Chapter 5-1
317 Words
Chapter 5
Zoe
The rest of that day and all of the next, Penny stayed safely shut in the house. She spent most of the time in her room, rereading one of her old books, which failed to hold her interest for more than a few minutes at a time, tuning her bedside radio endlessly in search of something that wasn’t country music or talk radio, and staring out the small round window across the room from her bed. She could see the fox’s hill in the far distance, and just past its crest, the high boughs of a grove of trees.
Sometimes she saw the fox, a far off speck moving in the distance.
When Penny had to go downstairs, she moved with speed, glancing cautiously through any window she happened to pass, seeing that weird talking fox more often than not. Sometimes it seemed to grin at her; sometimes it dropped a conspiratorial wink.
She thought about telling Susan, but couldn’t think of a way to bring it up that didn’t sound crazy. Besides, whenever Susan came home from work the fox disappeared.
On Wednesday morning, Penny surprised Susan by meeting her at the door, dressed and ready to go into town.
“It’s about time, kiddo. Jenny wants to meet you.” Jenny was Susan’s only employee. “You need to get out anyway. Try to make a few friends before school starts.”
Penny mumbled a reply. Her stomach squirmed a little at the prospect of meeting new kids, trying to make new friends. She couldn’t banish the thought that every kid in this small town would turn out to be as annoying and stupid as Rooster.
Nevertheless, Penny knew she would have to try eventually.
Even if she didn’t manage to make any new friends, she might find something new to read at Susan’s bookstore.
Most importantly, she would be away from the house for the day, in town, where she hoped the talking fox wouldn’t follow.
- Writer
