๐ฅ๐ ๐ช๐ค ๐ณ๐ง๐ค ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ต๐ค ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐ ๐ถ๐ง๐จ๐ซ๐ค, ๐ถ๐จ๐ณ๐ง ๐ธ๐ฎ๐ด๐ฑ ๐ฒ๐ค๐ญ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ ๐จ๐ณ ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐จ๐ซ๐ค
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โธธ โ
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๐พ๐ด๐๐ธ x ๐ด๐๐ธ๐ท๐๐ โ
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๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐
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tagging; collie
mentioned; josie slander
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location; on the road > Soteria Bay
shift; coyote
mentioned; josie slander
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location; on the road > Soteria Bay
shift; coyote
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The moment Collie slid into the passenger seat, Kate began to have regrets about having invited him along. For some unknown reason, he had chosen to wear tactical gloves to a shopping trip. Although she had lived by the principle of no man left behind for eight years of her life, if he was planning on causing chaos in the Bay, she was planning on ditching him without hesitation just to avoid ending up on Josie's radar. God knew what else he had brought along in the pockets of his cargo pants. At the very least, he had understood not to come in wet clothes โ she really did not want to ask what he might have been doing this early in the morning to end up soaked. There was something reminiscent in it to figuring out whether your dog had been drinking from the toilet.
indentindentKate backed the truck onto the driveway, then turned for the dirt road that would eventually bring them to the old, faded pavement amid the woods. Although she had never visited Fox Island until two years ago, it looked very much like the rest of British Columbia โ her first home, before the army had become her home. The radio was already tuned to the only channel it got, playing some old song on a low volume as the tires growled underneath them, pinging small rocks along the sides of the truck. It reminded her of drives on the desert โ something she probably remembered through the lens of nostalgia. She didn't dignify Collie's question about driving with an answer, not anything more than a slightly annoyed look out of the corner of her eye, but he kept on talking either way, like a nervous private, and yet seemingly without any of the nervousness.
indentindentAs they pulled onto the gently winding main road and the gap among the trees, through which they drove, widened to accommodate oncoming traffic, Kate shifted in her seat, holding the steering wheel still with one hand and leaning an elbow against the door, doing her best to tune out his rambling. George had sat up in the back seat again, watching the scenery passing by through the windows, fixating on the shadowy forest floor littered with browning needles from the evergreens. Meanwhile, Collie was in the passenger seat, answering his own question. No, Kate really didn't want him driving, especially if he was terrible even by army standards. Her attention briefly drifted, and as she refocused, she swore she could hear water dripping along the chassis, but the sky remained its old even grey, and the windshield was clear โ with the exception of a few nicks and scratches from flying gravel.
indentindentA quaint green sign announced that they would soon be arriving to Soteria Bay, and Kate kept listening to Collie's occasional comments with half an ear. She even made a single passing remark of her own, about an old, closed-down diner maybe a mile away from the Bay. There had been a lot of those just outside of her hometown, reminders of a time in the 80s when there had been more tourist traffic heading to the hiking trails โ although she kept the detail about the 80s to herself. The forest thinned out as it was replaced by scattered residential buildings, picturesque wooden houses in pastel colours. Kate thought they were hideous. The road continued as a straight shot into the downtown area, and had it not been for the expanse of deep blue water that inevitably ended it, she could almost picture it continuing toward hazy mountains in the distance, like so many of the towns in the mainland.
indentindentKate remembered how she had first arrived by ferry, and forced herself to turn back around to look at the water, how the land she had departed from was only visible as a flat, dark mass in the horizon. It had been a while since she had visited her family, or even talked to them, but they had gotten used to her being away and sometimes even unreachable for long stretches at a time. And considering how her last phone call to her family had ended with her yelling at her father over him having told one of her cousins to enlist instead of attending university โ just as she had done โ she wasn't in a hurry to call them again. The signs of businesses began to crowd the fronts of the low buildings that bordered the road on both sides, like the trees had less than a mile ago, and although the dog-silhouetted pet shop sign approached on the right, she would be forced to drive all the way to the end of the road, to the parking lot bordered by the water.
indentindentThe pavement there was wet, and Kate reckoned it must have rained just off the shore overnight. She wrangled the truck into a parking spot, and as she stepped out, the toe of her boot splashed down into a shallow puddle of water. There was a bitter wind blowing in from the ocean that took hold of her hair, blowing the dark brown strands over her shoulders and back again. At least it wasn't raining any longer. The crowds weren't too bad this early in the morning, either, but she had a feeling that the spring would bring more people to the island again, just as it had the first year she had been there. Collie took the opportunity to speak up again, but Kate leashed George and let her out of the car before answering. Her nails pattered down onto the asphalt.
indentindentindent"The pet store, then groceries if we have to," she said, alluding to Collie's promise about taking requests. It wasn't what she had signed up for, but whatever kept him busy and away from pestering her about sparring again. Kate threw a glance at the bed of the truck, checking that the usual folded-up tarp was still in its place in case it began to rain on the way back and they needed a way to keep everything dry. It was there, tied down, a corner fluttering back and forth in the breeze.
indentindentPineapple juice. Kate stopped to look at Collie to see if he was being serious, and it seemed he was intent on grabbing a bite after the errands. She sighed. It was like conceding to the requests of a hyperactive toddler, but she couldn't come up with an excuse to say no, and she had a feeling he would only demand to know what was stopping them if she did try and deny him. Kate really had become weak, like some sort of bleeding heart good samaritan. It was terrible.
indentindentindent"Fine," she said, for the second time that day. "We'll make a stop to find you a juice box, dogboy." With Collie's promise to follow, she turned her back on him, George's leash in hand, to make her way to the pet store. If I behave, do I get to drive on the way back? There were some lines she had to draw. "Not a chance."
indentindentThey didn't need to backtrack far along the narrow sidewalk before arriving to the right storefront. Wilson Pet Supply. She had only visited a handful of times before, but it was clearly a family business. A somewhat disinterested young man tended to be standing behind the counter, and that suited Kate perfectly. Both the thought of being recognized from the news or as a regular seemed equally off-putting. It was unavoidable that some people in both Port Davis and the Bay must have known her face already, after two years on the island, but it was fine as long as they didn't attempt to make small talk with her. Maybe it had been a good idea to bring Collie along after all โ she could simply shove him at anyone who proved too talkative.
indentindentThe bell above the door made a small, tinny ring as Kate stepped inside with George and Collie in tow. It was uncomfortably quiet inside, the way it only got on deployments when something was about to go seriously wrong. Low shelves filled the rectangular space in a labyrinthine manner, encircled by the taller shelves that lined the walls from floor to ceiling. She couldn't help but note the second door toward the back of the store, and how exposed the glass windows of the front left the inside. As she had expected, the same man was acting as cashier, and he greeted their group with a preoccupied nod before dropping his gaze back to his lap. Kate fixed her sight line by shifting her weight from one foot to the other: he was holding a phone.
indentindentShe returned the nod, before slipping into one of the fluorescently lit aisles that she remembered would lead them to the bags of dog food. George was making sure to sweep every inch of the floor with her nose. Instead of loading one of the glossy red-and-white bags onto a cart, she hauled it off the shelf and handed it straight to Collie, as if this was explicitly what he had signed up for. At least those tactical gloves were being put to use.