The Adventures of Peter Gray Chapter 14: Sticky Situation Part 2
Chapter 14
Sticky Situation Part 2
As MR. Flint shoved me and me 'yote friend into their
tenement apartment, the smell of mold and smelly liquor cut through me nose
like a knife to the back, but I was more worried about the older 'yote behind
us.
Right after me and Gavin stumbled from Mr. Flint's grasp
and at the other end of the kitchen, shuffling was heard from a nearby room. "Honey,
what's going on? Francis, what in the world-" Mrs. Flint's 'angelic' voice
rippled through the apartment, and I cringed at her eyes darting to me. "Gavin,
did you get in trouble again!?"
"N-No I didn't-"
Francis growled. "Don't talk to your mother like that or," he took a sip and eyed the nervous 'yote
next to me, "I'll give ya a whooping like no other!"
Me ears perked. "Now that I'd like to watch," I spat out in
a giggle. I immediately slapped meself across the muzzle after seeing the
glares around the room.
"Now, will both of ya explains to me what the 'ell ya both
were doing out there?! Both of you were covered in feathers and covered in
glue!" Francis eyed me and pulled at me collar as I tried to back away into a
corner. "Did ya do this to Gavin, mutt boy?"
I stammered afraid and hoped God would gimme mercy for
whatever I did. "I-I-I-I..." the older coyote shoved me against the wall, just
when Gavin decided to be a female dog and talk me down.
"He did! He did, father!" he grinned fer a moment at me and
made a sad look at Mrs. Flint. "I was minding my business outside when this
mutt poured feathers and glue all over me."
I growed and spat, "Only 'cause you and yer goons have been
hunting me for the past month and
hitting me with pebbles and slingshots! And ya lied about me attacking you to everyone 'ere!"
Suddenly, the room went quiet, and I folded me ears and
cringed while Mr. Flint still held me against the wall, staring into me eyes,
thinking up whatever he had in that coyote noggin' of his.
This hadn't been the first time I got meself in trouble
with other cub's parents. There was Mrs. Turner, Lance's mother, who loved to
hit me with a Bible whenever I did something she considered 'sinful' or
'juvenile' in her house, or whenever the raccoon invited me over for dinner.
Honestly, I didn't know why the ma'am put up with me. Maybe it was fate, or the
woman wanted to turn me into a choir boy. Either way, that was nothing compared
to what I feared from Francis Flint's wrath any second.
"Gavin? Were ya attacking this boy?" Francis turned his
ears to the other 'yote. "Were ya?"
I flicked me tail at me ankles and checked to see a look of
horror and fear on the 'yote's tan muzzle, andhis tail curl around a leg of his
like a mast.
"I uh...father please-"
"Answer me, boy! Or do ya wanna be whooped later tonight?!"
Francis shouted with an open maw of canines. Just his shouting near me made me
fur stand on end like a rattlesnake.
"Yes we were! O-Okay yes we were!"
The older 'yote's thick paws loosened and let me stand on
the wooden floor. Now I got ya, ya
wolf-wannabe, I thought happily with relief.
After quickly explaining me past few weeks to Francis and
Mrs. Flint, the two of them stared at a really
nervous Gavin like he were caught stealing money from a boney gentlewolf while
taking the elder's golden cane.
Francis turned to his burley wife and smiled, an action
even I got uneasy from. "So...what do you think we should do about this,
darling?" Francis asked somewhat calmly. The elder's coyote tail was swishing
with grace, unlike from before where it twitched from anger. "We can punish the
boy?"
Mrs. Flint flashed a look of reluctance, but burped before
turning to me and then glancing at Gavin with a smile. "Why not we have the
victim decide?" she asked. "And I mean, Peter, dear..."
Good Lord, it would take longer to describe the look on the
'yote's muzzle than it would to say how long it lasted on his face.
I think I died and went to heaven. I fall on me knees and
began reciting whatever shreds of Scripture were left in me cranium. Then, I
looked up and shouted with glee, "Thank You!"
Francis coughed before taking a sip of his liquid candy in
a bottle to look at me curiously. "Whatcha got in mind, boy?" he asked. "No
torture though." He pointed a finger at me and I folded me ears.
"Aw, but now ya took away the best part..." I whimpered,
erasing all the inventive ideas I was forming in me noggin'. Sitting
against the counter with a swishing tail, I rubbed me chin with me right paw. "Hmmm...what
to do?"
Then it hit me, and I turned to Gavin and his curiously
curious parents with a wicked smile on me muzzle.
I explained me idea to Mr. and Mrs. Flint, but Gavin cleared
his throat quickly in between me last sentence. "No offense, Peter," the 'yote
flicked his tail and twitched his ears uneasily, "but I would rather have my
father force me work at the factory for hours and perform at a Harlem burlesque house while wearing Mama's clothes...than do that."
Me
tail wagged behind me and I stood up to pat his shoulder, which I noticed was
trembling outta anger. "Why not? Ya love to follow me after all, right Gavie?"
I asked with a boyish grin.
"HEE
HEE HEE!" Francis laughed next to me after a moment and placed his bottle down.
"Now that's the attitude I wanna see. Gavin, you'll do exactly that when
school's over next week, end of story."
"But-"
Francis
growled before standing in front of the shorter 'yote. "End. Of Story. Boy."
The older coyote craned his hairy and dirty neck to me in the corner, then gave
(I swear to the Lord and all His Mercy) the hint of a smile. "You, go home now,
before I get sober."
I
perked me ears in surprise, and shifted meself upright to nod to him, a
mumbling Mrs. Flint in the corner of the room sewing something, and the angry
eyes of a 'yote I knew to make a living 'ell next week.