Packing and Truth (Otherwise Untitled)

Story by Moriar on SoFurry

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#70 of Short Stories

A jackalope rummages in his car for things worth taking with him when he and a fox abandon the car for a road trip to the coast.


~ The sun was settling into its comfortable groove of daytime while the jackalope leaned in through the rear door of his hatchback, shoving around various piles of items in his search. "No, not too much in here worth taking. So that duffle'l work fine, thank you.", Linda replied as he motioned to the bag resting on the ground next to his car. "Oh, and I gave some guy a few hundred bucks cash for this hunk of rust, so I don't know who even owns it on paper. So we can leave it here, too."

~ The fox nodded along, leaning against the side of his rattled van. "Sounds good to me. No real valuables, then, if you don't mind my asking?", Greg inquired as he leaned over to peer at the jackalope's progress. Linda replied by holding up a cassette player wrapped in and attached to a thick leather belt, "Just this and.. ah! This." The jackalope pulled out what sounded like a cloak and had the appearance of looking at a dry desert scrub. He tossed it to Greg with the request, "Hold that while I find a couple more shirts? I want to fold it up... Before you ask: That's what an invisibility cloak looks like when it gets stuck on a moment."

~ The view into desert scrub caught Greg's attention, the fox holding it up to peer into the dusty horizon as Linda strapped an unusually heavy cassette player onto his hip. Off in the distance, the fox could clearly make out a steam locomotive frozen as it churned its way across gleaming rails and generally empty desert. "Just.. how old are you, Linda?", Greg inquired as he began to politely fold up the desert garment.

~ Linda turned in place to face the cassette player away from Greg, who took a couple glances to realize the jackalope had momentarily dropped all of his illusions. "Old enough to know that relationships are a gamble." Half of an ear was missing, the short stubs of antler bound in gauze were again visible, and there were deep wisps of gray fur through his brown coat. "Wise enough to know they're usually worth trying." A deeply tarnished six pointed star pinned to Linda's vest read 'MARSHALL', "And young enough to be sentimental about the cloak my mother made me when I left home.", reaching out to take it back from the fox.