Chapter 18: Roads We Travel

Stone reminisces about his childhood and has a tender moment with Karen on the beach.

How about a sweet love song for this chapter? "All Roads Led to You" by Bill Conti

She found the lean fennec fox just sitting on the dark beach hugging his knees to his chest and his ears laid flat while he stared out toward the sea. The moon had risen and it's beams shimmied over the rippling waves. Suddenly offshore, a pair of dolphins surfaced and blew vapor from their blowholes before silently slipping once again under the dark blue water. As she approached him, his ears rose erect and she knew, despite the distant sounds of music and that of the crowd along the Boardwalk, he still heard her soft tread upon the sand. "It's so peaceful looking out there," he commented without turning towards her. "I used to envy the dolphins because they can just swim far away from everyone."

"Who did you want to swim away from, Stoney?" the sand cat asked. She stood next to him but didn't sit down because she was still wearing her dark blue slacks and white blouse from work and didn't want to get them dirty.

Slowly he stood up, wiped the sand from his furry legs, his old ratty cut off jean shorts, and brushed off his tail before he slipped his paws into the pockets of the sleeveless gray cotton hoodie he was wearing. "Karen, that was a long time ago." he answered with a small shake of his head. "I'm just remembering."

"Okay, so what is my handsome fox remembering?"

"About all the times, when I was just a kit, that I would come down here to get away from everyone and everything."

"Why did you used to do that?" she asked. Karen gave a thin smile because she knew that he was still doing the same thing nowadays, including tonight.

"I was just trying to get away from…" he hesitated for a few moments while he continued to stare at the sea, there was a sad look upon his face. The pretty sand cat didn't interrupt but patiently just stood there waiting. "I was trying to get away from my life."

"Oh?"

"My mom used to work all the time because she had to hold down multiple jobs just to keep our family together. As you know, I didn't know my dad back then. I was told that he left before we were born, and I really wish that I knew what I know now, that Finnick didn't even know we were alive. For years, when Mom was working, Storm and I were passed around between family and friends until she got off of work. We always felt like we were in the way and underpaw. Sure, they were usually nice to us, but they also felt sorry for us, and we knew that..." The fox grew silent once again.

Karen slipped her arm around his waist as they stood there.

"Let's just say that at times we felt like we were strays," Stone bitterly scoffed.

"You went and saw your brother at the prison today, didn't you?" the sand cat asked before she laid her head on his shoulder.

The fox slightly tensed up when she asked that question. "Yeah, I did."

"And?"

"Storm is still just as obnoxious as usual."

"Did you two argue again?"

"We seem to always argue now."

"So is that why you are here tonight?"

"I'm...I was just wishing…wondering, that how different my life might have been if I had a family like yours." He became silent once again and after a few moments let out a long drawn out sigh. "I was just wondering if that would have kept Storm from becoming a gangster."

"It might have," Karen answered. She moved in front of him and looked into his brown eyes before she wrapped her arms around his neck. "But as a wise mammal once said, 'we cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand'."

The fox genuinely chuckled before he asked, "Was that said by Gambit from the X-Mammal cartoon?"

"No, I read that somewhere online."

"At least you didn't tell me that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

"Think of it this way. If you hadn't grown up the way you did, then you wouldn't have taken up surfing. Instead, you would be stuck with some boring job downtown, riding the subway to and from work every day. You'd come home tired, and the only surfing you'd be doing would be on the internet all night while eating junk food and getting fat."

"Downtown! Why not a job here on The Strand?" he snickered while grinning at her.

"Hush!" she commanded.

"Also, why would I surf the internet, I don't use the internet very much now!"

"Stoney, I've seen your phone. You're a 3G fox in a 5G world."

"And why would I be fat?"

"Stop mocking me," she giggled as she gave him a playful push. "What I am saying is that if you hadn't become a surfer, we might have never met."

"So you are saying my whole life has been like a road leading to you?" he laughed.

"No…well, maybe? Heck why not? After all, I am worth it," she answered with a grin.

"So where is this road leading me tonight?" he asked as he pulled her into his arms.

"To the Boardwalk where I am going to buy you a drink," she giggled before she slipped out of his embrace.

"That wasn't what I had in mind."

"Oh, I know exactly what is in your mind!"

He didn't answer but just grinned before he pulled her around and into his embrace once again. Their muzzles met in a passionate kiss.

"Are you really sure you want to go someplace busy for that drink?" he asked when they finished.

"Maybe we can find someplace much more private," she answered.

"Private works for me."

"I love where this road is heading!" Stone enthusiastically exclaimed before he kissed her again.

"Yeah, me too!" Karen breathlessly panted after they finished their kiss.

Karen is quoting from the late Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams".