~~~~~


*part 10*


     At noon, Lena skipped happily out the front door, hoping to meet Justin halfway at the dump when he came over. To her surprise, he was already sitting there on the porch in one of the lawn chairs.
     He was staring off into space as if the world didn't exist.
     "Hey smelly," she said pleasantly as she walked over.
     Justin slowly looked up at her.
     Lena stopped cold. Her smile vanished in a heartbeat. Her best friend was staring at her as if he'd never seen her before and he couldn't even understand what he was looking at.
     Justin did not speak a word. He couldn't.
     "What's wrong?" Lena squeaked out in a tiny voice.
     The wolffox continued to stare, still trying to comprehend the image that had lingered in his mind for nearly two hours now. That disgusting, horrifying image that had nearly ripped his sanity to shreds.
     Lena took a step closer. "Justin...? You're kinda scaring me..."
     "I saw you eating garbage this morning," he blurted out emotionlessly.
     It was as if the words were a magic spell to turn the young ratgirl to stone. Her body stiffened in place. Her face froze in an expression of deep shock, as if someone had just punched her in the kidneys and the pain hadn't kicked in yet. She turned and fell back into the other lawn chair.
     Justin kept staring.
     For a long moment, the only sounds were the birdcalls echoing in the morning breeze.
     And then, without warning, Lena began to cry. She buried her face in her paws and cried with her whole body, bawling like a little baby. Or like someone who had just watched a loved one die.
     Justin hadn't expected this. The horrible image in his mind was put aside for a moment as he watched this girl, who just a few hours ago he'd seen as his best friend, weeping so forcefully it looked like she might shatter into pieces.
     The little rat's body rocked and shook as if an electric current was being pumped through her.
     Lena looked straight up to the heavens with closed eyes and sodden cheeks. "I-I... I d-do-don't w-want it to end!!!" she suddenly wailed.
     Mr. Tallevasco had heard his daughter's pitiful cries and immediately dropped what he'd been doing. He slammed the screen door aside and came rushing out onto the porch. "Lena! What's the matter!?" He ran to her side, dropped down on his knees, and put his arms around her. He noticed Justin's blank stare. "What Did You Do To Her!?" he growled, and it was the first time Justin had ever seen him angry.
     "It's n-n-not his f-fault, D-Daddy..." Lena managed to convey through her sobs. She hugged her father desperately. "H-he s-saw us this morning."
     Dawning comprehension filled the skunk's eyes. He looked up suddenly to Justin, his mouth falling open as his ability to speak simply disintegrated.
     For several agonizing minutes, the three of them were frozen like that. The moment had made them statues. Justin stared at the rat and the skunk as his thundering, conflicting emotions clashed inside him and rendered themselves null. Lena buried her face in the fabric of her father's shirt, her cheeks crimson in shame and heartbreak. Adam stared at Justin; the moment he'd dreaded had come true, and all his plans for dealing with it had turned instantly to ash inside his mind.
     Finally, it was Lena's soft, whimpering sobs that broke through Justin's emotional tempest. Those pitiful sounds reached their way to his heart. No matter how grotesque the images were, this sound reminded him that he loved Lena, and she loved him, and that he owed it to her to listen to her explanation.
     Slowly, softly, he spoke. "I saw you eating trash, Lena. Why were you doing that? _How_ were you doing that?"
     The tearful young rat looked up at his voice. His words were without anger or revulsion, just an intense need to know and to understand.
     Justin tried to calm his heart and soften his gaze. Lena's eyes were red with tears.
     "Justin?" she asked, in a cracked, wet voice.
     "Yes?"
     "Do you think we could still be friends if... If you knew I wasn't a real girl?"
     A frozen shiver streaked up Justin's spine. What in hell did she mean by that?
     Lena looked up to her father's loving face. "I have to show him," she said, as if asking permission.
     He nodded solemnly. It was the only way to begin to explain it.
     "Look," Lena told Justin simply. She closed her eyes and tried to find her courage. She lifted up the front of her T-shirt, exposing her bellybutton. She held her shirt with one paw, and with the other she poked one finger into her navel, then another.
     Justin watched in rapt, surreal fascination as Lena stretched her bellybutton wide enough to drop a golf ball in.
     She tucked the edge of her shirt under her chin, then reached down with her other paw to pull her stomach hole even farther, until it was wider than she could even open her mouth. The impossibly gaping orifice dripped with a thin, mucouslike slime that was the color of weeds. A fetid, rotting smell wafted from deep within the cavity.
     Justin got a whiff of it and immediately covered his nose. It smelled like the entire dump had been compressed into Lena's belly. "What _are_ you!?" he shouted.
     "I'm garbage," she admitted sadly.
     She had not meant it metaphorically. The inside of her stomach was a dark, marshy green, with oddly shaped unidentifiable lumps inside that reeked of decaying trash.
     Lena *was* garbage.
     "H-how?!" Justin stuttered. "I mean, what... But you're..."
     Mr. Tallevasco reached over to steady the boy's shaking paw, which had a death grip on the arm of his chair. He was glad when Justin didn't pull away. "I can try to explain, Justin, but you have to be willing to accept my answers even though they're impossible," he said, trying hard to sound calm despite the pain he was feeling for his beloved daughter.
     "I'm looking at something impossible already," Justin said flatly. "Could you put that away, Lena?" he asked, sounding a little queasy.
     "Oh, okay," she said quietly. She extracted her paws, and her bellybutton snapped back to normal like elastic. She let her shirt down and held onto her daddy's arm.
     "Justin, do you remember when we first met, out by the front gates? How I mentioned that I was into studying the occult?" Mr. Tallevasco asked.
     Justin nodded.
     "It's actually not just a hobby. It's something I'm deeply involved in. And I don't mean witches and ghosts. I'm talking about things no one in the modern world has ever heard of. Invisible forces that are all around us."
     Adam fixed Justin with an intense, penetrating gaze. "Would you believe me if I told you that emotions are like energy? Like electricity? That strong emotions can accumulate within objects over time, and that those objects can become like charged batteries?"
     "I don't know," Justin answered truthfully.
     "It's true, I promise you," Mr. Tallevasco said sincerely. "It's something that everyone sees and no one notices. You were telling me how your father's car stalls all the time. Does he swear at it?"
     "Constantly."
     "There you go. His angry energy has built up inside the car, and it keeps it from running properly. It's like it's all filled up with some kind of corrosive chemical."
     Oddly enough, Justin did not have much trouble believing that.
     "Here's another example; your stuffed animals, and Lena's. I've studied this emotion/energy connection for many, many years now, and what all the books say and what all my studies have shown is that love creates the very strongest, most vibrant energy deposits. When you cuddle your stuffed animals, when you talk to them and tell them you love them, you are pumping them full of your love. It stays there and grows. Instead of being corrosive, it's like a super strength potion. It makes it so that you become even happier when you're with them. Even just the sight of them warms your heart."
     "You mean, the more I love my plushies, the more loveable they get?" Justin asked. The very notion made a startling amount of sense.
     "Yes, Justin." Mr Tallevasco nodded. "You're taking to this well. I'm glad to see that."
     Justin was quiet, just trying to listen and take it all in. He wanted to understand now. Before, after he'd seen what he'd seen, a large part of his mind had told him to simply run away and never, ever think about Lena again. But that was as impossible as it was unkind. He was glad he'd forced himself to come back to her house. Now his horror had finally subsided, leaving a painfully acute curiosity behind.
     "This energy affects people too," said Mr. Tallevasco. "Some fursons even believe that while our souls are our own, they grow and are shaped by the emotions of the people around us. It's almost like the saying 'you are what you eat': nurturing emotions nourish, and cruel emotions corrode.
     "Except sometimes, the opposite happens. If someone is fed nothing but hate and negativity, then that furson will, most of the time, grow up to be hateful and pessimistic themselves. But like in your case, Justin, you've taken all that horrible bad energy and grown stronger from it. You've wrung what tiny little trickles of affection were possible from the emotions you were surrounded by, and worked hard to keep the cruelty from overtaking you. It's often people like you who have the brightest, most caring souls of all."
     Justin blinked a bit. That was a way of looking at things he'd never considered before, and he felt warmed by Mr. Tallevasco's compliment.
     "I've studied and experimented with this emotional energy for almost my whole life, Justin. I first learned about it from an incredibly old book I found at my local library. It was written by some old, mad recluse who was completely insane and completely brilliant at the same time. The concept fascinated me, and it still does. I spent so long studying the phenomenon that eventually I could actually see it."
     "See it? How?" Justin asked.
     "Well, 'seeing' is not quite the right word," the skunk clarified, "but it's close. Certain objects just look... *different* to me. Some are sharper, or fuzzier, or completely out of focus. Some have colors that seem unnaturally bright. Some draw me closer, and some push me away. I can tell right away how much energy is stored in almost any given object, and what kind of energy it is. For instance, Lena's plushies almost glow they're so full of love. I'm sure yours do too."
     Lena smiled softly. She could see as he did, and she knew it was true.
     "I was in college when it started, and eventually I came to the realization that garbage often has a much, much higher concentration of energy than regular objects."
     That was interesting. "Why?"
     "Well, if you think of objects as batteries for this energy we're talking about, think of them as circuits too. With most objects, the energy that flows in, flows out too. It's a cycle. When an object that holds a lot of emotional significance is thrown away, suddenly there's no outlet for that energy anymore. It stays locked within the object, and even builds up over time."
     "Like a water balloon," Justin mused.
     "Very good!" Adam gave the boy's paw a pat. "So I went to a landfill to test my theory. It was an incredible experience. I nearly passed out, went blind and went crazy all at once. It was staggering! It literally knocked me off my feet!
     "The entire dump was pulsing, rippling, *breathing* with energy! Hate and love, all of it mixed together. It took me hours before I could even look directly at anything. It was like staring into the sun, or directly at a lightning bolt."
     "Wow..." Justin said breathlessly.
     "So as soon as I could, I got a job driving garbage trucks. On my route, I'd study the trash. Over time it got so that I could see right through the bags how many charged-up objects were inside. It was fascinating stuff. I started hanging out at the landfill all the time."
     The skunk paused to remove his glasses and wipe them off on the edge of his shirt. Justin noticed that there were tears in his eyes.
     "One day, I saw an incredibly bright object off in the distance," Adam continued, beginning to waver slightly. "I walked through the trash to see what it was. I'd never seen a single object that carried so much energy before. It looked like a tiny star, fallen to earth.
     "As soon as I reached down to touch it, I *knew* what it was. It was like an electrical shock. Suddenly, the knowledge was right there in my brain: this was someone's soul, and somehow it had become garbage."
     Justin looked at Lena, beginning to understand. She nodded slowly, looking back at him with her scared, sad green eyes.
     "I went home and read through all the books I'd collected on the subject. I made some calls to this small group of other occultists I met with occasionally who believed the same things I did. I eventually arranged a meeting with a man who was older than my own great-grandfather, and who knew more about this subject than anyone. He may have even been the one who wrote that book, I don't know.
     "Anyway, he told me exactly what to do. He said it only happened rarely, but sometimes a furson would be cast so completely aside by life and their loved ones, that their soul, instead of ascending to the next world, would compact itself into a tight, protective ball and be stuck on Earth in a state of dormancy. He said there was a ritual to give these souls life again."
     Mr. Tallevasco paused. His heart was pounding. He'd never told anyone but Lena about this. It took all his strength to say these words that any sane furson would think were the ramblings of a lunatic.
     "It was Lena," said Justin.
     Adam nodded again. "Yes. It was her soul. I went back to the dump and found it again, lying in the same place, still pulsing like a beacon. It was a tiny sphere of pure energy; no bigger than a marble, but it was heavier than lead. I gathered up a huge pile of trash that was composed entirely of items that were highly charged with love-energy. I started the ritual. It took a long time. I had to cut my own palms open and give my blood to this lost soul, who I knew nothing about. The blood was necessary as a binding agent, to link the soul back to the world of flesh again.
     "After a while, the garbage began to melt and bubble, like it was under intense heat. I watched the soul's brightness flicker, getting duller and then suddenly becoming blinding.
     "When I dared to look, Lena was lying there, perfectly reborn as she was when she'd died."
     Lena was crying again, but now it was tears of love for her father. She remembered that night well; her second first birthday.
     "She looked up at me, and she asked me who I was," Adam said as a lone tear rolled down the coal black fur of his cheek.
     "And you said, 'I guess I'm your dad now'," Lena remembered.
     They both paused for a while for Justin's sake, to let it all sink in and settle. The young wolffox sat back in his chair, starting off into space, trying to deal with all of this. If it was true, it meant that his entire world had widened. As preposterous as Mr. Tallevasco's story of emotional energy had been, Justin found that it was nearly impossible to disbelieve. His heart and his very instincts latched onto it; they'd known much longer than him that this was all real and true. It was a deeply rooted subconscious knowledge. Something every waking mind glimpsed at its edges, but could not normally see the whole of.
     "I'm garbage," Lena said again, and this time her quiet voice held a small spark of determination. She was tired of feeling ashamed of what was inside of her, and she was going to finally stop. "My body is made of garbage. That's why you saw me eating it this morning. It's just like breathing or eating food or going to the bathroom. It's something I need to do to stay alive."
     "What happens if you don't?" Justin asked with gentle concern.
     She bit her lip. "I'd rot," she said simply.
     Justin's imagination supplied all that her frightened tone had suggested. He saw in his mind the bubbling, melting mass of garbage she'd been born from, and wondered if that was what she was in constant danger of turning back into someday.
     "That's why we moved," Mr. Tallevasco said. "Lena needs to eat garbage with high levels of emotional energy. Our landfill eventually ran out, and there wasn't enough coming in to create a stable balance. We needed to find a new place that was rich in high-energy garbage. It was like hunting for a gold mine. I'd been doing a survey of dumps and landfills in the surrounding area, and this one was practically lit up like a christmas tree. I had enough money in my accounts to purchase the land. It was an easy choice.
     "You'd be surprised at what kinds of objects store that kind of high energy we were looking for. A lot of times, all it takes is for that object to be handled by someone in a very strong mood. Someone buys a can of soda while they're furious at their spouse; that fury seeps into the can and stays there after it's thrown away.
     "But what Lena needs most are objects that someone's cared for. Love energy is nourishing and sustaining. It endures. Trash full of angry energy can satisfy her only a short while."
     Justin thought about that, and then an awkward smile came to his face. "Like junk food," he quipped.
     Adam stared at the boy for a moment, and then chucked.
     Justin laughed too.
     Lena felt hope suddenly flood into her heart. Justin was smiling. He was laughing! Maybe he could accept her after all!
     "That's a very apt description," Mr Tallevasco said. "I'm surprised I never thought of it before."
     "So, do you understand now?" Lena asked Justin tentatively.
     Her eyes were wide and filled with desperation. Justin realized now that the reason she'd started crying so hard earlier was that she was sure that he'd hate her once he discovered her secret. He'd see her as some kind of monster. He was almost certainly her first best friend ever, and she didn't want to lose that. She didn't want to lose _him_.
     That image of her swallowing a diaper came to his mind again, and he shuddered. But his heart beat down the revulsion he felt. Would he stop being friends with someone if a medical condition forced them to eat through a tube? Or what if they'd they lost their legs in a car accident and had to spend the rest of their life in a wheelchair? Or if they were paralyzed? Or incontinent? Or dying of cancer? Or AIDS?
     Of course not. He couldn't turn his back on a friend under those circumstances. He'd be a horrible furson if he did.
     He reached down and shifted his chair closer, then suddenly leaned over and drew Lena into a startlingly heartfelt hug. Tears streamed down his cheeks. "It's okay, Lena. I love you. You're my best friend! I don't care what you are! I care about *you*!"
     Lena burst into tears as well and held her wonderful friend tightly to her. "Oh Justin...!" She squeezed him and cried all over his cheekfur and kissed him.
     She could not believe this was happening. For weeks now, ever since she'd allowed herself to make friends with this boy, a voice had been nagging her that her secret couldn't stay hidden forever. He'd find out one day, and then he'd run away and never speak to her again. As she'd grown to care about Justin more and more, the fear of that moment had grown stronger and more crushing every day. And now that moment had come. And it had passed.
     He was hugging her. He said he loved her.
     "Justin... You're the best friend I've ever had. You're the best furson I've ever known..."
     "I'll never hate you for what you are inside," Justin whispered tenderly in her ear. "Everyone else hates me for what I am on the outside. I'm not gonna be like them. You've never treated me like they do, like I'm disgusting and worthless. I'm not gonna be like that to you either. I couldn't live with myself if I did."
     He kissed her pretty, furless pink ear.
     "You're the best furson I've ever known too, Lena. Why would I hate you, when we're so obviously supposed to be together? Look at us! Could there be any doubt you were supposed to meet me? We're exactly alike!"
     Lena gasped softly at the revelation. It was true. In her heart she knew without a doubt it was true.
     And as the two of them hugged, Mr. Tallevasco was stunned speechless by what he was seeing. Not, however, because he had any doubt that Justin would accept Lena for what she was and continue to care about her. He had more faith in Justin than that.
     He was stunned because the energy of their souls was doing something he'd never seen before. It was looping and spiralling and snaking back and forth, entwining and dancing to and fro between their bodies. It was like fireworks, or a swarm of butterflies, or an endless field of wildflowers in bloom.
     It was the most indescribably beautiful sight his eyes had ever beheld.


~~~~~


*part 11*


     The two young furs hugged silently for quite some time.
     Eventually, Lena looked up and told her father that she wanted to talk to Justin alone for a while.
     He nodded, respecting that this was the time for them to pick up the pieces of their friendship and do what they could to try and put them back together again.
     Lena led Justin by the paw off the porch. She took him behind the house to the Green Beast, which looked like it was sitting there waiting patiently just for them. Lena hopped up into the back and put out her paw to help Justin climb inside. He got a sudden idea, held up his index finger to say 'wait a minute', then ran and got the big fluffy beach towel. He tossed it into the truck and climbed in after it. He and Lena spread it out, sat down together, and got comfortable.
     "So... Um..." Justin started, without having any idea *where* exactly to start.
     "Ask me anything you want," Lena said right away. "I mean it. Don't think about it or worry that it'll upset me. Just come out and say it. I know how bad it must have scared you to see me eating my weird breakfast. I want you to feel comfortable about me again, Justin. If you think we can, I want us to be friends again like we were yesterday."
     Her caring, and her desperate need to be cared about herself, reached out to Justin's heart. He leaned over and hugged her again, softer this time, as if she was one of his plushies. "We _will_ be friends again, Lena. You want it, and I do too. I can't see any reason why we shouldn't be."
     She let out a tiny squeak of wordless relief and joy.
     "We just have some stuff to talk about first, you're right," Justin said.
     "Whatever you need to know," she readily assured. "And thank you for not being all scared of me. I've always been afraid to have friends before, 'cause I thought when they found out, they'd hate me," she admitted, looking down at her paws.
     "I don't hate you! I promise!" Justin said fervently. He nuzzled her gently with his moist canine nose. "When your dad explained it, I thought about, would I hate you if I found out you were sick? Like, if you got some disease, or got in an accident? And you had to stay in the hospital for a long time with tubes stickin' out of you, pissing into a little bag all the time? If that happened and I turned my back on you, I'd be the biggest asshole in the world."
     She smiled at his caring, then smiled for a different reason.
     He caught the glitter of naughtiness in that smile. He rolled his eyes. "Allright, you can say it..."
     "I thought you already _were_!" she burst out amid giggles.
     He laughed too, and they both felt another wave of relief. If they could get back to teasing one another, they'd be fine. Their teasing, at its heart, was about trust. If one of them said something like that, the other one knew for certain that they didn't really mean it. And that was precisely why it was funny.
     Lena was overjoyed to see Justin really, truly smiling again. "But no, seriously; I'm really, really glad you're still being nice to me, Justin. And that being sick thing you just said, that's exactly what it feels like for me. It's just like having some really weird disease. Except when you're sick, people can understand that. They feel sorry for you and bring you flowers. I felt like I couldn't ever tell anyone about what happened to me. I felt like if I told anyone, they would think I was some kind of monster and they'd try to get rid of me."
     He nodded in understanding. "That must've been really hard on you all this time."
     "Years and years," she said simply, her voice only hinting at how long those years had seemed.
     "Lena... Um..." he began to ask.
     "Ask it," she urged, tugging on his arm. "I told you. Whatever it is, just ask it."
     He took a deep breath, then let it out slow. "Alright. Lena, um, how did you die in the first place?"
     She gasped softly.
     "I mean, if your soul wound up in the dump, and that guy your dad talked to said that that only happened when 'life and loved ones turned their back on you', or something, then..." He trailed off, worried a bit that this was too big, too painful, of a question.
     Lena got quiet for a moment, as if she was arguing with someone inside herself. She seemed to come to the decision that she was not going to fear her memories any longer.
     "I used to be a street kid," she said.
     "My mom was a junkie. She used all kinds of drugs, especially that shit you stick in your arm with a needle. We lived in a cardboard box most of the time. Sometimes we stayed for a while in a shelter, when we were lucky, or in empty houses or at the bus station. Mom was gone most of the time, trying to scrape money together for more drugs. I was cold and sick a whole lot.
     "I don't hate my Mom, and I still wish sometimes that me 'n Dad had been able to find her again. She wasn't mean to me. She just didn't know how to be a mom, that's all..."
     Lena shook her head, as if clearing away cobwebs. "I don't remember hardly anything of those days. Some of it's because I just don't want to. And some of it is because, um..." She stopped and tried to fit what she was thinking into words. "I guess it's like, if the same damn thing happens to you every day for years and years and years, then there's no memories to make. I'd get up, try to find some food in the garbage cans, and wait for mom to come home. That was it. What's there to remember?"
     Justin gave her paw a soft squeeze. "I'm really sorry..." And here he'd thought his own family life was the worst ever. He felt a little ashamed of that now.
     Lena cupped his paw in both of hers, and returned the squeeze. "It's okay. It's over now. If there's one thing I do remember, it was my last day."
     She shuddered, just for a moment, as one solitary sob escaped her. "I was in my favorite alley, looking through the trash bags. It was my favorite because there were five different restaurants all around and they all dumped their trash in the same place. I could almost always find something to eat there that wasn't too gross.
     "Then this man came up behind me."
     She trembled like a leaf.
     "He grabbed me, and he started pulling off my clothes. I tried to scream, but he had a knife and he held it right in front of my eyes. He never said anything. He just threw me over on the pile of trash and... And then he raped me."
     Justin let out a gasp of shock and pulled her close. He gently nuzzled her cheek. "Oh my God, Lena... I'm so sorry."
     Knowing that Justin cared about her so much was like a brightly burning candle in her heart. She felt almost silly now, for thinking he'd ever abandon her.
     She had to go on with her story though, now matter how icky it felt to relive it. "The guy fucked me really hard, but it wasn't for long. He squirted his shit in me, then he picked me up and just threw me across the alley into a dumpster. Luckily I landed on some soft bags. He walked over and looked in at me. I didn't move. I thought if I looked dead he'd just go away.
     "Finally, he left. I just laid there in the trash crying for a long time. I remember the trash bags were actually kind of comfy, and I burrowed down in them and pulled them on top of me like blankets to keep me warm.
     "He'd thrown me away like trash after he used me. I felt like trash. But it wasn't like I was ashamed of myself. I just thought that life had treated me like trash for so long, I should just go ahead and accept it. I snuggled into the bags and said 'I'm garbage', and it was almost comforting.
     "Then the garbage truck came along. I knew if I didn't get out of the dumpster, I'd be tossed in the truck and get compacted. But then I decided that I didn't mind if that happened. I was garbage after all, and garbage gets crushed and taken to the dump. That's just how it's supposed to be.
     "The truck picked up the dumpster and it lifted me way up in the air and tipped me in with all the trash. I actually laughed; I wasn't scared anymore. I just accepted that this was what was supposed to happen to me.
     "The first time the truck compacted the garbage, I got a little scared. But there wasn't much in it yet, so it just kinda squeezed me a little." Lena brushed away the tears from her eyes. "It was like the truck was hugging me, trying to tell me it wouldn't be so bad to get squished.
     "It pushed a little harder next time. Then even harder, again and again, until I lost count. Then one time I got crushed and it just knocked the wind out of me and I passed out.
     "The next thing I knew, I was looking up, and Dad was looking back at me."
     Justin nuzzled her softly. He kissed her cheek, her ear and her hair. "Lena... You're not garbage. Even if you really are inside. You're only garbage if no one cares about you and just tosses you away. I care about you, and I want you to stay right here with me."
     She sniffed back her tears and gave him a few kisses too, tickling him with her long whiskers. "Thank you."
     "Wasn't it kinda weird for you though?" Justin asked. "I mean, you die in a garbage truck, then all of a sudden some strange guy's looking at you?"
     She shook her head. "It wasn't weird at all! Not even a little bit. I took one look at him and I knew he'd saved me. He told me later that he'd cut his paws and given me his blood, but I already knew he'd done something like that as soon as I woke up. See, he really is my dad. He gave me life. He's my dad and I'm his daughter."
     "...I guess so. And you told me you were adopted!"
     She smiled. "Weird, huh? It's actually sorta like both at the same time."
     Lena paused to stretch her legs. She'd been sitting in the same position for a while now and they were falling asleep. She stretched, then wiggled her long pink toes. "Dad's been so good to me. He had no idea who I was when he brought me back to life, but the first thing he did when he saw me laying there was he took off his shirt and wrapped me up in it so I wouldn't get cold. He took me home in his car, and when we got to his place he gave me a nice long bubble bath. I remember that part the most; him rubbing me all over with the washcloth. Getting my fur nice and clean. I'd never felt anything like it before.
     "After that, I said I was hungry. First he gave me some of his old baggy clothes to wear and then he took me to the kitchen. He fed me all sorts of stuff. We sat at the table and talked for hours.
     "When I got sleepy, we went to bed together and he held me in his arms all night long. I'd never felt so safe."
     Justin briefly wondered what that would be like; feeling safe in the arms of a parent.
     "It took Dad a while to figure out that I needed to eat garbage," Lena went on. "After a few days living in his apartment, he was feeding me all sorts of stuff and I was still hungry. Then he made the connection between my 'aura' and the garbage's."
     "'Aura'?" Justin asked.
     "That emotion-energy he was talking about; how he sees it. I saw some lady on a talk show a long time ago, saying she could see people's auras. I thought the word fit pretty good. When Dad looked at me, I didn't give off the same 'vibe' or 'scent' or whatever as normal people do. My energy looked like the same energy coming from stuff in his trash can. So he fed me a bit of trash, and I liked it! I sat there on the kitchen floor and he fed me the whole bag of garbage!"
     Lena's exuberance over the memory made it more comic than puke-inducing. The image of a happy little ratgirl gulping down the entire contents of a trash can was rather funny, in an absurdist way. Justin smiled lopsidedly. "But it's trash! Doesn't it taste awful? How can you stand it?"
     "You know, it's weird, but it actually tastes good!" she said. "It's hard to describe. Like if I eat an old boot, it still tastes like a boot, but I enjoy it anyway." She thought for a bit about how she could possibly explain it to him. "Hey, are there any foods you really hated when you were little, but now you like them?"
     He nodded. "Yeah; peas. I used to roll them into my lap when Mom wasn't looking and then flush 'em down the toilet. Now I don't mind them at all."
     "Exactly!" Lena said. "It's the same thing with me and garbage. I changed, and now I like it. If you put some garbage in your mouth, it'd taste the same as it would for me, but my tongue just likes it for some reason."
     It was a bit of a roundabout explanation, but he thought he understood. "So, what're your favorite 'foods' then?"
     She licked her lips, thinking about all kinds of yummy trash. "Plastic grocery bags are nice, but they're not very filling. House keys are like candy. Pizza boxes, little porcelain statues, smashed-up toys; those are all pretty good. Stuffed animals are just about the best. They make me feel nice and warm inside. And sneakers! Old stinky sneakers! The more beat-up and nasty the better!" she said brightly, describing them as if they were the greatest taste sensation ever.
     "Sneakers!?" Picturing her chomping on one was a little stomach-turning.
     "They're _fantastic_," she assured. "Of course, that's just me. I know it must gross you out. In fact, if you really can't stand the idea, I'll keep on waiting 'till you're gone to eat that stuff. I don't want you to be uncomfortable."
     Justin considered it. "Oh, I don't know. You shouldn't have to go to all that trouble. I mean, I already know that you do. Yeah, it was pretty unpleasant, seeing you eat a diaper this morning. But that was mostly because I didn't understand what was going on. If you need to eat trash, I can deal with it. It might even be interesting to watch."
     "Interesting *because* it's so gross?" she inquired.
     He nodded. "Yeah. Sort of."
     "I heard Dad call that a 'train-wreck fascination' once. He was talking about people slowing down on the freeway to stare at car accidents. He said people are just wired like that; sometimes their eyes wanna look at stuff even when their brains think it's nasty."
     That made it sound like he was just some rubbernecker. "Well, okay. You're right, it would be like that a little. But another reason I wouldn't mind you doing it in front of me is so I could get used to it. You said you didn't want me to be uncomfortable around you. I don't want that either. If I watched you eatin' sneakers and pizza boxes every now and then, it probably wouldn't affect me much after a while."
     "Okay, I understand. And that's very thoughtful of you," she said with a smile and a quick kiss on his nose. "So next time we go out rooting through the day's trash, I'll snack on some of the stuff and you can tell me if you're okay with it, or if it gets too weird for you."
     That sounded reasonable. "Allright then."
     She grinned suddenly. "Hey, wanna see something really weird I can do?"
     He arched a wary eyebrow. "How weird?"
     "Just watch..." She lifted up her shirt again.
     "Are you gonna do that bellybutton-stretching thing again?" he worried. "That kinda made my skin crawl."
     "No, trust me," she reassured. As she stared down at her tummy, she gave a little grunt, sounding almost as if she were going to the bathroom.
     Her stomach bulged.
     Then her bellybutton widened and something began to slide out of it.
     Justin watched in eye-popping disbelief as a transforming toy robot emerged out of his best friend's stomach.
     It had a bit of goo on it, but otherwise it looked just fine. Lena wiped it off on the edge of the blanket, then handed it to the stunned little wolffox. "Here!" she said brightly.
     The toy dropped into his paws, and he stared at it as if it had just dropped out of the sky. Finally his lips worked again and he sputtered, "What the _Fuck_?!?"
     She giggled. "Don't get all freaked out! If you'd found that in the dump, you'd be jumping up and down in joy. That's a cool toy! I knew you'd like it." She paused, as if something had tickled her. "Waitaminnit, I think I've got his gun in here too..." She concentrated, and then a little silver-colored plastic weapon spat out of her navel. "Oh good." She handed it to him too.
     "How in the holy name of fuck did you do that!?" Justin yelped, torn between being seriously weirded-the-hell-out, and actually rather impressed.
     She smiled proudly. "I can remember absolutely every single piece of garbage I've ever eaten. It's like an encyclopedia up in my head. Don't ask me how I do it though, I have no idea. It's all just *there*."
     "And you can just... burp it back up at will?"
     "Uh huh!"
     He ran a paw through his hair. "That is just... I don't know what that is!"
     "Well I think it's cool!" Lena declared. "And it's really handy, too. If I want something, and I know I've eaten it, I can just make another one."
     Justin shook his head. "You're going to have to go into a little more detail on this. I still don't get how..."
     She tried not to get frustrated. This was second nature to her, but totally new to him. She tried to keep that in mind. It would be like if she suddenly had to use urinals from now on: she knew of their existence, but they were completely foreign to her. "Okay, okay. Basically, it's like this: I eat something, it gets digested, just like you. Now, regular food just goes on through me into the toilet, like you too. But garbage... It's like I take the energy from it, but the things themselves are left behind. Like when you eat fatty foods, the fat cells stay in you."
     "Okay, I understand that," said Justin. "We did a thing on food and the digestive system last year at school. The pancreas, the spleen, the duodenum. All that stuff."
     "Good. So, here's the weird thing; If you eat lots of fat, you get a big butt. But I eat all this garbage, and it stays inside me, and then it's like it just vanishes! I've eaten probably a couple hundred garbage truck's worth of junk since I got reborn, and it's all still there. Yeah, whenever I eat a hamburger it comes out as a turd the next day..."
     "Bit too much information," he cautioned.
     She blushed. "Sorry. But you get the idea. Dad says it violates some fundamental law of physics. He says I'm like a black hole. Matter goes in, and where it ends up, nobody knows. Maybe I'll just blow up one day and spread a gajillion tons of garbage all over the whole town!" she said with a chuckle.
     Justin was starting to get it. "So, even though the stuff's digested, if you want it again, you can un-digest it?"
     "That sounds about right," she agreed.
     Justin looked down to the transformer in his paws. It looked like it turned into a black sportscar. And, yeah, it was indeed a pretty cool toy. "Thanks, Lena. That was really nice of you. Freaky, but nice," he kidded.
     "You're welcome. Actually, I've got whole piles of stuff inside me you might like! Toys are usually really high in love-energy, more than just about anything else, so I eat a lot of them. I already got their energy, so they're just sitting there in my... wherever the stuff goes."
     Justin chuckled at the image of her spitting out a huge pile of toys, and him checking each one to see if he was interested in it. "Okay, that might be pretty cool. So, why don't you just get rid of all of it then?"
     She rolled her eyes. "Duh! Because it might come in useful someday! Hey, you're glad I kept that thing, aren't you?" she asked, indicating the robot in his paws.
     "Yeah, but that's not what I meant. If you're worried you might blow up, why not just spit it all out? Like letting air out of a balloon before it pops."
     She thought that was a fair question. "I've thought about that, but part of me, like an instinct, thinks it's supposed to stay in there for some reason. Like vitamins or something. And I'm not really worried I might blow up. Don't take me seriously all the time!" she chided.
     "Hey, this is all new to me! I don't know _what_ to take seriously! You could tell me you can pull trash bags out of your ass and I wouldn't know if you're kidding or not!"
     She fell over backwards laughing. "No, I can't do that!"
     "That's a relief!"
     "Oh, but you know what I can do?" she popped up and asked with the type of eager smile that suggested it was something really delightfully gross.
     "...What?" he asked, not sure he wanted to know.
     "I like to do a little 'spring cleaning' sometimes. Inside me, I can kind of shift things around. I'll get together a lot of stuff I know I won't need for anything later; soda cans, candy wrappers, diapers, stuff like that."
     "What exactly do diapers taste like?" he interrupted.
     "Not bad. Chewy with a creamy center."
     Justin grimaced really hard. "Eeeeeuuuww!"
     Lena smiled proudly. It was quite an achievement to gross out a boy, and one who'd spent most of his life in a garbage dump too! "Actually, the worst part about them is knowing what they are. I just close my eyes and pretend they're something else. Anyway, I get together this big pile of stuff I don't need, then I can just puke it all up at once! It comes out of my bellybutton in this huge fountain!" she described with gusto. "One time I did it and the pile I made was even taller than I was!"
     Justin was stuck between wanting to go throw up and laughing his tail off. "You are the most disgusting furson I've ever met!"
     "Why thank you!" she said flirtatiously.
     He snickered.
     All of a sudden they were both startled by a series of quick knocks on the side of the Green Beast. Mr. Tallevasco showed up a second later holding two glasses of lemonade. "Geeze, I can't tell you how happy I am to come out here and find you two laughing!" he said with a wide, relieved smile.
     Lena and Justin took the cool drinks from him gratefully. "Thanks, Dad!" Lena said.
     "How are you doing, Justin?" the bespectacled skunk asked sympathetically. "I mean, this is a lot to have to deal with in one day."
     "I think I'm mostly okay with it," Justin said calmly. "It's kinda weird and gross, but Lena's my friend, so it's not that hard to deal with."
     Lena leaned over and rubbed her shoulder on his, giving him a happy 'thank you' smile.
     Justin thought of something else. "And, y'know, living with my family, I've had to get used to weird shit happening to me all the time. It's just a part of the daily routine. I come home from school, and I have no idea what'll happen when I walk in the front door. Maybe nothing. Or maybe Mom'll scream at me for a while. Maybe my brothers will dunk my head in the toilet for the three-thousandth time. Maybe my Dad'll be there and he'll smack me around for an hour or two."
     Lena and her father both cast sympathetic glances at him.
     "But it happens. It's scary, but you learn how to live with it. You learn how to react quicker. When something fucked-up happens, you identify it, accept it, and figure out how to get out of it as fast as possible with the least amount of bruises. I guess, in a way, I'm almost grateful to them. Something like this comes up with Lena, and I'm just naturally wired to go, 'Okay', and move on."
     Mr. Tallevasco smiled at the young wolffox in a way that was both proud of him and sad for him. "It must take a lot of courage to live like that."
     Justin shrugged. "I don't know about that. Mostly it's just a matter of having to. If I didn't get like this, I'd probably be a coma vegetable, or worse, just like my dumb brothers."
     "I've never met them, but I'm sure you're not anything like them at all!" Lena told him firmly and lovingly.
     He smiled warmly at her. "Thanks. That means a lot." He was about to take a sip of his lemonade.
     "Wait! Stop," Lena said.
     Justin looked at her, puzzled.
     She concentrated, made a little grunt, then reached down and pulled something out of her bellybutton. She reached over and deposited in his glass a little red paper umbrella.
     She clinked glasses with him. "Cheers!"


~~~~~


*part 12*


     Justin spent the whole afternoon talking with Lena, asking questions and finding out all sorts of fascinating things about her condition. The more she described it and the more details came clear, the less frightening and strange it became. Justin was actually starting to think it was all pretty cool.
     And also, in a strange way, none of it was really surprising to him. Some tiny part of his instincts had 'sensed' something odd about Lena from the very first time he'd met her, but the sensation was so small he hadn't paid any attention to it. So, whereas some other furson might have gone stark raving mad if they'd found this out about a friend, Justin was much more interested than afraid.
     It occurred to him later that his surprisingly easy tolerance for Lena's circumstances probably had a lot to do with his own family. They were all perfectly normal, at least physiognomy-wise, and they all scared the living hell out of him. Lena was kind and pretty and funny and the best friend he'd ever had. Who cared if she ate a few used paper towels every now and then?
     When it came down to bare bones, he simply knew he felt safer with a trash-munching ratgirl who'd come back from the dead than with his own parents.
     A _lot_ safer.
     As the sun was starting to go down, Justin said goodbye to Lena and her dad and trotted off back home. It would be best to eat dinner with Mom and the three gorillas for the next few nights, lest they get suspicious.
     While he poked at his half frozen/half burned TV dinner, Justin kept thinking about Mr. Tallevasco's meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and wondering how he could possibly force down the glop in front of him.
     It also occurred to him that in all the hoopla of discovering Lena's secret, he'd completely forgotten what he'd gone over there for in the first place.


          * * *


     When the school bus let him off in front of his house the next day, Justin didn't even bother telling his mom he was home. He darted straight off for the dump.
     He looked for Lena a while, but she was nowhere to be found. It seemed she wasn't in an exploring mood today.
     Undaunted, the intrepid wolffox continued on to the little brown cabin past the woods. He swung around back for a moment to say hi to the Green Beast (who seemed, as always, glad to see him), then came around the other side of the house to the porch and knocked on the front door.
     Lena answered in purple shorts and a pale yellow tanktop, holding a TV remote.
     Justin blushed; she looked _really_ cute!
     She looked surprised to see him. "Oh! Hi Justin! Come on in!"
     Inside, the sounds of after-school cartoons wafted through the air like a demented symphony. On the screen, a badly animated cat and mouse were attempting to beat the crapola out of each other, with predictably zany results.
     Lena plopped down on the floor a few inches from the screen. She picked up the bowl of popcorn she'd been snacking out of and handed it to him. "Want some? After friday night, I've been craving more of this stuff."
     "You didn't get it out of the same dumpster, did you?" he kidded, and took a pawful.
     "Nope," she said, grinning. "If I did, I'd have to give you fifty cents every time you ate some!"
     "You never did pay me," he said with a mock-scowl.
     "Oh, right..." She dug around in her shorts pocket a bit, then emptied out the contents on the floor: a blue plastic wallet, a small pile of coins, a foil rainbow sticker and a gummi worm. She handed him two quarters. "Here ya go."
     He politely refused. "Aw, it's okay. I didn't really mean it. You keep it."
     She shoved the coins back at him. "No way! I dared you and you accepted, so you earned the money. I'm a rat of my word," she insisted.
     Shrugging, Justin pocketed the change.
     Lena took a sip from her soda. "So, what brings you over here? Wanna go to the dump?"
     "Actually, I was thinking about what we were supposed to do yesterday."
     Lena paused as if struck by a tiny bolt of lightning. She turned and gaped at him. "Really?!"
     "I guess so. Why not?" he said. "I mean, if you don't want to..."
     She stood up in a flash and put her paws on his shoulders. "Are you kidding? I'd love to help you move your treasure chest! I just can't believe you'd still be okay with me doing that!"
     He was rather puzzled. "Well, why wouldn't I be?"
     Lena growled kiddingly. "Boys are so dense!" she shouted, then suddenly nuzzled noses with him. "You dummy. I thought you'd be all not wanting to because of what happened yesterday."
     Justin was still puzzled, and he didn't think he was being dense. "I don't see why. I mean, we talked it out and I thought we were okay with everything," he said sincerely.
     Lena took a moment to just regard him with wonder. "Wow, you really mean it. You're not just being nice to me..."
     "What? What!? Why should I be upset?"
     "Because," she said with a tap on his nose from her forefinger, "I've been lying to you the whole time we knew each other. I was keeping my deep, dark secret from you and I thought for sure you'd feel like you couldn't trust me anymore."
     He still looked, and felt, confused. "Nope. I don't feel like that a bit. I understand why you wanted to keep it a secret. It's no big deal for me. There's stuff I haven't told you about me yet, and that's just because I haven't gotten around to it. I still trust you, Lena. Keeping a secret's a lot different than lying."
     She hugged him, and felt a little dumb for thinking he'd have reacted any different than this. "You're not dense, Justin. I'm sorry. You're just a really, really nice guy."
     He nuzzled her ear. "It's okay. I'm sure you never expected anyone to find out your secret and then be okay with it."
     "Yeah," she agreed. "It's almost freaking me out how quickly you're accepting all this!"
     He smiled. "I guess I just don't see any reason not too." He patted her forearm. "So, you wanna go grab some shovels, head off to the woods and dig that big sucker up?"
     She gave him a bright grin. "Sure!" She flicked the television off without a moment's hesitation.



     As luck would have it, they not only found two strong, sturdy shovels in the toolshed, but Lena also remembered that they had a wheelbarrow in the basement. The two of them went downstairs to retrieve it, and Justin noted that her basement was spooky and cool enough to make a haunted house out of during Halloween. Lena took that as a compliment.
     Together they lugged the huge old-fashioned wheelbarrow up the stairs. It was a rusty dull green, with wooden handles and a fat little rubber tire in front. It looked plenty big enough to move the footlocker.
     Thusly armed, they headed off for the woods behind Justin's house.
     They took a small detour by the front gates to check in with Lena's dad. Mr. Tallevasco also seemed quite pleasantly surprised that Justin was still willing to entrust them with his greatest treasures. The plaid-clad skunk said he wished he could join them and add his strong back to their team, but unfortunately he was still on the job. The two little ones said they didn't mind and that they'd have fun doing it by themselves anyway. It would be an adventure. Mr. Tallevasco wished them luck, and gave them each a (store-bought) snack cake for the journey.
     The terrain of the dump was way too bumpy for a wheelbarrow, so Justin and Lena took the long way around. As they walked, they talked about some of their recent acquisitions from the trash and other lucky finds. Justin mentioned that last thursday at lunchtime he'd found a whole untouched brown paper lunchbag just lying there in one of the big rubber trash cans. When the bell rang and no one was looking, he'd stealthily hidden it in his backpack. Despite being on the school's free lunch program, it was always a good idea to grab food when it was available, he explained. He never knew when he'd get it at home after all.
     As the rat and wolffox continued on their journey, they also inevitably gave each other rides in the wheelbarrow. Justin found that Lena had amazing upper-body strength and could run like a horse. She raced him through the woods so fast he was scared stiff they'd crash into a tree at any moment. It was, of course, highly entertaining.
     Eventually they arrived at the half-buried footlocker. Justin paused to simply take in the idea that it would no longer be there after today. "I'll miss coming out here," he said softly.
     "We don't have to do this, if you don't want to," Lena said comfortingly, her soft paw on his shoulder.
     Justin took a deep breath and washed his sentimental thoughts away. "No, I'm okay. This was my special secret spot where I could be alone with all my stuff. I've been coming here for a long, long time. I'll miss it, but you're right; my stuff isn't safe here. In fact, now that I think about it, I'm really surprised my brothers never stumbled onto it. I guess I'm just lucky they're too old to come out here and play around in the woods anymore."
     She gave him a comradely one-armed hug. "Well, we'll make sure they never, ever find it now!" she said brightly. She jammed her shovel into the soft, dark earth. "Let's get to work!"



     Over the next few hours, the two of them dug and dug until all their muscles were sore. The footlocker wasn't buried very deep, but it was anchored into the ground quite tenaciously. They ended up with a chubby ring of piled-up dirt encircling their excavation site.
     Thankfully, the sun wasn't too scorching that afternoon. It was mild out for a change. There was even the occasional much-welcomed cool breeze.
     The sounds of shovels crunching into soil and dirt raining down in heaps finally gave way to the tune of two very tired sighs. Justin and Lena sat down in the dirt, back to back, and took a breather.
     "We did it," Justin panted.
     "Yup," Lena huffed.
     For a while, that was all the speech they were capable of. They sat and took deep breaths, feeling the sweat rolling down their fur and the sensation of the blood flowing through their tingling muscles.
     "And now we gotta heave that big fucker up into the wheelbarrow and drag it home," Lena grumbled.
     "Wheeee," Justin said, with oodles of sarcasm.
     They waited a while longer until they thought they could actually move again. Lena got up first, then held out a paw to help heft Justin to his feet too. He was starting to realize that Lena was in much better shape than he was. It was a bit embarrassing to be weaker than a girl like that. But then again, that kind of attitude was part of what made his brothers such chunky, muscleheaded jerks.
     Once it was free of the bonds of the soil, Justin found that the footlocker was actually lighter than he'd expected, even with it still full of stuff. He'd imagined it weighing half a ton or so. Thankfully, his imagination had blown it so out of proportion he found he could easily deal with the reality of it. He and Lena 'heave-ho'ed a bit and slid it into the wheelbarrow with a satisfying thud.
     The trip back to Lena's house took a lot longer than the trip from there. Aside from the task of having to lug the heavy wheelbarrow, they were both a lot more tired out than they realized.
     At first they'd hauled the wheelbarrow in shifts. That had worked okay until their shifts started getting progressively shorter and shorter as their arms got tired quicker.
     As they took a much-needed break under a weeping willow tree, Justin had an idea. Once they felt rested and were ready to carry on again, each of them took a handle apiece in both paws and carried the wheelbarrow together. Sharing the weight was much better. Soon they were making a lot faster progress home.
     They arrived in Lena's front yard as the sun was setting, turning the trees to black silhouettes against a tangerine peel sky.
     Mr. Tallevasco was on the porch waiting for them, having closed up the dump just a few minutes earlier by chance. Seeing that the two kids looked like they were both about to drop dead on the spot from exhaustion, he swooped in and took the wheelbarrow from them and trundled it back behind the house. He returned to find the young furry duo splayed out on the cool grass, panting heavily, but smiling from the satisfaction that they'd realized their quest at last. The tall skunk gathered them both up under his arms like bales of hay and took them inside. He plopped them down on the couch (Soooooo comfy after all that walking!) and went to get them some ice water. Justin promptly dumped half of his on his face and the other half on his feet.
     When they'd rested enough, Mr. Tallevasco offered to drive Justin home. The young canine was in a quandary. He knew his feet would hurt like hell if he had to walk all the way back home, but he also didn't want to risk any of his family seeing Lena's dad dropping him off. A compromise was struck when the bespectacled skunk offered to drive him most of the way there and let him off far enough from the house that they wouldn't be spotted together. That sounded good, and Justin agreed.
     There was still one more thing he had to do before he could leave though.



     Now the sky was a soothing blue-purple. Justin, Lena and Adam walked out to the backyard where the Treasure Chest was still waiting patiently in the wheelbarrow.
     "Thanks for letting me keep this here," Justin said to Mr. Tallevasco.
     The lanky skunk gave Justin's shoulder a pat. "I'm happy to. You can come over whenever you like and check up on it. It's worth it just for me to know you'll sleep better, knowing your treasures are safe."
     Justin shook his paw gratefully, then turned and gave Lena a hug. "And thank you for helping me drag the damn thing all this way!"
     "You're welcome. But if you decide all of a sudden you want it back where it was, I'll cream you," she threatened cutely, waving a teasing fist in his face.
     He chuckled. "I'd have to be a total idiot," he assured. He looked around and took notice of the modest little toolshed standing out in the yard a little beyond where the Green Beast slumbered. It was painted a pleasing shade of easter-candy blue. Justin thought it looked like a fine place to hide his loot.
     With Mr. Tallevasco's help, he hefted his Treasure Chest up out of the wheelbarrow and together they dragged it across the lawn. Lena ran ahead and held the door of the shed open for them. The two males laid it down on the smooth wooden floor and Justin nudged it into an aesthetically pleasing position in the corner.
     The shed was much bigger inside than it seemed. There would be plenty of room for Mr. Tallevasco's tools, and for Justin and Lena both to come in and sit and look at his collection whenever they wanted.
     Justin smiled contentedly. It had really happened. From Lena's suggestion two days ago, to now. And here it was; his beloved footlocker, full of his most treasured possessions. Now in its new home. He would never have to worry about it again. No more fretting about the tortures his brothers would inflict upon his stuffed animals if they ever found them. No more having to sneak back and forth in the middle of the night.
     He gave the big black box a loving pat. "There. You're safe now," he whispered to his plushies inside. "I'll come visit you all the time. I promise."
     He walked out and shut the door behind him. He looked up to Mr. Tallevasco. "I'm ready to go now."



     Justin's mother nagged him a bit for coming home late and missing most of dinner, but he barely heard her. He offered to wash all the dishes and that seemed to assuage her.
     The young wolffox stood at the sink as he scrubbed and looked out the window to the bright white moon above.
     He couldn't imagine a safer place for his plushies than with Lena.
     'I just hope she doesn't get hungry and eat them someday!' he thought, and giggled.


~~~~~


*part 13*


     Bright and early next Saturday morning, Justin was waiting nervously on the steps in front of his house.
     Mom was still asleep, and the Three Horsemen Of The Apocalypse had already scarfed down a messy breakfast and left for football practice. There was no one around to watch him tag along with Mr. Tallevasco, but he was still worried nonetheless. His heart was filled with the nameless dread of what would happen if his family ever found out about his friendship with Lena and her dad. He had no specific worries, just a certainty that whatever happened, it would be really, really bad.
     His ears perked up at the sound of a growly but well maintained old engine coming closer. Then, way down the road, the Green Beast approachethed.
     Justin jumped up and grinned as it arrived in front of his house. Worries were forgotten in an instant.
     Lena popped up and leaned out the passenger side window. "Good morning!" she shouted sweetly.
     "Hey, Lena! Hey, Mr. Tallevasco!" The young wolffox's tail was wildly wagging.
     Lena's dad came around the other side, looking very official and resplendent in his garbageman's uniform. It was just a hat and a loose-fitting green jumpsuit with an embroidered nametag over his pocket, but it looked great on him nonetheless. His huge bushy tail swayed proudly behind him. He filled his uniform with the pride of a man who loves his work.
     "Hey there, Justin!" Mr. Tallevasco called out. He walked over and patted the boy on the head.
     Justin lifted up the two bulging black trash bags that had been sitting at the curb. "Here ya go," he said as he handed them ceremoniously over to the tall skunk.
     Adam chucked them in the back of his beloved trash truck and smiled fondly. "Her first pickup in years! You can tell she's happy; listen to her motor purr!"
     Indeed, the Green Beast's engine did sound uncannily like the contented rumblings of some giant prehistoric cat.
     "Let's get out of here before my mom sees me," Justin suggested.
     "Good idea," Mr. Tallevasco agreed. He ran back around to the driver's side. Lena held her door open for Justin and he hopped up beside her.
     The inside of the Beast's cab was quite impressive. Everything was shiny and polished. Justin liked all the old-fashioned-looking controls on the dashboard and the gigantic steering wheel. The seats were glossy black faux-leather. They were roomy and very comfy. A pine-scented air freshener hung from the ceiling (mostly as a joke), and a few pictures of Lena were tucked into the top of the windshield. And, just as Lena had said, there was a translucent crystal skull on the gear shift lever that glistened liquidly in the sunlight.
     Adam pointed to it. "Picked that up at a yard sale once for six dollars."
     The skunk stomped the gas pedal and the Green Beast gave a joyful roar as she started out on her second maiden voyage.



     Since the whole town of Flat Stone was very rural, there were often long, woodsy stretches between houses. In fact, it was almost half a mile to Justin's nearest neighbors. It left them all plenty of time to talk.
     "This is the coolest truck I have ever been in," Justin declared.
     "Thanks!" Adam called out over the thrum of the engine. "Me and Lena both worked hard to get her back in shape. Remind me later and I'll show you some pictures I took when we first bought her."
     "It was awful!" Lena said sorrowfully. "She'd just been sitting in some parking lot for years getting rusty. The city hadn't been taking care of her at all! Seeing her like that was like finding a kitten with a broken leg on your doorstep. We had to rescue her!"
     "You sure did a good job then!" Justin said. "She looks brand new!"
     "Thousands of dollars and thousands of hours of work," Mr. Tallevasco said with a happy sigh. "Every second's been worth it. Some guys might buy some old muscle car and fix it up in their garage, or maybe even snatch up some sleek, hot european model that can go three times the speed limit on the freeway. But how many people have their own customized vintage garbage truck?" He grinned proudly. "The Beast's unique, and that makes her special!" He gave the dashboard a proud pat.
     Moments later, they arrived at their second stop of the day. Six white trashbags and a broken-up coffee table lay there at the curb, ripe for the plucking. Adam, Lena and Justin all hopped out and tossed everything inside, careful not to be too rough with the bags. After all, who knew what fascinating treasures lurked within?
     As they drove off, they noticed a toddler waving excitedly at them from his livingroom window. Adam gave the horn a toot. Justin was sure it made the little guy's day.
     "Ooh, yeah. Just remembered." Mr. Tallevasco popped open the glove compartment. "Got somethin' for you," he told Justin.
     Justin grinned as he was handed a pair of nice thick rubber gloves (Lena was already wearing a pair herself, along with her favorite overalls), and a baseball cap onto which Mr. Tallevasco had carefully printed in permanent marker: 'Official Garbageman's Assistant'. "Wow! Thanks!" Justin said with a grin and a wagging tail. He put on the hat and gloves and admired them in the side-view mirror. He thought he looked very professional now.
     "How come I don't have a hat?" Lena whined playfully.
     Adam gave her a one-armed hug. "You never asked for one, sweetie." He paused, then thought a bit. "Actually, you two would look cute with matching hats. I'll get right on it after supper tonight."
     Lena consulted her inner encyclopedia of trash. "Actually, I think I can whip something up right now..." She concentrated, and Justin watched as a bulge appeared in the front of her overalls. She reached inside and came out with a blank cap just like Justin's. She put it on and looked satisfied. "There!"
     The weirdness of her being able to do that was almost completely gone now. Justin even envied her a bit. After all, how cool would it be to carry around a huge storehouse of stuff and be able to retrieve anything you wanted whenever you felt like it?
     "How's it look?" she asked him as she adjusted the cap to fit comfortably around her big ears.
     Justin stroked his chinfur thoughtfully, like an art appraiser. "Pretty good. But it doesn't say 'Official Garbageman's Assistant' like mine," he added smugly.
     Lena 'hmph'ed. "I'll fix that then!" She grunted a bit, and the front of her overalls protruded again. She reached in and pulled out a magic marker. "A-ha!" She pulled off the cap and tested the tip on a bit of scrap paper that had been lying on the dashboard. "Nope. This one's dry," she said disappointedly.
     After a few more stops, there were about a dozen or so dry magic markers lying on the floor of the Green Beast's interior. Adam was doing his best to contain chortles at his daughter's plight.
     She tried another one. Finally, a mark! "YES!!" she bellowed, nearly making her father steer off course.
     Justin fell over laughing.
     "Okay, next time we stop, you make my hat like Justin's," Lena told her dad.
     "Will do, sweetie."
     They stopped a minute or so later and picked up another pile of bags. One of them looked like it might contain some dolls and stuffed animals, so Lena was excited about that. She tossed it in the back and looked forward to finding it again later.
     As Justin tossed in the last of the bags (and realized that, yes, he was starting to sweat already), Lena sat on the edge of the collection bin and watched while her father dutifully made her hat official.
     He handed it back with a sheepish grin. "Sorry, honey. It ran out of ink. I could only do the initials for now."
     Lena scowled at the hat which now read 'O G A'. "Darnit."
     Justin grinned. "If you really want, we can swap hats for now."
     She jumped down and walked over to give him a quick smooch. "That's okay, but it was sweet of you to offer."
     Justin blushed.



     The next few hours were some of the most enjoyable Justin had ever spent. The work was occasionally tough (like the giant curio cabinet that was so damned heavy he was sure he'd be having nightmares about it for weeks), but mostly it was just tossing bags in the back of the Green Beast's hungry maw. That was something Justin would have gladly volunteered to do anyway, just for fun. And on top of that, he was actually getting _paid_ for this! It was like being paid to eat donuts, or to sit around watching TV!
     Several people came outside to meet them. Mostly it was just to say hi to their new garbageman; get a 'feel' for the guy, or to voice their opinions of the new trash collection idea in general.
     Surprisingly, Justin's mom turned out to be very much in the minority with her opinion. Most people they talked to thought the new service was a great idea, and welcomed not having to drive up to the dump every week. One woman even offered them a plate of cookies!
     The best part of the job though was just being with Lena and her dad. The three of them talked about all sorts of stuff, told jokes, told stories, and just generally got to know one another even better.
     (One thing Justin finally got around to asking was why he'd never seen Lena in school. She laughed and told him that the explanation was blindingly obvious. Since she'd just suddenly popped back to life years ago, there were no official papers that said she was Mr. Tallevasco's daughter. They couldn't possibly enroll her in school without arousing undue attention. And since Adam was a former teacher anyway, he'd just been home-schooling her all this time. Once it was put like that, Justin realized it made a lot of sense, and he felt a little silly for not figuring it out himself.)
     All day long, Justin did his very best to be helpful. Most of the time, the work flew by like nothing. Despite the fact that a lot of people had saved up their garbage for the first day they wouldn't have to haul it away themselves, it was mostly just the standard bags and cardboard boxes. Nothing too heavy or cumbersome. Justin definitely thought he'd rather spend a *dozen* days slinging trash than have to dig up and move another footlocker.
     There were relatively few problems from the people along the route either. There were however, a few misunderstandings. At least three people had to be informed that the city didn't allow Mr. Tallevasco to pick up bags of lawn clippings (for whatever bizarre, bureaucratic reason), and one nearly-hysterical woman wouldn't shut up about recycling bins.
     In fact, the only furson who'd been downright rude was a fat fellow in a 'wifebeater' tanktop who had swore rather colorfully at Mr. Tallevasco when he'd been told that he'd have to haul his giant tweed-covered couch to the dump himself because it wouldn't fit in the back of the truck.
     Otherwise, the people they met were all nice. Lots of people came outside to stare in amazement at the Beast, and many mothers commented on Justin and Lena's cute matching hats.
     At noon they took a break and went by a small local eatery for lunch. Considering they were all quite sweaty and smelly by now, they knew if they ate inside they'd probably asphyxiate the other diners. Being courteous fursons, the trio decided that that wouldn't be polite. So Adam went in and quickly ordered sandwiches for everyone, asking the waitress to please bring the food out to where they'd be sitting outside. That worked out fine, and they all sat on a shady bench together and shared a pleasant meal, not minding each other's stench a bit.
     Lena and Justin both got grilled cheese, and found out they both considered it their favorite. Afterwards, they just tossed their trash in the back of the Beast, picked up the restaurant's garbage from out back (by far the smelliest and squishiest of the day), waved to the waitress, and departed.



     The day got hotter as it progressed. By two thirty, Justin's shirt was as soaked as if he'd gone running through the rain. Thankfully though, the Green Beast pulled around a corner then and he saw that their next stop was also their last. They'd completed an enormous circle and ended up back at Lena's house.
     Adam parked the Beast in her usual place in the backyard. She idled down slowly, sounding quite content. Adam jumped down from the driver's seat onto the cool grass. He stretched his back, cracked his knuckles, then checked his watch. "Wow, I didn't think we'd be finished until at least three! We made a good team!"
     Lena and Justin scampered out too. "I'm gonna go get some water!" Lena called out as she ran into the house.
     "Bring me some too!" Justin shouted back. He approached Mr. Tallevasco. "So, did I do a good job?"
     The tall skunk looked very pleased indeed. "You did a *great* job, Justin! You were extremely helpful! I don't know how we could've gotten that damn curio cabinet in the back without your help!"
     The curio cabinet had been the undisputed low point of the day. They'd had to go into the woman's house to get it since she was too old and frail to drag it to the curb, and had found it to be about seven feet tall and at least four across. It was made of hardwood and lead glass, and it weighed, approximately, six billion tons. And since it split in two, and both halves fell within the city's size limits, they had to take it.
     "I know!" Justin agreed. "What was that thing made of, titanium?"
     "Who knows? All I'm sure of is that I'm really going to enjoy backing the Beast up to the ravine by the west side of the dump later on and watching that sucker tumble out and smash to bits at the bottom," he said with a devilish grin.
     Justin kneaded his hands like a supervillain. "Yes, yes! Revenge of the garbagemen! Ha-ha-haaa!"
     Adam joined him and they sounded like a chorus of Frankensteins.
     Lena returned with three dripping glasses, wondering what all the maniacal laughter was about. "Are you two allright?" she asked guardedly.
     "Oh, we're just talking about destroying that damn curio cabinet," Justin explained.
     Lena lit up like a lightbulb. "Count me in! Do we have any sledgehammers, dad?"
     Adam took his glass and shook his head sadly. "Unfortunately no. But we are going to drop it off a cliff."
     "Sweet!" Lena did a little jump for joy. Water droplets went everywhere.
     Mr. Tallevasco guzzled his water in seconds. "Well, I'm gonna go inside and put my feet up for awhile," he informed the kids. "Looks like you two have plenty of time to play in the garbage before Justin has to get home for supper. Have fun!" He turned to walk away.
     Justin looked worried for a second.
     The bespectacled skunk turned back around with a grin. "You didn't think I forgot?" he asked Justin playfully. He pulled out his wallet and presented the boy with a crisp ten dollar bill.
     The excited little wolffox accepted the bill reverently, never having been given so much money at one time in his entire life before . He spontaneously hugged Mr. Tallevasco like a bear trap. "Thank you!!" he shouted.
     Adam gave the obviously ecstatic boy a pat on the back. "You earned it, Justin. You did an outstanding job today. I'd be happy to have you come along with us every Saturday from now on."
     "I'd love to!" Justin said immediately.
     Lena came up behind him. "Whatcha gonna spend it on?" she asked, pointing to his new bill.
     "I have no idea!" he admitted truthfully.
     "Let's go look in the trash!" the energetic little ratgirl said as she tugged on his sleeve. "I'm sure it's gonna be a good day today! We're gonna find all sorts of cool stuff!"
     Justin thanked Lena's dad once more for the money, then ran off with Lena to explore the day's loot. Mr. Tallevasco went back in the house, popped a cola, and settled in to numb his brain with some daytime TV.



     Lena was completely right twice. First when she'd said that her dad wouldn't have to compact the trash. They'd picked up the whole town's garbage and the Beast still didn't look like she had a full stomach. She could have easily gone another few miles or so. The piles of bags were all spread out like a smorgasbord before the two kits, inviting them to come on in and discover their secrets. And now they had a nice cool place to look through everything, instead of having to stand outside in the dump in the hot sun.
     Secondly, she was right when she'd said it was going to be a good day for garbage-picking. As it turned out, it was one of the best days either of them could remember. It was an absolute trash bonanza. Both of them wound up with armfuls of loot.
     Lena rediscovered the bag of dolls and plushies and tore it open to find that most of them were just her type. Either some young woman had decided to get rid of all her old toys that she'd outgrown, or some frantic mother had just given up trying to get her kids to clean their room and bagged everything in sight. Within the bag-o-plenty, Lena even found a plush wolf that reminded her a little of Justin. She connected with it immediately and gave it a big hug. She said his name was Nicholas.
     Justin's major find came in a bag full of otherwise ordinary garbage. At the very bottom of a sack filled with the usual paper plates and junk mail, he'd found a small assortment of transformer robots. Three of them were in perfect condition, and two others were just missing an arm or a foot, and still in playable condition. Lena even told him that she had a whole pile of spare toy bits somewhere in the black hole of her tummy, and she might have some limbs that would fit his new acquisitions.
     A little later, while Justin was looking through a collection of dusty crime novels with intriguingly lurid titles, Lena made another discovery. This one made her mouth water: a pair of raspberry-colored ladies' high heels. Shoes, for whatever reason, were often very potent repositories of emotion-energy, and thus quite nutritious and pleasing to the palate. This pair in particular looked especially tasty.
     Justin noticed her looking fondly at them. "Um, are you gonna eat those?" he asked cautiously.
     She nodded. "I was gonna... If you don't mind."
     "Allright. I'm curious now. Go ahead."
     Glad that he had given her his okay, Lena put the first shoe in her mouth and nibbled lightly on its toe. "Mmmmmmm!" she said. She chewed it a bit more, then popped the whole thing in her mouth and swallowed.
     Justin watched her neck bulge oddly as it went down. "Doesn't that hurt your throat!?" he asked with concern.
     "Nope. I'm stretchy, I guess." She started gnawing on the heel of the other shoe. It was easy to tell she was enjoying her snack.
     "So, uh, what does it taste like?" he asked. This was grossing him out considerably less than he thought it would. It was surreal, yes, but more fascinating than frightening.
     Lena gulped down the shoe and let it meet its mate in her stomach. "Delicious! Leathery on the outside, silky on the inside," she said with a satisfied smile.
     "See anything else that looks tasty?" Justin asked.
     Lena looked around and spotted what was left in the bag of plushies. She selected one that resembled a cartoon character she didn't care for. "Sorry, li'l guy, but you're my lunch!" she said predatorially, and popped it in her mouth. She chewed with gusto, enjoying the feel of the fluffy stuffing spilling out into her mouth before she swallowed.
     Justin watched her with a slight fog of unreality surrounding his head. He couldn't believe he was actually watching Lena eat a plushie. He looked around at the trash surrounding him for anything else she might like. "Uh... how about this old sock?"
     "Not right now, but I'll save it for later," she said as she took it from him and stuffed it in her pocket. Then she squeaked and suddenly looked at him with a broad smile. "Justin! You offered me a sock!"
     "Yeah. You're welcome," he said, a little startled by her overjoyed response.
     "Yes, and thank you for that, but I'm excited because you're okay with this! You weren't just saying you were to make me feel better!" she clarified.
     "Well, sure. I think I'm starting to get used to it. Just don't eat anything too nasty and I'll be fine. No diapers."
     "No diapers; I promise," she said solemnly. "But could you hand me some of those army guys over there?"
     Justin turned around and noticed a tiny platoon of plastic army men he'd completely overlooked. He scooped them up and handed them to her.
     She immediately popped a medic in her mouth and started chewing. "Mmm! These guys are like candy!"
     To Justin's surprise, he was actually getting into this. Seeing his best friend so happy made him happy too. "Anything else?"
     "I'm okay for now," she told him. "But thank you so much for being cool about this."
     "You're welcome. If I see any more old shoes, I'll let you know."
     Lena giggled, and her whiskers bounced.


~~~~~


*part 14*


     From then on, life was pretty darn terrific.
     Justin went over to Lena's house to play almost every day after school. They romped through the dump, shared their toys, had long conversations, and just generally did best-friendly type stuff.
     One day, Justin arrived to find Lena sitting in the backyard next to an enormous pile of interesting trash. Just as she'd said she could, she had 'burped up' an amazing amount of stuff from her own internal trash dimension that she thought he might like. Just on first glance, Justin noticed all sorts of things he was wild about. He gave Lena a supercharged, tail-wagging hug for her generosity. They sat in the grass together and looked over all the neat stuff, with Lena spinning stories about where it had all come from. In addition to toys, books and plushies, Justin found plenty of parts and accessories which had a good chance at matching up with some of his other toys that were missing limbs or weapons. And as she discovered more specifically what sort of things Justin liked, Lena was able to 'burp up' even more goodies for him.
     Justin was also getting along great with Mr. Tallevasco. The little wolffox did his very best to repay the kind skunk's generosity in any way he could. He often volunteered to help with household chores and loved lending a paw in the kitchen. On the occasions when he thought he could get away with staying over for dinner, the meals tasted even better for knowing he'd helped create them.
     A week passed, and bright and early the following Saturday Justin was on the job again, his 'Official Garbageman's Assistant' cap perched proudly on his head. They did their rounds even quicker than last time. And after Justin and Lena had played in the day's trash for a while, Mr. Tallevasco took them out to dinner at Arnie's again and surprised them with another movie.
     By now, Justin had twenty dollars hidden carefully away in his little hidey-hole beneath the floorboards under his bed. He'd thought for a long time, and had finally gotten an idea about how to spend it. He would wait until next Saturday when he'd have thirty bucks total, then treat Lena and her dad to dinner. Just thinking about it made him happy. After all, he got plenty of toys and books from the trash, why would he need to go to a store and buy more? This way, he'd be able to pay back a little of their generosity and it would make him even happier than just buying something for himself.


          * * *


     It was Wednesday, and Justin was on the bus coming home, trying to choose a restaurant in the area that wouldn't be too formal or too expensive. One that would be just right. He stared out the window, lost in his own little world.
     His bubble popped when the bus' doors opened and he saw his three brothers sitting on the front steps waiting for him. He stepped boldly off the bus onto the curb, already tensing himself for whatever mayhem they had planned.
     They grinned maliciously at him like a pack of wild jackals.
     They had to be planning something, but Justin was determined not to let their idiocy ruin his day. Whatever crap they had in store for him this time, he'd take it stoically and then just shrug it off like he always did.
     But as the bus pulled away, Justin looked across the yard and noticed something that made his blood run cold.
     His father's car was parked in the driveway.
     He had come home from work early.
     This was _not_ good.
     Shaking badly, but trying his best to stay brave, Justin approached his brothers.
     "You are in so much fucking trouble."
     "Dad's gonna kill you."
     "Wish we could watch."
     Justin sneered defiantly at them.
     "Wanna know why?" Royce asked as he leered closer to his little brother, his fangs glinting with exuberant drool.
     "Not really, no," Justin said flatly.
     "Whoooah! He's a tough little fucker!"
     "Not scared of daddy at all, are ya?"
     "Ha!"
     Royce reached out with his wiry arms and roughly grabbed the front of Justin's shirt. "I'm gonna tell you anyway, you little pukeface. See, I was at lunch today, and one of the guys on the squad asked me if it was my little brother who was riding around with the new garbageman."
     'Oh fuck,' thought Justin.
     "So I'm like, what the hell? And he said his mom saw you out riding along with that goddam skunk like you were best friends. Said you even had a cute little hat! What the fuck was that all about, huh?"
     Justin's jaw was trembling in fear. Not of his brothers, no. Of his father. Because if they knew, he knew, and that's why his car was parked outside now and why Dad was almost certainly sitting inside waiting for him. "I-It's just a job. He's paying me to help him," he explained in a tiny, dry voice.
     "Oh, we already know. That's why we told Dad. He is really pissed at you. He is seriously gonna put you in the hospital this time, you little shit," Royce snarled cruelly.
     The other two guffawed like spectators at a public lynching.
     "So get in there! He's waiting!" Royce clutched Justin by the back of his neck and suddenly rammed him into the screen door. "Oops! I forgot to open it first!" he said mockingly.
     Justin heard his brothers' braying laughter over the buzz of pain coming from his nose. He thought it was starting to bleed.
     Royce swung the door open and hurled his brother inside. Justin landed in a painful heap, cracking his right shoulder against the hard wooden floor.
     "Have fun," sneered Royce.
     Greg and Dave giggled like harpies.
     Justin got up slowly, keeping as much dignity as he could. He glared at them. For the briefest of instants, he wished with all his heart that he could suddenly find himself holding a big fucking gun with a lot of bullets in it.
     He shook that disturbing thought right out of his head. "No." That was going too far, even for dickheads like them.
     Justin steeled himself, readying his body for all the pain he knew was coming, and went off to face his father.



     He found him in the kitchen, seated in one of the little metal chairs. Mom was nowhere to be seen.
     "Get in here," Dad grunted.
     Justin's father was pure wolf. His body was chiseled into a godlike sculpture of muscle from decades of hard labor at The Factory. Every inch of his body was crisscrossed with scrapes, scars and burns. His muscles were taut slabs of steel. His biceps were thicker than Justin's waist. His fingers were fat blunt sausages with claws.
     Justin stepped into the room, feeling smaller and scrawnier than he ever had in his life.
     His father was perfectly quiet, just staring at him. Justin had never seen this before. Usually the old man just started in right away screaming and punching.
     Justin was terrified. He was suddenly very glad he'd gone to the bathroom before he'd left school.
     "Do you know what your brothers told me?" Dad slowly asked, stretching out each syllable to the maximum tension.
     "Yes sir. I think so," Justin answered meekly.
     "Is it true? You've got yourself a nice little job and you didn't tell me?"
     Justin nodded.
     The huge wolf's neck muscles tightened. He looked ready to punch through a brick wall.
     Justin took a deep breath, trying to stand perfectly still and straight and not quiver.
     Slowly, painfully slowly, Justin's father reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out two ten dollar bills.
     Inside his head, Justin screamed in rage.
     "Do you know what these are, boy?"
     "That's my money," Justin growled.
     With a sound that reverberated throughout the house, Justin's father brought his giant fist down hard on the tabletop. It was a miracle it didn't splinter into bits. "YOUR money!?"
     "Yes sir," Justin said as calmly as he could. "I worked for it. I earned it."
     "You don't know shit about working," Dad snarled. With that, he tore both bills in half, right down the middle, and let them flutter to the table.
     Justin opened his mouth, but shock kept him from uttering a word.
     The old man grinned with cruel amusement at his fake son's reaction. "You didn't earn a god damn thing."
     A bolt of anger surged up through Justin's throat. "That was mine!" he screamed.
     "NOTHING'S YOURS!!!" the huge wolf roared back.
     Justin shut his mouth. He was still trembling, but now it was out of sheer fury. His father had been in his secret hiding place. What had he done with his poems?
     "You don't own anything in this house, you understand?" Dad spat. "This house and everything in it, including your ass, is mine. I work for a living. I sweat my fucking ass off all day long so your fucking mother can buy food to feed your ungrateful fucking mouth!!"
     "Fine! Okay!" Justin shouted back. "So what's wrong with me doing the same, huh!?"
     Dad grinned as if Justin was hopelessly retarded. "What's wrong is that you don't even have the sense to do it right, you god-damn little faggot. Normal kids go out and get paper routes. They don't play around in other people's fucking garbage!!"
     Justin was worried even more deeply for a second, until he realized that his father had just used that as an expression. He didn't think his dad knew about his trips to the dump. At least he desperately hoped not.
     "And I wouldn't even be so pissed off about that," the huge wolf rambled on, "if you at least had the sense not to work for some stinkassed goddam skunk."
     "What!?" Justin burst out, sure he couldn't possibly have heard that right.
     "You dumb shit! What the hell is wrong with you? You got wax in your ears? Can't you understand a single fucking thing that comes out of my mouth!?"
     "I heard fine!" Justin spat defiantly. "I mean, what's so bad about Mr. Tallevasco being a skunk?"
     His father reeled as if hit in the face. He clenched his eyes shut and swore under his breath. "You really are the stupidest fucking kid in the world, you know that?" he brayed.
     Justin glared hatefully at him, wishing the old fuck would just have a heart attack and die and leave him alone for good.
     "Skunks are the lowest fucking animals God ever created! I can't believe I have to _tell_ you this! They stink for a reason! It's to let everyone else know to keep away from their filthy asses!"
     Justin could not believe what he was hearing. "You racist motherfucker!!" he exploded without thinking.
     Dad seemed to take the insult as a compliment. "You're damn right I'm 'racist', if that's what you call being smart about the kind of unclean, degenerate shitwads that walks around on two legs among us decent people. And you're also damn right that I fucked your mother! I fucked her a whole lot of times, and I pumped her full of three sons that I'm actually proud of." He stood up and leaned menacingly over the table, and his voice grew dangerously quiet. "But I never fucked her when she had you, you lousy goddam bastard..."
     Justin instictually backed up against the wall.
     "Oh, you're scared of me now? Finally doing something smart, huh?" Dad taunted as he came around the table and approached the shaking little halfbreed.
     Justin scanned the kitchen, looking for the best way to run away quickly, or, as a last resort, to spot something he could use as a weapon.
     The massive wolf loomed over Justin like a vengeful pagan god. "You need to learn a lesson, boy. You need to learn about what kind of fursons God meant decent people like me and your mother to associate with."
     Justin could not contain an insolent laugh at the total insanity of that statement.
     Dad slapped him once, razor quick, across his mouth. "I know why you're standing up for him," he said low and mean. "Has he been touching you? Huh, you little faggot? Is that why you ride around in his little truck? Does he make you suck his cock, boy!?"
     That did it. That crossed all the lines that had ever been drawn. Justin couldn't stand it a second longer. The beating was coming anyway; it didn't matter what he did anymore. "You sick fuck! Of course not!! Mr. Tallevasco's a better man than you'll ever be! He's smarter than you too! He went to college, he used to be a professor! Or do you even know what that means, you dumb fat fucking asshole!?"
     Dad said nothing, he just simply brought his fist around and punched Justin hard enough to nearly knock him through the wall.
     Justin slumped to the floor as a shower of cracked paint rained down upon him. The back of his head had indeed put a massive dent in the wall behind him. His head felt like it had suddenly filled with blood like a balloon.
     "Get up!!" Dad screamed.
     "Eat shit," Justin slurred. He realized one of his teeth was loose.
     An arm like a side of beef reached out and yanked the boy up in the air, nearly snapping his neck. "You think you're big enough to talk back to me, huh? You think you're tougher than your old man? You think I won't kill you right here and now in this kitchen and let your mother mop the blood off the floor when I'm done?!?"
     Justin's collar was cutting off his air, but he still managed to croak out, "Try it. Have fun in jail, asshole."
     With a growl like a freight train, Justin's father hurled him across the length of the kitchen, sending him crashing into a stack of dirty dishes in the sink.
     Justin finally cried out as shards of glass and ceramic pierced his flesh in a dozen places. He dropped off the counter and landed hard on the floor on his side. His right shoulder made a horrible crunching sound. He didn't even have time to wonder if it was broken. His father swept the kitchen table aside with one gigantic paw and headed straight for him.
     "Up!!!" he roared.
     Justin coughed, and a perfect circle of blood dropped out on the tile in front of him.
     "UP!!!"
     Justin mumbled something.
     Dad bent over and grabbed the boy by the back of his head, his claws laying open the skin in four places. "What the fuck did you just say?"
     Justin coughed again, and a tooth fell out onto the floor with a tiny clatter. "I said," he repeated with great difficulty, "that I'm pretty sure I can't do that right now."
     His father threw him back at the floor. "Fine. Stay there. You lie there and you think about our little discussion. I'm going to go in the other room now, and when I come back, you are going to clean up all this broken glass, you are going to scrub this floor, and you are not leaving this house except to go to school for the next four months."
     Justin didn't even have the energy to be shocked or angered at that. He watched sideways from the floor as his father stomped out of the room and his own blood trickled down through his fur.



     An hour later, Justin was still laying on the floor when his father walked back in.
     Justin had had time to check himself over. He was pretty sure the whole surface of his skin was now covered in one immense bruise. He was missing one tooth. His shoulder was almost surely sprained, if not broken. Maybe a hairline fracture somewhere. He was bleeding in more places than he could count. And the back of his head seemed like it was just simply gone, transformed into a soupy mush of tissue over bone.
     Dad threw a broom and a dustpan at him. "Get to work," he spat.
     Justin barely managed to keep himself from cheerfully asking through his bloodied grin, 'Will you pay me ten bucks if I do a good job?'



     That evening, Justin laid in bed with the lights off and listened to his family eating dinner.
     That was another part of his punishment; he wasn't allowed to eat breakfast or dinner for a week. The school lunch was enough, his father had said, to keep his skinny ass alive.
     Justin would not allow himself to cry.
     Despite the fact that his secret hiding spot had been violated and his poems had been left in tatters all over the floor.
     Despite the fact that his door was locked from the outside and his window had been nailed shut.
     Despite the fact that he was in more pain than he could remember in his life.
     Despite the fact that his blood was still oozing past his bandages and staining his sheets.
     He would not cry.
     He was not going to feel sorry for himself. He was not going to whimper and mewl and let that fucking asshole win. He was not going to be broken.
     More than the pain, he felt a fiery rod of anger spiking up through his stomach.
     He Had Had _ENOUGH_ Of This Shit.
     He'd taken it for so long. For years, he'd taken the insults and abuse, the punches and kicks, and had just gone off to his room and slept it off. But that was before he knew what love and friendship and happiness really felt like. Hard to believe it was barely a month ago when all he'd had was his stuffed animals. Now he had Lena, and Mr. Tallevasco. They made him feel like he mattered, like he was worth something. They made him feel cared about, accepted, and loved. They made him feel as if the rest of his shitty life couldn't hurt him anymore.
     But his father wanted to take that away. And that was unacceptable.
     No fucking way was he going to let that overmuscled racist fuckhead win!!!
     With a snarl of rage from between clenched teeth, Justin fiercely punched his pillow as hard as he could.
     He whimpered and tears came to his eyes as a dozen different pains flared up again and clutched at his body like talons.
     The small boy trembled from the pain as he laid himself down again and tried not to move.
     His body felt like it was a heartbeat away from splintering into tiny shreds, but his mind had never felt stronger.
     This was it. He was not going to put up with his father's bullshit anymore. He was not going to be afraid of him anymore. He was not going to take his fatass mother's insults anymore. He was not going to take his retarded jock brothers' abuse anymore.
     He remembered Lena's T-shirt: 'Fuck Everything'.
     That was a pretty good assessment of how he felt at the moment.
     Justin rolled over on his side, trying to keep pressure off his swollen right shoulder. He tried in vain to get comfortable, but that wasn't going to happen.
     Eventually his rage simply burned him out, and he slept without dreams until the next morning.


~~~~~


*part 15*


     The next day, Justin's mother jerked him awake with a hard tug on his right shoulder. Justin let out a high-pitched shriek of pure, white-hot pain.
     "Shut up, you little sissy," she said disgustedly. "Getcher clothes on. The bus'll be here any minute."
     His shoulder throbbed like a gleeful demon was chewing on it. Justin's brain swam up through the pain and realized he was awake.
     "Did you hear me? Get your skinny little ass up!" Mom shouted at him. "Or do I have to beat you worse than your father did to get you to obey me too?"
     "Fine, fine! Give me a second," he grumbled. He sat up, still wearing his clothes from the day before.
     "Change your clothes," she ordered with a nauseated grimace. "You stink like blood and you look like you've been run over by a damn truck."
     'I have,' he thought, 'its name was Dad'. But he didn't dare speak it aloud. His mother waddled fatly out of the room and slapped the door shut behind her.
     Thankfully, his brothers were nowhere to be seen. He was sure they'd feel obligated to weigh in with their own taunts about his father's little lesson last night. That probably just meant he was gonna get it after school.
     Justin slowly peeled his shirt off, wincing the entire time. His blood had dried during the night and virtually _glued_ his shirt onto him. He whimpered and 'arf'ed in pitiful pain as he torturously removed his ruined shirt. He tossed it over on the hamper, and repeated the performance with his jeans, which were thankfully only slightly bloodied. 'Looks like I'm down to only one pair of pants now,' he thought with a sick grin.
     'That's it. Good. Laugh about it. Don't cry. He doesn't deserve the satisfaction of you crying. You're stronger than him. Fuck all his muscles. You're stronger than him because you're a better furson than he is. Fuck him. He's not even your real father. Aren't you kinda proud of that now?'
     Justin struggled into some new clothes and limped off to breakfast. He hadn't noticed it the night before, but he'd bruised his hip pretty badly when he was thrown across the room.
     The Asshat Trio were grouped around the kitchen table, shoveling cereal in their mouths, milk dripping down their chins like a clan of mountain ogres. Justin was about to pull up a chair when Dave shoved him hard in the chest.
     "How hard did you hit your head, retard? Dad said no food!"
     'Oh yeah, right.'
     Justin turned his back on their jeers and laughter and went to go stand by the door, waiting for the bus to come. He had to get the hell out of this house.



     Mom watched him like a prison guard as he boarded the bus. "And if the school calls and tells me you didn't show up, I'll send your father to find you!" she called after him.
     "Yes, mommy," he shot back in an angry snarl. He stepped onto the bus, and he thought the doors closing behind him was the sweetest sound in the world.
     The bus driver, a fat, imperturbable raccoon, took one look at him and cringed.
     "I look that bad, huh?" Justin spat at him. He didn't wait for a reply, he just stomped up the steps and took his seat, ignoring all the stares he was getting.
     It was probably the longest bus ride he could remember.


          * * *


     When the bus pulled up at school, Justin was the first one off, pushing through the doors and barely even waiting for the raccoon to brake. He ran as fast as he could with his limp. He wanted to reach his classroom before anyone else got there.
     Mrs. Robertson was seated at her desk as always. She glanced briefly up at him and scowled in her snippy way. "You're early, Mr. Dalton. That's unusual," she said snidely.
     Justin walked over to her desk. "Look at me," he demanded.
     She was about to give him a good tongue-lashing for using that tone of voice, but her words left her when she actually got a good look at her pupil.
     She stared, horrified.
     Justin turned around once, mostly so the blood-black mess on the back of his head could press the shock even further. "I need to ask you for a favor, Mrs. Robertson," he said as politely as he could.
     She was speechless. This child belonged in an emergency room, not a classroom.
     "I need you to mark me down that I was here for the day. I know you don't like me much, and that's okay because I've been a real jerk to you, and I'm sorry. But I can't be here right now. I have to get to someone who can help me."
     Her jaw moved, but the marten could produce no words, only small squeaks and gasps of disbelief.
     Justin realized that she was looking at him now with the first traces of sympathy he'd ever seen on her face. "Please, I..."
     "That's enough, Justin," she said softly.
     And just like that, their feud was ended. It wasn't her tone that told him, so much as the fact that she'd finally called him by his first name.
     The teacher got out her attendance sheet and marked him present. "You were here all day. Now, do you need me to call anyone?"
     "No!" Justin immediately barked. "Please, don't! If my mom finds out, my dad is going to do even worse stuff to me when he catches me."
     "Your father did this to you!?" she spoke in an unbelieving whisper. Mrs. Robertson reached out a shaky paw to gently cup Justin's cheek. She'd never seen any of her students in such bad shape. It was heartbreaking. Justin Dalton may have been a wiseguy and a perpetual pain in the ass, but no child deserved this.
     Justin nodded. "All I need from you is to just say I was here, that's it. Thank you so much for helping me. And I'm sorry for all the dumbass things I've said over the year. I'm sorry I was such a jerk."
     "That's quite allright, Justin. I forgive you, and I hope you can forgive me too. I was just as much at fault for our little war. But please, I feel like I have to at least call the police..."
     "No!" Justin insisted again. "I'm gonna go hide in the bathroom for a while until everyone's in class and I can sneak out without anyone seeing me. Then I'm gonna go get someone who can help me. Don't worry. I'll be okay. But if you call the cops now, I won't have any time to get somewhere safe and ask for help. Please, just trust me."
     The sincerity and urgency in the boy's eyes was impossible to deny. "Allright. Go then."
     "Thank you," he said again. "And if everything works out, I might be able to get back here sometime after lunch."
     "Allright then." She leaned over in her chair and ever-so-gently hugged the boy, as if he was as delicate as a soap-bubble. "Good luck, Justin. And I'm sorry again for the way I've treated you. I didn't know..."
     He hugged back, and even gave her a little nuzzle on her cheek. "It's okay. I forgive you." He pulled away, knowing the other kids would be coming in any moment now.
     He looked back just before he ducked out the door. "Please don't tell anyone..."
     The door shut silently.
     "I won't," Mrs. Robertson promised to an empty classroom.



     A few minutes later, the first few students entered the room to find their teacher sitting silently, slumped over at her desk with her head cradled in her arms, crying.


          * * *


     Another pickup truck pulled up to the front gates of the city dump. A pudgy otter in a white T-shirt approached the little booth.
     "Three dollars, please," Mr. Tallevasco said lazily.
     The otter looked worried. "Uh, Mister? I got somethin' to drop off, but it ain't garbage."
     Mr. Tallevasco sat up in his chair. His instincts suddenly sensed that something was wrong. "What is it?"
     "Some kid flagged me down as I was passing by the school. Said he needed to talk to you right away, that it was an emergency. He's beat up pretty bad. I think he needs to get to a hospital."
     The otter didn't have to say a word more. The bespectacled skunk dashed from his office. "Justin!?" he called out.
     The passenger door of the pickup opened, and a bloody mess of fur limped out.
     "Oh my GOD!!!" Mr. Tallevasco screamed. He was at Justin's side in a heartbeat, his arms around the boy in a tender, gentle embrace. "Fucking christ, what happened to you, Justin!?"
     "My dad," he replied simply.
     His silver-blue eyes welling up with hot tears, Adam kissed the boy desperately on top of his head. "You're safe now, Justin. I promise you're safe. You did the right thing coming here. I'll protect you, I promise."
     The otter wandered over to them. "You gonna be okay now, kid?"
     Justin nodded to him. "Yes sir. Thank you very much for helping me."
     "You're welcome." He stood there for another moment, feeling incredibly awkward. "I hate just leaving you two here like this. Is there anything else I can do?"
     Justin looked straight into the man's eyes. "You can swear to me you won't tell anyone you saw me. I'd get in a lot more trouble if anyone knew I was here." And he emphasized the word 'trouble' to mean; 'You think I look beat up now? You ain't seen nothin' yet.'
     The man nodded solemnly, kneading the bottom of his shirt in his paws. "Allright. I swear."
     Adam tore his gaze from Justin. "Thank you, sir. You can go now. Everything's under control here."
     "Allright then," the man said warily. Keeping his eyes on the two of them the entire time, wondering what tragedy he'd stumbled into, and how much of it he'd helped to prevent, he got back in his truck and drove away.
     Justin and Mr. Tallevasco were left alone.
     Mr. Tallevasco cradled the little wolffox in his arms as if trying to hold in water from a sponge. "Justin... Oh my god, I can't believe this happened to you! I'm so, so sorry. What happened? Tell me, please!"
     The tall skunk seemed to be crying and panicking enough for the both of them. "Calm down! Please! It's okay, really," Justin said.
     "It's not okay, Justin! What did he do to you? This- This is inexcusable!!"
     Justin lowered his gaze and stared at the sandy ground. "You're right. And I'm not gonna take it anymore. When I got home yesterday, I found out my dipshit brothers told my dad I was working for you. He tore up the money you gave me. And I was saving that up to take you and Lena out to dinner."
     Words failed Adam upon hearing that. He could only hold Justin closer to him, his tears trailing down the boy's shoulder.
     Justin nuzzled the soft jet-black fur of the gentle skunk's neck. "Dad was really pissed, but mostly because you're a skunk. I never knew he was so much of a bigoted asshole. He said that you shouldn't be allowed to walk around with 'decent people', or some dumbass thing like that. Hah! If my dad's a 'decent person', I'd rather be a skunk anyway."
     Adam kissed the boy lightly on his cheek. "I'm glad to hear that, Justin," he said in a barely controlled whisper that was a single breath away from a sob. "I was the victim of a lot of prejudice as a kid. I guess I'm not surprised to find it here too. Thank you for seeing through all those lies."
     "And..." Justin fought back tears of his own. "And he accused you of wanting to have sex with me."
     Adam gasped and half-choked.
     "I stood up for you, and that's when he beat me up. He punched me, and then he threw me across the room into a bunch of dishes. He made me clean up all the blood and broken glass, and then said I was grounded for four months and I couldn't have any more meals for a week."
     The first fires of righteous rage began to flare deep in Adam's gut. They grew and flashed brightly, slowly overpowering the sorrow and the shock. "Justin, I will never let him lay a finger on you ever again. I'm going to take you inside with Lena and then I'm calling the police. They are going to arrest him-"
     Justin suddenly and silently pushed him away.
     Adam was stunned. "What? Please tell me you don't expect me to just stand here and do nothing! I cannot let you go back home to that... that monster!" he shouted.
     Justin looked up to him, and the deadly serious glare in his eyes froze the skunk like ice. "Mr. Tallevasco, I agree with you. He's a monster, and we're not going to let him get away with this. But you're not gonna call the police. I need you to do something else for me."
     "What?" Adam asked weakly, pinned like an insect under that fierce glare.
     "I want you to make me into what Lena is."


~~~~~


*part 16*


     Justin actually made it back to school before lunch. He wasn't hungry, since Mr. Tallevasco had given him a huge meal after he'd finished tending as best as he could to the boy's wounds. Adam put an 'out to lunch' sign on the dump's main gate, drove Justin to school, and wished him luck.
     The little wolffox snuck back into the school building without anyone seeing him. He decided to hide out in the library until lunch and afternoon recess were over. He figured no one would ever think of looking for him there.
     After leafing idly through a book on space travel, Justin went back to class when the bell rang. As expected, none of his classmates were even aware he'd been gone, or at least they didn't seem to be. (Though he got plenty of looks once he sat down, oh boy did he ever)
     As soon as he walked in, Mrs. Robertson fixed him with a heartbreakingly worried stare.
     He smiled back to her, saying, 'Everything's okay now'.
     She sighed in grateful relief.
     And later on in the day, she even gave him an 'A' on a quiz from the day before that he knew he'd really only earned a 'C' on. Attached to it was a yellow sticky note that read, 'I hope everything worked out. If you need to talk with me, or need my help again, please don't be afraid to ask'. She'd signed it with a tiny smiley face.
     Justin realized he liked having Mrs. Robertson as a friend a lot more than being her enemy. 'And all it took was me getting pulverized to a bloody pulp!' he thought with an ironic little smile.



     His mother was waiting for him when he got off the bus. She eyed him suspiciously, but he was pretty sure she didn't suspect a thing. Good. He'd been kind of worried that the otter guy might have gone ahead and called the cops.
     He went to his room, and stayed there.


          * * *


     For the next three nights, Justin went through a living nightmare. His mother treated him like a criminal. His brothers ragged on him constantly, calling him vicious names, poking at his wounds and trying to get him into any trouble they could think of.
     Through it all, Justin did not speak a single word.
     He did not speak when his brothers came back from dinner, patting their bellies and describing in detail how _gooood_ it had tasted.
     He did not speak when Greg tripped him in the hall and made his nose start bleeding again.
     He did not speak when his mother went on a half-hour diatribe about how skunks, and rats too, were inferior creatures in every way to wolves, and that Justin should feel ashamed for even talking to that disgusting garbageman, and that he ought to pray to God for forgiveness.
     He did not speak when his father came home unexpectedly for dinner Friday night and did his best to goad him into starting another fight.
     He did not speak when his father threatened to throw him out of the house forever if he caught him speaking to Mr. Tallevasco ever again.
     He did not speak when his father shoved him.
     He did not speak when his father called him a faggot, and bragged about ripping up his poems.
     He did not speak when his father spit on him in disgust and stormed out of the room because Justin would not respond to his taunts and threats.
     Justin just wiped the spit away and smiled.
     Tomorrow morning was his salvation.


          * * *


     Justin awoke at five in the morning on pins and needles. Not just figuratively. Some of his injuries were finally starting to heal, and it felt like pins and needles were actually being poked into his skin.
     His brothers were still snoring thunderously away in their beds, sounding like an out-of-control monster truck rally.
     He got up and put on his one remaining pair of pants. In the pocket was something he'd kept hidden the last four days, kept it more fiercely guarded even than when he'd brought Cleo home and waited to sneak out into the woods and hide her in the Treasure Chest.
     It was something Mr. Tallevasco had given to him. He pulled it out and unfurled it: a fifty-five gallon glossy black plastic trash bag.
     He lifted it to his nose and inhaled the sweet, clean odor of the plastic.
     "Helooo, ticket to freedom," he whispered to it.



     Several hours later, the alarm clock went off with its usual annoying electronic drone.
     Greg slapped at it until it shut up. Royce sat up, yawned, and picked his nose. Dave tried desperately to conceal his morning erection.
     It took them all a few moments to realize that Justin was already up and awake, and that he was walking around the room throwing things into a huge trash bag.
     "What the fuck?"
     "Why are you up so early, you little retard?"
     "What are you doing?"
     "I woke up early, so I thought I'd clean up the room a little bit," Justin explained tersely. He picked up a stomped-on fast food cup and tossed it in the bag. "I'm getting sick of you guys treating this place like a fuckin' landfill."
     That got their attention quickly.
     "Fuck you!"
     "It's our room, you fuckin' cumstain!"
     "You're one to talk, little mister garbageman-in-training."
     "Eat shit," Justin spat back. "Don't blame me if you like wallowing in your own filth and I don't," he said in his most annoying voice. 'Come on, you dumb fucks! Take the bait!' he screamed in his head.
     Like the predictable lummoxes they were, they did indeed take the bait. Hook, line and sinker.
     "Asswipe!"
     "Disrespectful little prick!"
     "Fuck you!"
     Royce took the lead, as usual. "You're so concerned about cleaning up our room, huh? I see one big huge piece of trash standing right here in front of me!"
     'Yes! Yes! Now, take this to its inevitable conclusion, you neanderthal!' Justin internally cheered. "Oh yeah?" he replied at his snottiest. "Where? I don't see anything!"
     "You, ya stupid queer!" Royce barked. With a beckoning wave of his arm, Greg and Dave were at his side. "You heard him, let's clean up the room!"
     "Yeah! Let's take out the trash!"
     "Bag the fag!"
     'Oh my, that was actually quite clever, Greg,' Justin mused as they all grabbed him and slung him into the big black trash bag. 'I am so glad you dumb bastards can't see the grin on my face!' he thought triumphantly. He began to struggle theatrically.
     "Tie it up!"
     "Hell yeah!"
     Greg and Dave held the wriggling bag steady as Royce tied the top in a thick knot. "There! Think you can get outta that, little bro'?"
     "Ha ha ha," Justin said. "Very funny. Let me out now."
     They cackled like madmen.
     "You've gotta be kidding!"
     "Why the hell should we do that?"
     "You'd just run to Mommy and tell her how mean your big brothers are!"
     "Dad said you gotta stay in the house! This oughtta keep you here!"
     Royce gave the bag a good kick. "Try not to suffocate in there, little bro," he said in a low, dangerous voice.
     'Geeze, he really is a psychopath!' Justin realized. 'I feel sorry for whatever dumb cheerleader he takes out on a date.'
     The three wolves continued to laugh and high-five one another as they left the room.
     "Finally!" Justin relaxed and got comfortable. He'd made sure to only throw soft trash into the bag, and was glad for that. They had tossed him in even rougher than he'd predicted, and his shoulder and lower back were aching like mad again.
     As sounds of breakfast wafted through the halls, Justin found that he could sort of walk on his butt cheeks. He backed up against his bed and leaned on it. He couldn't really stretch his legs out, but he was comfortable enough for now. In fact, in an odd way, it was even exciting being inside the big crinkly trash bag.
     The first part of his plan was a complete success. He knew he could count on his brothers' almost Pavlovian cruelty. Their minds were so woefully simple. Brother + Trash Bag = Brother In Trash Bag. "Dummies," he said with a grin.
     He'd been thrown away physically. Thrown away just like garbage. That was the first part.
     Justin waited patiently for fifteen minutes or so as his brothers ate and left for practice. He actually heard the 'whumph' of his Mom falling back on the couch into her eternal TV-watching position.
     Finally, he heard tiny, dainty footsteps enter his room.
     "Can you breathe in there?" Lena asked in a whisper.
     "I'm fine. Thanks for coming. I knew I could count on you."
     "Of course I came!" she whispered as fervently as she could. "Like I was just gonna leave you here to keep on getting tortured by those maniacs!"
     He smiled, and wished she could see it through the bag. "It was still really brave of you to sneak in here."
     The little ratgirl leaned over to hug the big trash bag full of best friend. "You're even braver, Justin. I really hope everything works out," she said softly.
     "It will," he assured firmly. "So, are you ready to take out the trash?"
     "Always!" she said brightly. She gave him another crinkly hug, then hefted him up in her arms. Then, more carefully than she'd ever done anything else in her life, she attempted to sneak Justin out of his house without making a single sound.


~~~~~


*part 17*


     Lena was sweating bullets as she tried desperately to keep Justin balanced in her arms while she eased the back door shut behind her with her bare foot. "I am so glad you're a scrawny little twerp!" she whispered to him.
     He giggled a bit.
     Once they were safely outside the house, Lena bounded over to where Justin's brothers had already put out the rest of the trash and sat Justin down carefully.
     He let out a huge sigh of relief at the feel of dewy morning grass beneath him. "Cool! You did it!"
     Lena smiled proudly. "Sure did! Your mom never e-" Her voice cut off suddenly.
     Justin wondered what had diverted her attention. "Lena? What happened?"
     When Lena spoke again, she sounded _furious_. "Your father is a fucking jerk!!"
     That had come out of nowhere. "Yes, I know," he said. "And...?"
     "Listen to this note he left on top of the trash! 'To our garbageman. Keep your filthy paws off my son or the next time I see you I'll kill you, you stinking dirty god damned skunk. Signed; R. Dalton'." She let out a long growl of rage.
     "That sure sounds like Dad, allright," Justin deadpanned. The note was disgusting, but he'd been through so much of his dad's bullshit already, it barely even fazed him.
     Lena gritted her teeth and stomped her feet. "That fucker! That dumb racist shitheaded cocksucker!!" she fumed.
     "Go, Lena, go!" Justin cheered her on. "Call him all the names you want! He deserves it!"
     Keeping her voice down so as not to attract attention from Justin's mom, Lena let out a stream of truly creative expletives. "That dick-gobbling shitsucker! That ugly, smelly, brainless asshole son-of-a-fucker! That assraping motherfucking pukesack! That piss-drinking, ball-sucking, leg-humping ass-backwards aborted piece of worm shit!!!"
     Justin was laughing harder than he had in weeks. Hearing his cute little girlfriend cussing out his dad so artistically was beyond hilarious. "Stop! Stop, Lena! I'm laughing so hard I think my scars are popping open!"
     "Shit! They're not really, are they!?" she immediately asked, with real concern.
     "No, no. It's okay. I'm sorry." He giggled again, and the pain did spike up pretty hard. "Ow! It does kinda hurt, but I'm so fucking happy right now, who cares?"
     Lena gave the bag a light swat. "You had me worried, you sonofabitch!" she said with a chuckle.
     "Why Lena, you're absolutely right! I am the son of a bitch! She's inside right now, sitting on the couch like a beached whale!"
     Lena giggled so hard she actually farted.
     When she'd composed herself again, she got out the rolled-up trash bag from her own pocket and started to unfurl it.
     "So when's your dad showing up?" Justin asked.
     "Pretty soon," she said as she started climbing into the bag. "I told him to wait at least twenty minutes after he dropped me off."
     "Okay, cool." Justin took a moment to reflect. Things were moving so fast all of a sudden. 'Wow, I'm really going through with this,' he thought to himself. He'd thought that at least some part of him would be scared, but amazingly, he was high as a kite. He'd become almost light-headed with giddy glee. It didn't even matter that he was risking death. It had to be better than living in this freakshow for a single second longer.
     When Lena was snugly wrapped up in her bag, she skootched closer to Justin and rubbed up against him. Their bags crinkled in a cute way.
     "I'm really excited, Lena," Justin told her softly.
     "Me too. But aren't you scared?"
     "Nope. Not a bit. I was just thinking about that. Why should I be scared? I trust you and your dad more than anyone else on earth."
     She smiled gratefully. It felt good to know her friend had such faith in her. "Thanks, Justin." She snuggled him through the plastic.



     They talked a bit more, until the rumble of the Green Beast's engine could be heard drawing nearer.
     "Oh boy!" said Lena. "Here comes dad!"
     "Betcha fifty cents my mom comes out and yells at him," Justin said casually.
     "You're on!"
     And, predictably, just as Mr. Tallevasco pulled up, all fifty thousand pounds or so of Justin's mother came storming out the door on a righteous crusade. "You sick pervert!" she yowled. "What the hell have you been doing with my son!?" she demanded.
     Mr. Tallevasco was the epitome of cool as he picked up the first bag and tossed it into the Green Beast's gaping maw. "Mrs. Dalton! Good morning! And in answer to your question, I've been paying him ten dollars a week to help me out on my rounds."
     "You know damn well what I mean! You dirty sick perverted deviant bastard!!" she thundered.
     "Tsk tsk, Mrs. Dalton!" said Adam, pretending to be shocked. "I assure you I've done nothing but give the boy a chance at employment. I would think you'd be happy! Most parents are glad to see their children showing some initiative to enter the job market."
     Momma Dalton simmered and fizzed like a fried egg. "I swear to God, you go near him again and I won't even wait for my husband to kill you. I'll do it myself."
     "How, ya gonna sit on him?" Lena whispered to Justin. They both giggled riotously.
     Mr. Tallevasco picked up one of the oddly-shaped, giggling trash bags and laid it down gently inside the truck. "Is that a threat?" he asked conversationally, just like asking, 'Is it going to rain this afternoon?'.
     "What, are you stupid? Of course it's a threat!"
     The slick skunk picked up the other wiggling bag and placed it alongside the first. "Oh, allright. Then I'm sure you must know that seriously threatening to kill someone, and a city employee no less, is a felony that can land you up to ten years in prison." He'd pulled that number out of his ass, but it sounded good.
     And it also did a good job of taking Justin's Mom down a notch. "Get out of here and don't you *never* come back," she hissed like a poisonous snake.
     "Fine then. But since your abhorrent behavior today has forced me to ban your family from using the city dump, I imagine your house will soon be overflowing with garbage you can't get rid of. Maybe you can start a compost heap?" he suggested cheerfully as he hopped up into the driver's seat. "Toodle-oo, Mrs. Dalton!" he called out merrily, and gave the Green Beast's horn a friendly toot.
     Justin and Lena were too busy falling all over each other laughing to hear Mrs. Dalton's pitiful parting salvo.



     "You were great, Dad!" Lena said proudly.
     Mr. Tallevasco had parked a quarter mile down the road and was now working hastily to untie the knot imprisoning Justin within his trash bag. "Thank you, Lena. I can't believe I pulled that off myself."
     The little wolffox took a huge gulp of air once he was finally set free.
     "Justin!" the bespectacled skunk shouted as he hugged the boy. "Are you okay? Could you breathe in there at all?!"
     "I'm fine! But you're squishing me!"
     Adam released him in an instant. "Sorry! I'm just really relieved everything went according to plan."
     Justin nodded, feeling the same. "And yes, I could breathe." He held up his paw and showed off his little black claws. "Built-in air hole makers."
     "Oh, okay. Obviously!" Mr. Tallevasco said with a sigh of relief. He clenched his eyes shut for a moment, as if trying to clear out a bad nightmare. "Honestly, I don't know how I got through that. I was seriously scared there, Justin. Your mother is like..."
     "Go on! Say it!" Justin urged eagerly. "Say whatever you want!"
     "She's like some kind of unearthly demon!" the skunk finally burst out. "The look in her eyes! I think she really would have killed me if she'd had the chance!"
     Justin didn't doubt it. "And isn't it sad that she wasn't angry because she was trying to protect me, but because she thinks all skunks are dirty pervs?"
     Mr. Tallevasco shook his head sorrowfully. "I should pity her, I really should, but I can't. Justin, your mother may be the ugliest woman I've ever met. And I am not talking about her appearance."
     "Show him the note, Lena," Justin said flatly.
     "What note?" Adam asked.
     Lena gingerly uncrumpled the little piece of paper and held it out to him. "You don't wanna read this," she warned.
     Mr. Tallevasco did anyway. His eyes widened as he scanned the words. He finished, and straightened up suddenly, his face a rictus of controlled rage. He looked as if he'd just been slapped violently across the face.
     "Bastard," he said simply. That one word held more sheer fury than Lena's entire colorful tirade.
     Adam wanted to spit on the note, drop it on the ground and crush it under his heel. But he restrained himself; it might become useful later on.
     He stared off into the distance, clearly screaming inside his mind all the things he didn't feel comfortable saying in front of children.
     Justin reached out to take the skunk's paw. "Hey, it's okay," he said gently.
     Mr. Tallevasco looked back, and his eyes were kind again. "Sorry if I frightened you a bit there. I just wouldn't feel right saying all the hateful words I'm thinking right now out loud."
     "That's okay, Dad," Lena said happily. "I already did it for you."
     "That's true," Justin backed her up. "Before you showed up, Lena called my dad every swear word in the entire universe!"
     Adam smiled with an odd bit of parental pride. "Now Lena, that's not nice," he said, without meaning it in the slightest.
     Lena giggled.
     "Well, hop on out of there and let's get started on our rounds, Lena. It'll look suspicious if it's just me out by myself today," Mr. Tallevasco said. He held out his paws, and the little rat took hold and jumped down.
     Adam turned to Justin. "You'd best stay hidden in here. If I'm seen with you at all today, God knows what could happen to me."
     Justin nodded, understanding perfectly. And hiding out in the back of a comfy garbage truck all day wouldn't be that bad anyway.
     Adam reached into his pocket and came out with something. "I did remember your hat, though," he said as he plopped the 'Official Garbageman's Assistant' cap down on the boy's head.
     And for no reason at all, Justin just had to hug him all of a sudden.


~~~~~


*part 18*


     Justin popped the two quarters he'd just won from Lena into the slot and punched in The Factory's number. He was in a phonebooth outside a small hardware store which was conveniently closed on Saturdays. Adam and Lena sat in the Green Beast's cab, eating the lunch they'd just bought from the diner down the road, and using the truck to shield Justin from view should any cars drive past.
     The phone rang a few times, then a gruff voice came on the line. "Hello?"
     Justin tried to sound suitably frightened. "I need to talk to Mr. Dalton right away! Tell him his wife's in trouble! It's an emergency! Hurry!"
     "Okay!" the voice sputtered and set down the phone with a hasty 'clunk'.
     Justin actually felt a little bad about tricking whoever-it-was like that.
     As he waited for his dad to speak up, Justin remembered one of the many vicious things his father had said the night before: 'If I ever catch you talking to that sick fucking garbageman again, I'll throw you out of the house forever!' Justin grinned widely. Geeze, how absolutely perfect. He couldn't have hoped for a better choice of words.
     "What's the matter?" came a sudden loud growl in his ear.
     "Wazzup, Dad?" Justin said casually.
     "Justin?! What the fuck are you doing calling me at work!? This had better be damned important! What's this emergency? Is your mother okay?"
     "Oh, she's just fine," he said lazily. "At least, I think she is. You see, I lied. I snuck out of the house and I'm calling from a payphone."
     "YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!!" the phone roared.
     Justin held it away from his ear and grinned even more. He could practically *hear* the veins popping out in his dad's forehead!
     "When I get off work, I am going to beat that fucking disobedient streak right out of your little-"
     "Oh shut up, ya fuckin' pussy," said Justin.
     Dead silence for a few seconds.
     Then, "WHAT THE *FUCK* DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?!!?"
     "I told you to shut up, you pansy-assed little faggot! Is that clear enough, bitch?" Justin said, a heartbeat away from falling down laughing. His heart was thumping like a bass guitar. This was exhilarating!
     "You-! You god damn little...!! I swear to fucking God when I get home-!! I'll-!!"
     "Don't have a heart attack there, pops!" the cocky young wolffox said cheerfully. "Your work buddies would need a forklift to lift your fat, dead ass outta the factory!" Holy shit! He could not believe he'd just said that! He was on a roll!
     "I'LL KILL YOU, YOU LITTLE SHIT!!!"
     "Uh, that won't be necessary. Remember what you said last night about throwing me out of the house if I ever spoke to Mr. Tallevasco again?" he asked casually.
     "YOU!! YOU!!!" his father was reduced to roaring. By the sound of his breathing, he sounded like he was about to burst a blood vessel in his brain and drop dead any second now.
     "Well, guess who I said a great big 'hello' to when he came to pick up our trash this morning? We had a lovely little chat indeed," Justin said with a great big smile.
     "YOU HAD BETTER HOPE I NEVER FIND YOU, YOU GODDAMN LITTLE PRICK!!! I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL KILL YOU!!! I'LL BREAK YOUR FUCKING LEGS OFF AND BASH YOUR MOTHERFUCKING HEAD IN, YOU FUCKING LITTLE HALFBREED FREAK!!!"
     Justin smiled. He had completely lost all fear of this shouting, tantrum throwing, undoubtedly red-faced, pitiful little man. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. 'Bye now. Have fun explaining to your co-workers who you were screaming all that stuff at."
     There was the sound of sputtering realization on the other end.
     "Have a nice day, Dad!" Justin shouted and hung up.
     Immediately, he fell down in the booth, sliding down the glass and laughing so hard he thought he'd die. He laughed and laughed and laughed and his whole body ached like hell, but he barely even noticed. He laughed until some of his wounds really did open up again and blood came running down his back in tiny shivery trickles. Justin laughed like nothing else in the world mattered, or even existed. He was free. He was free! Free!! His father had thrown him out. Just like garbage. He'd been thrown out physically, and now figuratively. Both halves were in place. "I'm garbage!" he cried out joyfully as his smile split his face and tears streamed down his cheeks.
     "Dad," said Lena conversationally, "I think Justin's lost his mind."


~~~~~


*part 19*


     The rest of the day blew past in a breathless hot daze.
     Adam, Justin and Lena finished their appointed rounds with oodles of time to spare. Justin had a ton of fun catching the bags tossed in the back of the Green Beast's hungry mouth, talking and joking with Lena and her dad, and just feeling free and unafraid at last.
     When the day's work was done, Mr. Tallevasco parked in his backyard and decided to sit in with the kids while they rustled joyfully through the day's haul. Lena and Justin were more than happy to share their hobby with him. He went into the house first, got them all some tasty snacks, and then they started in to explore.
     Justin found all sorts of fun, gross things to feed Lena. Her unique eating habits were completely devoid of any uncomfortableness now. An empty yogurt cup, a cassette tape, a plastic doll head, some old underpants! It was like a game: 'Will Lena Eat It?'
     He also had lots of fun just enjoying his favorite activity with his two very best friends in the world. He found all sorts of neat stuff, but was barely even keeping track. In fact, he was having more fun looking for things for Lena and Adam. He found Mr. Tallevasco some novels and a paperweight for his office shaped like a tiny mountain, and for Lena he unearthed a whole bunch of tiny rubber cartoon characters that she loved at first sight.
     Lena surprised him by coming across a new plushie friend for him. It was a small red fox, lying down with her pretty black paws stuck out in front of her, a serene look in her yellow plastic eyes. Justin clicked with her immediately and said her name was Toffee.



     When the sun went down and the air became cool and sweet-smelling, it was time for the ritual to begin.
     Justin and Lena both handed their bags of new stuff to Mr. Tallevasco and he sat them safely to the side. Justin decided to keep his new little foxie with him. It would be comforting to hold her once it started. And even if she did get ruined, he could always just pop her out of his bellybutton afterwards, fixed up good as new. That was, of course, assuming everything worked out.
     With the solemnity of a funeral, Mr. Tallevasco held out the two fifty-five gallon trash bags for Justin and Lena to step into again. They went in willingly, with hopeful smiles on their faces. Mr. Tallevasco tied them in nice and snug. Then he stepped into the collection bin and placed them deep inside, ensuring that there would be a solid wall of trash all around them.
     "I love you both," he said softly to them, "with all my heart."
     "I love you too, Daddy," Lena replied.
     "I love you, and I trust you, Mr. Tallevasco," Justin said earnestly.
     The bespectacled skunk smiled bittersweetly and carried on with his part in Justin's plan.
     He stepped back out of his beloved trash truck and wiped the sweat from his brow and the tears from his eyes. To the side of the house, there was an enormous pile of garbage bags. The day before, he'd gone to the dump, piled them in the back of the Beast and brought them here. Their purpose was to fill the truck to capacity. He wanted to make absolutely sure that the job would not be done halfway.
     Justin and Lena huddled close together in their comfy, crinkly bags. They held on to each other as best they could. They giggled nervously as they listened to the sound of more and more bags being hurled all around them and on top of them. They started feeling warmer, and the air was getting a bit thin.
     With tears now pouring down his cheeks, Mr. Tallevasco tossed the last bags into place. The pile wasn't all gone yet, but this was all he felt comfortable filling the truck with for now, knowing his daughter and her best friend were somewhere inside.
     A large part of him insisted that he was mad for agreeing to do this. Completely insane. He was murdering them. He was murdering two innocent children. The tears kept on flowing like twin rivers as worry swirled around inside Adam Tallevasco and tried its best to eat him alive.
     He felt the strength leave his body, and he slumped over on the side of the garbage truck, crying harder than he had in decades.
     After a long while, he was able to get himself under control. He sniffed, then readjusted his glasses.
     He patted the Green Beast on her side. "Take care of them," he whispered to his beloved garbage truck. "Do your duty, but don't hurt them any more than you have to. You're a good Beast. Lena and I both love you, and I'm sure Justin does too. I know you won't let us down."
     Mr. Tallevasco climbed slowly into the driver's seat, hesitated one last time, then reached out and punched the 'compact' button before he could stop himself.



     Justin let out an excited yelp as he heard the compactor spring to life. "Oh shit! It's really happening!" he cried out, his voice a mix of terror and joy.
     Lena hugged him even tighter. "Don't worry, Justin! We'll be fine!"
     He hugged her too. The thrum of the hydraulics was all around them. "I'm not worried! I know everything's gonna be okay now! And we can be a family now too."
     "You'll be the best brother ever," Lena said from the heart.
     "And you'll be the best sister."
     They could already feel the start of the pressure building.
     "Say it with me, Justin: I'm garbage."
     "I'm garbage."
     "I'm just stinky, dirty garbage, and I've been thrown away."
     "I'm stinky, dirty garbage, and I've been thrown away."
     "Garbage has to be compacted and taken to the dump."
     "Garbage has to be compacted and taken to the dump."
     The thrum of the hydraulics was now a roar. The whole truck seemed to shake. Justin gently petted Toffee's velvety-soft fur.
     "I'm garbage, and this is what's sposto happen to me," said Lena.
     "I'm garbage, and this is what's supposed to happen to me," Justin repeated.
     The blade was coming relentlessly closer.
     "I love you, Justin," Lena said as a single tear rolled down her cheek.
     "I love you even more," he told her.
     The hydraulics whined tearfully as the Green Beast crushed and digested its meal.


          * * *


     Adam Tallevasco sat on his livingroom couch with the TV turned off, staring at the walls and waiting.
     As he'd expected, a pounding knock finally showed up on his doorstep.
     "Coming," he called out in a hollow voice.
     He opened the front door, having checked several times to make sure the screen was securely locked, and found The Big Bad Wolf huffing and puffing and ready to blow his house down.
     "WHERE THE FUCK IS JUSTIN!?!!??!!!"
     Adam actually stepped back a bit, the voice was so loud. He cleaned out one of his ears with his pinky finger. "I have no idea," he said flatly.
     "Bullshit!!" Mr. Dalton bellowed. "He's here! He has to be here, you sick faggot fucker!"
     Mr. Tallevasco calmly held up the double-barrelled shotgun.
     *SH-SHOCK*
     It's been said there is no sound in the world more instantly terrifying than the blood-freezing ratchet of a shotgun being cocked.
     "I'd appreciate it if you'd lower your voice," Adam said calmly.
     Mr. Dalton was momentarily struck dumb by the skunk's sheer audacity. "You can't point that thing at me!"
     "I can, and I am. This is my house, and you are a trespasser. I'm in fear for my life, and I have every right to shoot you dead if you step one foot closer."
     "Fuck you," the wolf spat, calling the skunk's bluff.
     Gracefully transferring the shotgun to his right hand, Adam reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a miniature tape recorder. "On this tape is a recording of your wife saying, and I quote: 'I swear to God, you go near him again and I won't even wait for my husband to kill you. I will do it myself'. If I blast your balls off right here and now, I can simply play this tape for the police, show them the note you so kindly left me, and they will pat me on the back and thank me for doing my job, which, if you remember, is taking out the trash."
     Mr. Dalton did not move an inch. His muzzle curled into an ugly, defiant snarl.
     Adam put the tape recorder back in his pocket. "Get off my property right now or I will kill you," he said emotionlessly. He lifted the gun's barrels and aimed directly between Mr. Dalton's eyes.
     The wolf took a small, hesitant step back.
     "Get off my property right now or I will kill you," the skunk repeated like a robot.
     Finally, it got through to the wolf's brain that pride was less important than staying alive. The skunk was right; he had absolutely every reason and right to shoot him. Mr. Dalton backed off and went swearing off to his station wagon.
     Mr. Tallevasco watched him carefully until he'd driven fully out of sight.
     Then he went back inside, locked the door, unloaded the shotgun, put the cartridges back in their little box, placed the shotgun in its case at the top of his closet, locked it up securely, took off his clothes, got into his pajamas, laid down in bed, and proceeded to stare up at the ceiling for four and a half hours until he finally fell asleep out of sheer mental exhaustion.


~~~~~


*part 20*


     As the first light of dawn was breaking, two furs were standing in the city dump, huddled anxiously around a third figure lying on the ground. The skunk and rat held hands, hoping, praying that they'd done everything right. They'd followed the ritual as exactly as possible. Just as Mr. Tallevasco had done years ago when he'd given Lena a new chance at life.
     "Please..." Lena whispered.
     Adam squoze her paw.
     Justin opened his eyes and yawned.
     Mr. Tallevasco burst into wild whoops of laughter. He danced around the dump in a frenzied little polka of supreme relief.
     Lena reached over and hugged Justin with all her might. "You're okay!!! I knew it would work!!"
     It took a few seconds to fully comprehend what was going on. One moment he was in the trash, then the compactor was roaring in his ears and it felt like he was being hugged to death, and now... "Holy balls! It did work!!" he shouted, and gave Lena a squeeze that nearly popped her eyes out.
     Adam noticed the two of them hugging and dove in like a baseball player sliding into home. He threw his arms around the two little ones and covered them in a battalion of kisses.
     Justin giggled from all the affection. "We did it! I'm okay! I'm garbage!!"
     "We're a family!" Lena shouted.
     Mr. Tallevasco tenderly nuzzled them both. "I love you! Oh, I love you two so much! You're my son now, Justin! I have a daughter and a son! I can't imagine being any happier!!"
     Justin joyously shouted and hollered as tears streamed down his cheeks. Tears of pure and absolute freedom.
     Throughout the dump on that sunny Sunday morning, cries of joy filled the air. Birds took flight. The warm sun glinted off the towering heaps of trash. And one exceptionally contented big green garbage truck purred happily as it looked on.
     Justin looked around in wide-eyed wonderment as he beheld the dump as if for the first time. Crazy, swirling loops and spheres and curls of energy fluttered and flickered throughout everything. Rage and love, all of it coexisting perfectly. It was magnificent, the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. The energy Mr. Tallevasco had described was real to him now as well. The dump pulsed with energy, as if it was all one giant organism with a gargantuan silent heartbeat. Justin thought it might take a while to learn how to eat garbage, but he had no doubt he'd be well-fed.
     And as he searched within his mind, he could feel his new little fox, Toffee. She had indeed given him all her energy like a good plushie, along with all the other trash he and Lena had absorbed. The back of the Green Beast was completely empty now.
     Lena looked down amid tears of laughter and finally noticed something rather out of place. "Justin!!" she shrieked.
     The wolffox and the skunk looked at her in alarm. "What's wrong?!" Justin asked.
     "Look!" she said.
     They'd both been reborn nekkid as jaybirds, and when Justin looked down at himself, he gave a loud yelp of surprise too. While all of his injuries were perfectly healed, leaving not a trace behind, it seemed something had nevertheless come out not quite right. Where once was a hill, twas now a valley...
     "I'm a *girl*!!!" Justin screamed.
     Mr. Tallevasco looked very worried indeed. "Oh, geeze! Um...! Something must have gone wrong!"
     "Obviously!" Justin yelped, but he was starting to laugh now. The situation was so absurd, how could he not?
     "It's not so bad being a girl," Lena comforted. "Besides, I'm sure Dad can sort you out right again."
     Justin shrugged. "Okay, yeah. Being a girl might be kinda fun. And if this is the worst side effect I get from escaping from my stoopid parents forever, I'll take it!"
     Adam chuckled at the boy/girl's bravery. "That's one way of looking at it."
     "Can we call you 'Justine' now?" Lena kidded.
     Justin shook a playful fist at her. "Call me that again and I'll cream you!" he kidded.
     Lena laughed out loud.





  *****





*Epilogue*


     Several months after his little brother had disappeared, Royce spotted him standing in line at the drugstore. "Justin!!" he screamed out urgently.



     The cops had been all over the place.
     He and his brothers had been questioned up and down, right and left, by what felt like the entire city police force. As soon as Dave had let slip that the last time they'd seen Justin they'd tied him up in a garbage bag, they were all pretty much fucked six ways from sunday.
     While they all denied ever taking that bag of trash out to the curb, it was mysteriously nowhere to be found when they'd returned home that afternoon. And as one snarling officer had so succinctly put it; "He didn't just throw himself away, now did he?"
     The police combed the town dump upside down and inside out, and even took samples from the inside of the city's lone garbage truck, but not a single trace of Justin's body was ever found.
     When the story finally hit the local news, suspicion alternately fell on the brothers, then Mrs. Dalton, then Mr. Dalton, and then seemed to randomly jump around between all five of them.
     Matters were not helped when Justin's teacher, Mrs. Robertson, came forward at last and told the police about the boy's condition when she'd last seen him, and his strange requests of her.
     Matters ware made even worse when several of Mr. Dalton's co-workers told police they'd overheard him that day loudly and violently threatening to kill someone who could only have been his youngest son.
     The headlines screamed louder and louder. The rumor mills cranked out motives and methods left and right.
     Adam Tallevasco was cleared as a suspect early on when he played the tape for the local cops and showed them the note. He also told the police of his nighttime encounter with Mr. Dalton, which the police were eventually able to get the wolf in question to admit to.
     The skunk's charming little adopted daughter had pleaded heartbreakingly with the police to please find her lost best friend.
     Dozens of witnesses on Mr. Tallevasco's route came forward to say that Justin had seemed perfectly happy and trusting of the garbageman, and several even remarked on the boy's hat. Nearly all of them also remembered that the skunk and the little girl were by themselves that day.
     So suspicion had once again fallen squarely upon the Dalton family's shoulders. They were all taken downtown and held for questioning for days. None of them confessed, and eventually all of them, even the stone-faced Mr. Dalton, had been reduced to pitifully crying heaps of fur protesting their innocence. For lack of evidence, they were released.
     The police chief gave a statement to the papers that they were now pursuing the scenario that some out-of-town drifter had abducted the child. The case was declared officially unsolved, which everyone knew meant that it would remain that way forever until some hiker stumbled across a skull a few decades from now.
     Mr. Dalton lost his job and was told by his boss that he'd be arrested immediately if he ever showed his face at the factory again. On the night of the Dalton boys' triumphant return to their school football team, fans from their own bleachers had thrown cups and beer bottles at them and booed them off the field. And with no more money coming in, the family had to live off their savings for months. Which meant that they had to cut back on non-essentials. Which meant that Momma Dalton could no longer watch her beloved cable TV.



     But none of that mattered now. Royce was grinning ear to ear. Justin was *right*there*! He could clear this whole mess up once and for all and the police would finally leave them alone and he'd get to watch Dad totally whoop the little runaway bastard's _ass_ when they got home!
     "Justin!" Royce screamed again.
     Everyone in the drugstore turned to look, including the little wolffox.
     Royce stopped dead in his tracks and nearly fell over.
     "Y-You're a girl!" he yelped, as all his hopes drained out of him.
     "Yeah, so?" the female canine replied.
     "Y-Y-You c-can't be a g-girl!!!" Royce protested.
     "Want me to pull down my panties and prove it, you jerk? Go away!" she sneered snottily at him.
     Royce's head was spinning. He felt like he was about to throw up or pass out. "You look just like my little brother..."
     "Thanks for telling me I look like a boy, asshole!" she snapped. And with that, she sauntered away and flicked her tail at him.


          * * *


     Late one Friday night, Mrs. Robertson was sitting at home grading papers when she heard a knock at the door. When she got up to investigate, she found a shiny red apple placed carefully upon her doorstep.
     She bent down to retrieve it, and realized upon closer inspection that it was actually a fancy foil-wrapped gourmet dark chocolate apple, and that it was sitting on top of a yellow sticky note.
     The note read: 'Sorry if you were worried about me. I'm fine! I'm safe, and I have a new family now. But shhh! It's a secret! Don't tell anyone!'. It was signed with a tiny smiley face.
     Mrs. Robertson nearly collapsed on the stoop. She managed to waddle unsteadily back inside and plop back down in her chair. She let out a long, sudden sob, and cried and cried as relief filled her troubled heart.
     The apple, by the way, was delicious.


          * * *


     "Your first sneaker," Lena declared, holding aloft a dirty, worn-out running shoe that reeked of the crypt.
     She and Justin were sitting on the hood of a junked pickup truck (what else?) in the dump under a full moon.
     Mr. Tallevasco had figured out weeks ago that Justin and Lena had simply swapped some of each other when they'd been reborn, and now Justin could switch back and forth between being a boy or a girl just by thinking about it. To Lena's delight, she found that she could do the same as well. Being a boy was really interesting, she thought. Though most of her reasons for feeling that way were too naughty to mention.
     For now, they were back in their old bodies. Lena had prepared a sumptuous feast of garbage. Justin was finally ready to attempt eating some of it.
     The little wolffox gulped. "Couldn't I try something a little easier first? Like a paper towel, or a doorknob?"
     "It's best to just jump right in," Lena advised. "Now eat it, ya big dope!" she said playfully as she suddenly shoved the shoe in his startled mouth.
     Justin was absolutely horrified for a moment. Then his tongue started to get used to the exotic footwear flavor. His expression slowly turned from shock to pleasure. "Mmmmm!" He took the stinky sneaker in his paws and chewed it all over before easily letting it slip down his throat. "Damn, that was actually pretty good!!"
     "I told you!" she said with a cute giggle. Her buckteeth gleamed white in the moonlight.
     He chuckled and bumped shoulders with her. "Okay, you were right. I should've listened to you."
     "And it didn't hurt going down, did it?" she asked.
     "Not a bit." He licked his chops, appreciating the aftertaste, barely believing he'd just swallowed a shoe and it had tasted better than pepperoni pizza. "Got any more of those?" he asked eagerly.
     "Oh, I've got all sorts of stuff!" Lena said happily.
     And then the dump was silent, but for the crickets and the tiny sound of two young furs' tender kiss.




The End
for now...




  *****



Author's endnote:

I wrote this in Eight Fucking Days! I can't believe it!! And I thought writing "Ghost Story" in thirty-five was impressive!

Actually, I should say 'Eight Crazy Nights', since 95% of this was written well after midnight. I'm writing this right now at 5:21 A.M.! I'm a masochist!!

By the way, all the plushies in this story are real. They are all based off actual cuddly stuffed animals I own, and they were all very happy to appear here. I hope success does not go to their heads.

And no, the movie described in chapter eight does not refer to any real movie. Though it does sound like a lot of 'em, don't it?


Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank Cheez-its, Cheetos, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, Mountain Dew Code Red, Guacamole Doritos and Pop-Tarts. I love you all. I couldn't have done this without you.



"Down In The Dumps"
Started: February 5th, 2005  Finished: February 13th, 2005  Editing Completed: February 24th, 2005  (Re-edited: August 17th, 2008)