by Tempe O'Kun
Kylie patted her full stomach. “Did I ever.”
The husky nodded. “And your old house is packed with relations once more.”
“It’s good for the soul.” Her straggly whiskers twitched in amusement. “And they’re leaving tomorrow, which is good for my sanity.”
The night air breezed past them, ushering the day’s heat out to sea.
Laura interlaced her fingers up to the webs. “What’d you want to talk to me about?”
Max cleared his throat with a woof, then looked to Kylie.
The younger otter swallowed. “The last few weeks, we’ve been looking around town. Learning about the local legends and seeing how that matched up to what you put into Strangeville. You heard that kind of stuff growing up, huh? How much of it do you believe?”
Concern crept onto her face. “Am I going to regret giving you those journals?”
“It’s nothing like that.” Kylie waved a webbed paw. “I know they’re paranoid fantasies.”
Max rested a palm on her knee in support.
Her mom studied the pair. “But…?”
Her daughter squirmed and forced the words to form. “But something had to inspire them.”
The elder otter raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, like a brain chemical imbalance.”
The husky tilted his ears toward town. “You don’t think it’s weird your roofing contractor’s house got sucked into the ground?”
“Hoaxes are Windfall’s stock-in-trade. I’m sure he had a deal with the Chamber of Commerce or some such.” Her mother brushed a lock of hair from her eyes. “You’ll get used to it.”
“Joe was an alien.” The younger otter lashed her arms out for emphasis. “He had a disguise to cover up his true form. We watched his basement-laboratory implode when he left.”
Laura’s ears lifted with concern. “You were there when it collapsed?”
“Alien, Mom. Alien. From another world.” She jabbed a finger skyward. “He had weird living technology and tunnels that connect to the old mines.”
“Living technology?” She stirred her whiskers. “I think someone’s pulled a prank on you, kiddo.”
Kylie pulled a the small bone disk from her pocket. “We got this at the site.”
The older lutrine adjusted her glasses and studied the alien artifact. “Pretty sure this is a sand dollar, sweetie.”
“She’s telling the truth.” The husky straightened beside his girlfriend. “I saw it too.”
“We tried to go back in, but the tunnels are all collapsed, and the whole area makes our teeth hurt.” The younger otter tapped a claw on her pearly whites.
“And we recorded another type of creature getting into our garbage.” Holding his phone out, he thumbed through a gallery of blurred photos.
She looked away. A rare crack of bewilderment appeared in her demeanor, only to be welded shut by steely resolve. “Kids, it took me years, but I learned to see the charlatans of this town for what they are. You’re going to have to learn that lesson for yourself, I guess.” With a burst of urgency, Laura waddled back into the house. “Don’t stay up too late!” The screen door clattered shut after her.
Kylie started rise and give chase.
Max’s paw pressed her thigh and he shook his muzzle.
His girlfriend grumbled: “She doesn’t believe us!” An accusing otter paw poked toward the front door.
“I don’t think this is the sort of conversation you have in a day.” He patted her shoulder. “Let her process everything.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. We don’t want to make a scene with the family here either.”
He nodded. “It’s a lot to take in. I’d have trouble believing it if I hadn’t seen and smelled it myself.”
She slumped against him, a smile dawning in the dark. “Unbelievable things happen now and then.”
His tail thumped with joy against the deck.
As his arm slipped over her shoulders, Kylie stared up at a sky of countless stars and listen to her heartbeat settle. “We’ll talk to her later, show her this isn’t the first step on the road to Crazytown. After all, you believe it and the only crazy thing you ever did was start dating me.”
His chuckle rumbled against her cheek. “That’s a pretty good track record.”
Held in the warmth of his embrace, Kylie watched the heavens haze before her misty eyes, glad she wouldn’t be missing Max anytime soon.