ZEHN - DO WE REALLY NEED FRIENDS?
Chip and Gadget entered the living room with Pierre and Dalee behind them. Pierre once again had his dark grey shirt, and Dalee had her orange dress.
“Yes, the marriage counsellor would probably do a better job if he or she were part of a mixed-species couple—” Chip’s speech pattern was halted when he saw Foxglove sitting on the couch, and smelled the scent of chocolate all over the air.
“Foxy?” asked Dalee. The bat lady had heard them coming but didn’t stand to receive them. Instead, she just turned to look/echosound at them. All four rodents gasped when they saw the pain and desperation in her bloodshot eyes.
“Foxy, what happened? Where’s Dale and the others?” asked the mousemaid. The pipistrell turned back and looked/echosounded blankly in front of her before she replied,
“Dale—Dale—ran out the window.” Everyone else’s blood pooled at their foot-paws. One moment later, the blood of a certain elder tamias began boiling, and it was quite evident in his eyes, ears, tail, and back fur,
“WHAT?? What on EARTH made him do that?”
“I don’t know,” sobbed Foxglove. “I’ve done everything you suggested to entice him. The acorn dinner, the Jacuzzi, the vacation, the chocolate—everything! I even covered myself in chocolate syrup—and—and—it scared him to death, somehow!!” She brought her wings to her face and sobbed while the mousemaid and chipmunk lady sat next to her, and then she continued, “I even asked him if there was another female, but he said there wasn’t. He kept telling me that he’d never do that, but that he just couldn’t—couldn’t—” Filled with confusion, Dalee hugged her daughter-in-law.
“How did you get out?” asked Gadget.
“Well, I just stood still for a long while, waiting for him to return and apologise and get things back on track—but he didn’t come back. I showered off all the chocolate, and I knocked on the door, calling for you guys. Then I remembered you were going to pick up Dale’s parents, so I had to climb out the window myself. I managed to open the door and clean up the mess and then I waited for Monty and Zipper to come back from the police station. I couldn’t sleep at all. When they came back, I explained what had happened. He and Zipper took off right there to look for him, and they haven’t come back yet!” The chiropterid settled in Dalee’s shoulder for another bout of sobbing, and the rodent held her close. The chocolate scent was still strong on her, even after the shower. Motherly, she hugged her, placing her paws over Foxglove’s ears, so she didn’t hear when someone approached the front door and entered.
“Monty! Zipper!” exclaimed Chip, turning to them. All ears perked up. “Where’s Dale?” The bat lady was able to hear Chip’s high voice, so she suddenly straightened up and turned to look/echosound at the mouse and fly, who explained as they approached the others,
“Don’t know, mate. Dale didn’t take the Ranger Plane or Ranger Skate; ‘e just took off runnin’ like a roadrunner.”
“Where did you look for him?” asked Chip. The murid didn’t reply at that. Instead, he padded over to the elder chipmunk and said,
“Nice t’ see ye again, Pierre. Jus’ wish it was under better circumstances.”
“The feeling’s mutual, Monty. I can’t believe that this is happening, and with Dale! I mean, there were no warning signs at all, were they?”
“NO!” sobbed the victim, making everyone turn to her again. “It just started one night, right after—after we—” Her sobbing stopped her explanation.
“Say, Dalee, Gadget, why don’t ye take Foxy t’ ‘er room ‘n talk about the female side o’ this? Me ‘n Zip kinda need a word or two with Pierre ‘n Chip.”
“Sure, Monty. Come on, Foxy, now it’s a good as time as ever for a mother-daughter-sister bonding time.” Foxglove’s body shook with her sobbing, nearly as bad as Dale’s body shook that horrible night last May. The chipmunk lady and the mousemaid took the bat lady back to her room. The males heard Gadget tinkering with the doorknob again, putting it back in its original condition. When they heard the door close, the mouse sat down and looked at the elder chipmunk.
“Pierre, we both know that we can’t ‘ide anythin’ anymore. We need t’ know: did Dale ever do somethin’ like this before?” The sciurid looked at the murid for a moment, and replied,
“No. He had a girlfriend or two back in the forest, but even Chip will tell you that he never did anything wrong. No female ever gave herself fully to him, and he never gave—”
“Are you sure?” interrupted the muscid.
Pierre started to glare at them, “I’m positive, Mister Lightringer. Even if he had bathed afterward, Dalee or I would have been able to smell him coming a mile away. Or where do you think Dale inherited his sensitive nose from?” Chip knew where Monterey was heading. Pierre asked again, “So you think that Dale is cheating on her now?” Monterey replied,
“They’re not fightin’, as far as we know. But we’ll accept any other suggestions. ‘N fact, we’re *beggin’* for more suggestions.” The elder sighed in frustration, and rubbed his forehead as he tried to come up with another explanation of Dale’s behaviour.
“I—I really don’t know. He didn’t say much after his last girlfriend broke up with him. That was right before Chip asked him to come to the city with him and become detectives. I heard he was fighting for Gadget for a while, but that seemed normal to me. Other than that, I don’t know why else he would act this way.” It was the younger chipmunk’s time to ponder.
“There’s no way he could be cheating on Foxy. Like you said before, Pierre, it’s just not in him. Even when we lived here alone, he never mentioned anyone to me—I guess he was either too busy with other stuff or too unlucky to even bother trying.”
“Chipper, lad, I—” Monterey hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should bring up this part of his past. “I—think I’ve been ‘n Dale’s situation before. Out ‘n my own, doin’ new things, goin’ from a country settin’ t’ a *city* settin’, ‘n my sweet innocence is suddenly ‘it with *everythin’* the city ‘as t’ offer—” The mus looked down, ashamed of his past. “Outside o’ ‘is parent’s control, Dale might ‘ave broken loose all restraint ‘n indulged ‘imself ‘n pleasure ‘e couldn’t ‘ave before.” Chip looked at his large friend. At least he was sorry and not boasting about his exploits. The younger tamias sighed and replied,
“Monty, everything Dale did at night was either watch T.V., read comic books, or sleep. And I know he couldn’t have done anything else because either the T.V. would still be on or warm the following morning AND he would tell me what the show was about, even if I didn’t want to hear it, or all his comics would be all over the floor or on his bed AND he would tell me what he read, or I would simply find him ready to work the next day, proving he slept well.” He gave another sigh. “Even if he had brought someone home or had gone somewhere while I slept, *I* would have been able to smell something the next day. He had no reason to shower off, either, since you weren’t here, Pierre. His room never had any scent other than trash, pizza, acorns, chocolate, junk food, and himself. When Gadget and Monty moved in, he moved in with me, but all this time there were never any suspicious scents on him. Our work *has* brought us to some places where we’ve met females out on their rounds, but when we have, none of them have ever recognised him or greeted him or anything, and he never acted more nervous than usual.”
“And nothing’s changed since he met Foxy?” asked Pierre. Zipper replied,
“Not really. Ever since Gadget and Monty moved in, everything stayed the same, until Foxy moved in. He spent a lot of time with her, but we never smelled anything unusual.” The younger sciurid continued,
“When he realised he loved her, his dates lasted longer and longer, but every morning he was either on the top bunk or on the couch. He smelled a bit of Foxy, but nothing incriminating. And *after* they got married, they’ve spent practically every single night in their room!”
“It’s the ‘practically’ that worried me there, Chipper,” said the mus. “I asked Foxy if Dale ‘ad ever spent the night away from ‘er, ‘n she said a few times, but those were mostly t’ watch a movie she considered borin’ or disturbin’. I got a moight suspicious there, so I took a picture o’ Dale ‘n went around askin’ if anyone ‘ad seen ‘im—or ‘ad ‘im for a customer.”
“And what did you find out?” asked the elder rodent, laying back his ears, nervous and slightly angered that this large rodent had even considered this possibility.
“We found out that Dale’s as clean as a whistle,” buzzed the dipterid. “Some recognised him through his picture in the papers, but no other females ever got near him. We also checked out the comic and candy stores, but he’s not there either. ” Pierre rubbed back his facial fur, and summarised,
“So he’s not cheating, and he’s not fighting with her. Foxy said she scared him somehow, but what could he be scared of?”
“An old wives’ tale?” asked Zipper. “You know Dale believes a lot of what he sees and reads.”
“After five months? Not likely,” replied Monterey.
“Well, that just leaves one last option,” sighed Chip. “Simply put: there is something physically wrong with Dale.” The elder Oakmont sank back into the couch. His son, sick? Or disabled, at least? And worst of all, in the middle of his wife’s Fall Fever—
In the middle?
It *started* in the middle?
“Hold it,” he said, sitting upright and raising his ears. “Before Dalee and Gadget took Foxy away, she said that it all *started* one night. Now, I don’t recall hearing of any medical condition or disability that just pounces on you right after you—”
“And in the prime of your life?” interrupted the musca. “She said she scared him, maybe he’s scared because of all he has to do?” The Detective’s deductive reasoning processed this for a moment, and he exclaimed,
“It’s psychological!”
“Huh?” asked the mouse.
“Dale’s problem isn’t physical, it’s psychological! He *IS* scared after all!” Eyebrows were raised all around.
“And he *hasn’t* been scared until now? Who would ever be scared of marital bliss?”
“I don’t know, Pierre, but even with all the changes he’s gone through, Dale’s still Dale, so he must have seen or heard—or *done* something that has terrified him to the point of not wanting to even go near his wife!”
“And ‘is fright started roight ‘n the middle o’ things?” asked Monterey. Chip looked at him,
“We’ve eliminated all the impossibilities. This last option, no matter how improbable it is, *has* to be the right answer.” The males sat in silence for a while, and then Zipper concluded,
“So all we have to do now is wait for Dale to come back and drag that information out of him and see what he’s so scared of.”
“*If* he himself knows what it is,” added Chip. He sat back and sighed, knowing there was no more deduction to be done now. “Well, I guess we wait for him then. Pierre, thanks for coming. We’ll get the guest room ready for you two.” With that, everyone stood. The murid and dipterid took the elder sciurid to the guest room to prepare for the night. Meanwhile, the younger sciurid padded out the door, and closed it behind him. After all this madness, he needed some time of his own and just give his mind a rest. He breathed deeply the cold October air, identifying the fragrances of the season: evaporated chlorophyll, drying vegetation, various types of wood, Dale, humans here and there, pumpkins, plastic that was being displayed as Halloween approached, cold humidity, doughnuts from the shop next to the police station—
Dale?
A light breeze brought his friend’s scent to him again. He looked up, and just barely visible in the moonlight, he saw the Comedian sitting on one of the higher branches of the tree. Looking at him, he no longer felt anger, but intense worry and sadness, not to mention dread, since it was possible that he may one day face this exact same problem with Gadget, whatever it may be. Slowly, he clawed his way up to the branch, and as he got closer, he saw that Dale’s hang-glider was on an adjacent branch. No wonder Monterey couldn’t find him.
As he got closer, Dale felt the branch move, and another shift in the breeze brought the smell of leather, Gadget, and his parents, to his nose.
“Hi, Chip,” he said, not turning around. Since he didn’t start with a stupid comment, Chip decided to hold off the bonking, for now. His best friend was in need of help, and he needed it badly. Both sets of ears were laid back in sadness.
“We’ve been worried about you all day,” he began. “Where have you been?” Dale didn’t look at him.
“Here and there. I needed time alone.”
“But where? Monty and Zipper looked for you everywhere, even—even in places you normally wouldn’t be. Where were you?”
“Well, at first I wasn’t sure where to go, so I ran around the tree, got my glider, and just took off. I flew around for a while, trying to clear my head of everythin’.”
“So you just flew around in circles all day?”
“I guess. Around noon I got tired so I landed to find somethin’ to eat, but for some reason I wasn’t hungry. I—still don’t feel hungry. As I kept thinkin’ on what I was doin’, I decided to go back to the beginnin’ of everythin’ and see if I had lost anythin’ in our relationship, anythin’ that would make me *want* her again.” The Detective knew where he was headed now.
“You went to the drive-in?”
“Yes. Back to that exact same roof. It looks very different during the daytime. I flew around a bit, rememberin’ how it all happened. I landed on top of the lamppost and tried to visualise everythin’: Bud, Lou, the bubble gum, the Ranger Wing…” The Comedian trailed off as he closed his eyes and images replayed in his mind again. “There wasn’t any gum left on the lamppost. I guess some scavengers got to it or it dried off or somethin’. But all I could remember there was how scared I was of her, because she was a bat. Not findin’ anythin’ there, I went to the Laundromat.” Dale paused in a manner that made Chip shiver with fright.
“The Laundromat? What—what did you find there?”
“It’s changed a bit. The washin’ machines are gone, but the cauldron’s still there. Some homeless people use it as a fireplace now. I walked around, rememberin’ how I felt so brave when Freddy caught us, and then so—so *angry* when I learned that Foxglove was her helper. But then—then—I felt so *scared* when I was turned into a frog. And when I saw Foxglove about to drop that brick in the cauldron, I realised she really *did* care about me. When we both got caught and tied up, I—I—wasn’t frightened—for some reason—it was the first time I was trapped and *didn’t* feel frightened—because---because Foxy was with me. Then, for one instant, I really thought we were goin’ to die, but even then I wasn’t scared—because Foxy was next to me. Luckily you guys got there in time.”
“You can thank Zipper for tracking you down. If it wasn’t for him, we’d now have a very powerful witch in town.” The Comedian opened his eyes.
“And two mammals less. When we got loose and joined in the fight, I never felt braver. I *knew* what to do to stop the spell, and I had someone to help me. I also knew that there was no time to give taunts or say anythin’ that the good guy always says when he’s about to beat the bad guy, because that’s when the bad guy’s helpers sneak behind him and trap him again.”
“Like it happened with Foxglove.” Dale turned to face Chip,
“Strange thing is that she told me she didn’t watch much T.V. I guess all that time for me paid off, didn’t it?”
“*That* time it did, Dale. But did you find anything there?” Dale turned away again.
“I—I don’t think I did. Sure, there were a lot of things to remember, and I thought that was the place where I stopped bein’ afraid of her, but after thinkin’ things over, I see that it was because she wasn’t throwin’ herself at me, *and* because we both faced a common enemy. When we finished that case and no longer had a common enemy, she almost went back to throwin’ herself at me, but she didn’t. I guess that’s because she was too busy teachin’ us how to use the hang-glider. Once those lessons were over, she started it again.”
“Until we got that case in England.”
“Yeah. I didn’t know back then if we’d have to face another common enemy, or even a much bigger enemy. I had heard the phrase ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’, so I decided to put Foxglove to the test and see if she wasn’t—wasn’t—” Dale looked down for a moment, “—like all those other females back at the forest. I guess what I told her came out all wrong since she left before we did.”
Chip sighed. “You broke her heart.”
Dale shivered and sighed himself. “I know. I didn’t mean to, really. Well, you remember what happened after that, she came back, took Gadget’s translator, got captured, we went to rescue her, and—and—” Dale looked up for a moment, as that fateful moment replayed in his mind.
“And?”
“And I looked into her eyes. That was the point where I stopped feelin’ scared of her, and I fell in love with her, and Gadget just—just vanished from my head. But—I—I don’t know why I lost that.” He looked down again. He knew how, but he didn’t know why. Chip pressed on,
“Then what did you do?”
“Well, I figured, since I was so far away from the Tree, I decided to do somethin’ productive, and I began an air patrol. You really can’t see much, but at least I was doin’ somethin’.” Chip sat down behind him,
“And you just came back? Where exactly did you do your patrol?” Dale sighed, and turned to look at his best friend.
“Chip, I know you’ll probably bonk me for this, but as I was flyin’ around, I ended up in—in East Staten Island Park.” Chip bristled and paled as his ears fell back. Then, in a near-uncontrollable rage, he moved forward, knelt beside his best friend, held his trembling fists in front of him, and chattered,
“You—WHAT??!!” Dale turned away again,
“And I know that what I’m about to say isn’t goin’ to make much sense, but Chip—I—don’t know how I wound up there—I just—just—wound up there—like—like I was *supposed* to be there—somehow.” The Detective continued speaking through clenched incisors,
“Dale, you KNOW that park is mortally dangerous for ANY animal!! At what time did you get there?”
“Around three. Don’t worry, the owl lady was fast asleep.” Chip wasn’t sure if he should calm down with that piece of information.
“So—you were *supposed* to be there? What on earth do you mean by that?!” The Comedian looked up,
“I’m not sure. But when I entered the park, I had the strangest feelin’, as if I had seen it before.” Chip sat back for a moment.
“But you *haven’t* seen it before. You got a *déjà-vue* because you had a dream you forgot in which you saw a park similar to it and when you saw the real park the memory was triggered—”
“That would be the logical explanation,” he interrupted, “but Chip, this wasn’t—this wasn’t a normal *déjà-vue*. What I felt when I saw it was—well—I felt as if somethin’ terrible had happened there.”
“The dream you forgot was a nightmare.” Dale raised his paws, trying to stop the deductions from his best friend.
“No, no. Look, this is really strange. If I had a nightmare about it, I would have remembered it—”
“With the talk we had about the Councils giving us permission to kill that owl lady, you probably had all those feelings come back on you when you saw it. And that owl lady *has* killed many in that place, so you were right. Terrible things have happened in that p—”
“No, Chip, it’s more than that,” he interrupted again, raising his paws, turning to look at him. “I felt as if somethin’ terrible had happened to *us*, to *all* of us, right there in that park! I flew around, tryin’ to find out what was makin’ me feel that way. I found a foxglove vine, and wondered if it was the same one that Foxy fell into when she was little. Maybe the whole thing had somethin’ to do with her, but from the way I was feelin’—it was just somethin’ that involved us *all*.” Chip’s ears relaxed a trifle as he sat beside him.
“But how could that be? We’ve never been to that park! There’s no way something terrible could have happened to us if we’ve never been there.” Dale thought and thought, and finally replied,
“Chip, I know this is weird, but maybe if all of you go to the park, you might feel what I felt.” He sat up and hugged his knees, looking at the stars again. “Anyway, I flew around, and I saw this huge tree with a hole in it. I knew it was the owl lady’s nest because there were bits of fur and bones near the edge and on the ground just below it. And that’s when I felt it the strongest. I got the feelin’ that I *knew* that owl lady, that I *knew* who she was, and that she had done somethin’ terrible to us all. Or—or—” He trailed off again.
“Or what?” insisted Chip. Dale turned to look at his friend,
“Chip, I know this is goin’ to sound like science-fiction, but it wasn’t that she had *done* somethin’ terrible to us, but that she was *supposed* to have done somethin’ terrible.” The Detective stared at the Comedian for a while, raised one eyebrow, and asked,
“What do you mean?”
“Well, are you familiar with the concept of time travel?”
“Yes, that genre was first conceived by H.G. Wells and it’s been really overdone lately, especially in all the movies and cartoons you see.” Dale ignored that last comment, turned to the sky again, and explained,
“Well, in a ‘Star Trek, The Next Generation’ episode, the *Enterprise* saw a ship that was tryin’ to escape a wormhole. The moment it did, everythin’ changed and they were suddenly in the middle of a war, because the ship was *supposed* to have been destroyed on the other side of the wormhole many years before them. The destruction of that ship brought about events that led to a long period of peace, but now, since it was never destroyed, the timeline of ‘peace’ was changed. The crew of the *Enterprise* didn’t notice it because as far as they were concerned, the ship *vanished* but was never *destroyed* in the first place and they all lived as if it had never been destroyed. One crew member *did* notice somethin’ was wrong because her species can somehow detect changes—‘rifts’, or ‘tangents’—in the timelines but can’t say exactly what the changes are or where they were. She even told the Chief Security Officer that they were never supposed to have met because in the original timeline the Security Officer died before the other one joined. Eventually, she convinced the captain to send the ship back to the wormhole, even though the crew of that ship would die, but then it didn’t matter anyway because the moment the ship went through, everythin’ changed back to the original peaceful timeline and they never remembered sendin’ the ship back in the first place.” Chip stared at Dale again, shivered briefly, and commented,
“I can’t believe I actually understood all that.” Dale turned and smiled,
“Ah, it seems that you know how to think fourth-dimensionally, Chip.”
“The term is ‘tetra-dimensionally’, or ‘quadimensionally’. But what are you getting at? Are you saying that you can sense these—these ‘tangents’—in the timeline as well?”
“Well, if I can, then that’s news for me, too, or at least when I get near that park.” Chip looked at Dale,
“What are you saying?”
“I’m—what I’m gettin’ at is that I think that somehow, in the past—I don’t know when—there was a point when a tangent was created in our timeline, and the terrible things that were supposed to have happened to us in that park never did happen.” Chip shook his head lightly,
“Isn’t that a good thing, if they were so terrible?”
“I guess so, but as I kept thinkin’ about it, I began to wonder if the other timeline was the alternate one and we’re livin’ the ‘real’ one, or if the other one was the real one and we’re livin’ in the alternate one, or even, if there have been other tangents before this one.” Chip looked at his inquisitive friend, and asked while crossing his arms,
“And how, pray tell, do you suppose these ‘tangents’ of yours happened without using any more science-fiction plot devices?” Dale looked up and pondered, and replied while looking at the stars,
“I don’t know, Chip. But you *will* admit we’ve encountered supernatural stuff, right? Winifred, the banshee, Leprechauns, that mummy, Sir Colby’s Ghost, all that stuff?”
“Yes?”
“And you will admit that not even Gadget could explain away all those magical beings?” Chip sighed.
“Yes.”
“Well, then you must admit that until you can prove otherwise, it’s safe for me to say that maybe some of what we encountered before may have influenced our timeline.” Chip sighed again,
“Interesting theory. But until it’s proven wrong or right, it will remain a theory.” The Detective then looked up and also examined the constellations. After a while, he asked, “You know what, Dale?”
“What?”
“I think that Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, Gene Roddenberry, and George Lucas would have a field day with you.”
“Thanks, Chip, but Gene Roddenberry is dead.”
“Oh, sorry to hear that.”
“It’s all right.” Chip turned to him again,
“Now, back to what we were talking about: I hope you left the park right away.”
“Oh, I did, I only stayed for about twenty minutes. But I tell you, I *swear* I’ve seen that owl lady and that park before. I continued the patrol until sunset, but I didn’t see much happenin’.”
“Is that why you didn’t come back until now?”
“Well, like I said, I—I needed time alone.”
“Alone from us, and Foxy?” asked Chip, with his anger and fur rising and his ears lowering. Dale turned a bit to look at his face, his own features altering as well,
“I don’t expect you to understand.” Chip was slightly more angered,
“Oh? So what you’re saying is that I have to wait until I marry Gadget, wait until Spring and *then* I’ll understand why I need to get away from her and everyone?” Dale shivered a trifle and looked down again, but continued,
“No. But even if somethin’ like this *did* happen to you, you’re so smart that you’d probably figure out the problem and solve it in one day. And with Gadget helpin’ you, you’d probably solve it in less than an hour. That’s why I don’t expect you to understand what I’m goin’ through.” Chip couldn’t counter that type of logic. More of his anger subsided, and it was replaced by pain for his best friend. Dale didn’t have the same information he did, and he *knew* that given similar circumstances, Gadget and he would be able to figure out and solve the problem much quicker than Dale. His heart ached for the married couple.
“Dale, that may be true, but if that’s the case, don’t you think that you’d solve this problem quicker if you had Foxy helping you? Or even if both of you sought out more information concerning this problem? Dale you two are a *married couple*. No one is going to make fun of you if you search for info that can very much rescue your marriage at this point, even if it *is* blunt and deals with intimate topics.” Dale sighed,
“Chip, it’s—it’s more than just getting’ more info. Even *I* don’t understand what’s goin’ on. But as I flew away from the park, I kept thinkin’ on those tangents, and how they might have affected Foxy and me, and, that if those things *had* happened in that other timeline, then maybe Foxy and me wouldn’t be havin’ this problem.” Chip shook his head and sighed,
“Dale—since those things didn’t happen, that’s why *we’re* here for you *now*, *and* your parents, *and* a marriage counsellor if you think you need one, to help you figure out what’s going on and solve this problem that’s hurting you two so much.” He turned to look at the night sky through the bare branches for a moment, and asked, “Is she smothering you? Not letting you have your own space?” Dale replied, nearly ashamed,
“No. I love her with all my heart. Her space is my space. Everythin’s been incredible since the honeymoon. I’m—I’m sorry we woke you guys up so many times—we—um—couldn’t help it,” he blushed slightly.
“We understand. I can’t wait for it myself.”
“But—but—that’s not all there is in a marriage! Why can’t Foxy understand that?” Chip’s face turned stern at this, as he looked at his best friend,
“Dale, right now it’s not a matter of what there is and what there isn’t in a marriage. The issue here is that she has a big need right now and you’re the only one who can help her!” The Comedian whirled to look at the Detective and chattered,
“Hey, it’s not my fault she didn’t wanna take those tablets! I mean—I—” he quieted down and turned away once more. “I’m not—I’m not—just there—for *mating*, you know—I—I’m a lot more than that.”
“Dale, you two had other types of fun as well. But the problem is what you’re *not* doing with her. That’s really hurting her, you know.” Dale looked at him again, stiffly,
“What, you don’t think I hurt as well?!” Even Dale’s anger was fluctuating.
“Then why are you doing this?” asked Chip, in frustration. Dale shook his head and looked down again,
“I—I don’t know.” Chip rubbed his facial fur, trying to push down some of his frustration. His ears were still laid back.
“That brings us to what everyone wants to know. Dale, what *is* your problem? We know it’s not anything physical, and we know it’s because you’re scared of something. Dale, what are you scared of?” Dale just sighed and looked up to infinity. He had an answer, but he wasn’t sure if it was the right one, or even if Chip was going to accept it. Chip pressed, “Look, Dale, you said you fell in love with her when you looked into her eyes. Why don’t you try looking at them again?” Dale did a double take on him and shivered. He looked away and stuttered,
“Um—I—I—already tr—tried that, Chip.”
“And?”
“And—” suddenly the Comedian whirled, looked at the Detective in the eye and chattered, “ANDICAN’TLOOKINTOHEREYESANYMORE!!!!IDON’TKNOWWHYISITTHATEVERYTIMEILOOKINTOHEREYESIGETINCREDIBLYSCAREDALLRIGHT?” He huffed, crossed his arms, and turned away again. Chip sat back for a moment. At least they were getting somewhere.
“This wouldn’t have anything to do with Halloween, would it? Because if it does, then you have to remember that you *weren’t* scared last year.” Suddenly, Chip’s reasoning clicked in again.
“I wasn’t *married* last October,” replied, Dale, still huffing. Yup, that was what he deduced,
“So this has to do with mating, then.”
“Very much so, yes,” sighed the Comedian. Chip thought about how he should phrase the next question without prodding too much into Dale’s intimate life.
“Dale—Dale, there’s only so much I can help you with here. But—are you afraid of mating?” A moment passed. Then, a minute. Then three, until finally the Comedian nodded. Chip winced. “Okay. Dale, I know I’m your best friend, but I don’t think I can ask you anything more without going deeper into your private moments. So, you have to go back inside and tell that to Foxy, and try to talk things out. It was very awful of you to run out on her just like that. You just have to look at her in the eye and tell her—”
“I—CAN’T—LOOK—AT—HER—IN—THE—EYE—CHIP,” he growled through clenched incisors while holding trembling fists up, looking away from Chip.
“And why not? You just have to talk, not do anything else!” Dale opened his paws, held them up in exasperation, and said,
“I just can’t, all right? I don’t know why—why—why—every time I look into her eyes I see this—this………” He trailed off. Chip leaned closer,
“This what? Dale, we need to know.” Dale said nothing. Instead, he stood up, padded past Chip, faced away from him again, and crossed his arms. Angered by his refusal, and by holding back what appeared to be the key answer, Chip stood and padded right behind him.
“I can’t believe that you’re doing this to her,” he growled.
“Oh? And do you think I *enjoy* making her suffer?” countered Dale, not looking at him. Chip sighed,
“Look, Dale, I’m not married, so I can’t give you any on-paw advice, other than you two should go see a marriage counsellor immediately!!” Dale just kept his back to his best friend. Infuriating more, Chip continued, “You haven’t even given her a logical reason as to why you deny her like that! You belong to her as much as she belongs to you!” Still Dale would not reply. Angered, Chip’s fur bristled higher and he prepared his left fist for another bonk. Private or not, the only way the relationship could be rescued was if Dale told him what made him so scared; what he saw every time he looked into Foxglove’s eyes. But before he did, he needed to make Dale *want* to confess it. So, Chip decided to throw the Trump Card, “Dale, if you keep this up, she’ll have legal grounds for a divorce.”
“IKNOWTHAT!!” he chattered, bristling and stiffening his features while whirling to face him, flailing his paws about. “BUTYOUDIDN’TSEEWHATISAW!!!” He turned away again. Taken back for a moment, Chip calmed down, but kept his ears low. Slowly, he padded up to his best friend, and asked,
“What *did* you see?” A long moment passed.
“Something *horrible*…” was all Dale could reply.
And he would say no more.
With an exhausted sigh, Chip padded up to him, put his paw on his shoulder, and continued, “Dale, normally, I would bonk the tar out of you because of what you’re doing. And I would do it, too, if you were doing this for no good reason. Then I’d let Monty and your dad get a piece of you as well. But the reason I’m not is because we all know that there is a reason for this, even though you won’t tell us what it is. Dale, you and Foxy are in a situation I can only *dream* of with Gadget and me—this is one situation where I actually look UP to you! I know you and Foxy love each other very much; I can only hope Gadget can love me half as much as Foxy loves you. Just watching you two makes me envious of what you have—Dale—this is the one thing I never thought you’d beat me at—but you beat me at love. You’re with the love of your life, and she can’t get enough of you, no matter what season it is. Many males would *kill* to be in your situation, and not just out of instinct, either. You—you simply have *no idea* how good you have it, and now it’s all crumbling down before everyone’s eyes and you don’t even realise that. Dale—I know that this deals with your intimate life, and you very probably feel very embarrassed to mention it to anyone and ask for info about it, especially to those who work with you and live with you, but I want you to know this: we’re your friends. We’re not going to look at you funny or anything, much less make fun of this—*deadly* serious matter as if we were in a college dorm. But please, talk to Foxy and get some help. If you want, we can set up an anonymous appointment with a doctor or counsellor so they won’t know your identity. We’ll do *anything* for you two—because we all love you, you know. And you can bet your life that I’m *not* going to stand still and watch my best friend’s marriage collapse before my eyes. Not in a million years.” Chip then padded past Dale, turned, and concluded, “We’ll be waiting for you inside.” And he padded back inside.
Dale watched as his best friend clawed his way down the branch and into the tree again.
This talk was exhausting.
And in a mocking irony, he had a headache.
Inside, Gadget, Foxglove, and Dalee were sitting on the bed. The chipmunk lady was still holding the bat lady to her shoulder, while the mousemaid gently held her left wing. And she was *still* crying, matting down her facial and neck fur. When she decided enough crying had been done, the tamias began,
“Foxy, exactly when did this start?”
“I’m—I’m not sure!” sobbed the pipistrell. “We were sleeping one night and Dale suddenly woke up screaming because he had a nightmare he suddenly forgot and he woke me up and I tried to get his mind off his fright by picking up where we left off earlier and he just—he just—started looking at me like I was scaring him or something! He hasn’t touched me since!” Okay, that added a trifle to what they already knew. The elder rodent continued,
“Foxy, was there—um—anything wrong before that?” The chiropterid sobbed for a moment before replying,
“No. Everything was perfect before that. No matter how many times I needed him, he was always there. Sometimes I—I thought he wanted to more than I did!” The other females winced at that piece of information.
“Umm—Foxy—did you do—or say—anything that you think might have frightened him?” The verspetilionid looked/echosounded into her mother-in-law’s eyes, and squealed,
“No! Nothing that I know of! We read encyclopædias so we both knew that I was going to get Fall Fever, and he couldn’t wait! And he never complained, either! We’ve done all we can to please each other, we’ve talked about what we like and don’t like—but ever since that night he just won’t come near me!!” The murid pondered,
“Well, Foxy, I know this is very embarrassing for Dale, but perhaps what’s scaring him is the fact that it’s October and there are all those Halloween motifs around and you *know* how humans make this association between your species and that celebration and perhaps it’s got to Dale somehow? Maybe that nightmare had something to do with Halloween and it left him a lasting impression even though he forgot it?” Foxglove turned to look at her former roommate.
“Maybe. But why doesn’t he tell me that? Why does he have to deny me like that? Why can’t he just say, ‘Foxy, I’m sorry, but you’re scaring the willies out of me and I don’t want to get—” her sobbing increased, “—intimate—anymore with—you—even though you’re———in an awful need———and———and————and I————I don’t—————I don’t————*love*————you————any—————————more—————’” The bat lady shook as she wept bitterly. She knew it was only a matter of time before Dale would admit that, and all she had hoped for, and lived for, would vanish like a dream. The rodents looked at each other. This wasn’t going anywhere good.
“Foxy, that’s not true!” countered Dalee. “Dale may have a huge problem, but he still loves you! But he needs help to fix this problem! And he needs you to help him bring out the *true* problem. In all his e-mails, he always mentioned how much he loved you, and how he enjoyed being with you. He never told us otherwise. Foxy, don’t give up on him, please.” For a while, Foxglove continued sobbing between the two. Neither Dalee nor Gadget could say anything anymore. Neither of them could offer any more comfort other than what they were already giving. And this was making the Inventor slightly upset. The method she used in repairing things was to first find out what was wrong, find out why, when, and how it went wrong, then repair or replace the component(s), and make adjustments to make sure the problem did not repeat itself. But here, she knew when and what, but not why. And she couldn’t find out why without prodding into someone’s intimate life. And what frustrated her more was the fact that it involved two friends she cared greatly about, and she could do nothing more than just sit and watch it all collapse before her. But the bottom line was that Dale had the key to solving the problem, and only Dale could take the final step into solving it.
For the first time since New Zealand, Gadget actually felt like bonking Dale.
“Gadget?” The mousemaid was snapped out of her anger.
“Oh, sorry. Yes, Foxy?”
“C—can I stay in your room tonight? I—I don’t think Dale will come back soon—and—I don’t wanna be alone. And—I think—Dale needs his space. Whatever he needs, I will give it to him.” The mus looked at the pipistrell, and she felt very much like a big sister who needed to protect her younger sibling.
“Sure, Foxy. It’s getting late anyways, so we’d better get ready now.” The three females stood and padded out the door. In the hallway, Chip, Monterey, Zipper, and Pierre met them as they came out of the guest room.
“Oh, good, you’re done for tonight. The guest room is ready,” said Chip.
“Well, I don’t suppose anyone’s ‘ungry,” quipped Monterey.
“Nope,” replied Pierre. “This whole mess has got everyone very shook up. Maybe we’ll feel like having a big breakfast in the morning.”
“Oh, and Foxy’s rooming up with me, just for tonight,” added the mousemaid. At that, Chip smiled at his love.
“Thanks, Gadget. That’s very nice of you.” Then he turned to Foxglove, “Are you going to be okay tonight?”
“[sniff]—Sure, Chip. I don’t wanna be alone, but it’s just for tonight. I don’t wanna intrude anymore than what you all already had to. And—I know Dale needs his space.”
“Aw, Foxy,” said Zipper, flying over and patting her shoulder. “It’s okay!”
“No, it’s not.”
Everyone turned.
The Comedian was standing at the entrance of the hallway. His ears were alert and his demeanour was quite resolute.
Ears and tails stiffened, and backs bristled.
Pierre bared his incisors, stomped over to his son, and growled, “DaleSegolehOakmontjustwhatthe####doyouthinkyou’redoing?!” Everyone winced at the insult. “What’sthiswe’rehearingaboutyoubeingscaredofyourwife?IsthishowIraised—!!”
“DAD,” he interrupted. Pierre stood back, remembering that his son was no longer a child, or even a teenager. “I came back—for my wife. It’s *not* okay with me for her to stay with Gadget. She’ll be stayin’ with me tonight. We have—to talk.” He looked over his father’s shoulders and asked, “Does anyone here have a problem with that?” Pierre turned around. Ears and tails relaxed, but stayed low, and the bristling fur lowered just a trifle. Dale padded past everyone and went straight up to Foxglove. He still couldn’t look at her in the eye.
“We—we need—to talk. Please.” Foxglove painfully turned away from him, and then padded back into their room.
Dale turned for a moment to look back at the others, who looked back at him with various expressions of shock, worry, surprise, and anger. Then he turned again, entered his room, and locked the door behind him.
The others wondered.
Was this a good thing?