly. Stone wanted to groan, he didn't mean to make it sound the way it came out. He knew his mother once had a reputation for being "that kind of girl." She had gotten pregnant and their father ran off afterwards or so he was told by everyone but her. She never said much about their father, but that it was "just one of those things".

"Well how's Cooper doing?" she asked. "Has he found anyone yet?"

"Cooper is just a dingy as ever. Hey, did you know he was gay?" Stone replied. He waited to see if his mother acted surprised, but she didn't.

"Of course I did dear," she laughed. "Everyone knows that!"

Her ears shot up when she heard him muttering to himself, "Why was I the last to figure that out?"

"You're kidding me? You didn't know that? A while back, I was even wondering if you two were lovers."

"Mom! I'm not gay!"

"I'd still love you if you were darling," she replied with a smile as she set a couple of bowls and some silverware on the small card table that she had pulled out for them to dine on. "I love you even though you've got the hots for a cat."

Stone's ears blushed and she couldn't help but chuckle at his discomfort, in her mind he was still her little puppy. In his youth he always sought her approval, always unsure of himself and willing to follow his brother's lead by constantly trailing behind Storm. Then he discovered surfing, something Storm had no interest in doing. For Stone it consumed him every weekend and summer, he would run down to the shoreline to watch the surfers. At fourteen years old, he was determined to buy his first board and tried his best to raise the money by doing odd jobs for the neighbors and the businesses on the Strip. Try as he might, he never could earn enough money and then one night after a terrible teasing by Storm, she found him huddled by a tree on the beach in tears. That was the night when she decided that she would do whatever it took to buy him a board and she was never ashamed for what she did after she saw the look of joy on his face when she gave it to him. Now her little puppy was in his early twenties, still childlike in so many ways and grown up in some many others. He was a four time surfing champion, who was just excited when he hit the water as he was when he was just a teenager.

She brought the pot to the table, for their dinner she had made his favorite meal a savory shredded chicken stew with potatoes, carrots, and onions. His eyes rolled upwards and his tail wagged as he ate a spoonful of the stew. "Do you like it?" she asked as she passed him a loaf of crusty bread. "You aren't eating like you should, you've lost weight."

"Mom, of course I eat! He protested as he hungrily shoved a slice of the bread into his mouth and tried to chew. "Muffruh eaffring jiff fffine."

"Too many veggies and not enough protein!" she sighed. "Cooper isn't the best chef for you…he's too herbivore. You need more meat in your diet. After all you're still my growing puppy." She giggled at the look he gave her, his cheeks were still stuffed with the bread and his tail madly wagged behind him.

"I'm not a puppy anymore," he mumbled through a muzzle full of stew.

"Don't talk with your mouth full! Chew your food too! You will always be my little puppy."

"Well your little puppy made his film debut earlier this summer!" he announced.

"You're in the movie that they were filming on the beach? I heard about all the excitement down on the Strand, but I had no idea that you were going to be in the film?"

"Reggie, Cooper, and me were extras!"

"You mean Reggie, Cooper, and I were extras," she corrected him. It was just like he was a teenager again, all excited.

"That's what I said! They filmed us in the surf doing our thing."

"So, who are you taking to the premier when it comes out? A hunk of fox like you should be starring in a movie and not being just an extra. Maybe you can star in a spy movie? We can call it The Fox Who Came Out of the Surf…or the Savage Beach!"

"Sounds more like a Jack Savage movie!" he laughed. She looked at him with and sighed, he looked so much like another male fox she knew long ago.

"Well my goodness, did you three have fun?"

"It was mostly sitting around waiting for them to film us and when we did get into the water, the director kept doing retakes. It was kind of boring, but we got paid."

"For sitting around?" .

"Yeah, they were supposed to pay us two hundred but they short changed us and tried to give us only ninety-five bucks. Their accountant said the rest had to go to union dues and other costs, you know all that legal crap! We'd have taken it too if it hadn't been for another fox we ran into who was selling pawpsicles to the crowd. He said we were being screwed and went to talk to the accountant. He came back with a thousand bucks each instead, but he kept two hundred as his agent fee."

"That seems fair."

"He was a smart guy too!" Stone enthusiastically continued. "A fennec fox, just like me, and drove a cool old van with a mural of a barbarian looking timber wolf holding an arctic vixen in his arms. He said his name was Fred, Frank, no…Finn…that's it he called himself Uncle Finn!"

His mother dropped her spoon and he ears fell down flat. "Finnick?" she whispered in shock. "Surely not Finnick!" Standing, she turned and seemed to stagger into her bedroom, closing the door behind her.

Stone was perplexed why his mother had fled to her room and his ears flicked when he heard her sobbing. Jumping up, he went and knocked on the door. "Mom? Mom? Mommy?" he called out. "Are you okay, what did I say? Did I do something wrong? Mommy?"

He heard her sniffling. "It's not you dear, it's just I didn't know he was still around here." she answered before crying again.

"What did he do to you?" Stone growled. "If he hurt you!"

"Stop it!" she called out. "He didn't hurt me…I hurt him!"

Stone opened the door and saw that she was hunched on the bed tenderly holding a photograph. He walked over and sat next to her. Wordlessly, she handed the photo to him and he looked at it. She was young in the picture and happy, next to her with his arm around her waist was a male fennec fox just beaming with joy. Behind them both was a brand new van with that same mural on its side. He looked over at her, "Who is he?"

"The only fox I ever loved until you and Storm were born," she whimpered. "I loved him so much that I gave him up, because he had such a bright future ahead of him and I didn't want to hold him back."

"I don't understand?" Stone said as he looked at the photo. "What do you mean?"

"He's your father Stone," she sobbed. "And he doesn't even know it!"