

Ghost Story
by Alex Reynard

Book Three: The Dinner Party


     ~~~~~


*part 17*


It was time to lay on the bullshit. And it was time to lay it on thick.

Milo composed himself just like any stage actor about to immerse themselves in a difficult role. This was the first part in his and Suzy's big plan. For this, he would have to appear somber and full of grief. He'd have to summon the awesome power of Big Sad Puppy Eyes.

This would be difficult, because right now he felt more like grinning his ears off than anything else.

     ***

Through all of Saturday and on into Sunday, they'd planned.

Saturday night, Milo had gotten perhaps three hours of sleep. All the ideas he and Suzy hadn't been having before had suddenly rushed in like a Biblical flood. They brainstormed for hours and hours, building and building upon their original idea. It grew and took shape, eventually becoming something that looked like it really, honestly, just possibly might work.

On Sunday morning they fleshed out the details and worked on backup plans for every contingency they could come up with. The rest of they day they spent playing. Their joy had returned wholeheartedly and they had oodles of happy energy to get rid of. They looked through all the boxes of Milo's toys. Suzy possessed him again and they had more silly fun challenging one another. Milo even took her outside to play in the snow, and Suzy got to show him all the places she'd used to play in her backyard.

The two of them had so much fun, they forgot almost entirely about their grand plan and the battle they'd soon have to fight for Suzy's father. For a few hours, they were simply two best friends enjoying one another's company.

     ***

Now it was Monday morning.

That meant it was time for Phase One.

(Of course they had to call it that. Everyone knows that when you have a super top secret plan, you have to divide it up into phases. All the good comic book characters did it that way, after all.)

Phase One involved Milo lying shamelessly to his parents. He felt a little bad about that, but not much. He would of course let them know the truth when the time was right. But for now it was essential to keep them in the dark. Betraying their trust for a few days wasn't pleasant, but it was for a very worthy cause.

Mom and Dad were already seated at the table having breakfast. Milo checked his 'sad little kit' face in the mirror. It looked convincing enough. Time for action.

Milo's father looked up from his cereal when his son shuffled into the room, still in his pajamas, looking like he'd just been crying. "Hey kiddo, what's the matter?"

Milo looked up at him and flashed his most pitiful expression. His father and mother both looked painfully sympathetic. In that instant, he knew he had them hooked.

He pulled up a chair in between them. "I had a bad dream last night," he said in a timid whisper.

"What about, sweetie?" his mom asked, putting a soft paw on his back.

"It was about what happened here before we came. The murder."

His parents both looked at each other worriedly.

Milo went on. "I dreamed that I was watching it all happen. It was horrible. But the worst part was that after I saw it happen, I focussed on the little girl's mom. I could picture her crying and crying, wishing she could have stopped it."

Milo was glad to see the concern on his parents' faces, but he hated having to say those words. He doubted very much that Mrs. MacAllister had done much crying over Suzy.

"I was thinking, Mom, Dad, that maybe we could do something nice for her?" Milo asked.

Dad gave Milo a pat on the back. "I'm really proud of you that you'd see it that way," he said. "What did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking..." Milo paused to melodramatically wipe his eyes on his sleeve. "I was thinking maybe we could invite her to dinner or something. I mean, if she still lives in the area," Suzy had assured him that she would. Mommy's career meant so much to her, Suzy couldn't fathom her ever moving far enough away to have to switch jobs.

Mom seemed a little unsure about the idea. "I don't know, Milo. She might not want to come back here. This place might hold too many bad memories for her."

Milo knew one of them would say this. It was the first part of the plan that was a little shaky. "Could we at least ask her?" he insisted. "I'd really like to be able to meet her and tell her how sad all of this makes me. We could let her know that we care about Suzy too. You and Dad could make something real nice for dinner, and I could write her a poem or something."

Their son's seeming sincerity tugged on the foxes' heartstrings. While they could see dozens of things wrong with his plan from a realistic, grown-up viewpoint, they thought that Milo was simply seeing it through the eyes of a child; just be nice and everything will work out fine.

Mom and Dad passed a conversation wordlessly between them, and seemed to come to an agreement.

"Allright," said Mom. "If you really want to, we can at least ask."

Milo brightened noticeably. He leaned over to hug her. "Thanks, Mom!"

"How will we get in touch with the woman, though?" Dad asked.

"We could call up the place she used to work and see if they know," Milo suggested, as he'd been waiting to suggest all along. "I saw it in the paper. She did advertising stuff at Milton and Cole downtown. I could find the number in the phonebook easy."

His parents were surprised at his resourcefulness. "It could work," Dad acknowledged.

"We'd have to work out a lot of details first. Like when all this would happen. And that's *if* she even agrees to come here," said Mom.

"Maybe next weekend?" Milo ventured.

She pondered it. "That's cutting it a little close to Christmas, but it would still be about a week away. We can hope she wouldn't already have plans for then."

"We should ask her well in advance then," Milo said, and hoped his tone would subtly make one of his parents ask...

"How 'bout this afternoon?" Dad suggested.

Bingo! This was too easy.

"Alright," said Mom. "We'll call at lunchtime. Hopefully we won't be bothering anyone while they're doing something important."

Oh man! That was just what he and Suzy were hoping for! Their luck was really starting to change!

Finally able to unleash his grin, Milo hugged both his parents tightly. "Thanks, Mom! Thanks Dad! It feels really good to do something nice for someone, huh?"

They smiled and hugged him back, proud of their son's generous spirit.

Milo got up and pushed his chair in. "Don't you want some breakfast?" asked Mom.

"Maybe later," Milo said. "I oughtta at least put on some clothes first."

With that, the little fox sped out of the room towards the stairs.

His father smiled. "What a difference, huh? Look how happy he is now. It's amazing how kids can zoom from one emotion to another like that. I wish I was still so resilient."

Mom sipped her coffee. "And I'm surprised he'd come up with an idea like that! I expected him to be traumatized from finding out what happened here, and instead it's brought out the best in him," she said in a voice full of motherly pride.

     ***

Back in Milo's bedroom, Suzy was sitting on the bed, grinning eagerly. "Did they buy it?"

Milo grinned evilly and put on an overdramatic supervillain voice. "They were like putty in my hands! Ha ha haaa!"

Both of them fell on the floor laughing.


     ~~~~~


*part 18*

That afternoon, Milo readied himself once more. Time for performance number two. He felt certain that this part would be even tougher. Now he wouldn't just be putting on an act for his parents, he'd have to lie to _her_ as well.

Suzy was by his side. "Don't let her intimidate you. She can't hurt you in any way. She has to act like she's perfect, remember?" she coached.

Milo took a deep breath. "Okay."

Carrying the phonebook beneath his arm, Milo approached his mother, who was sitting in one of the livingroom chairs perusing the TV guide.

"Hey Mom, it's lunchtime. You wanna try calling?" he asked in his sweetest voice.

Mom looked up at the clock. "Alright. I guess it's about the right time." With Milo tagging along, she went into the kitchen and picked up the phone. "Let me see the book," she asked Milo.

"I already looked up the number," Milo said, indicating that his thumb held a place between the pages already.

"That was thoughtful of you," Mom said with a smile. She poised a black-furred finger above the keypad. "Okay, give it to me."

Milo opened the book, but his attention was on Suzy. She was sitting on the kitchen counter beside them. "Ready?" she asked Milo.

He subtly nodded.

Suzy rattled off a long series of digits that she'd clearly memorized. It was only one number off from the one printed in the book, but it made all the difference in the world.

The number in the phone book was for the building's information desk. The other phonelines in the building were all successive. The phone number Milo's mother was dialing was actually the phone in the fifth floor breakroom.

This was a crucial part of Milo and Suzy's plan. Suzy had heard her mother complain countless times about the ladies who perpetually gathered in the breakroom to gossip. 'Like a bunch of caged canaries', as she'd put it. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happened in breakroom number five without the entire office hearing about it.

This was Mommy Trap Number One.

The phone rang. Milo's mother pressed the button to put it on speakerphone. Immediately, a loud, harsh cackle of a voice blasted out, "Yaisss? Who's calling?"

Milo and his mother were both quite startled. "Um, I'm sorry, do I have the right number?" Milo's mother asked cautiously.

"That depends on who you were trying to call. This is the breakroom."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was trying to get the Milton and Cole building."

"Yes, that's right. It's the M&C breakroom," the voice clucked. It sounded like a bunch of chickens stuffed in a paper sack. "Oh, wait, were you trying to get the front desk? This number's one digit off. Happens all the time."

"Oh!" Mom said, sounding relieved. "Well then, maybe you can help me."

"Yaisss?"

Milo tried hard not to chuckle. Suzy didn't even bother trying.

"I was wondering if maybe you knew Cheryl MacAllister."

"Why sure I do! She works right here. In fact, I can see her down the hall." There was a momentary silence, then an only slightly muffled, "HEY CHERYL!!! PHONE!!!"

Suzy cracked up. Milo was really doing his best to hold it in, until he noticed his mom was on the verge of laughter too. They glanced at each other. Milo spun his index finger around his temple: the universal sign for 'what a kook!'.

Mom wagged her finger at him in a 'now that's not very nice' way, but she couldn't keep the grin off her face either.

A few moments later, another voice came on the phone.

"I'm Cheryl MacAllister."

Milo felt like his whole spine had turned to ice. That voice! It sounded impossibly aloof, perfectly precise. Like a robot. He turned to Suzy with disbelief in his eyes.

She nodded sadly. "That's Mommy allright," she shyly said.

Milo's mom seemed a bit taken back by the voice as well. "Oh, um. Hello."

"Who is this?" Cheryl asked icily.

"Well, you don't know me, actually. I was trying to get in contact with you just now. I didn't expect you to still be working here."

"What do you want?" The tone was softer now. Curious, probing.

"Actually, we recently moved into your old house."

"Oh. Is this about the things I left behind there?" she asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

"No, not at all!" Mom said reassuringly. "Actually, we're all very grateful for that. This old furniture is beautiful. And I've fallen in love with those armchairs in the livingroom! Thank you very, very much."

Cheryl sounded pleasant now, but Milo and Suzy both knew she was only putting on her mask. "You're welcome. All those things were just old memories to me. I'm glad they make you happy."

Milo's mother seemed more relaxed now, but somewhat unsure how to proceed. "They certainly do. Well, um, I'm calling because my son had an idea he wanted to discuss with you."

"What kind of idea?" Puzzled now, searching for any hint of a threat.

"Maybe I should ask her, Mom," Milo piped up.

Mom nodded. "He's right here," she said into the phone. "Would you mind talking to him for a moment?"

"No, of course not."

Suzy noticed a tiny fragment of 'yes, I would mind very much' hidden in there.

Mom got up and let Milo get closer to the speaker. "Hello, Mrs. MacAllister," Milo said in his most polite talking-to-an-adult voice.

"It's Ms. now, dear. I'm divorced," she informed him.

"Oh, okay. That makes sense. Um, I'm calling because I heard about what happened to your daughter."

Silence on the other end.

"It really made me sad when I heard about it. I cried a lot. I couldn't even believe how someone could do such an awful thing." Milo and Suzy both derived a bit of pleasure from the fact that he hadn't specified who that someone was.

"Yes, it was certainly a tragedy. I think about it every day. I miss my sweet little angel all the time."

Suzy couldn't take it. "You liar! You never called me a sweet little angel! Never!!" she screamed.

Milo was really glad Suzy was audible only to him. He gave the little mouse a brief glance of compassion.

"What did you want to ask me about?" Cheryl asked in her sticky-sweet poison voice.

Milo did his very best to sound sincere. "See, I was thinking about you, and how awful it must have been for you to go through all that. I wanted to do something nice for you," he said.

"That's very kind of you, um... Pardon me, what was your name?"

"I'm Milo. Milo Lennox. My mom's Beth and my dad's Robert."

"Milo," said Cheryl, as if she was describing a piece of fresh fruit she wanted to sink her teeth into. "You sound like a very nice young man."

"Thank you." Milo was getting goosebumps all over. "I don't know if you'll like the idea, and it's okay if you don't, but I'd really like to invite you to come have dinner with us. That is, if it's not too far a drive. I don't want to bother you any, of course. I'd just really like to let you know that we all feel really sorry about Suzy dying."

"Unlike you," Suzy spat viciously.

The phone went dead quiet on the other end. Milo could almost see Cheryl's face. He knew the idea would be loathsome to her, but at the moment she was surrounded by eagerly listening ears who were undoubtedly hanging on every word of her conversation.

Eventually, her voice sputtered though again. "Why... Well, I'm shocked, Milo."

'I'm sure you are,' Milo thought with dark sarcasm.

"That's a wonderfully sweet idea, but I'm afraid I'm busy tonight." Her tone implied that she hoped that would end the matter.

Milo's Mom came to the rescue. "Actually, we were thinking about doing it this weekend. Of course, any night you're free would be fine. Milo's really serious about this. And my husband and I would both like to have you over too." A thought occurred to her. "Think of it as a 'thank you' present for the furniture! Please, let us treat you."

Milo gave his Mom a thumbs up.

"She'll have to agree now," Suzy said with relish. "She'll look rude if she doesn't, and there's no way in hell she'll let that happen."

What Mom took for flustered happiness, Milo knew was just flustered annoyance. "Th-that sounds lovely. My calendar's free this friday evening. Say eightish? I'm afraid I couldn't make it any earlier."

"That'll be fine, Ms. MacAllister," said Mom. "I'll need time anyway to cook up something nice. Do you like salmon?"

"Darling, I love it."

Mom perked up. "Oh good! I've got this peppered salmon steak recipe I've been dying to try out!"

Milo had to admit, that sounded pretty good to him too.

Reluctantly resigned to her fate now, Cheryl came back through the speaker. "Then it's all set. Friday at eight. Try to forgive me if I'm a little late; overtime's just a way of life for me anymore."

"Mmmmm-hm," Mom said in an 'I hear ya' tone.

"Well, I have to get back to my desk now. Milo? Are you still there?"

"Yes, ma'am," Milo said, and hid an evil grin. Suzy had informed him that being called 'ma'am' always got on Mommy's nerves. She said it made her feel old.

"You're a very special little boy." Was there a hint of clenched teeth in that response?

"Thank you. I'm really looking forward to meeting you." 'As much as meeting the Grim Reaper,' he mentally added.

"Okay then. Happy holidays to you all," Cheryl said cheerlessly.

"Happy holidays!" said Mom.

"Happy Holidays!" said Milo.

"Feel free to drop dead!" said Suzy.

Milo *barely* concealed his laugh as a cough.

The phone clicked. Mom turned to Milo with a pleased smile that said she'd never expected his idea to turn out so well. "Looks like your plan was a good one after all, squirt," she said and gave his hair a little ruffle.

"It sure was," he happily agreed.

"Well, I'm going to go find that salmon steak recipe. That sound good to you, too?"

Milo licked his lips. "Yup!"

"Me too!" said Suzy.

Mom bent down for a moment to give her son a hug. "You're a really sweet kid, you know that? I'm proud of you." With that, she went off to locate her recipe box, her tail swishing happily behind her.

Milo felt kind of bad about that. "I'm sorry I'm lying to you, Mom," he whispered once she was gone.

Suzy was quick to cheer him up. She hopped down off the counter and gave him a hug of her own. "It's okay, Milo. I know she'll understand once she finds out why. And it seems to me like your parents are pretty cool. I'm really starting to get excited about them meeting me."

Milo gave her a squeeze back. "I think they'll get to like you pretty quick. And I really hope they go along with the plan when it's time."

She noted a tiny hint of doubt in his voice and moved quickly to squash it. "Hey, wanna know what the best part is?"

"What?"

Suzy grinned devilishly. "Imagining all the swearing at her desk my Mommy's doing right now."

Milo giggled at that. "If she thinks she's pissed now, she has no idea how bad it's gonna get for her on friday."

"Friday," Suzy agreed. "Everything's going to change on friday..."


     ~~~~~


*part 19*


Two things happened on Tuesday to cheer Milo up.

The first awaited him at breakfast. As he shared a bowl of cereal with Suzy (she chose to have her head floating in the bowl again this time, just to freak him out), he'd heard the sounds of his mother going outside to pick up the mail. A few minutes later, she came into the kitchen beaming at him.

It was a letter from school. Usually those tended to make a kid's blood run cold. This one however, was the results of a multi-curricular comprehension test Milo had taken before enrolling. His scores in most of the subjects were good, but in the reading area he'd truly outdone himself. Included with the test scores was a handwritten note from the principal, saying that Milo had received one of the top five reading scores out of the entire student body. And the other four top scorers were all in grades higher than him! Milo was actually reading at a near-college level!

This news made Milo flop back in his chair with a pleasantly stunned grin plastered across his face.

When Dad came down to breakfast, Mom informed him of the news. Both Milo's parents (and Suzy of course) smothered him in hugs. By Milo's count, they must have told him they were proud of him about seven thousand times.

The other thing that cheered Milo up was that he and Suzy had a date for lunch at The Den Of Beans that afternoon.

     ***

Milo's mother pulled into an alley about a block or so from the coffeeshop. Milo had informed her that morning that he wanted to go walking around downtown again. Since the weather had been a bit rough throughout the night and into the morning, Mom didn't want him to walk all the way downtown and back. She agreed to drive him there and provided him plenty of quarters to make a phone call when he was ready to be picked up. She gave him a few dollars for lunch, ensnared him in one more hug, and let him out of the car.

"When do you think you'll be ready to come home?" she asked through the rolled-down window.

"About two hours, I guess. Probably not three. Well, maybe. We'll see. I'll try to call on the hour if I can," he replied. His words became little frozen clouds in the chilly air.

"Allright then. Have fun. And be careful." She reached through the window to pat him between his ears. "See you later, my smart li'l guy!" she said with a smile.

Milo waved to her as she pulled out of the alley. "Bye Mom! Thanks!"

"Thanks Mrs. Lennox!" Suzy shouted.

Milo and Suzy were on their own now, and it was time to implement Phase Two.

They headed off for the coffeeshop. Downtown was usually pretty slow this time of day, but today the added bitter cold and bone-rattling wind made the streets look like a ghost town. Not a single soul was to be seen. The only indication left of civilization was the droning approaches and passings of salt-speckled cars.

Milo tucked his muzzle down into his coat collar. "You think he'll believe us?" he asked Suzy for the third or fourth time.

"Milo, I don't know!" she answered back testily. "We're just going to have to find some way of making him believe."

Milo nodded. This part of the plan was very shaky indeed. They could probably get by without it, but it would really add some power to their denouement if they could pull it off. "Wanna get grasshoppers again?" he asked.

Suzy thought it over. "No, let's try something else. Let's save those for special occasions."

Milo could agree with that. Certain foods meant more if you only ate them at certain times. Like cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, or eggnog on Christmas eve.

Out of the blue, Suzy was struck with a possible flaw in her plan. "Uh oh," she said nervously.

"What, 'uh oh'!?" Milo yelped.

"What if the place is full of customers? Just because it was empty last time doesn't mean it'll be empty today!"

Milo's tail frizzed up. "Well, um... We'll... We'll just have to think of something then," he said with transparently faked confidence.

They reached the door of the coffeeshop. Milo hesitantly opened it.

Luck was with them again for their fears turned out to be unjustified. The place was empty as an old soda bottle, with the happy exception of Damian and his marvelous caffeine machine.

The jaguar perked up immediately. "Little wise one!" he called out. Today he was wearing a white T-shirt which had written in small, neat blue letters just above the breast pocket: 'Guess How Many Donuts I Can Fit On My Dick?'.

Noticing a handy coatrack, Milo shucked off his heavy jacket and breathed a sigh of relief. To counteract the cold outside, the Den's thermostat was cranked to the max. Coming in from the frigid street into the wall of warmth inside was like getting kicked in the head.

Milo went up to the counter. "Hi, Damian!" He noticed the cat's shirt and giggled uncontrollably.

Damian looked down at his shirt and blushed. "Whoops. If I'd known minors would be present, I would've stuck a napkin in the pocket or something."

"Don't worry. I'm not offended."

"So, back for another grasshopper?" Damian asked.

"Naw, I'm gonna try something new today," Milo said. "Oh, guess what? I took this test for school just after I moved here, and the results came back today. I'm reading at a college level! Well, almost college."

Damian was suitably impressed. "Seriously? Wow, that kicks ass! Good for you. That's gotta be worth a free muffin or something."

"Really? Thanks!" Milo said with a big smile.

Suzy scanned the bakery case. "Those cranberry muffins look good," she pointed out.

Milo thought so too. "I guess I'll go with one of the cranberry ones, but don't get it for me yet. I have something I'd like to talk to you about first," he said in a very grown-up voice.

The change in the little fox's tone from cheerful to strictly serious got Damian's attention. "What's up?"

Milo wasn't exactly sure how to broach the subject.

"Ask him if he knew who you were talking about last time we were in here," Suzy recommended.

"Good idea," he mumbled to her. Turning his attention back to Damian, he looked the feline right in the eyes to impress on him that he expected this matter to be taken seriously. "Do you remember the last time I was in here, and I asked for an extra straw for a friend of mine?"

Damian nodded gravely.

"And how on the way out, I told you Suzy enjoyed the cookie? Do you have any idea who I'm talking about?"

The question seemed to hit the jaguar hard. He leaned on the counter for support. "I think I might. Were you referring to that poor girl who died about a year ago?"

Milo nodded. "I heard that you were one of the last people to see her alive," he said softly.

If not for the gentle manner in which Milo was asking, Damian would have felt worried he was being set up for something. "Y-yes. That's true. She was in here with her dad."

Now came the tough question. Depending on his answer, Milo knew they might be here a while. "What did you think of Suzy's dad?"

"You mean, do I think he did it?" Damian asked defensively.

Milo nodded.

Damian took a breath through clenched teeth. "Look, I don't know why you're asking, but the truth is I don't. I don't care what the news said. I don't care what the lawyers said. When that kid and her dad were in here, they seemed like best friends. The cops tried to paint him like a rampaging, abusive parent. Bull_shit_, if you'll pardon my French. I saw those two with my own eyes and that little girl didn't have an ounce of fear in her. They sat there for hours, smiling at each other the whole time, and they looked like the happiest dad 'n daughter in the world. Two hours later he flies into a rage and hurls her down the stairs? I never believed it for a second," he snarled in disgust. "I don't care how unpopular an opinion it is. Screw everyone else."

To Damian's surprise, Milo looked completely contrary to everyone else he'd shared this opinion with. The little fox was smiling warmly at him and seemed more than satisfied. "Cool. Then we both know the truth," Milo said.

Damian seemed puzzled. "How do you know? I mean, I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking that, but..."

Milo knew this next part was where all of it could go wrong. There was no way to guess Damian's reaction and no way to put it to him gently. The only thing to do was to just come out with it. "I know, because Suzy told me so herself."

Damian looked stunned, then angry. "Hey, that's not goddam funny, okay?"

"I'm serious!" Milo shouted back. "I moved into that house where she used to live about a week ago. The very same day, I saw her ghost. We've gotten to know each other pretty well. She told me everything about what happened."

Damian's anger spiked, certain that this kid was fucking with him for whatever reason. "Look, kid, don't talk like that. I think you need to get the hell out of here right now."

Milo stood his ground. "Suzy's here with me now. I'll prove it," he said in a voice like iron.

Damian loomed over the counter at him. "What did I just say!? Leave!!!"

"Hand me that messageboard first!" Milo snarled. "Okay? Just bear with me for the next five seconds. I'll prove it to you! I'll prove it!!"

Damian snatched up the dry-erase board from beside the soda cooler. The marker attached by a string bullwhipped through the air behind it. The pissed-off jaguar threw it into Milo's hands. "Allright, fine! Show me this freakin' proof then!" he roared, thinking he was calling Milo's bluff.

Now came the really tricky part. They'd practiced this in the backyard, but they had no idea if it would work again now. "Wish me luck," Suzy said in a low voice. She was obviously sad about having to make Damian so angry before they could make him believe.

"Do it, Suzy. Show him," Milo said.

He felt Suzy's spirit stretch within him. He could feel her essence ripple through his flesh as she let herself become noncorporeal. With her eyes closed, hoping desperately, she floated free of Milo's body.

"Hey, it worked!" she squeaked in happy surprise.

"Cool!" Milo said.

"What's cool?" Damian said, confused by this kid in his shop seemingly going crazy right before his eyes.

Milo looked back to him with a penetrating gaze that said 'please, don't be angry with me'. "Just watch." He walked over to a table, laid the messageboard down, and stepped away from it.

Damian watched. "So?"

He was about to say more, when his mouth dropped open and all power of speech left him.

The marker levitated up off the table. It floated in the air a few seconds, then the cap popped off and flew around to attach itself to the other end. The marker turned over and began to write on the board.

At that moment the coffeeshop was so quiet Damian could hear the squeak of the felt spreading ink across the plastic.

The marker stopped, and then the board lifted up into the air and hovered there. On it was written: HI DAMIAN! IT'S ME, SUZY! REMEMBER ME?

"Holy *fuck*!!!" Damian screamed, and flung himself backwards. He landed on the opposite counter and knocked over three bottles of syrup. He barely managed to tip them back up before they ruined his clothes. "Fuckin' shit goddamn fuckety FUCK!!!"

"Calm down!" Milo urged, trying to keep a straight face and not laugh at the poor guy's reaction.

"She's...! She's...!" the jaguar sputtered.

The board appeared to lay itself down on the table. Suzy wiped it off with her paw and wrote again. She came closer to Damian and held her new message up for him. THANK YOU FOR BELIEVING IN MY DAD. HE'S INNOCENT.

Damian's body became stone still. "Fuckin' hell, she's really here," he rasped weakly. He looked at Milo. "I thought you were crazy!"

Milo shrugged. "It's okay. I would have thought I was crazy too."

"W-what the hell do you want from me?" Damian sputtered, his eyes gone wide with fear. "I testified at the trial! I told them I thought he was innocent! They didn't believe me! What more am I supposed to do?!"

Seeing that he was freaking out, Suzy hastily erased the board again. This time she put the board down on the counter and let him see what she was writing. YOU DID? THANK YOU! I'LL BET IT WAS REALLY HARD HAVING PEOPLE NOT BELIEVE YOU.

"It was," Damian managed to say. "I mean, they took one look at me and just assumed I was full of shit." He looked ashamed for a moment. "Of course, it didn't help any that I'd been arrested for smoking pot when I was in high school."

"Really?" Milo asked, hoping the change of subject would help calm Damian down.

"Yeah," the feline admitted bitterly. "It wasn't even a one time thing either. I'd been getting high in the second floor bathroom for about a month when some kid in one of the stalls turned me and my buddies in. Actually, nowadays I'm glad he did. It kind of screwed up my credibility forever, but at least I'm not still on the stuff."

I DON'T THINK ANY LESS OF YOU, DAMIAN, Suzy wrote.

"Thank you. You're about the only person who ever has then." He noticed that his heart was thumping less loudly now and his breathing wasn't as ragged. He paused then, and his eyes went blank for a moment. "I am having a conversation with a fucking _ghost_," he told himself.

"You think I felt any less weird when she showed up in my room?" Milo said. "By the way, if you really try, you might be able to see and hear her like I can. My parents can't, because they don't believe she's really there. You _know_ she is, so you might have a chance."

"Wait, I have an idea," Suzy told Milo. She picked up the marker again. DAMIAN, PUT OUT YOUR PAW.

Damian read that and decided to obey. "A-allright," he said shakily, not knowing what to expect.

Suzy reached over the counter. She took his outstretched paw in both of hers.

The effect was instant. Damian's whole body jerked, but he didn't pull his hand back. "I can feel something! Oh my god, I can feel it! You're holding my hand!"

Suzy was thrilled to hear this. "It's working! Tell him to put his other hand out and see if he can feel where I am."

Milo told Damian what to do. The trembling jaguar nodded and reached out his other hand. He felt around his paw. It was warm there, and when he closed his eyes and concentrated, he could feel the outlines of two small hands. He slowly moved his hand up the warmth, up along her arm.

Suzy was getting goosebumps. This was all very exciting! Damian felt up to her shoulder, then reached up to touch her cheek.

He moved his hand around more, being as gentle and respectful as he could. He gasped. "Her face! I can feel her face! Her nose, I can feel her eyes and her lips and..."

Suzy giggled.

Damian opened his eyes, and they went wide in shock.

Standing before him was a wispy white mist in the shape of a young female mouse. Looking back at him was a pair of beautiful blue eyes that sparkled with happiness. "Damian?"

"S-Suzy?!"

Milo ducked swiftly under the counter to prop up Damian, who suddenly looked like he was about to faint. "Can you see her?"

"Yes! I can hear her too! Suzy... Shit! You're really there, aren't you?"

She giggled again. "You have quite the potty mouth, Damian."

The jaguar laughed nervously. But he was starting to smile now. "Oh, crap, um, I'm sorry. I'll try to tone it down. I didn't mean to... It's just... You're a ghost!"

"It's okay," she told him. "You have no idea how happy I am just to know you can see me! For the longest time, nobody could. And then I got through to Milo and now you!"

Damian was trying to remember the breathing exercises he'd learned in his meditation group, hoping they might have a chance at calming him down. Yes, he was face to face with a ghost. This was not a dream or a hallucination. He would have been a lot more terrified however, if not for the sweet smile on Suzy's cute face. She was about the most nonthreatening specter one could hope to meet. "Suzy... Geez, you look just like I remember you a year ago. You've kind of haunted me all this time." He chuckled lamely. "...And now you're doing it for real."

She chuckled too. She let go of his paw and floated up to sit on the counter. "Aw, don't think of it like that. I'm not here to rattle chains or anything. Me 'n Milo just wanted to know if you'd be willing to help us try to get my Daddy out of jail."

"He really didn't do it?" Damian asked, sounding truly relieved. "I'm *so* glad to hear that. I mean, I've had this tiny doubt in my head all this time that maybe I was wrong about him." He sat up and let himself down off the counter. On shaky legs he approached Suzy. "I'm so sorry. I wish I could have done more to help him."

She gave him a reassuring smile. "I'm sure you did your best."

Damian leaned on the cash register, his eyes shut tight in painful remembrance. "I used to lie awake at nights, thinking of your face. Wishing I could have done something. Wishing there had been some kind of warning sign. I swear, the day afterwards when I heard on the news about you getting killed, and I recognized your picture... I almost went to the medicine cabinet and..." His voice wavered into nothing. Suzy could see tears rolling down his cheeks. "I'm sorry."

Suzy hopped down off the counter and stepped forward to give him a hug. "It's okay. You didn't do anything wrong. You couldn't have known," she told him softly.

Damian felt the most incredible sensation. Like Milo, all he could feel of Suzy was her body heat. He felt himself surrounded by a circle of warmth, and looked down to see a little girl ghost hugging him. Tears fell from his eyes as he kneeled down to hug her properly. "Thank you. I've been driving myself crazy for a year now, thinking you must hate me. Thank you, Suzy."

"It's okay," she said, and gently laid her head atop his.

Milo stood and watched them as they comforted one another.

Eventually, Damian looked up, remembering something else. He looked to Milo. "Little wise one, I'm sorry I yelled at you. I'm sorry I didn't believe you."

Milo shook his head with a smile. "Forget it. Suzy and I both knew you'd freak out a bit. We were prepared for anything."

Damian stood up and wiped his eyes on his shirtsleeve. He took a hard deep breath, as if coming up for air. "Why don't we go sit down and talk. The booths in the back are pretty cushy."

Milo and Suzy thought that was a good idea. "I think I'd like to order a sandwich first," Milo said. "And some soda."

Damian nodded and grinned. He reached over into the bakery case and chucked a muffin at Milo, who caught it deftly. "Don't forget dessert."

Milo smiled gratefully at him. He reached into his pocket. "Oh. I only have five bucks..."

Damian frowned in a 'fuhgeddaboudit' way. "Screw it, it's on the house," he declared.

He ducked below the counter and walked over to the door to hang up the 'Out To Lunch' sign. Then he turned back to them, a fierce feeling of purpose beginning to grow in his heart and showing through in his piercing amber eyes.

"Now, what do you need me to do for you?"


     ~~~~~


*part 20*


Lunch that day was delicious. Milo and Suzy talked with Damian for hours. Suzy told him everything about how she'd really died and what life was like for her now as a ghost. Damian was at least as shocked and outraged as Milo had been at hearing how Suzy's mother had treated her. He pledged then and there to help them out in any way he could.

As it turned out, the favor they wanted from him in the first place was one he could easily provide. He was off work that friday anyway, and he had all the equipment they needed just laying around the coffeeshop right there...

     ***

At three, Milo called his mom to come pick him up. He and Suzy said goodbye to their new friend. Damian promised again and again to fulfill his part in their plan to perfection. And as Milo's mother pulled up, he hastily threw together a bag of free baked goods for them to take with them. (His generosity was partially motivated by the fact that he ended up having to throw so much perishable stuff away at the end of each day. It appalled him, wasting so much food. He was more than happy to give the unwanted danishes and muffins a good home.)

Once in the car, Milo told his mother some vague falsehoods about where he'd spent the afternoon, then quickly switched the topic to his reading test as soon as he had the chance. His mother was more than happy to take up the topic and praised him all the way home.

When they arrived, Suzy went right upstairs to work on her fake diary some more. Her writer's block had shattered on Saturday as well. She'd been jotting things down all through the weekend. It was actually rather fun. Since there was no way to fill up the whole book in just six days, she started off as if this were a continuation of another diary. That way, Suzy could fill up as many pages as she wanted to and leave the rest blank. The more she thought about it, having the entries lead up to December twentieth and then abruptly stop would make the whole thing even more dramatic. She grinned as she imagined the field day the local papers would have with it once she was done.

While she was writing, Milo sat on the floor next to her and poked through the novel Suzy had been reading a few nights ago. Though it was an old one, it was actually pretty interesting. He was glad Suzy had recommended it.

At dinnertime, Milo's Dad came upstairs and looked quite proud to find his son reading yet another book. Though out of the corner of his eye, he could have sworn he saw another book on Milo's desk suddenly jump by itself into a drawer as soon as he entered the room. He dismissed it as an optical illusion of some sort. Still, it bothered him all the rest of the evening.

For Milo's outstanding academic achievement, Milo's parents decided he deserved a reward. They plopped the phonebook down in front of him and told him that they were eating out tonight and that he could choose any restaurant he liked, so long as it was close enough to find and wasn't too expensive.

Milo really liked the idea. But then he thought of a way to make it even better. He excused himself to go to the bathroom and then called out for Suzy. When she appeared, floating through the mirror above the sink, he told her about his parents' idea. Then he told her that he wanted her to choose the restaurant for him. Suzy was delighted, but told Milo he didn't have to be so nice to her. He said he liked doing nice things for her. Plus, this had a practical advantage as well. Since Suzy had lived in the area all her life, she ought to have a much better idea than him which places were good and which weren't. Suzy thought he had a valid point.

After a tough search through the yellow pages (they all sounded so good!), Suzy decided on a little seafood place called Lilly's. She'd been there a few times with her family and had liked the place a lot. Milo told his mom and dad about it and they both thought it sounded like a suitable choice too.

Despite calling the restaurant for directions, and then even writing them down, Milo's Dad still managed to get them slightly lost on the way. To his credit, he stopped at a gas station and asked directions, knowing he was striking a blow against male stereotypes everywhere. Within minutes they were on the right track again, and were soon pulling into the parking lot at Lilly's.

Milo decided he liked the place as soon as he stepped inside. Lilly's was a small restaurant, huddled in between more pretentious eateries on one of the city's main roads, but it managed to stay alive by applying the simple business principle of keeping the customer happy. Their prices were slightly higher than the average family restaurant but they did their best to justify the cost by providing good quality food and friendly service.

It also had some pretty darn nifty decor, as far as Milo and Suzy were concerned. There were at least five aquariums, all filled with the most bizarre tropical fish either of them had ever seen. Every color of the rainbow, and in shapes so strange it was hard to believe some of them were really alive and not swimming pieces of art.

Speaking of art, there was plenty of that on the walls as well. None of the license plates and movie memorabilia of lesser, tackier places. Lilly's proudly displayed the works of local artists, including several metal sculptures hanging from the ceiling shaped like cartoonish robot fish.

A pretty ferret waitress led Milo's family to a big comfy booth. Menus were passed out, and Milo whispered to Suzy that she could choose the meal for both of them. She thanked him again and gave him a kiss. Milo held his menu in front of his face so his parents wouldn't see him blushing.

After they'd placed their orders, Milo decided to get up and wander around, looking at all the neat art. Mom allowed it, knowing he was a polite pup and wouldn't bother the other diners. Milo and Suzy quietly and unobtrusively made their way around the restaurant. All the art was very nice. Mostly landscapes. Everything had at least a little bit of a nautical or aquatic theme. There was a five-foot mural above the mirrored wall behind the bar depicting a sunny beach full of sketchy, lively fursons enjoying the sun. Milo decided it was his favorite, although the goofy metal fish sculptures came in a close second. Suzy said the one she liked best was a portrait near the back of the restaurant of a handsome seafaring rat standing on a ship's deck in the rain. She told Milo it reminded her of her grandpa.

When the two returned to the table, Milo's rootbeer was waiting for them. His parents had also ordered an appetizer; fried calamari rings. Milo inquired what calamari was, and when his father told him, he winced audibly. Squid? They were eating squid? Were they insane!? Mom said it was delicious and insisted he try at least one. Milo reluctantly complied. To his complete surprise, he found that he liked it a lot. Suzy was interested too and jumped back into Milo to share the next one with him. She thought it was quite tasty also.

Milo and his parents talked about how he liked school and the new house until the entrees arrived. Suzy had ordered some kind of shrimp and noodle dish in a very rich sauce. It took Milo a few bites to get used to it, but halfway through it had grown on him.

For dessert they all ordered pie. Milo thought coconut cream sounded good and asked Suzy what she thought. She told him coconut wasn't her favorite, but that she didn't mind floating back out of him and letting him enjoy it himself. Instead, she hovered through the table and sampled Mom's chocolate silk and Dad's lemon meringue. Milo still couldn't get over the sight of her head bobbing through the food like that. He had to fight to suppress giggles with a mouthful of pie.

The check was paid, a generous tip was left, and Milo helped himself to a few mints up at the checkout for later. On the way home, Dad decided to take the long way and have a look at their new home city. They all saw plenty of places they wanted to check out later on. And of course, Milo noticed a used book store. Suzy said she'd been in it and it was pretty cool except for the fact that it had two owners; one of whom was nice and the other one was a jerk. She advised Milo to only approach the cash register if the old alligator with the glasses was there. Otherwise he was liable to get charged double just for being a 'pesty kid'. Milo promised to keep that in mind.

The fox family got home later than they'd expected. Milo found that he was actually rather tired. He thanked his parents for taking him out and said he'd had a great time. They told him once more how proud they were of him. Milo hugged them both and said he was going to read awhile in bed and then go to sleep early. They both wished him sweet dreams.

As Milo went upstairs to brush his teeth, Suzy stayed in the livingroom and silently watched his mom and dad.

She felt a strange, haunting sadness come over her. Milo's parents were so nice to him. She'd never seen them yell, or call him names, or hit him. Milo's dad didn't have to shield him from his mom. There weren't any screeching arguments that went on for hours. There wasn't any craziness.

Until that moment, Suzy had never fully grasped how horribly abnormal her life had been. She knew that Milo and his parents couldn't possibly get along all the time. She knew there had to be shouting sometimes, and even a few fights. That's how any family was. But it wasn't a constant warzone here. That made an incredible difference.

'This is what families are supposed to be like,' she thought.

Seeing Milo's mother walk over to her husband and give him a hug and kiss out of the blue, for no reason other than that she loved him, made Suzy break down in tears.

Why couldn't it have been this way for her? For her Daddy? Why couldn't Mommy have been normal?

While Milo's parents snuggled together on the couch and settled in to watch some television, Suzy sat down on the floor and let herself cry.

She envied Milo. She envied him with all her heart.

And yet, at the same time, she was almost glad everything had happened just the way it had. A long time ago she'd heard the phrase, 'everything happens for a reason', and it had made her furious. What reason could there be for her Mommy turning into a foul-mouthed, perpetually-drunken monster? What reason could there be for her and her father having to endure such misery? What *possible* reason could there be for her being killed by her own loving Daddy, having to feel her body splinter and break like glass, and having to look up as she lay dying and realize that the last thing she'd ever hear was her own mother laughing at her?

What reason?

But now she knew.

Milo was her reason.

If she'd had a perfect childhood, if Mommy hadn't been crazy, if she wasn't dead now, then she never would have met Milo. And she never would have been able to feel hope that maybe, just maybe, his parents would someday become her new parents too.

When she looked at it that way, all the pain and terror and all the nights of screaming had almost been worth it.

And now, if she and Milo could set things right and her Daddy could go free, then maybe it would _all_ be worth it.

Suzy stood up and dried her eyes. She floated up through the ceiling to her old room.

Milo had fallen asleep already. From his snores, she could tell he was out cold. The book he'd been reading was splayed across his chest. With a gentle smile, Suzy picked it up, marked his place and set it on the table beside the bed.

She leaned over and gave him a kiss on his forehead.

"I love you, Milo."

Suzy stood for a while longer, watching her fox friend sleep. She watched his tail twitch and wondered what he was dreaming.

Then she went to his desk and got out the diary. She didn't need to sleep anymore, and she felt creative at the moment.

The night passed silently, save for the sound of Suzy's pencil dancing across paper.


     ~~~~~


*part 21*


Wednesday and Thursday were the longest days in the entire history of the universe.

The wait was excruciating. Every nerve ending in Milo and Suzy's bodies ached for Friday, ached for it to be all over with.

They did find ways to pass the time though. Suzy eventually finished up her diary. Milo read through it and was floored by how powerfully Suzy had described her emotions.

The contrast between the entries about her father and mother were staggering. When she described her Daddy, Suzy sounded like the happiest girl in the world. Her writing burst with such joy, Milo found himself grinning right along with her at every line.

But when her Mommy was the subject, the pages seemed almost to drip blood and tears. Through her pencil, Suzy had let loose everything she'd always wanted to say but had never had the courage to. Nothing was repressed. She allowed herself the use of some of the foulest and most venomous words she'd ever heard her mother speak. Suzy stripped her bones bare and bled words all over the pages, letting the world know how terrifying her life had been. How scared she'd been, how much she'd hoped, how often she'd been crushed, and how much she loved the one person who was able to make it all better for her; her Daddy.

When Milo finished, he was speechless.

Suzy eagerly asked him what he'd thought of it.

Words failed Milo. Description was impossible. Finally he said, "I don't think there's a single furson alive who could read this and still think your dad's guilty."

That was all the praise Suzy needed.

     ***

On thursday night, the night before their big day, neither of them could sleep.

Milo glanced over at the clock. "Crap. It's only midnight."

"Maybe we should just stay up all night," Suzy offered.

"Easy for you to say. You don't need to sleep anyway."

Suzy nodded in understanding. Milo did need to get to sleep, and desperately. His performance tomorrow would be one that the greatest actor in the world would find daunting. It would not be on a stage, it would be in real life, toying with a real woman who just happened to be a sociopath.

If Milo was in anything but tip-top condition tomorrow, they were screwed.

That, actually, gave Suzy an idea.

'No,' she told herself, 'it's wrong'.

But she wanted to. They'd done something like it before.

'That was totally different'.

Not really, once you thought about it. And Milo had liked it a lot.

'He might not like this'.

He dropped right off to sleep afterwards, didn't he?

'Hmm...'

Well, that kind of settled it, now didn't it?

Softly, hesitantly, she spoke. "Milo?"

"Yeah?"

"Um, I had an idea. Something that might relax you and help you get to sleep."

She sounded rather shy about it. Milo wasn't sure what that meant. "Um, okay. What is it?"

Suzy didn't even know how to say it. "Um, well, um... Remember when we... A few nights ago... You let me play with your thingy?"

Oh, so *that's* why she was nervous. Milo smiled reassuringly at her in the cool cobalt moonlight. "Suzy, it's okay. We can do that again if you want. I liked it."

She was glad to hear that the idea didn't make him nervous too. "Actually, I was thinking we could try something different."

"Like what?" he asked.

Suzy smiled warmly at him. She looked deep in his blue eyes and could see her own reflected in them. "Milo... I want to make you feel good. I want to thank you for all the nice things you've done for me. Will you..." She hesitated. If she'd still had a heartbeat, it would have been pounding. "Would you like to... um... yiff me?"

Milo drew in a sharp breath of surprise. "Suzy!" He hugged her tightly to him, feeling her otherworldly warmth through his pajamas.

"You don't want to?" she asked meekly.

Beaming, he kissed her nose. "No, silly! I do! I'd love to! You're the most beautiful girl I've ever met. And you're the smartest and the nicest too. I'm so glad you're my best friend, Suzy. I love you!"

Suzy felt her whole body tremble in happiness.

Milo's tone softened. He looked at her seriously. "But you don't have to think of it as just doing something to repay me. I wouldn't want to do it unless you really wanted it too. I want you to be happy, Suzy. That's why I enjoy helping you. I like seeing you happy."

She closed her eyes tight and gave him a big squeeze. She rubbed her muzzle against his neck, loving how soft his fur felt. "Oh Milo... It *would* make me happy! I want you to be happy too! I want to do everything I could ever think of to make you happy. You're so sweet and kind. And handsome too. And your glasses make you look even cuter!"

Milo blushed. He'd never thought his glasses made him look anything but dorky. "Really? You're not just saying that?"

Suzy nodded. "Of course not! You're like the brilliant nerd and the dashing hero all rolled into one!"

Both of them giggled at that. "Oh, so you think I'm a nerd?" he kidded.

She nuzzled noses with him. "Yes. The cutest, most wonderful nerd in the whole world!" she said, and that made both of them giggle some more.

Milo kissed her cheek. "Okay then. If you really want to, then let's do it. How did you want to...?"

"Um, I'm not sure. I've never done it before. I mean, I _do_ know how. We used to have a whole bunch of cable channels and every now and then I'd get up and look at the naughty channel with no sound on when Mommy and Daddy were asleep."

"Lucky you. I had to learn from some nudie magazines I hid in a stack of comic books and bought at a flea market."

Suzy chuckled at that, but then raised a topic that she'd pondered for quite some time. "Didn't it seem kind of weird to you though? Like, they were supposed to be doing it because it felt good, but it didn't look like that. The expressions they had were weird. Like they were doing something really bad and getting away with it."

"Yeah," Milo said. He'd noticed the exact same thing. "When I was looking through those magazines, all the women had really weird expressions like you said. Some of them even looked like they were in pain! Actually, there were only a few pictures I liked. And in all of those the girls were smiling. I only liked the ones where they looked like they were having fun."

Suzy was relieved. She'd thought that maybe she just didn't understand how it worked. "I don't want to feel like I'm doing something dirty. I just want to make you feel good, Milo."

He gave her a sweet smile. "Me too. And it's not like we have to do it like in the magazines or the 'naughty channel'," he said with a chuckle. "We can do it whatever way we want."

Suzy grinned and squeezed him again. "Okay! Then let's do it! Let's yiff!" She giggled. "That's a cute word, isn't it?"

"Uh huh. I like it better than 'have sex' or, geez, that 'F' word," He thought about all the terms for it he'd heard. Most of them either fell into the dirty or silly category. "'Making love' doesn't sound too bad. But 'yiffing' is the best. It sounds more fun."

Suzy definitely agreed, and she showed it by kissing Milo right on the lips. "Let's yiff, Milo."

"Okay."

Milo reached down into his pajama bottom and cupped his sheath in his paw. Suzy reached in beside him and held it too. The warmth of her paw helped coax it out. Milo shivered in pleasure. Suzy giggled and kissed him again.

Suzy took over the job of holding Milo's foxhood. Milo put both arms around her and started gently rubbing her back, like the way he remembered his mom doing for him when he was little. Suzy thought it felt nice. She rested her head on Milo's shoulder. She gave him tiny kisses and liked how his fur tickled her lips.

With Suzy's help, Milo reached down and managed to slide his pajama bottom off. Now his penis was free. It touched Suzy's soft tummy and got even stiffer. Milo took in a quick, sharp breath. "Oh wow... That feels really nice. Your tummyfur is so soft, Suzy!"

"Thank you!" she said. She let go of his penis and hugged him with both arms. She wiggled a bit, smooshing Milo's member between their tummies. She loved how warm and hard it was. She reached down further to play with Milo's tail. He murred happily. Suzy brushed her fingers through his thick, luxurious fur and wished once again that she had a big fluffy tail like a fox. She squeezed his tailbase and tickled underneath it, which made Milo squeak a bit and wriggle in delight.

Oh, so that was a sensitive spot, huh? Suzy grinned as she tickled his tailbase, making him squirm about and let out little 'erf's and 'arf's of pleasure.

Milo decided to do something for Suzy too. He trailed his fingers lightly along her sides, tickling her in a tantalizing way and making her squirm too. He ran a single finger feather-lightly along the tiny bumps of her spine. Suzy shivered and cooed.

Then Milo reached lower and put his paws on Suzy's butt. He smiled immediately. Suzy's little tush was so warm and soft! He gave her buns a squeeze and she laughed. He rubbed the furry little pillows in opposite directions, like he'd seen a masseur on TV do. Suzy seemed to enjoy it very much.

Suzy wanted to reciprocate. She reached down to squeeze Milo's bottom too. He 'Oh!'ed in surprise. She giggled and started to massage him like he was doing for her.

For a nice long while, the two of them simply caressed one another. They rubbed each other's fur nice and slow, touching gently all over. They listened carefully to each other's quiet sounds of enjoyment, trying to find out what would feel the best. When one of them did something the other particularly liked, they would do the same and share the experience.

For both of them, it was one of the most loving and happy moments they'd ever experienced. Both Suzy and Milo were smiling sweetly. Not at all like those weird faces the fursons in the magazines or on TV made.

There was nothing dirty about it. Nothing wrong, nothing shameful. Nothing like the way the grown-ups did it. They were playing; that was all. They were two friends who loved one another and wanted to make each other feel good. It was as simple as that. It was the most innocent of intimacies.

Suzy's cunny was starting to get moist from how excited she was feeling. She reached between them and took Milo's maleness in her paw. Milo shut his eyes tight and moaned quietly. It was even more sensitive now. It felt wonderful!

Suzy wiggled herself into position. She touched the tip of Milo's penis to her little flower and cooed in happiness. So warm!

Milo was content to let Suzy decide what would be best. He held her gently, rubbing her back and shoulders, and gave her small kisses to urge her on.

Suzy positioned the hard little pole in just the right place. When she was sure she was ready, she spread her fingers and took Milo's buns in her paws. Then she slowly, carefully pulled the two of them together.

The young mouse's tunnel was soft as silk and warm as hot cocoa. Milo let out a short bark of happiness. Suzy squeaked softly and nibbled his shoulder.

"Milo! It feels so good!"

"I know! Oh Suzy! Thank you! I love you so much!"

"Me too, Milo! I love you! I want us to be happy together for a long, long time!"

She kissed him hard, closing her eyes and pressing her mouth tenderly to his. He put all his love into the kiss as well. Then they shared a series of littler kisses, all over each other's faces. They giggled as they kissed, and murmured soft sounds that meant 'I love you' in a dozen different ways.

Milo pushed his hips forward a little. He and Suzy both yipped at the sensation. They felt connected now, like they had somehow joined together soul-to-soul. Milo pushed again, just a tiny bit. Just enough. Suzy squeaked. She let out a very long 'Mmmmmmmmm' and nibbled on one of his ears. Milo liked that. He could feel her little mousey buckteeth nipping playfully along the rim of his sensitive ear. He shivered and nuzzled her with his moist black nose.

Another tiny push. Another. Another. Milo was taking it easy and slow. They were in no hurry. They felt no burning needs or urgent desires. Just a deep, fulfilling need to know that they were making each other happy.

"Suzy..." Milo said, glancing towards his boybits.

She could hear the rest of his words in just that one. He was going to squirt his white stuff soon. She wanted to know what it felt like to have it splash inside of her. "It's okay, Milo. Do it. I want to feel it."

Milo kissed her again. He nuzzled his nose in the fur of her shoulder. He held onto her tight. He started pushing a little bit faster and a little bit harder.

Suzy murred happily. This was so exciting! "I love you, Milo..."

"Suzy... I love you too..."

Milo let out a little foxy growl. His whole body shivered. Suzy hugged him tighter. She opened her mouth, but made no sound.

Milo came.

For both fox and mouse, it was an instant of pure magic.

With joyous smiles on their faces, whiskers twitching, tails curled up, holding one another so close, Milo and Suzy shared one of the most beautiful moments of their lives.

Soon after, together, they entered the land of dreams.


     ~~~~~


*part 22*

Friday.

Friday at last.

Phase Three, baby. Mommy Trap Number Two.

Milo woke up with a warm sunbeam on his face and two eager blue eyes starting right back into his.

"Gyaah!" he shouted.

Suzy giggled. She started bouncing up and down on the bed. "Good morning, sleepyfox! I've been up for an hour already. I even went back and proofread my diary a bit more."

Milo blinked a few times, then tried to wipe away his eye crusts. "That's, uh, good... *yawn*."

Suzy could see he was still halfway in the land of nod. "It's eleven o' clock," she informed him.

That snapped Milo out of his zombie-like state as if she'd thrown a bucket of water on him. "Jeeze, are you kidding!?" He looked at the clock. Eleven, just as she'd said.

Milo leaped out of bed so quickly he didn't even notice he'd jumped partially *through* Suzy. She found the sensation quite interesting. "Your mom made scrambled eggs," she said. "I already went down and tried some. They were pretty tasty. Your mom's a good cook."

Milo managed to smile at her as he was tugging on his pants. "She'd be happy to hear that. She likes cooking, but she seems to think she sucks at it. She'll whip up something fantastic then spend the whole meal moaning about how it doesn't look like the picture in the cookbook! Dad and I have told her a million times that nothing _ever_ looks like the stuff in the cookbook. They probably use plastic models for the pictures in those." He went to his closet and tried to select a shirt that he'd feel emotionally comfortable wearing today. "Your mom ever cook?"

Suzy shook her head. "Nah. She'd heat up some mac 'n cheese when she absolutely had to, but that was about it. Dad tried his best to though. He made pretty good pasta sometimes, but he usually preferred frozen stuff from the supermarket. We ate lots of TV dinners and went out to fast food places a lot."

Milo was about to say he hoped his mom's salmon steak would be good tonight, but it dawned on him that he'd likely be too nervous to even taste it. "I can't believe we're actually going to do it today. When we made the plan, friday seemed like, I dunno, months from now."

"Yeah, it's weird, isn't it?" Suzy agreed. "Every day since saturday's dragged on forever, and yet now it feels like only a few seconds."

Milo frowned into his closet. There wasn't much of a selection to choose from. His wardrobe was mostly what could be described as 'future computer programmer chic'. Or just plain 'nerd clothes'. He finally settled on a sharp burgundy button-down with vertical black pinstripes. His mom said it looked excellent with his sandy fur. And red was a strong color too. He'd feel silly confronting Cheryl in something powder blue or, heaven forbid, pink.

The little fox turned around to show Suzy his outfit. "What do you think?"

She smiled coyly at him. "You're very handsome. That shirt goes well with your fur. You look like you're ready to take on the meanest mommy in the world."

"And that's exactly what I'll have to do..." he whined.

     ***

At breakfast, Milo tucked heartily into a huge plate of eggs, toast and juice. Suzy nibbled from his plate a bit too. She still didn't feel any sense of hunger, or fullness for that matter, but taste alone was more than enough to suit her for now.

Afterwards, Milo went out to help his dad knock snow off the garage roof. He told Suzy he was too wound up and needed to burn off some energy. He also said that doing something physical would keep him from worrying ...for a little while at least. Suzy understood perfectly.

The little ghost mouse sat in one of the livingroom chairs and watched life going by outside the window. She sighed deeply. Once more, she wondered what would happen to her if everything went according to plan.

What Milo had said a few days ago in the attic about ghosts having unfinished business troubled her. What troubled her specifically was the thought that, once her unfinished business became finished, what would become of her? Would her spirit move on? Would she be whisked away someplace else?

Or, the most frightening thought of all; would she simply wink out of existence?

A shudder ran through Suzy's whole body.

But no, she didn't think that was likely to happen. Maybe she'd float up to Heaven. Maybe she'd get reincarnated. Maybe she'd reach enlightenment. But she knew that more than anything, she wanted to stay right here and keep on being friends with Milo. She wanted his parents to finally see her. She wanted to see Daddy again.

Daddy. The thought of him brought a sense of purpose back to her thoughts. Her big, wonderful protector was who she was really doing this for. As much as she wanted to stay with Milo, if fulfilling her purpose as a ghost meant leaving him forever, she would do it without hesitation. For Daddy.

He deserved it. Her father had been so strong. So quiet. So wise. So caring. And nobody knew. Now everyone thought of him as 'that child-murdering scumbag'. Suzy grimaced darkly. She wanted them _all_ to feel ashamed for hating a man who'd done nothing but try to protect his daughter.

Thinking about her father gave Suzy an idea.

She wandered around the house a bit before finding Milo's father's little office. There was a pad of paper there, plus some envelopes and stamps. Just what she wanted. Suzy sat down at the desk and started to write.

When she had finished, she sealed the envelope and went back to the livingroom to hunt for the phonebook. It was actually in the kitchen, but that didn't matter. What mattered was finding the address of the Stoneridge Correctional Facility. She found it without much trouble and addressed her envelope. For the return address, she wrote simply: 'Stinky Sock'.

Feeling satisfied, Suzy walked up to the front door.

She stopped, and felt a little dumb. 'Oh yeah, I sort of can't go outside.'

She thought her dilemma over a bit, then came up with, in her opinion, an exceedingly clever idea. It was a little mean, but mostly harmless.

Reaching up, she knocked hard on the door. Just once.

Mrs. Lennox's head popped out from the doorway. "Hmm?" She walked over to the door, not sure if she'd heard a knock or just the wind bumping something against the house.

"C'mon, open it, open it..." Suzy muttered. She gave the door another, smaller knock, just to be sure.

Sure she'd heard something now, Mom opened the door and looked outside.

"Yes!" Suzy shouted. Carefully, she flicked her letter out the door, under Mrs. Lennox's field of vision, behind the bushes at the side of the entrance. Then as quick as she could, she ran straight forward and leaped into Milo's mother. 

Just as swiftly, she continued on straight through and landed in a heap on the front sidewalk.

All the vixen felt was a brief shiver. She dismissed it as nothing more than that goose-walking-over-your-grave feeling.

Suzy grinned in total triumph. She'd only possessed Milo's mom for a second, but it had been just enough to use her as a bridge to get outside! The little ghost stood up and did a jump for joy. "Ha! I'm a genius!"

Looking rather befuddled at finding no one there, Beth Lennox returned indoors with a shrug.

"Sorry about that!" Suzy called back to her. "And thanks!" Smiling proudly, she went to retrieve her letter. Then she marched back up the three steps, stood on tiptoes, and deposited her letter in the mailbox. She'd overheard Milo's Dad say that the mailman came around in the afternoon, so she thought there was a good chance her letter might get picked up today.

Mission accomplished!

Suzy laughed out loud. She felt wonderfully proud of herself. She'd made it outside on her own!

With a naughty grin, she reached down and scooped up a snowball. She just HAD to go show Milo!

     ***

The rest of the day swam by in a haze, seeming sometimes to flash past, other times to drag to a crawl.

At eight o' clock, the hall clock chimed, but their dinner guest had not yet showed. Knowing her Mommy well, Suzy didn't expect her until well after eight anyway. Maybe even nine.

But she'd come. She had to. For her mommy to make an appointment and then not keep it would be like the end of the world. That was something funny about her; if she made a promise to anyone, she felt an ironclad duty to fulfill it. Yet promises to Suzy and Daddy she could toss out the window whenever she felt like. Of course.

Milo's mom was still frantically whizzing back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room, waiting on the oven and rearranging the place settings over and over, all the time talking to herself a mile a minute about everything that could possibly go wrong with her meal.

Milo's dad knew better than to get in the way of a woman cooking an important meal. They were liable to do anything. One particular Thanksgiving, he vividly remembered going into the kitchen to ask his normally sweet and loving wife if she'd seen the TV remote. With the fury of a thousand demons, she'd screamed at him, 'We're out of fucking margarine!!! Go to the store *right now* and get some more!!!'. Sensibly, Dad did not debate the point with her and went and bought some fucking margarine. Afterwards she'd apologized several million times. And the mashed potatoes had come out just fine.

Meanwhile, Milo was sitting in the hall closet, worried that his heart was about to explode out of his chest.

Suzy was right beside him, feeling more than a little like a football coach. "You're only making it worse, Milo. Calm down!"

"I'm trying to!" he snapped back, sounding like a father waiting for his wife to deliver quintuplets. "The more I try to calm down, the more I think about what I have to do, and that just makes me more nervous!"

She rolled her eyes. "You are so hopeless!" she wailed.

"Hey, I am not," Milo protested. "I'm always like this before something important. This one time Mom's aunt or cousin or something was getting married, and they picked me to be the ring-bearer. I told Mom and Dad I didn't want to, but there weren't any other boys in the family the right age for it but me."

Suzy wasn't sure where this was going, but it sounded interesting.

"So they bought me this really itchy tuxedo that felt like it was trying to chew my tail off in the back. If the tie didn't choke me to death first. Mom had me practice walking around with a mood ring on a couch cushion for about a week. Then, on the day of the wedding, they gave me the real ring. The groom guy handed it to me, then just *casually* mentioned that it cost six thousand dollars. It was just this dinky little ring, and it cost Six Thousand Dollars!!

"So, of course, I started picturing all sorts of horrible things happening to it. I'd trip walking down the aisle and it'd go rolling away and everyone would laugh at me. Or I'd let it slip when I handed it to him and it would fall down a grate. Or a bird would fly away with it, or I'd swallow it, or some other ridiculous thing.

"I was so nervous, you know what I did?"

Suzy shook her head, becoming rather fascinated by his story.

"I went in the bathroom and I tried to make myself puke. I'd heard on some sports show how a lot of athletes throw up before a game and that seems to help. So, okay; picture me in a tux, kneeling on the floor of the church bathroom in front of a smelly toilet, finger down my throat, staring at this six thousand freakin' dollar ring sitting on a little pillow on the floor beside me...

"And some fat guy walks in.

"He stares at me. I stare at him. 

"'What in the world are you doing?' he asks me.

"Without thinking, I tell him, 'I'm nervous that I'm gonna lose this stupid ring, so I'm trying to make myself puke'."

"And he says 'Oh!', as if that makes more sense than anything else anyone's ever said to him in his entire life!"

Suzy was giggling so hard she could barely stand up. "So what happened?"

"I didn't puke. I went out and walked down the carpet, didn't trip on any flower petals, and just handed the ring to him. Nothing happened. My mom even said I was smiling, though I think she must have been hallucinating."

That did it; Suzy fell over like a sack of bricks.

Milo couldn't really blame her. He was actually smiling himself now. Then it hit him that telling his little tale had actually managed to calm him down a bit. 'Hey, cool!,' he thought. 'Whatever works...'

Suzy sat up and grinned warmly at him. "Well, I hope you'll just snap out of it like that again tonight. I know you'll do just fine, Milo. And remember; you're not doing this alone. I know no one else can see me, but I'll be right beside you the whole time. I lived with Mommy a long time and now I've lived without her for a long time too. I think that, finally, I'm not scared of her anymore. Mostly it's because I'm too angry to be scared. That, and it's not like she can kill me again."

Milo nodded. That was certainly true.

At that moment, they heard the sound of an engine coming up the driveway.

Suzy's eyes went wide in stark terror. "Oh shit! That's her car!"

Milo could easily see that as much as Suzy didn't want to be afraid of her mother anymore, there was simply no way she could help it. He imagined that the sound of that car coming up the driveway must have had at least a dozen horrific memories attached to it. Milo got down on his knees and hugged Suzy. "It's okay. Like you said, she can't hurt you."

Suzy closed her eyes and took a deep, defiant breath. "I know."

'But she can still hurt me,' said a nasty little voice inside Milo's mind.


     ~~~~~


*part 23*

Milo stood at the door, waiting for it to open.

He thought back to that family photo he'd seen on the computer: Suzy smiling, Daddy in a goofy santa hat, and Mommy looking severely professional.

He tried to deal with the thought that that woman was about to come walking through the door Any Second N-

The doorbell rang.

Milo's father got up to answer it. He noticed his son standing there and mistook the boy's fright for nervousness. "Hey kiddo, don't worry. I'm sure she'll be really glad you wanted to do all this for her."

'Oh, I think not,' Milo thought back with a sick feeling in his guts. "Right, Dad," he said, trying to sound like nothing was wrong.

Dad reached for the door handle. The door swung open.

A swirl of cold air whisked into the room, and for a second, Milo honestly believed that it hadn't come from the weather.

Cheryl MacAllister; divorcee, career woman and child murderer, walked into the room.

She was wearing a coat that must have weighed as much as she did. Her fur was as white as soap. "Oh *there* you are, Milo! My goodness, aren't you a handsome little fellow!" She bent over to give the fox a hug.

Milo's heart _literally_ skipped a beat. He actually felt it stop in his chest. He had never, ever, not in his whole life, been so scared.

Her arms wrapped around him. He swore he could feel his life draining away. With more courage than he realized he had, he hugged her back.

"Hi, Ms MacAllister!" he said in a cheerful voice. He had no idea where it had come from. It was as if his act was on autopilot.

"I'm so glad to meet you," she told him. Her sweet tone of voice would have fooled anyone else, but Milo could hear the ugly, fake edge to it.

'We're both acting right now,' he thought. 'We're both lying to each other. And hopefully I'm the only one who knows it.'

"Can I take your coat?" Dad asked.

"Why thank you," Cheryl said, finally letting go of Milo. He felt as if he'd just been squeezed by an octopus' corpse.

The thin, almost unnaturally angular mousewoman handed her enormous coat to Milo's father. Underneath, she was wearing a perfectly matched outfit in lipstick-plum purple, right down to high heels so sharp they looked like they could impale pets. She stepped forward, every move graceful, and took a look around the livingroom. "I see you haven't started redecorating the place yet," she said in a tone of polite reprimand.

Dad didn't know how to handle a statement like that, or a woman like her. "Well, it *has* only been a few weeks since we moved in. And our old place was only a third this big. We're not used to a house like this. We're still just figuring out where everything's supposed to go."

She gave him a 'well, at least you're trying' smile. "I'm sure you'll find some way to make it your own." She sighed theatrically. "The memories of this place... So many happy ones, but so many tragic ones too..."

"Oh shut your fat mouth, you liar," Suzy spat viciously.

Milo turned around. Suzy was standing behind him glaring daggers at her mother. Milo had heard the phrase 'if looks could kill' before. He thought that whoever'd first said could have never imagined what Suzy looked like now. 'If looks could torture without mercy for weeks and then kill slowly and painfully' would be more appropriate.

He nudged Suzy and gave her a quick, 'calm down' look. "It's okay, Suzy. She scares the shit out of me too. We've got to keep it together," he whispered to her.

Cheryl's head whipped around, snakelike, and fixed upon Milo. "Did you say something, dear?"

Milo nearly shat his pants. "Um, well, I wrote a poem for you, and I was just going over the words to it. Making sure it sounded right."

"That's so sweet of you," she said. But something in her eyes changed. Milo saw a thin ridge of suspicion in them, as if she could read his thoughts.

'She knows. Oh my god. Somehow, she knows.'

"My wife's in the kitchen, still getting the food ready," Dad said, stepping in, totally oblivious. Milo breathed a sigh of relief. "She should be done soon. I'll go check."

"I think I'll go with you," said Cheryl. "I can't wait to meet her. It smells delicious."

As soon as Cheryl was out of the room, Milo felt all his muscles unclench. It was as if she carried around a noxious cloud of chemical vapors that left the room with her. "I can't do this," he said flatly.

"What?" Suzy yelped.

He stared at the floor. He didn't think he could move any part of his body. "She's not real. She can't be. She's some sort of robot, or a witch, or something from a science lab. I _cannot_ do this."

Suzy gave him a fiery glare and slugged him on the arm. "Dammit, Milo!"

He looked up and was frightened by how angry she looked. "What?"

"She *is* real! She's a furson just like you and me! Okay, we're both scared of her. But we both know better! This is how she works! She intimidates everyone. It's what she's the best at: intimidating people and scaring them into doing whatever she wants. You are NOT going to let her do that to you, Milo!"

Suzy grabbed him by the shoulders. "She lost the second she walked in here! We can *prove* that she killed me. She Has Already Lost, okay?!"

Milo nodded. This was certainly one hell of a pep talk.

Without warning, Suzy hugged him tight. "You're going to do it, Milo. You're going to make everything better. You're really strong and smart and courageous, just like all the heroes in all the books we read. You're Robin Hood and James Bond and all the other ones put together. I know you can do it!"

The absolute assurance in her trembling voice worked deep inside Milo and helped to make him feel as if what she was saying were true. "I don't know if I'm that heroic..."

"You are," she immediately insisted.

He gave her a squeeze, then a small kiss. "Okay. Okay. We'll do it."

The two of them held each other close and whispered encouragements until Milo saw his Dad coming back down the hall. He could hear his mom and Suzy's talking animatedly in the dining room about fish.

Okay, some good luck. This was perfect; he wanted to talk to his dad alone anyway.

Suzy noticed this and went off to glare wrathfully at her mother for a while.

"Dad, come here," Milo stage-whispered urgently.

Dad looked both puzzled and worried by the sudden frightened determination in his son's voice. "What is it?"

"Can we go in another room? I have something really, really important I need to ask you to do for me."

Robert Lennox didn't think he'd ever heard his son sound so deadly serious. "Alright then. Lead the way," he said in a shaky voice.

Milo led them to the hall just inside the front door. It was far enough from the kitchen that they wouldn't be overheard, yet Milo could still crane his neck back and see if someone was coming. "Dad, I need you to lock all the doors."

"What!?"

"Dad, this is serious. This is the most important thing I have ever asked you to do. You need to lock all the doors Right Now."

Dad was nearly in shock. "Milo! You're acting as if there's a serial killer running around outside! What the hell is going on?"

"Not outside, Dad. Inside," he corrected. "You can't let Ms. MacAllister leave."

This crossed the line from just being strange to outright craziness. "Excuse me? She's our guest! There is no way I'm going to-"

Before Dad could start in on a tirade, Milo shut him up with his trump card. "She killed Suzy."

Dad stopped in midsentence. "...What?"

"She killed her own daughter. She framed her husband so he'd go to jail instead of her."

"Milo!" Dad half-shouted, nearly at his wit's end. "How can you say that? You're the one who wanted to invite her to dinner!"

"I needed her here so I could get her to confess, Dad. I've been lying to you and Mom for weeks."

His father stopped. And for a moment, disappointment replaced anger and confusion on his face.

Milo felt his cheeks burn in shame. "I'm sorry, Dad. I'm so sorry. I've felt really shitty about it all week."

"Watch your language..." Dad said reflexively.

"Sorry. Look, I can prove it. She did it. I am over one hundred percent certain. I don't have time to show you right now, but she killed Suzy."

It was torture trying to take this all in so quickly. "Why... Why didn't you just tell us? Why didn't you tell the police or something if you're so sure!?"

Milo was starting to worry his Dad might be about to have a panic attack. "Because the proof I have now isn't enough. I have to make her confess. And, um, I didn't tell you and Mom because I knew if I did, the second she came over here she would have known we were all in on it. I think she suspects me of something already."

For a long moment, Dad just stared at Milo as if he was from another planet. How could this possibly be his son? How could this insane story possibly be true?

"Dad, I love you," Milo said, looking up into his father's eyes and pushing all his heart into his gaze. "I love you, and I need you to believe me. If you love me too, please believe me. I'm not crazy. I'd never ask you to do this unless I was more certain than anything else in my whole life that I'm right about this."

Another long pause. Dad continued to stare.

Milo begged him with his eyes to believe.

Finally, "She really did it?"

Milo nodded.

"She killed her own kid?"

Nod.

"You are sure?"

Nod.

"You realize that if you're wrong about this, I am going to punish you more severely than I have ever punished you before in your whole life?"

"Yes Dad," Milo said bravely.

Milo's father reached out and locked the front door.

"You get the side, I'll get the back."

"Thank you, Dad. I love you."

"I love you too, son. Now move your tail before she comes back."


     ~~~~~


*part 24*

The smell of peppered salmon and freshly steamed vegetables hung in the air.

The places were set. The silverware was laid out.

Time for dinner.

"Your dad is really cool," Suzy said.

"Thanks," Milo whispered to her. He looked up and locked eyes with his dad: 'Don't say anything to her. Don't do anything. She'll know in a second'.

Dad nodded. 'Okay, I understand'.

"It looks delicious!" Cheryl gushed as she sat down.

"Oh thank you!" Mom replied, sounding as if the Pope himself had complimented her. "I've been working on it all day. I must have thought a half dozen times I was going to ruin it, but look! Everything came out fine!"

She sat, Dad followed. Milo gulped and took his seat as well. Suzy was standing just behind his shoulder.

Out of the blue, Suzy leaned closer and whispered in his ear, "I love you."

Milo's heart fluttered. She had said it so tenderly, with such gratitude... He felt a surge of strength flow through him.

He wasn't alone. He was doing this for Suzy. He was doing this because he loved Suzy too. That was why he could not fail.

Mom reached for a bottle on the table. "Wine, Cheryl? I hope I'm right that it's supposed to be white wine with fish."

Cheryl nodded. "Don't worry, darling. I'd love a glass."

Milo loudly cleared his throat.

Everyone looked at him.

"Um, before we eat, I'd like to read the poem I wrote for you, Mrs MacAllister. Is that okay?" he asked timidly.

Mom set the bottle back down and nodded to him. "That'll be fine, honey."

Cheryl sat back in her chair and simply regarded him, as a predator might regard her prey. Something was off about the kid. She could practically smell it. She wondered if he suspected the truth about Suzy's death. Unlikely though. He was only a kid after all...

Milo took in a deep breath, composing himself. He could feel the tension stretching his body, making him feel like all his insides had turned to violin strings. He could feel his eardrums pounding. His heart beat so hard in his chest, it felt as if he could reach down and take it in his hand.

Slowly, Milo pulled a folded sheet of notebook paper out of his pocket. Slowly, he unfolded it.

Suzy looked over his shoulder and saw that it was completely blank.

Milo coughed. He cleared his throat again. He took a breath as if he was about to break into song.

With startling abruptness, he slammed the paper down on the table, making the silverware clatter. He leaned across the table, scowling at Ms MacAllister with enough fury to burn holes through her. "I know you did it," he hissed.

"Milo!" Mom shouted in shock.

Dad's face was a stone.

"What do you think it is I did, Milo?" Cheryl asked softly, with perfect composure.

"I know you killed Suzy," Milo said. He ground out the words like they were made of sandpaper.

"Milo!!" Mom yelped again in nearly paralyzing confusion. "What are you doing!?"

"Do you have any idea how it feels to hear you say that?" Cheryl asked, playing, and playing well, at sounding wounded to the core. "To accuse me of murdering my own daughter? It was hard enough just convincing myself to come here. This house holds so many horrible memories..."

Suzy poked Milo in the shoulder. "Stop her! She's starting in on her act! Stop her before she gets any further!"

"...and I felt like something was wrong the moment I set foot in here. The way you looked at me when I-"

"Shut up," Milo spat.

"ExCUSE me?!" Cheryl shot back, her eyes starting to blaze with fine green fire.

"That is IT!" Mom exploded. "Milo, I don't know what the hell's gotten into you, but you march your tail right up to your room this-"

"Mom, you shut up too."

She was shocked speechless, and shocked further by the aching sadness in Milo's eyes as he said it to her. His eyes said, 'Mom, you don't understand what's really going on here. If you love me, you'll back off right now'.

Milo's mother shut her mouth.

Milo turned back to Cheryl. "You killed Suzy. You killed her and you blamed it on your husband. And you knew you'd get away with it because you knew everyone would look at him and think he *must* have done it because he was just a big musclebound dumbass." He used Cheryl's old insult on purpose, hoping it would rattle her.

If it did, she did not show it. "How dare you..."

"It's working, Milo!" Suzy encouraged. "She's getting madder! But she's still keeping it under control. You have to piss her off so bad she'll blow her top!"

"I can't believe I trusted you, Milo," Cheryl said in a voice that implied pity for such an obviously delusional child. "I came all this way, hoping you'd show me some kind of-"

Milo banged his fist on the table. With all the fury in his body, he screeched out, "I said SHUT UP!!"

Mom squeaked like a frightened child. Dad closed his eyes and tried to comprehend that this was even happening.

Cheryl stared at Milo as if she could wipe him out of existence simply by hating him enough. She stood up suddenly, and turned away. "I do not have to take this!"

Milo nearly panicked. She couldn't leave! He had to keep her here!

Suzy sensed his fear. "Laugh at her!" she told him. "Nothing makes her angrier, remember?"

How in the world could you possibly laugh at a woman who scared you stiff? But borne out of hysteria, Milo opened his mouth and an earsplitting bray of mad laughter burst out.

Cheryl spun around like a top. Her left eye twitched.

"That's right! I'm laughing at you!" Milo screamed.

"Call her a bitch!" Suzy shouted.

"You murderous BITCH!!"

Cheryl froze on the spot. Milo could almost see her fur turning red from sheer rage.

Something inside Milo just snapped. It snapped, and the floodgates broke loose. Milo jumped up from his seat, flinging his chair out of his way behind him. "Ha ha ha, Cheryl! I'm laughing at you! You know why? Because you think I'm just some dumb kid who doesn't know what he's talking about!"

He stalked around the table, keeping his eyes on Ms. MacAllister the whole time. "The funny thing is, I *do* know what I'm talking about. I know exactly what happened that night. I know _exactly_ what happened that night! I can prove it! You're going to jail, you sick bitch, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

Mom was shocked into a cocoon of horror. She held her hands over her mouth in unthinking bewildered fear.

Cheryl looked down at Milo. For a moment, it almost looked as if she was smiling. Her eyes bled red with challenge. 'Prove it. Prove it then, you fuckin' little snot'.

Suzy was right. She could not intimidate him if he didn't let her. Milo felt Suzy come up behind him and put her paws on his shoulders. She was trembling. He was too.

"Milo, it's working..." she whispered in awe.

"You came home from work, and the first thing you noticed was that Richard's car was gone," Milo started. "That meant he'd picked Suzy up from school and they were still out somewhere. And, just as you knew the second you pulled up, Suzy hadn't cleaned the bathroom."

For the tiniest of fleeting instants, Milo saw a crack in her facade.

"Princess Lazy was out having fun, neglecting her chores again, right? So then an hour or so later, you hear the car pull up. They come out, and they're laughing! How dare they! Then you hear Suzy run up to her room, and your husband comes in acting sorry, trying to tell you that Suzy'd just gotten a part in the christmas show and he'd taken her out for milkshakes to celebrate. Well, that just wasn't a good enough reason for her to skip out on her chores, now was it?"

Milo was on a roll. He could barely believe this was actually coming out of him. He was feeling such incredible rage at this woman, he was certain his clothes would burst into flames at any second. "And so while you start yelling at Richard, and he just stands there taking it like he always does, you hear this crash upstairs."

Cheryl backed up a step.

"What the hell was that, huh? So you stomp upstairs to investigate. You burst through the door, and what do you find? That winged horse statue you saw in the store weeks ago. The one you wanted. The one that Suzy and her Dad had snuck out and bought for you because they knew you'd like it..."

Milo paused dramatically, savoring his rage.

"...Smashed all over the goddamn floor!!"

Cheryl was starting to sweat. Her tail was flicking back and forth behind her.

"Smashed into a hundred tiny pieces! And you looked at Suzy and you knew she did it. And what did you call her then? Huh?! What did you call your own daughter!? You called her a Spiteful Little Cunt!!!" Milo roared.

Suzy was beyond astounded by his courage. It was like looking into the sun.

"You made a run at her, probably to beat the shit out of her like you always did, and Richard, he'd had enough. He'd watched you treat his daughter, HIS daughter, like a punching bag too many times. He tackled you. Then you fought him off and said that you were finally going to the cops, that he'd finally fucked up.

"You ran out of the room, he ran after you, Suzy ran after him, you raised up your arm to punch her lights out, and what happened then? Huh? What happened then!?"

She stared into him, trying to melt him with her acid hate.

"He tried to protect her! He tried to take the hit, and he slipped! It was an accident! He loved her! He would never have hurt her! He would have died to protect her, but he made one horrible mistake and he knocked her down the stairs!"

Suzy's whole body shook as a sob sheared through her.

"Suzy fell. All the way down. Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! She landed at the bottom and her neck broke like glass. I'll bet you heard the snap all the way up at the top of the stairs."

Cheryl's brain was racing. He could not know this. He could not possibly know this.

"And then, while your husband stood there in shock, and your daughter's life leaked out of her, what did you do? What did you do, Cheryl!?"

He Could Not _Possibly_ Know This.

Milo shook with rage, feeling as if he was about to die at any second, that his body could not possibly stand anger this intense.

"YOU LAUGHED AT HER!!!"

Cheryl stomped forward and screamed at him with the force of a shotgun blast, "HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU POSSIBLY KNOW THAT?!?"

Mom gasped. In that moment, she realized that everything Milo had said was the absolute truth.

"Suzy told me," said Milo.

Cheryl reached out hands like talons and seized Milo's neck.

Milo's head snapped back. He found himself looking at the ceiling. His glasses flew across the room and landed in his milk.

Unaware of anything but the absolute necessity of silencing this monstrous child, Cheryl drove him forward and slammed him onto the dining room table.

Milo felt something burn his back, and realized he'd landed right in the salmon. Something had gone wrong with his brain because all he could think was, 'Mom worked so hard on it too...'

Cheryl squeezed as hard as she could. She meant to crush Milo's throat into powder. "You filthy, lying little fucking shit! Fuck! How could you know?!" She leaped up onto the table, forcing her entire weight upon Milo's body. "I got rid of her! I got rid of him! I got rid of them both forever! How the fucking hell could you know, you disgusting-"

Suzy had been watching the entire time.

Her blue eyes blazed with the fury of a goddess.

She opened her mouth, and she _screamed_.

It was a sound so resonant, it shook the house down to the foundation, broke seven windows, and sent a small earthquake running down the length of the entire street.


***STOP IT***!!!!!


The sheer force of her sonic eruption knocked her mother off the table and flung her across the room as if she weighed no more than a crumpled up ball of newspaper. The back of her head hit the doorway. An arc of blood sailed through the air.

Milo's parents stared in openmouthed terror.

Standing in the middle of their dining room was a ghost.

Suzy was real to them now. She shimmered with an electric blue nimbus that hurt to look at. Her eyes shone with azure fire that lit her entire head like a jack-o-lantern.

Amazingly, Cheryl began to sit up.

Suzy stared her down.

Cheryl saw her daughter and her heart nearly stopped in her chest. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words could come.

"You murdered me, Mommy," Suzy stated calmly.

Cheryl stopped breathing.

"I don't care that it was an accident. You killed me. You killed me because you're crazy and you wanted me to die. Daddy and I always loved you. We tried so hard to make you normal again. What happened? Why did you hurt us so much?"

Suzy's mommy gulped for air like a fish. She made sounds as if she were trying to form words, but they were insensible.

Suzy lowered her head sadly. "I don't know why I'm asking. I'm not going to get any answers."

Her blue glow faded. Now she was just a wisp of white mist again.

Cheryl gibbered like a madwoman.

Suzy turned around and walked back to the table. She felt so drained, she hadn't even remembered Milo until she set eyes on him again. She walked slowly to his side, knowing that if he was dead, she would kill her mommy right there on the spot.

Fate chose to spare Cheryl MacAllister. Milo's eyes were open, and he was breathing.

Suzy leaned gently over him. "Milo?"

"What happened?" he said with a horrible rasp in his voice.

"We won."

Milo closed his eyes. "Oh. Good." He opened them again and looked at Suzy. "Help me up. It hurts."

Suzy nodded. She slipped her arm beneath her friend and tenderly lifted him from the table. She could see the thick maroon bruises on his neck through his fur. The salmon had stuck to his back. It looked like it had almost burned right through his shirt. Suzy peeled it off and laid Milo down on the floor. She knelt silently beside him.

She looked up, and Milo's parents were looking back at her.

"Can you see me?" she asked.

Milo's mother burst into tears and dropped down to the floor beside her son. Dad knelt too and put his arms around her.

Suzy felt bitter disappointment. They still couldn't...

And then, Milo's father turned to her and said, "Suzy? Is he going to be okay?"

Her heart shook in her chest. "Yes. He'll be fine. I stopped her in time."

Mom looked up to Suzy as well. "Thank you."

Suzy nodded to her. "Milo's my friend. We met the first day he moved in. We planned all this together."

Dad was about to reply when there came an urgent knock at the door. "Who in the hell...?"

He got up, and immediately noticed Cheryl. He hoped she wasn't dead. He hoped she'd just simply passed out. With her eyes wide open.

That stare would haunt him forever.

Feeling like he was in some feverish nightmare, Dad went to unlock the door.

The second it opened, a skinny, scruffy jaguar burst in. "Milo? Suzy? What the fuck happened in here!?"

"Watch your language..." Dad said reflexively.

Damian didn't even hear him. From down the hall, he saw Milo's mother and Suzy huddled over a still form and assumed the worst. "MILO!!!"

At full speed, Damian charged into the dining room. He threw himself down on the floor, nearly breaking his knees, and tried desperately to see over the vixen and the mouse ghost. "Is he okay?"

A weak voice came from the floor. "Damian. Glad you could make it."

The jaguar practically collapsed in relief.

"Mom? Could I have a glass of water? My throat really hurts."

Hysterical tears streaming down her face, Milo's mother leaned down to cover her son's face in kisses. The words that had stuck in her throat finally came bursting out. "Milo! Milo, Milo! Oh sweetheart! Milo! I love you, my brave boy! You're going to be just fine! Milo! I love you!"

Still slightly woozy, his brain insisting this couldn't possibly be reality, Dad rejoined them and got down on the floor as well. "He's okay, right? He's okay?"

"I'm okay," Milo assured. Feeling as if his head might roll off at any moment, he found the strength to sit halfway up.

He saw Suzy, and managed to smile. "We did it, Suzy."

Suzy was in tears as well. "Oh Milo! You were... You were..." She couldn't find the words. 'Heroic' just seemed like not enough.

Milo looked into the eyes of his parents. "I'm sorry I had to lie to you. But I had to. I had to make her admit it."

His mother hugged him tenderly. "We understand. Oh, Milo. I can't believe you... She really...? Oh my god, Milo, what the hell were you thinking!?" she demanded in a motherly way as she kissed his forehead again and again.

His father put a strong paw on his shoulder. "I'm glad I believed you. I still can't deal with what just happened, but I know that what you did was the bravest thing I've ever seen in my life."

"Thanks Dad," Milo said, feeling a wonderful mix of pride and love in his heart.

He turned to Damian. "Did you get it all?"

Damian grinned. "Every word. She's cooked, Milo. You and Suzy fried her ass." At that, he turned and really noticed Cheryl. He cringed with his entire body.

"What are you talking about?" Mom asked.

Suzy was more than happy to explain. "Damian's a friend of mine. We asked him to help us out tonight. He showed up at seven thirty and parked down the block in his van. When my Mommy came in, he started taping." She reached down into the collar of Milo's shirt. She brought out a tiny black plastic squiggle. "A stage mike. Damian figured out how to pick up the signal from across the street."

"Smart, huh?" Milo asked.

Both his parents stared at him like he was a genius.

The sound of sirens began to waft in through the open front door.

"The cops?" Dad wondered. "We haven't even called them yet."

Damian flashed his cell phone. "Got you covered. Also told 'em it might be a good idea to bring an ambulance."

Dad reached out and shook Damian's paw. "Smart thinking there... Uh..."

"Damian. Just Damian. I work at a coffeeshop downtown."

"He makes very good milkshakes," Suzy said, without even realizing why. It just seemed important to mention at the time.

"Oh, indeed," said Dad. His mind was operating in a buzzy little cloud of shock by now.

Just then, seemingly fifty or so policemen burst into the house. "Everyone freeze! We have a report of a major domestic disturbance!"

The lead cop seemed unsure whether to tackle Milo's dad or Damian first.

"Her! Her!" Milo shouted in alarm, pointing desperately at Cheryl. "She tried to choke me to death!"

The cop looked, then grimaced at the heap of a woman slumped on the floor. "Her?" he asked in disbelief.

Another cop came over and took Cheryl's pulse. He nodded at the lead cop. "Got a pulse. She's just conked out."

Everyone in Milo's family felt a shudder of relief.

"What the hell happened to her then?" the cop demanded.

Milo's dad stood up. "She was trying to kill my son. She threw him onto the table, choking him, and then I grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her across the room."

"Is that what happened?" the cop asked everyone else, clearly not believing Dad.

Mom nodded. Damian too. "That's what happened," Milo croaked.

The cop looked back at Cheryl. Suddenly, he jumped in shock. Literally; he actually jumped back a few steps. "Holy fucknuts! That's the MacAllister woman! Why in hell is she here!?"

Damian stood up. "She just confessed to killing her daughter, officer," he said, his tone solid and unafraid. "That's why she's here. Milo, the kid on the floor, found out what she did and tricked her into coming here. He asked for my help. I gave him a throat mike and sat in my van taping it. I'm making a dub right now."

The lead cop looked at him incredulously. "Who the f... Wait, you're that pothead coffeeshop guy. You were on the stand at the trial."

"That's EX-pothead," Damian growlingly corrected. "I just wanted a chance to prove myself right and help an innocent man get out of jail," he said with a sneer.

Seeing that the policeman looked as if he was about to haul off and punch Damian in the mouth, Milo faked a loud, pitiful groan of pain.

The cop's attention was successfully diverted. He and two other policemen came over and knelt beside Milo. "Jeeesus Christ! Lookit the bruises!" one of them said.

"Are they that bad?" Milo asked.

"Kid, you look like you're wearing a purple scarf," the officer colorfully and tactlessly informed him.

Another officer was trying to revive Ms. MacAllister. "Ma'am? Ma'am?" He gently clutched her shoulder and gave her a shake.

Cheryl came alive like a monster in a horror flick. "YOU LITTLE FUCKER!!!"

She made a mad, howling, desperate lunge at Milo, hands outstretched, looking like a purple-clad banshee. She knew that this time, if she could just get her fingers around the little bastard's throat, she'd put him in the ground for sure.

Five armed police officers smashed into her like linebackers.

"On the ground, bitch!!"

Cheryl fought like the devil, then suddenly went rigid with shock. She had not noticed until that moment that the house was full of police. "No."

"NO!"

"No no no no no no no no!!!"

Still screaming, repeating that one syllable over and over, two policemen wrestled her up off the floor and began to drag her away. She flailed and kicked like a two year old in the throes of a hellacious tantrum.

Cheryl locked her lunatic red eyes on Suzy. "You evil little cunt! Your own mother! How could you do this to me!? It was always your fault! Little Miss Lazy! Little Princess Selfish! Everything always had to be your way!!"

"Who is she screaming at?" one officer asked, starting to get seriously freaked out by this woman. She looked like she was possessed by a demon or something.

Suzy stood up and walked toward her mother. "You're going to jail now, Mommy."

"Bitch! Cunt! You goddamn little tramp!! Always taking your fucking father's side! That dumb bastard! I'm glad I laughed at you! You vicious little bitch!"

Suzy trembled and she started to cry. "I don't love you anymore, Mommy. Please go away now. I'm tired of you hurting me and Daddy."

The cops dragged Cheryl MacAllister away as she continued to rant and struggle and swear.

Suzy solemnly held her paws over her ears. She didn't want to listen anymore. And yet, she had lied; some tiny part of her heart did still love her Mommy. And strangely, she didn't want that part to go away.

None of the policemen could see her. She could barely be bothered to see them either. She went back to Milo's side and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you, Milo. I love you so much. Thank you."

Milo felt her soft tears run down his face.

"Suzy?" Milo's mother asked quietly.

"Yes, Mrs. Lennox?"

"I know the police are going to take all of us down to the station to question us soon. They'll have to at least take our statements. Will you stay with Milo when he goes to the hospital?"

Suzy nodded. "I will. I'll take good care of him."

"Wait, Mom, before you go, there's something we've gotta get to the news people," Milo started.

Suzy remembered. "Oh gosh! The diary!"

"What diary?" Mom asked.

"My diary! It'll show everyone that my Daddy's innocent!" Suzy told her. "It's right on Milo's desk in plain sight. It's just a regular school notebook with a black cover. Someone has to go get it!"

Mom nodded to Suzy. "I will. Keep Milo safe now."

"I promise."

Amid the utter chaos in the dining room, Milo's mom was barely able to squeak out of the room and run up the stairs.

Suzy gave Milo another kiss. "Love you."

"I love you too, Suzy. And you're welcome." He touched his nose to hers. "And thank you too. I never would have been able to do that if you weren't right there with me. How did you get her off of me anyway? I must have blanked out. I felt this big bass noise rumble through the whole house..."

"I..." Suzy genuinely did not know what she had done. "I just saw her hurting you, and I had to make her stop."

Milo saw over her shoulder that an EMT was coming in with a stretcher. "Oop, looks like they're gonna take me away now. Wanna hitch a ride?" he asked with a smile that didn't quite cover up how much pain he was really in.

"I'd love to, Milo."

Two paramedics slipped a long orange board under the little fox. They secured his head between two big foam things. He was lifted and placed onto a stretcher. They wheeled him out and all he could see was the ceiling.

Then he felt a warm touch on his chest. "I'm here." Suzy said.

She concentrated, and became a mist. She floated into Milo's body and settled in.

"I'm right here, Milo."

"I know, Suzy."


     ~~~~~


*part 25*

Richard MacAllister sat in his jail cell weeping.

In his hand was a single sheet of paper.

The night before, the warden had come by holding a radio under his arm. "You have got to freakin' hear this," he'd said.

Richard and the warden got along well. In fact, he had virtually no enemies in the whole cell block.

From the very first day though, they'd called him a child killer.

What they didn't know was that now he was free to let loose all the rage he'd never been able to unleash on his wife.

His fists defended his daughter's memory for him. Time after time after time. He was never cruel. He made his point and stopped immediately afterwards. After every blow, every time, he said calmly, 'I love my daughter and I did not kill her'.

He said that so many times that eventually people started to believe him.

Gossip spread that the huge mountain of a mouse was not someone to fuck with. It didn't take too long for a small circle of inmates to take up his side. He sat with them at lunch, worked out with them in the yard, and little by little, his circle of acquaintances grew.

Richard himself could not have cared less. His every thought was for Suzy. He took a book on drawing from life out of the prison library and spent hours upon hours practicing sketching his daughter from every angle. Eventually, his cell was covered in rough but loving sketches of his little girl. The raw emotion in them spoke more than words. They were his defense. Each and every one spoke to the viewer: 'I love my daughter, and I did not kill her.'

He was a model inmate. At least, he was *after* the initial correction of opinions had been made to the others. He was polite. He was quiet. He never made trouble, but he often stopped it. He managed to get on the guards' good sides several times by stopping fights in their tracks, often with a single blow. Sometimes he didn't even need to do that much. He wasn't trying to suck up to the screws, of course. The noise simply distracted him from drawing, and he wanted it stopped.

Nearly a year later, the whole cellblock knew that when Richard MacAllister wanted it quiet, a pin dropping had damn well better sound like a gunshot.

Now, the sound that carried through the bars, through the halls, through the souls of everyone hearing it, was the first time Richard had ever cried in prison.

The night before he had heard the news on the radio. Some kid had tricked his wife into confessing to her part in Suzy's death. It was all caught on tape. Then she'd tried to choke the kid to death. Luckily, he survived. The anchorman said that, at that very moment, prosecutors were looking at Richard Macallister's conviction to possibly overturn it. After all, the only evidence they had that Suzy's death had been murder and not an accident was Cheryl's testimony. And that had just been rather spectacularly invalidated.

The other inmates had cheered for him.

The news made him happy, yes. But if they set him free, where was he supposed to go now without his daughter?

That evening, at mail time, he'd been handed a letter. The return address was simply, 'Stinky Sock'.

His heart had turned to ice.

He opened the letter, and was in tears before he'd even finished it.


	Dear Daddy,

	I love you so much! I miss you more than anything. I'm a ghost now, and I'm still living in the house. A fox family moved in a little while ago. A mom, a dad, and a cute boy named Milo. We're friends now. He's really smart and kind-hearted. We have a plan on how to get you out of prison. We're going to make Mommy confess. I hope you'll get to hear about it on TV. I love you, Daddy. I love you a million times over. I want to see you again more than anything in the world. I hate knowing you're stuck in there. I want to set you free RIGHT NOW! But I know I have to wait at least until there's another trial. I love you, my wonderful musclebound dumbass Daddy.

	A hundred million hugs and kisses,
	Suzy.


Richard MacAllister wept with all the force in his heart.

His cries rang through the prison walls like churchbells.

It was in her handwriting. He knew it was real.

"I love you too, Suzy..."


     ~~~~~


End of Book Three


