Read Waterways for Free Online Page B

murmur, but the second floor was all dark. As the fox opened the front door, Kory smelled the musk of several foxes, strong but not unpleasant.
    “Hi, guys,” Samaki called softly as he walked into a narrow hallway, leaning against an open door. Kory’s paws sank into plush carpet, clean but worn. Over Samaki’s shoulder, in another room, he could see the arm of a sofa and a television set showing an old movie he didn’t recognize. He looked around the hall at the framed art prints, not as large or as elaborate as the ones his mother owned, but interesting: a photo of a hillside pocked with dark holes and red foxes, a still life with brilliant purple flowers, a family portrait where Samaki stood out black in a sea of red. A stairway directly in front of him led up into darkness, and the room to his left that smelled strongly of food was also dark. Before he could look around any longer, Samaki grabbed his paw and pulled him into the living room.
    “Who’s your guest, hon?” a female voice said from the couch before Kory even made it into the room. He walked in and saw a short, slender red fox on the couch, leaning against a pillow, the television reflected in her eyes. She turned to look at Kory and gave him a broad smile, then paused the movie and got up, smoothing down her jeans. She wore a blue shirt with a faded flower pattern on it and had several beads of various colors woven into the fur between her ears.
    “Hi, dear. I’m Samaki’s mother, Mrs. Roden.” She said it ‘road-in.’
    “This is Kory, Mom,” Samaki said. His tail was swinging from side to side.
    “Hi,” Kory said, and stuck out a paw. “Pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”
    She smiled and took his paw. She was barely as tall as he was. “The one from the pool, right? Pleased to meet you too, Kory. I didn’t expect company this late.”
    “Kory missed his bus, Mom,” Samaki said, his ears twitching at the mention of the pool. “Can you give him a ride home?”
    “I think so, sure. Let me find my keys and leave a note for your father in case he comes home while we’re gone. Samaki, you’ll stay here to watch the kits.” She walked over to a side table and rummaged through her purse.
    “Do I have to, Mom? They’re asleep, they’ll be okay.”
    She considered that only for a moment. “No. I don’t know when your father will be home.”
    “Oh, all right.” He sighed. “Thanks for coming down, Kory.”
    “Thanks for the movie,” Kory said, and smiled. “I’ll talk to ya soon.”
    “Bet on it.” The fox’s tail was wagging, and he gave Kory a good shake of the paw that made Kory think of the dark street they’d walked down, paw in paw.
    “Kory, where do you live?” Mrs. Roden said, closing the door behind them.
    “Over in Westmont,” he said. “On Strawberry Lane back of Lincoln Highway.”
    “I know about where that is, but you’ll have to guide me when we get close.” The vixen smiled. “You want to call your mom and tell her you’ll be a little late, Kory?”
    “Uh, no, that’s okay.” Kory would then have to explain where he was calling from and why it was going to take him half an hour to get across town. “I think we can make it in time.”
    Mrs. Roden laughed. “I appreciate your trust,” she said. “All right, here we go.”
    Kory slid into the passenger seat and drew the seatbelt across, looking around the car as he did. There were several bare patches on the seat itself, and both the seat and the back of the driver’s seat that he could see bore numerous claw marks and gouges. Kory pulled the seatbelt across himself, aware of the strong foxy smell in the car that was older and deeper than just Samaki and his mother. He inhaled again, searching for Samaki’s scent, but it was hard to pick out of the mixture.
    “So how was the movie?” Mrs. Roden asked, backing down the drive.
    “Terrible,” Kory said. “We had a great time.”
    “So you like bad movies too?”
    “I liked this one,” Kory