Page 11 of Wandering in Darkness
“I’m older than you.”
“You are my beautiful baby boy. And I will nurture you into a beautiful phoenix.”
“Why am I a bird?”
“And you will spread your beautiful fire wings.”
“Why am I on fire?”
“And you will tackle the fuck out of this world.”
“Why is any of this happening?”
“I will mold you into a splitting image of myself.”
“It’s spitting.”
“Why would I spit on you?”
“I hope you don’t.”
“Well, I’m glad we’ve had this talk. I feel like we got somewhere. Like… just a little bit, but we got there.”
“It’s questionable.”
“The only questionable thing is… how much do you love me now?”
I grin, though Felix can’t see it. “That’s even more questionable.”
“Alright. Here’s the deal. I will go up to the house first. I will knock. If Grayson comes out, I will invite him to breakfast. We will talk about you. I will get to know him. I will snoop through his entire house. It’ll likely be lunchtime by then, so I’ll invite myself to lunch with him. I’ll make sure he takes me somewhere expensive and that he pays. I’ll feel full and tired at that point, so I’ll probably just take a nap, and then when he least expects it, I will actually be up and pilfering things. And then, and only then, will I come out to the car to ask if you want to see him.”
“Wait, so this entire time that you’re eating, chatting, napping, and stealing shit, I’m just waiting out in the car with your pig?”
“No, the pig will go in with me. I’m just saying…”
I’m not quite sure what he’s saying, but I raise an eyebrow and slowly nod. “I see.”
“Sounds like a good deal, yeah?”
“Yeah, sure,” I say, positive that’s not going to happen, but when I pull up to the house the GPS has directed me to, I don’t bother getting out.
“I got this. You want me to punch him for you?”
“I wouldn’t complain if you did.”
“Got it.” Felix doesn’t even waste time waking everyone up. He’s long forgotten about them as he leaps out that door in excitement, prepared to tackle the entire day he has planned. I watch while he trots up to the front door and knocks.
Lane groans and stretches. “Are we here?” He smacks around for Felix, but when he only finds a pig trying to clamber onto the seat to fill Felix’s spot, he sits up.
“We are. Don’t worry, Felix has already run out and planned his whole day with Grayson if he’s home,” I inform him.
“Of course he has,” he says, putting the harness on Copper.
“I’m too tired to exist,” Antonio whispers as Lane leaves the vehicle. Copper leads him over to Felix who is shifting on his feet, quite eager and extremely impatient.
I roll down the window then realize that I don’t hear any barking with all of Felix’s hammering, soooo is Traveler not here?
“I thought you were going to stay in here?” Antonio asks.
