63 Days Later: A Holiday Tail

by Adrienne Wilder

  At first, Keegan had no idea what he was looking at. August’s legs, jutting out from the end of the sofa. Puppies attacked his pajama bottoms, tugging them down his hips. Both of his butt cheeks were covered in scratches and teeth marks.

  Keegan approached, and the confusing picture fell into place. August was half-way inside a massive hole in the side of the sofa. There was a garbage bag full of stuffing next to the wall. The few pieces left out had become toys to a couple of puppies not ripping away August’s pants.

  “Keegan?” August struggled. “Keegan, if that’s you I could really use some help here.”

  One of the bigger boy puppies attacked August’s bare ass check. He yelled, there was a thump from inside the sofa and a curse.

  “Damn it, Keegan…”

  Keegan leaned down to get a look into the cave that was once a very nice leather sofa. “Why don’t you just come out?”

  “Goddamn it, don’t you think I would have done that if I could. I’m stuck.” August screamed and yanked.

  One of the smaller puppies wiggled out from under him with a surprised look.

  “Which one of those little shits just bit me on the nut? When I get out of here, I’m going to skin every single one of you and make you all into hats.” August pulled hard enough to scoot the sofa a couple of inches. The puppies continued to growl while they pulled and ripped at his pajama bottoms.

  “Hang on, and I’ll help you.” Keegan snagged a couple of puppies by the scruff and loaded them into his arms. They were barely seven weeks old but damn they were huge. He put them in the box through the whelping box door and closed it. When he went back the puppy that had nipped August sat on his back. “Now is not the time to play King of the Mountain.” Keegan gathered up the rest in another armload. “If you fed these monsters they wouldn’t try so hard to escape.”

  “I was trying to feed them. Then they gang banged me when I wasn’t looking.”

  “If you were feeding them how did you get stuck in the sofa?”

  “Tulip.”

  “Tulip?”

  “I’ll explain later, just…just get me out of here.”

  “Let me get these heathens back in the box.” Keegan had to twist his grip in an uncomfortable position to get the door unlatched. As soon as the eyehook was out of the catch, the door swung open and the bigger male tried to pull himself over the edge. “Hey, I don’t think so.” Keegan shoved it back with his elbow and lowered the rest of the littermates into the box. The ones already in there attacked the sleeves of his shirt.

  “Will you hurry up!” August struggled hard enough to move the sofa again.

  “Hang on, I’m trying to dislodge puppy teeth from my arms.” Keegan shook himself free and barely got the door closed. Normally, Daisy was right in the middle of all this. She was visible through the window sitting on a patch of snow on the back deck. She watched Keegan while panting.

  Keegan went to help August.

  “Where are you stuck?”

  August growled. “I don’t know. I’m just stuck. My shirt was hung, so I tried to slip out of that, then they started attacking my ass, and I think…yeah my shoulder, there’s this piece of wood behind my arm and I can’t…” He kicked.

  “Be still.” Keegan squeezed August’s puppy nipped butt cheek.

  “Hey! No groping while the husband is stuck in the sofa. Just get a crowbar. Lubricant. Anything. Get me the fuck out of here.”

  “Keep your pants on.” Keegan laughed as he stood.

  “Ha, ha, very funny Paul Bunyan.”

  Keegan started towards the garage to grab a claw foot hammer. His cell phone sat next to August’s. He picked it up. Now how did this thing work again? He found the camera icon and tapped it. The screen became a view of Keegan’s feet. He walked back over to August and held up the camera, it focused, and he hit the round button at the bottom. The phone clicked and flashed. Keegan took another one.

  “What are you doing out there?”

  “Just, uh, looking for the hammer.” Keegan clicked a few more at various angles.

  “Are you taking pictures?” August tried to get to his knees, but the cross beam on the sofa frame kept him from getting very far.

  “Pictures? Now, why would I take pictures?” Just out of curiosity Keegan hit the word video at the bottom of the screen. A counter appeared at the top. Oh, now this was brilliant.

  “Keegan Brooks, get me the fuck out of here or so help me I will never give you another blowjob as long as you live.”

  Keegan moved closer. “Could you repeat that? I don’t think the microphone picked it up.”

  “Microphone?” August snarled and jerked, kicked and thrashed. “You’re taking a video of this?”

  “For when the grandkids want to know what kind of stupid shit we used to do when we were young.” Keegan pinched August’s ass cheek again.

  “Will you quit copping a feel and help me?” August collapsed on the floor.

  It was highly unlikely he’d have the same amount of mercy if the roles were switched but… Keegan turned the camera off. “Okay, hang on.”

  “Is that hang on so you can help or hang on so you can video record some more?”

  “I’m putting the camera up. Just hang on.” Keegan turned off the camera and left it on the table next to the door. He retrieved a hammer from the garage. When he returned, August had scooted the sofa away from the wall. “I said hang on.”

  “Well excuse me for doubting your motives.”

  Okay, maybe Keegan deserved that. Just a little this time. He removed the cushions. The lump under the fabric base moved. He tapped it. “That your head?”

  “No, Keegan, it's my dick.”

  “Just checking before I start hitting stuff with this hammer.” Keegan took out his Leatherman and flipped it open to the blade. He cut a hole at a safe distance from August's head then yanked at the fabric. It ripped revealing August with his shoulders wedged past a section of frame. It was so narrow Keegan couldn't figure out how'd he gotten in there to begin with.

  The puppy August had been trying to fish out looked up at him and tilted its head.

  August dropped his forehead to the floor. “I was beginning to wonder if I was going to die under here.”

  Keegan examined the crossbeams. Most of the wood was glued and then tacked together with finishing nails. He wedged the hammer into a seam.

  The puppy barked and slapped August in the face with its tongue. “Ug, stop. Please. You've licked me raw.”

  “Now how did you wind up inside the sofa again?” Keegan pushed the hammer back, and the wood cracked.

  “I was trying to feed the puppies.” Louder August said, “And that traitorous bitch out there opened the whelping box door while I was in the kitchen and let the puppies out of the box.”

  Keegan popped another piece of wood loose.

  “So, she let the puppies out. I was in the kitchen. Next thing I know there's snow all over the floor. They'd eaten out the side of the couch. When I was picking up the mess, I realized Tulip had her head hung in a spring, so I climbed in here to get her out.” Tulip barked then growled. She grabbed August's bangs and shook them. “Stop it Tulip, or I'm going to stick you right back where I found you.”

  Keegan wiggled one of the boards pinching August. The piece the board was glued and nailed to broke, freeing August's shoulder.

  “Finally.” He twisted until his trapped arm was above his head and he was able to back out of the sofa. August sat back on his heals gasping for air. Red splotched his cheeks, and there were scratches on his nose and chin. Keegan offered him a hand up, and he took it. “My hero.” August leaned against him. Sweat slicked his skin.

  “How long were you under there?”

  “I normally feed them at eight.”

  Since eight in the morning? And it was almost three. “Jesus, August.”

  “I had it handled until she...” August glared in Daisy's direction where she sat on the deck. She turned her head away. “Let t
hem out.” He winced and stepped back. “One of those puppies bit me in the nut sack.” He examined the damage. Sure, enough there were two nice dents in August's left sack and a smear of blood. “Fucking, little bastard tried to castrate me.”

  “If you think that's bad, don't look at your ass.”

  August glared. “I'm going to take a shower.” He yanked up his pajama bottoms, but they wouldn't stay.

  Tulip barked, and Keegan picked her up out of the couch. “I think it's safe to say you're grounded.” He put her back in the box with her littermates who’d crashed in opposite corners and were sound asleep.

  The shower kicked on in the bathroom and August squealed. “Fuck, fuck, fuck that burns. Goddamned puppies.”

  Keegan pressed his lips together to keep from laughing.

  “Keegan Brooks if you so much as smile I'm going to super glue your ass cheeks together while you sleep.”

  Keegan hooked the hammer on the side of the couch and went outside to where Daisy sat staring intently at the scenery.

  He leaned against the railing. “That was a pretty dirty trick you pulled.”

  Daisy continued to stare.

  Keegan nudged her with his foot. “Good wolf.”

  Daisy thumped her tail.

  *****

  August wasn't sure whether to be sad or rejoice. The puppies’ DNA tests had come back, they were more wolf than coyote and there was no evidence of domestic dog, so the father had been a coyote-wolf mix.

  Lisa could take the majority of them and use them in the breeding program to reintroduce Timber Wolves to the eastern part of the US. The new blood would allow for greater genetic diversity and help with producing stronger healthier offspring.

  August should have been happy that Daisy's pups were going to not only do some good for the species, but they'd have a suitable permanent home with people who understood what they needed and how to properly care for them.

  Letting them go had been hard but sitting at the kitchen table and staring at the empty whelping box, hurt.

  Keegan rested his hand on August’s shoulder and squeezed. He automatically reached up and covered Keegan’s hand with his.

  “They'll be fine.” Keegan kissed August on top of his head.

  “I know.”

  “It's what they needed.”

  August knew that too. While the huge fence enclosure had made a great exercise area at sixteen weeks, they were obviously ready to go much farther. Except for two: Lily and Tulip. The brother and sister pair had been the most docile of the litter, choosing to stay close to the house while the rest preferred digging shallow holes and sleeping in the woods.

  Even Daisy hadn't been able to coax them back inside to live a civilized life.

  Now the six little outlaws would have miles of territory and a safe haven.

  Still, August couldn't help but feel lost staring at the empty whelping box. And in a couple of months, Dr. Winston would spay and neuter Lily and Tulip, and there'd be no more babies in the future.

  “Hey.” Keegan sat down next to August. “I've got something for you.” He took a thin box, wrapped in red and gold, out of his pocket and held it out. Christmas morning they’d spent hours unwrapping presents. None of it useless stuff to clutter up the place. Neither August or Keegan had a desire for things. They bought items they could use, and for anything else, they had each other.

  August took it. “Don't you think you got me enough for Christmas?”

  “Never.”

  “I don't know, that blowjob was pretty spectacular.”

  Keegan laughed.

  August shook the box.

  “Open it.”

  He squinted at Keegan.

  “What?”

  “This isn't more photos of my ass is it?” August still couldn't believe Keegan had photographed him. Photographed, video taped, and then had prints made so they could memorialize the moment.

  Two of the best ones were actually on the wall.

  As soon as August thought he could get away with it, they were going in the trash.

  “No photos, I promise.” Keegan kissed August again on the temple. “Open it.”

  August did. It was a laminated ID badge. “What's this?” He turned it over. Virginia Wildlife Reserve was written across the top. On one side August's photo. It was casual enough it had to have come from one of the pictures Keegan and August had taken together.

  On the other side, the badge read: August Vallory, Licensed Intern.

  He wrinkled his brow.

  Keegan leaned closer. “Lisa said you were so good at raising those pups that she thought you might be interested in being a foster home.”

  “For what?”

  “Puppies who have to be hand-fed until they‘re big enough for solid food.”

  Puppies. Tears pricked the corners of August's eyes. He had to swallow several times before he found his voice. “You don't mind?”

  “Not if it makes you happy.” Keegan tipped August's head back and brushed his lips over August's. “Because you are the most important thing in the world to me.”

  And August didn’t think he could love this man any more than he did.

  He was so very wrong.

  End.