Annalise went out onto the front lawn because the dogs were barking. She encountered a fox and flinched. The fox regarded her patiently, especially the wooden spoon in her hand. She had been baking. Behind her one of the dogs — the younger one, who she believed was the stupider one — growled. The older one was in the window watching with affected boredom. Annelise felt the hair on the back of her beck go up. The fox, she realized, was a wild animal. She also realized the should have realized it sooner. Her voice, rather than running back into the house, was to talk to it. “You know,” she said, “I need to explain how I got out here, and then you can explain how you did.” The fox shook its head. “Dod you just say no?” she said. “How dare you?” She threw her spoon at the fox. The fox made a laughing noise and then a gekkering, after which it squirted through a space in the hedge and was gone. “Jesus,” said the younger dog. “That was close.”
©2021 Ben Greenman/Stupid Ideas
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