Chapter 10: A Surfer's Quest Begins

Stone Digs into his mother's past and is determined to find his father.

Stone Kole sat on the bed holding the photograph in his trembling paw, it was almost like a bomb had been dropped in the middle of his life! For as long he he could remember, he had been told that his father had ran off when his mother was pregnant, but now he realized why his mother had never confirmed or denied that story. He looked up at the ceiling and then back at his mother. "Are you saying my father never knew about me and Storm?" he muttered.

"He had such great plans for his life," she sniffled. "When I found out I was pregnant…I told him that I didn't love him and that they were another fox's babies."

"But we were, so why did you do that?"

"I loved him and did not want to destroy his life, tie him down to a family while he was so young and had such a hopeful future. We had been so careful, but one night we drank too much and …I didn't mean to get pregnant!"

Stone's ears drooped lower. "So we were an accident?" he asked with a low growl. "Just a mistake?"

"Yes…no! No, you and Storm are the best thing to ever happen to me!" She cried out and reached to hug him, but he pulled back.

"Why didn't you just…you know? It would have made your life so much easier without us."

"I couldn't do that! When I first went to the doctor and saw your images on the ultrasound I knew I could never do that."

"You never talked to him again?"

"I moved and changed my name to Kole, just so he couldn't find us."

"Well, I guess his big plans fell though! He's living in that damned van by himself, selling pawsicles for a living."

"It wasn't fair what I did to him…to you and Storm, but I did what I did and it can't be undone," she sighed and wiped her eyes. She went to stand, but Stone jumped up and charged out of the door.

"Stone don't…" she yelled running after him, but he was too fast as he ran out of her apartment and had already disappeared down towards the beach. "Please don't!"

Stone was mad, not so much at his mother as at the fox he now knew was his father. Why didn't he come back, surely he couldn't have believed her story? The fox shoved his way across the boardwalk and down to the shoreline, for Stone were the sea met the land was his place…his solitude…his home. He looked down at his paw when he realized that he still held the picture and in anger he lifted his paw to throw it into the sea, but then he hesitated. In confusion he stared at the photo again, the look of happiness on his mother's face and the grin on that other fox's muzzle. He felt the unfairness of it all and it angered him, he would find that bastard and shove this photo down his throat.

Slowly he walked down the beach, the sound of the surf beckoning him like a lover calling for him to come and join her. He looked around at the many kits playing in the sand and the surf, with their smiling families watching over them. "Family," he muttered to himself. "Family… a father and a mother." No, he had a family! He may have not known his father, but there was his mother and Storm, along with his uncles and aunts, cousins and friends…he had a family…a good family. Then he realized that maybe that was more than Finn ever had. Curiosity overcame him, did his father ever marry again and does he have any half brothers or sisters? Why was he living alone in the back of that old van? Maybe, just maybe, he was acting selfish again. His mother drove his father away and lied to him, so why would he come back? With a sigh, he sat upon a rock and stared out at the blue and green waters.

Cooper found him there as the evening came upon the beach. Good old Cooper was always there when the fox need him. Wallabies by their very nature were always more level headed then foxes, less likely to anger and quick to forgive. Cooper would laugh and tell him it was in their genes, just as his being a "drongo" was in his and Stone knew that he could never have a better friend then the hopper. "So mate, your bloody phone is off again," the wallaby said. "Your mum came by the campground looking for your ugly mug. She's worried about you Stoney, she told me about your dad being alive. She also brought this nasty smelling stew for you and I had to slap Reggie's paws to keep him out of it."

Stone just shook his head and stared at the surf. "She lied to me brah," he finally said. "All this time my father was alive, did she tell you that he was the guy who got us our money?"

"Not surprised mate," the wallaby shrugged and then chuckled. "You two looked kind of alike, but I just figured you're a fox and all you blokes look the same to me. Except for the grey ones and the red ones, and then there are those red foxes with the really long legs."

"Those are wolves! They are maned wolves and not foxes. You know that Cooper."

"Yeah, mate but it's good to hear you laugh. Now come on back to the campground, maybe Reggie left you some of that stew."

He walked with his best friend along the shoreline. "Cooper, I want to go met my father and find out why he never returned to us," he said. "If I loved someone the way my mother said he loved her, I would have come back."

"Didn't your mother tell him you weren't his kit? Maybe he felt rejected and betrayed."

"It doesn't work that way with foxes. We mark our mates…you know MATES not like you Outback Islanders call everyone…mates as in our lovers….you know what I mean!"

"It sure does get confusing, but we marsupials have developed our own unique lingo. I blame the roos for it, but I understand what you're saying. So if your mum was his lover, he would have marked her…right?"

"Yeah and any rival male would have found that a turnoff, he would have tried to mark her too. My father should have smelled that, even Scent Off can't cover that smell completely. So why did he believe her?"

"Don't know mate…argh Stoney…this bloody mate word thing is getting complicated!" the wallaby chuckled to himself.

"I need to find him and find out why he abandoned me and Storm."

"I don't think that's such a good idea. It's been over twenty years, can't you just let the past rest."

"No, I can't! My mother still loves him! She needs closure, I need closure! I need to rub the fact he had kits he abandoned down his pointy muzzle."

"So you want to hurt him?" the wallaby asked as he stopped and looked at his friend with concerned eyes. "Revenge is a cold road to hop down Stoney! Now come on mate, too much whinging will make mammals think you are a sook."

"Oh so you're going for the Outback slang again!" the fox laughed as his friend pulled his arm towards the trail. "I hope Reggie left my stew alone or I might throw a meerkat on the Barbie."

"Nice try mate, but stick with surfer sang," the wallaby laughed as he hopped down the trail.

When they got to the campsite, he had to laugh because like honey attracts bees, so does chicken stew draw carnivores. Reggie was there and so was the little kitten Tammy and both were hungrily looking at the pot by the fire. "Anyone interested in a bite of stew?" he snickered as he dipped into the pot and spooned out a couple of bowls of the stew. While Reggie noisily slurped his dinner, Tammy savored hers instead and was purring the whole time she ate. Stone sat back with the remainder of the pot by his lap and looked around at his friends. Yeah there's more to family then just a mother and father, he realized. He found his phone and called his mother, assuring her that he was fine and apologizing that he ran off on her. He promised to stop by again in the next few days.

He didn't sleep well that night, but tossed and turned in his wicker basket. Usually he'd just curl up and pull a blanket over his head, but tonight his mind was just racing as he battled with himself about if he should go find his father. Then when he finally convinced himself that he was going to do so, he mulled over how he would ever find another small fox in such a big city.

Rubbing his tired eyes, he quietly slipped out of his basket, pulled on a pair of shorts and left the tent to wander down the trail towards the seashore. It was early, that time of morning called the false dawn when the sky began to brighten before the sun rose over the sea. He sat in the sand and listened in the early day's stillness as the surf rolled in, crashing on the sandy shore. Small sandpipers worked the shoreline, the birds running behind the outgoing water to peck with their long beaks into the sand, probing for their prey before running away from the next incoming wave.

It was going to be another cloudless sunny day on The Strand. The sea was a blue and green with whitish green foam that was left behind upon the sand where it splashed ashore. Behind him, the early traffic noise was already beginning as the morning commuters made their inland trek down the coastal roadways. He looked down the beach and saw some of the more intrepid tourists wandering down to the sand with their coffees clutched in their paws to watch the morning sunrise. A pair of raccoons in the city sanitation department's brownish tan uniforms clutched plastic bags as they patrolled the beach, picking up any garbage left from the day before. Behind them a six wheeled all-terrain vehicle rumbled along, providing them a depository for their finds.

Uniform! the fox mused as he watched the uniformed raccoons get closer. He remembered hearing the other fennec fox on the phone as he drove away in his worn out van talking to someone named Wilde. Then it was as if a light bulb went off in his head, Wilde was the name of the uniformed police officer he had met three times now. Did that red fox know the fennec fox? He stood as he distinctly recalled the officer saying to him, "Heh, I learned a long time ago not to argue with a fennec fox." Stone was excited because he realized that it would be easier to find the police officer then it would be the fox named Finn, after all how many foxes are cops?