Foxy's Tale

by Karen Cantwell

  “Promised her that if she let you stay here while your dad’s away, we wouldn’t. You know. We wouldn’t . . .”

  “Have sex?” he asked. He sounded so innocent.

  “Yes. We can’t. I promised her. And I told her you’re not my boyfriend either.”

  Nick moved back away from her. He dropped his hands to his sides and then slid them into the pockets of his jeans. “Oh,” he said. “I thought you liked me.”

  “I do. Believe me I do. But I promised. Please don’t make it harder for me.”

  “So, you do like me then?”

  “You know I do.”

  “I know. But I like to hear you say it.”

  Amanda laughed then and knew that everything would be all right. She cleaned the plate and glass and cut a big piece of pound cake for him. She got out some ice cream and added a scoop on top of the cake. “Here. This will have to do.”

  “This might be better than sex anyway, for now.” He cut a piece of cake with a fork and tasted it. When he was halfway through the cake and ice cream, he looked at Amanda and said, “I hope they won’t follow me here. I hope this will get them off my trail.”

  “You mean . . .”

  He nodded. “Mariah and Mimi. They’ve been pretty relentless lately. They even came by when the Family Services woman was at my house. They told her they could move in and take care of things while Dad’s in the hospital. I think they track me all day long. Sometimes I think I see them hanging around outside school. It’s creepy.”

  Amanda didn’t say anything. She was still a bit jealous. And angry.

  “Cat got your tongue?” Nick asked. “Or are you feeling your claws?”

  “I don’t want to talk about them,” said Amanda and turned away so he couldn’t see her face.

  “Aw, Manda,” he said, and it sounded so sweet when he said it that Amanda turned back to face him. “I just said that about Mimi being beautiful because I was just fishing to see if you really liked me. Do you think I’d get sucked into that just because she’s beautiful? That’s just an outside beauty. Underneath she’s ugly. I’m sure of that.”

  “I wish I was sure of it,” Amanda said.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  The snow began heavy Thursday night and never let up. It blew in from the southwest and just kept on coming. As with every storm, it had a center and this time the center bore down on the nation’s capital like an aircraft carrier entering battle. It moved in from Missouri and barreled through Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, and its cousin West Virginia, and landed smack on top of the Capitol. It stalled off the Delmarva Peninsula and churned there for two days, dumping a foot and a half of snow on downtown Washington, D.C., closing schools, offices, even all but the most essential health and government services. Everyone else holed up and stayed shut until it finally ended early Saturday morning.

  When it dwindled to light snow showers, people began emerging from their warrens wearing boots and scarves and hats and gloves. They wielded shovels, and a few city dwellers in the DuPont Circle neighborhoods even had snow blowers, which was rare in Washington because, according to weather experts, that much snow never happened, except for the rare times when it did and everyone went a little crazy.

  Amanda had done the shopping for dinner long before the snow hit, so it was a cozy time above Second Chances. Foxy closed the store and didn’t open it again until Saturday at noon. No one would be shopping, but she felt it was important to show the flag at least. Knot came up from his apartment flushed and happy. He shoveled a haphazard path wide enough for only one person, from his apartment in the back to the front of the building where it joined the sidewalk and even a bit of the walk in front of the store, so if anyone wanted to get in, they could. Congressman X had stayed the night – how would he have gotten home anyway – and Knot was feeling loved. He ran upstairs to begin meal preparation and baking. He was making a chocolate ganache cake for dessert. It would take some time to prepare the chocolate and bake the cake. Congressman X stayed in bed relaxing and getting over a slight hangover. Knot was thrilled the snow prevented him from running off back to the apartment he shared with five other congressmen. No one had seen Myron lately, but Foxy did invite him for the dinner, and he slipped a note in the store mailbox saying that he would be there. He offered to bring a “nice wine” and everyone was wondering what he’d show up with as his contribution. Amanda said it would definitely be a red wine, what with his occupation and all.

  Nick left early to trek over to the hospital. It was in the city, around the corner from George Washington Circle, not that far from DuPont. But he had to walk it through mounds and drifts of snow. There was so much snow he couldn’t tell where the streets ended and the sidewalks began. Parked cars looked like giant marshmallow puffs. All sound was muffled, and walking the streets at sunrise was eerie. Nick kept glancing behind him. He had a feeling he was not alone out here, but he never saw anyone. He trudged on. He wore boots, but the snow was so deep his jeans got wet. The fabric sponged up the melted snow and soon his thighs were freezing, so he tried to walk fast to keep warm. By the time he reached George Washington Circle and pushed on to the hospital around the corner, the sun was a golden disk and rising fast, casting a glow on the white city with soft edges that seemed, this morning, like a huge feather quilt. As Nick walked through the hospital entrance, he turned quickly and just saw the ghost of a person dart out of sight. So quick was the sighting that he couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. It was only a shadow really, and by the time Nick reached his father’s room, he was not even sure he had seen anyone or if it was a hallucination brought on by the shivering of his freezing legs.

  His father looked better, once Nick reached the room where they’d moved him. He was no longer in the ICU, and they’d taken him off the ventilator. He now sported a little oxygen feed below his nose and he was sitting up. Or half up. The back of the hospital bed had been raised so he could look out the window at the city blanketed in white. He smiled at Nick, and this alone made Nick feel relieved.

  “I’m sorry about this Nicky,” he rasped.

  “Don’t talk, Pop,” Nick told him and placed a cold hand on his father’s arm.

  “It’s not fair to you, son. No mother and now a father who can’t even take care of himself. You deserve better. You’re such a good kid.” Talking wore him out, but he seemed determined to say these things to his son.

  “We’ve done okay,” said Nick. “We’re doing fine. You’ll be going to the nursing home on Monday, now that you’re doing better. And it won’t be long before you’re back home.”

  “Did they make you move out?” his father asked.

  “I’m staying with a friend until you get home. I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

  His father sighed and his head rolled to the side. He closed his eyes, and Nick saw a tear roll down one cheek and then another on the other cheek. He didn’t know what to say. He’d never seen his father cry before. He was about to take his father’s hand and rub it when a nurse bustled into the room.

  “Oh,” she said. “Who’re you? The son?” She was a tall, round black woman with a big bust that strained the buttons of her neatly starched nurse’s uniform. “He talks about you all the time. According to him you’re a mixture of Olympic athlete and Nobel Prize winner. But what I see is a kid who’s dripping on my clean floor.” She pointed to where a pool of water was forming around Nick’s feet. “You walk here through all that snow?”

  Nick nodded and stepped away from the puddle, but it followed him. His pants were dripping over his boots, which were also dripping.

  “You’re shivering,” she said and pointed to his legs which were indeed shaking. “Get out of those pants, boy, and let me dry them in the blanket heater.”

  “I can’t take them off,” said Nick. “I have nothing else to wear.”

  She pushed at the door and left as suddenly as she’d arrived. In a moment she was back with a pair of hospital scrubs. She handed them over
. “Here. Green is your color. Now go into the bathroom and take off those wet things. Lord Almighty, men don’t know nothing.”

  She took Nick’s father’s hand and felt for his pulse while she looked at her watch.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  It was like déjà vu all over again, only with the addition of Foxy. Amanda set the table while Knot bumped around the kitchen muttering about the right pan for the onions and the oven was too hot and where was the boiling pot for the rice and did Amanda buy the right kind of bacon – the slab, not the sliced. He was racing around like Road Runner as he assembled ingredients for the Boeuf Bourguignon – the original Julia Child recipe, because of course he was a French Chef devotee and had all the episodes on DVD. Although he was cooking, he was dressed for the party already, and to protect his cashmere sweater and wool slacks he was wearing a professional white chef’s coat over a tied apron. The only thing missing was a toque, but Amanda suspected he’d wear that if he could have gotten away with it. His shoes were Bruno Magli “Raging” slip ons, soft black, brand new, the latest addition to Knot’s wardrobe. He and Foxy were quite the pair, shoppers with enough cash from Second Chances to flip from mall to mall loading up shopping bags until they practically looted the stores of anything worth a purchase. Because of the storm, they’d decided to make this a late lunch meal, so preparations had started midmorning and they planned to eat at two.

  “Amanda,” Knot called out, “come here and stir this beef while I get the ganache ready. I really need a sous chef. But you’ll just have to do, sweetie.”

  There was a knock at the door and Foxy got off the couch to answer it. Myron stood in the hall about two feet back from the door, as if he was not sure if this was the right place or maybe the right day, or even the right people. He looked confused and was holding a small brown bag scrunched at the top. He was wearing his brown coat and scuffed shoes. He was not wet, so he must have come down from upstairs. He held out the bag clumsily and said, “I got for you a nice red vine.”

  “Come in, Mr. Standlish.” Foxy stepped back to let him pass. He scuffled by her and stood inside the door not knowing what to do next. “I can hang up your coat for you. Were you planning on going out?” It seemed odd that he would wear the coat to come downstairs one flight.

  “No, no, thank you very much Mrs., I got a little sniffle in the nose, so maybe best it is I keep a warm coat so it vouldn’t spread around in the building.”

  Foxy smiled and once again confirmed to herself that he was indeed an odd little man. She led him to the couch in front of the window, and he sat on the edge as if he might be called on to spring up at a moment’s notice. He held his arm straight out, offering her the brown bag, and Foxy winked at Amanda, who nodded. They knew he would bring red wine.

  “Is that red wine?” asked Knot. “Excellent. A burgundy I hope. Perfect for Le Boeuf. Oh, there’s my phone. Amanda, take over spreading this ganache on the cake.”

  “But I’m doing the beef.”

  “Oh let the beef lie. The cake needs mothering now. Carefully, with a light touch. Don’t press the cake too hard. You want it all to be light as air when we’re done. Hello?” He picked up his cell phone and immediately cupped his hand over it to muffle what he said. He frowned a couple of times and then put the phone down.

  “What’s up?” Foxy walked over to ask him.

  “If I ever get involved with another politician, just shoot me and put me right out of my misery. That man is so paranoid. He’s coming up, but he wanted a complete guest list first. I already told him, but he seems to think I’m going to sneak someone from the press in here. Well anyway, he’s coming, but there’s something going on. I can’t figure out what.” He took the spatula from Amanda and finished spreading the ganache.

  Nick and Congressman X arrived at the same time. Nick was wet again from the walk back. While he changed his clothes, Foxy offered Congressman X a drink, which he took and followed with a second and a third. They started getting quite chummy, and Knot watched them suspiciously. He leaned over to Amanda who was now stirring the beef again, adding broth and the tomato paste and said, “What is Mama Fox trying to do, flirting with my congressman?”

  Amanda glanced over to the living room where Myron sat stiffly on the couch. Foxy and Congressman X laughed over by the window. Nick walked into the room in a dry pair of jeans and looked around. Foxy laughed more boisterously, and suddenly Knot grabbed the long-handled cooking spoon from Amanda’s hand and told her in an unnecessarily loud voice, “No no, Amanda. Don’t stir it like that. Here let me show you.”

  As he grabbed the spoon, he inadvertently dipped it deep into the pan and came up with a big glob of Boeuf Bourguignon that flew out of the spoon bowl and flung itself down his front, where most of it landed on his right shoe.

  “Oh. Will you look at that? What a mess!” he howled. When he looked to see where the spoon hit, he started flapping his arms around like a crash test dummy upon impact. “No! No, no, no. This is a disaster. A disaster! Would you look at my shoe? My Bruno Magli. Oh, this is terrible, just terrible.” He oozed drama as he backed up, still holding the spoon and more Boeuf mixture fell onto his other shoe. He started hopping around as if he’d been stung by a bee. Foxy and Congressman X ran over. Myron hopped off the couch, suddenly spry, and joined the group. Nick came around the corner of the counter to peer at what was happening.

  “Oh, it’s just a spill,” he said and tossed Knot a dish towel. “Here just wipe it up.”

  “Wipe it up? Wipe it up?” Knot was now hysterical. “I can’t believe this is happening to me. My shoes are ruined. Totally and completely ruined. I can’t bear it.”

  “Hey man, they’re only shoes,” Nick insisted.

  But Knot ripped off his chef’s coat and untied the apron. He tossed them aside. “I must change. The whole outfit is ruined now. Completely and totally ruined.” It seemed as if he might cry. “Where’s my coat? I have to get downstairs.”

  “I can help you, maybe?” Myron offered. In fact, Myron had been wracking his brain trying to find a way to see Knot’s apartment. It was the only place in the house he hadn’t checked. By now everyone was feeling housebound. The snow. The blocked streets. It seemed like a game, so Amanda turned off the stove, covered the food, and they all donned coats and trooped down the stairs, out of the building, and followed the shoveled path single file around the back to Knot’s entrance. Congressman X was still carrying his fourth drink, and the third one had taken affect by now, so he was feeling quite playful and humming Jingle Bell Rock.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  They all piled into Knot’s apartment, which was in a state of post-party chaos. Amanda and Foxy looked around, horrified at the mess. Knot removed his shoes at the door and tossed them into a trash can.

  “Ugh. I’ll never be able to look at another pair of Bruno Magli’s. I swear it,” he announced.

  “Oh, please,” said Congressman X. “You have enough shoes to choke a bull. And that’s no bull.” He laughed at his pathetic joke and slopped gin from his glass onto the floor while Knot pulled open his closet doors and chose a different pair of slacks, a vest, shirt, belt, and socks. Then he leaned down to look through the shoes stacked row upon row across the closet floor. He picked out a black designer pump and nearly fell over as he gasped.

  “Oh my God. Oh my God, look at this. What is this? I’m under attack. Attack I tell you. Some karma from another life has seeped into my soul and is destroying me from the inside.” He held up a shoe that had a gigantic hole in the toe. He wailed and moaned and held the shoe as if he’d discovered a live grenade.

  “Vaht is this, a shoe with a hole in the toe?” Myron peered at the shoe. “Ach, have I seen this before? On the ships once. Don’t I know a rat when I see him chewing avay at my shoe?”

  “Rats?” shrieked Knot. “In my apartment?” He ran to the door, but just before he leapt outside he remembered the cold and the snow, and he stood there bewildered and aghast at the same time.


  Now everyone was alarmed. They looked around as if they expected to see rats everywhere, but of course they didn’t see any, and even if there were rats somewhere visible, they wouldn’t have been able to see them because of the mess.

  “Oh, I cannot stay here. I simply can’t.” Knot stood in his socks, the chewed shoe in one hand, his replacement clothes hanging over the other arm. He looked lost and bewildered. “I’ll have to go home with you,” he told Congressman X.

  “Oh, no you won’t,” Congressman X shook his head, which looked a bit wobbly, and he was slurring his words slightly. “Remember who I live with. I bring you in there and I’m dead. Political suicide. Might as well pull the old trigger. Bang bang,” he went on until Foxy broke in.

  “We have to get an exterminator over here right away. I can’t have rats in my building.” She looked around the room, trying to see where they could have been coming in.

  “Call one now,” moaned Knot, whose revved-up melodramatic mood was crashing into the depths of despair. “I’ll never be able to live like this.”

  Foxy wondered if this was a new problem or it had always been here. “We can’t get anyone to come out in this snow. They’d never be able to get here.”

  Myron raised his hand like a student in class and said, “Who vouldnt like a nice job to find some rats, eh? I got an acqvaintance you betcha vould come over lickety splits. He’s got maybe a vay to get here from not so far avay as you might be thinking. He’s the type who doesn’t let grass growing under his ankles. You vahnt I give him a jingle?”

  Foxy almost giggled at Myron but asked, “Seriously. Do you think he would come today?” She shook her head again thinking about the money she was not making because of this snow storm. “No, he’ll charge me easily five times the usual rate.”

  “Vaht am I, a schlemiel or something? He’ll come; he’ll come. The day is young. A good day for finding rats where they’re hiding out. You’ll see. He is top notch, and because you are so kind to me, he’s only charging the usuals. Not like some goniff.”