by Patricia Fry
“Oh,” he chanted. “There’s a hole in it. He shook the pinecone, then tried to pry the thing from inside the hole. “Can I use your knife, Mr. Michael?”
“Hand it here,” Michael said, reaching for the pinecone. He pried the edge of something from the hole and handed the cone back to Simon.
Simon pulled carefully until the item slipped out into his hands. “Another wrapped package,” he announced. He carefully tore the tissue wrapping from the second part of the gift and revealed a key on a leather fob with a colorful parrot painted on it.
“A key?” he questioned. He tilted his head. “Did you paint this picture of Thor on this leather? Or is this Miss Picket?”
Peter nodded, then invited the boy to sit down between him and Rochelle. She said, “Since you’re now part of our family, you should have your own key to our house and our hearts.”
“Oh, rad,” Simon said. He held it up for the others to see. “Look, my own key to our house.”
Peter smiled. “Now, buddy, that doesn’t mean we plan to leave you home alone or that you’ll come home from school to an empty house or anything. Not yet, but there will come a time when you’ll be old enough to come and go. Then you might add a car key to the fob and eventually your college dorm key.”
Simon stared down at the gift, then looked up at Peter, then Rochelle. “Does this mean I’m staying with you? I have a real home?”
“Yes, Simon,” Peter said.
The boy looked at Rochelle, who nodded. She said, “As far as we’re concerned, yes. We’ll finish the paperwork when we get back to the city…that is, if this is what you want.”
Simon stared down at the key for another few moments, then he threw himself into Peter’s arms. He pulled back and hugged Rochelle. Wiping at his eyes, he glanced around at the others, saying, “This is my best Christmas ever. In fact, this is my best day ever.”
The room went silent. Michael was first to speak. “So glad for you, buddy.” He squeezed the boy’s shoulders. “You couldn’t have landed in a better family.”
Savannah stood up and hugged Simon. She wiped at her eyes and asked, “Anyone ready for hot apple cider?”
“Got any rum?” Michael asked. “This celebration calls for spiked cider.”
“Hear! Hear!” Peter said.
Simon cleared his throat, then called out, “Hey, Adam, ask your dad if we can take his weather rock outside and see if it works.”
Everyone chuckled.
Adam picked up the rock, but before he could open the door, they heard a knock. They stopped and looked at each other.
“I’ll get it,” Michael said, moving past the boys. “Oh, hello, Ranger,” he greeted. “What can we do for you this evening?”
“I’m Ranger Kent Robles,” he said, trying to see beyond Michael into the room. “I want to talk to the boys who spent the night with the fox.”
Adam and Simon looked at each other with fear in their eyes.
“Won’t you come in?” Michael invited. He put a hand on each boy’s shoulder. “Here they are.”
Peter stood up and moved forward with his hand out. “I’m Peter Whitcomb. This is Michael Ivey.”
The ranger shook hands with both men and turned toward the boys. “I’m Ranger Kent Robles, and you are?” he asked, shaking hands with Simon.
“Um…Simon.”
Hi, Simon and you?” he asked.
“Adam,” the boy said, shaking hands stiffly.
“Relax,” Ranger Robles said. “No one’s in any trouble. I just have a few questions about what happened out there the night you boys got lost.” He glanced around. “Say, it looks like Santa Claus came tonight. Did you’all celebrate Christmas this evening?”
Savannah spoke up. “Yes, we had a little pre-Christmas celebration.”
“We made our gifts,” Lily blurted. She held up her doll. “I got a dolly.”
“Well, that’s pretty special, I’d say.” The ranger looked around at the others. “You all made gifts for each other?” He looked at what Adam held in his hand. “What’s that?”
“A weather rock. We were just going out to see if it works.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen one of those,” the ranger said, smiling. “They actually work better than most weather forecasting methods.” He grinned. “Only thing is…” When he saw the others waiting to hear more, he continued, “Sometimes here in California, it swings even when there isn’t any wind.”
“How’s that?” Simon asked curiously.
“When there’s an earthquake,” the ranger explained.
“Ohhh,” Adam said. “I never thought about that.”
The chatter and laughter continued for a few minutes, then Michael said, “Well, come sit down, and we’ll try to answer your questions. Would you like a hot apple cider?”
“That would be mighty hospitable of you folks. Sure. Thank you.”
“So, what I need to ask,” the ranger said, “is what do you know about those traps like the one that caught the fox?”
Adam took a breath. “We think that man with the big blue truck sets them. We saw a fur that fell out of his truck one day.”
Yeah,” Simon said, “and he’s kind of hateful—you know, mean.”
Ranger Robles nodded. He said, “So how did you find the fox. Was she in a trap?”
Simon explained, “We found a trap hidden in the brush with blood all around it. We got worried, so we followed the blood trail.”
“Yeah,” Adam said, “we saw blood all over the ground and bushes. We knew some animal or maybe a person had been hurt really bad, so we followed the blood and found the poor fox. Her leg was…” Adam couldn’t continue.
“It looked like it was actually cut off,” Simon said quietly.
The ranger winced and nodded.
“When we found her she was lying down and she didn’t even care that we were there.” Adam said.
“Like maybe she was almost unconscious or something,” Simon added.
“I had a little water left in my canteen and we poured some for her to drink into a plastic bag,” Adam said. “She was able to drink and she still didn’t seem afraid of us. Maybe she knew we wanted to help her.”
“After she drank, she was able to get up and go again,” Simon explained. We followed her for kind of a long way until we came to a cave. It was a pretty big cave for a little fox, but it seemed like that’s where she lived, because she went inside and she let us come inside with her.”
“You bandaged her up?” Ranger Robles asked.
“Yeah, she was bleeding pretty bad,” Adam said. “We were afraid if we didn’t stop the bleeding, she would die.”
When the ranger looked surprised, Savannah said, “His dad’s a veterinarian and Adam has watched him work sometimes.”
“She’s a veterinarian, too,” Adam said, pointing at Savannah.
When Ranger Robles looked at her, she said, “Only not currently practicing.”
“Ohhh,” the ranger said. “So she let you bandage her leg? What did you use?”
“Part of my shirt,” Adam said.
“And we tied it on with strings from my sweatshirt,” Simon explained. He glanced at Adam. “He still had his dad’s knife in his pocket so we were able to cut the shirt up…otherwise…”
Adam nodded. “And we got her to drink more water and she seemed to be a little better, but she was still real sleepy.”
When we saw that it was getting dark,” Simon said, “we decided to stay there with her in case she needed more water or anything. We were pretty sure we were lost, anyway.”
“Yeah,” Adam added, “my Scout leader told us once that when you’re lost sometimes it’s best to stay where you are and let the trained searchers find you.”
The ranger shook his head. “Amazing.” He pulled out his phone. “I have a picture someone sent me of a cat with the fox.”
“Yeah, our cat Rags helped find us.” Adam pointed. “That’s him over there.”
Lily heard this and she ru
shed to Rags and tried to pick him up. She awkwardly lugged him to the ranger, his feet dragging on the floor. “This is Rags.”
“Hi, Rags,” he said, petting the cat.
“How is the fox?” Simon asked.
“Good,” the ranger said enthusiastically. “Thanks to you two.”
“Where is she?” Adam asked.
“Still in the hospital, but they plan to move her tomorrow to the preserve. I wanted to invite your group to come out and see her new home. She may want to thank you now that she’s more awake and all.”
“Can we, Dad?” Adam asked excitedly.
“Sure,” he said. “Sounds like fun, and I think it would do both of you boys good to see her now that she’s feeling better.”
“It sure would,” Simon said. He addressed the ranger, “Can you stop that man from trapping and hurting the animals that live in the forest?”
Ranger Robles looked squarely at Simon then at Adam and said, “I think you’ve already accomplished that. Where you found that trap is definitely off limits to trappers.” He turned to Michael and Peter. “The map you gave Ranger Bill was vital in our attempt to stop the illegal trapping in this area. We believe we’ve already located and removed all the traps that were left, and we’re looking for that dude as we speak.” He asked, “Mr. Ivey, how did you come by that map, anyway?”
“Evidently the trapper has been selling his secrets to wannabe trappers,” Michael said. One of them gave us the map yesterday, hoping it would help us locate the boys.”
“So you think the map originally came from the bearded man in the classic truck?”
Peter nodded.
“I know the one you mean. I suspected he was trapping irresponsibly.”
“Can you make him stop hurting the animals?” Simon asked.
“Yes,” the ranger said. “That’s exactly what we aim to do. And thanks to you folks we should be able to do it sooner rather than later.” He stood and shook hands with the boys and then with Michael and Peter. “Thank you so much for being good citizens.” He nodded to the women and headed to the door. “By the way, how long are you staying?”
“We’re leaving Sunday.”
“Well, we’ll send a shuttle around to pick you’all up tomorrow afternoon once the fox is settled, then we’ll take you out to the preserve for a private tour.”
“Cool!” Adam said,
“How many of you are there?”
“Nine.” Simon said. He looked around. “Eleven if you count Rags and Lexie.”
“Okay, see you all about two tomorrow afternoon.”
Chapter Nine
Sunday morning came too soon for Simon and Adam. They were not ready to leave vacation mode.
“But think of all the things you’re taking home with you,” Rochelle soothed.
“What?” Simon asked from the backseat of their car.
Peter quickly recited, “Poison oak, bug bites, fleas, blisters, snow burn…”
“Mr. Peter,” Simon scolded, “we didn’t get any of that stuff.”
“I got a blister,” Adam announced, “that day we hiked so far with the fox.” He rubbed his shoulder. “And sore muscles from lifting all that stuff into the trailer.”
“Oh, yeah, sore muscles,” Simon said. “I have sore muscles from all that packing!”
“Nooo,” Rochelle protested. “I was talking about the wonderful memories you’re taking home with you and that you’ll have forever.”
“And pictures,” Simon said. “We have pictures of some of the things we did and saw. When can I get the pictures out of my camera?”
“We’ll take your camera to the drugstore as soon as we get home,” Rochelle promised. “Yes, it’ll be fun to see what you got.”
“Rochelle, you took pictures on your phone, didn’t you?” Simon asked. When she nodded, he said, “Can we look at your pictures?”
“Sure,” she said, handing him her phone.
The boys chortled and commented about the pictures for several minutes before returning the phone to Rochelle.
“Do you think we can ride the horses again before we go home?” Simon asked.
“I doubt it, buddy,” Peter said. “By the time we get to the Iveys’ house, unpack the trailer, and sort out all that stuff, it’ll be dark. We’re going to spend the night there, then leave for home early tomorrow morning.”
“Are we taking Adam back to where we got him?”
“No,” Peter said.
Adam explained, “I’m staying with Dad and Savannah for Christmas, then they’re taking me to my mom’s and other dad’s house for another Christmas.”
“Wow!” Simon said. “So where do you actually live?”
“At my mom’s, because that’s where I go to school. But Dad says I can change schools and live with them if I want to—then I would visit my mom and other dad.”
“Are you going to do that?” Simon asked.
“I don’t know. I like my school and my teachers and my soccer coach. I sure miss my dad when I’m at home, but if I lived with my dad, I would miss my mom. Do you visit your real mom and dad sometimes, Simon?”
When Simon seemed to be brooding, Peter said, “Simon will be starting a new school in a week or so.”
“Really?” Adam said. “Are you scared?”
“Heck no. I’m excited. They have computers for every student. I’ve always wanted to learn more about computers.”
“See, you do have something to look forward to when we get home,” Rochelle said, “Christmas and a new school.”
“And a whole new life,” Simon muttered.
Meanwhile in the second car, Michael reached for Savannah’s hand. “That was really fun—well, except for…but even that turned out well.” He shook his head. “To think that those boys…”
She squeezed his hand when she heard him choke up. “I know. Parenting’s not for the faint of heart, is it?”
He laughed. “No, it’s not.”
“Is Marci still okay with Adam spending Christmas with us after the…um…mishap? Or does she need to hug her son as soon as possible?”
“I imagine she wants to. But she still trusts us to keep him safe and isn’t objecting to us keeping him for a few more days.”
“Good. So what do you have planned while he’s with us?”
He glanced at her and repeated, “What do I have planned? Savannah, have you forgotten that tomorrow’s Christmas Eve? We still don’t have a tree. We haven’t gone shopping for the kids, yet. I think our fate is sealed—there will be no planning because we’ll simply be swept up in the hustle bustle.” He glanced sideways at her briefly while driving. “I know that Adam wants to go shopping.”
“Really?” Savannah asked, surprised.
“Yes, he said he liked giving—he liked the way it made him feel.”
She put her hands to her chest. “Awww, that touches my heart. That’s such an important lesson for children, but not all of them take to it. I guess they don’t all have that giving heart. But Adam does. That’s so neat.”
“Yeah, he wants to get something from him for you, Grammy, and the kids. I imagine we’ll be shopping for his mom, Rose, and Eric, too.”
“Super. And I’ll take him shopping for you.”
“Okay, if he wants to.” Just then Michael said, “Oh, that’s my phone.” He handed it to Savannah. “Want to answer it?”
“It’s from a wildlife preserve,” she said, puzzled. “Hello?”
“Hello, Mrs. Ivey?” a woman’s voice said.
“Yes.”
“This is Claudia. We met at the wildlife preserve yesterday.”
“Oh yes, Claudia. How’s Ms. Fox doing? Still okay, I hope.”
“Yes, she’s wonderful and doing beautifully, but there’s just one thing missing.”
“Oh?” Savannah questioned.
“Yes, we don’t know what to call her. Did the boys name her? If not, would you ask them if they’d come up with a name for her? If they want to, that is. We’d love
to give your boys the honor.”
“Oh, of course. Yes, I’m sure they’ll enjoy doing that. I’ll call you back as soon as they have one.”
“Have what?” Michael asked, when Savannah ended the call.
“Claudia at the wildlife animal preserve has invited the boys to name the little fox.”
“Wow!” Gladys said from the backseat. “Isn’t that an honor?”
“Yes it is,” Michael said. “Call Rochelle and have them get right on it.”
“That’s what I’m doing,” Savannah said. “Hi, Rochelle.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yes. Hey, let me talk to Adam, would you?”
“Sure. Adam, it’s Savannah.”
“Hi,” he said hesitantly.
“Hi. I have a job for you boys.”
“Already? We haven’t even gotten home.”
“What?” Simon asked.
“She has a job for us,” Adam complained.
Savannah laughed and said in a singsong manner, “I think you’re going to like this job.”
“What?” Adam asked suspiciously.
“Well, the director for the wildlife preserve just called and said the little fox is missing something.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Adam asked.
“Nothing. She’s doing just fine, but she doesn’t have a name. Claudia asked if you boys would like to come up with a name for her.”
Adam’s eyes lit up. “Oh, okay.”
“What?” Simon asked.
“They want us to name the fox—to give the fox a name,” Adam said excitedly.
“Us?” Simon asked. “Wow! Did you hear that Mr. Peter?”
“Yes. Man, that’s special, guys.”
“Okay,” Adam said into the phone. “We’re on it.”
“Call me when you have one and I’ll let Claudia know.”
The boys rode oblivious to the scenic views outside their windows as they worked together to come up with the perfect name for the little fox. They proposed and rejected names for miles and miles. Finally, Rochelle smiled back at them and said, “How about sharing your names with her.”
“Huh?” Simon said. “Name her Simon-Adam? That’s dumb and it’s a guy’s name, anyway.
“Excuse me, Son,” Peter said, “let’s not call someone else’s idea dumb. That’s rude, don’t you think so? Rochelle was just trying to help—every idea should be considered.”
