Street Shadows

by Claire Gilchrist

  “Who did the forest belong to before Jagger?” Kai spoke up, confused.

  “The Forest Pack lived there for as long as we have been here. We never had any problems with them. But when they died, Jagger took control. We weren’t sure how it would go because we didn’t know him very well. But ever since he has taken over the forest, he has been getting more and more aggressive. Today you saw that he trespassed onto our territory and challenged us directly.”

  “He backed down, though, right?” Taba questioned, worry in her voice.

  “Of course,” Lamar asserted. “I’m bigger and stronger than he is. He doesn’t want to risk getting injured. But I don’t trust him.”

  Pica cocked her head to the side. It didn’t quite make sense to her. “But what happened to the Forest Pack? And where did Scruff come from?”

  Gree exchanged glances with Lamar, and then looked at her pups. “The most important thing to know is that Jagger and Scruff could both be very dangerous, and you all need to stay very close to us.”

  Pica was not satisfied with that answer. “But what happened to them?”

  Gree looked at her sharply. “You don’t need to know any more. Jagger is very dangerous, and he poses a direct threat to our family. You need to follow our directions and stay close to us.”

  Pica sighed, feeling her heart sink. “What do you mean by ‘stay close’?”

  “Stay close means stay close. No more wandering, meeting strange coyotes and playing with them. Stay here with your siblings and practise your hunting. You, especially, need to practise. Hunting hasn’t been going well for you so far.”

  Her tone was stern, and Pica didn’t want to pick a fight. Her mother worried about her almost constantly. A few months ago, just after she met Scruff, her eye had gone from itchy, to burning, to swollen shut over the course of just a few days. Then there was a difficult period of time that she couldn’t remember well. Finally, after many days, the pain went away, and she woke up able to open her eye again. However, the world no longer looked the same. She stumbled over her feet, ran into things, and pounced to the side of prey she was trying to trap. Her head hurt all the time.

  Now, almost two months later, she had started to do better. She had regained her coordination and she experienced fewer headaches. However, she was the only one of all her siblings who had yet to successfully catch a prey animal. She felt guilty knowing that her parents worried about her so much when they had other things to take care of. Sighing, she wandered over to a nearby bush and lay down for a nap.

  Later that day, Pica was feeling bored, and decided to go for a walk toward the golf course where her parents were relaxing in a shady spot, out of view of the golfers. She figured that as long as she was between Taba and her parents, she could explore a little bit without breaking the new rules. She wandered aimlessly, enjoying the feeling of the sun on her fur and watching the humans swing their sticks and hit the little white balls across the grass. She was careful to stay hidden, and stopped at a few small, scrubby trees to eat the caterpillars that climbed up their trunks. She couldn’t stop thinking about what her parents had said earlier. What had happened to the Forest Pack? Where did Scruff come from? She was deep in thought when her ears picked up her mother’s voice. She couldn’t make out the words, so she crept a little bit closer, tucking in behind a small bush.

  Gree’s voice was low and urgent. “Of course we are going to stay away from the forest territory. But I think the problem is leaving one adult behind with the pups. They’re still so small.”

  Pica froze, listening intently. The low bush separated her from her parents, and because the wind was blowing strongly into her face, they weren’t going to smell her. She kept listening.

  “I know,” Lamar responded quietly. “But we can’t feed everyone for long if we stay on the hillside. We will need to teach them to cross the road.”

  “I know.” Gree sighed. “I just think it is too soon. The road is so dangerous — I don’t think they’re ready yet.”

  “I don’t know how much longer we can wait.”

  There was a long silence. Finally, Gree spoke. “We could take care of Jagger before anything else happens.”

  “You know that a confrontation with him could seriously injure one of us. He has killed before. I think it’s too dangerous.”

  “I know.” Gree sounded tired. “It’s just that I have a bad feeling about this. I don’t trust him.”

  “We’ll figure out something.”

  Pica heard her mother sigh heavily again. Then, she heard her parents stand to stretch, and was suddenly worried that they would discover her on their return to the den site. She began to back away, retracing her steps as quickly as possible until she got closer to her siblings. Then she lay down, pretending to be sleepy and relaxed. But beneath her calm exterior, her body hummed with thoughts and questions. Who had Jagger killed? Why would her parents not tell the pups about the Forest Pack? She vowed to try to find out more.

  Over the next month, there was no sign of Jagger, and the pups had to stay so close to the adults that Pica couldn’t sneak away to try to find Scruff. Each night, two adults stayed behind with the pups while only one went on patrol. This didn’t work very well, because food was more difficult to find on the golf course than it was in their larger hunting territory. As the days passed, Jagger seemed like less and less of a threat, and they all thought more and more about their hunger. Finally, one night, it came to a head.

  The sun had dipped below the hill and the cool air had set in. The golf course had shut down and the pups were preparing to go hunting on the green with Taba and Gree. Lamar was about to leave on patrol.

  “Hey, Mom,” Kai began. “How come you still have to watch over us like that? Jagger isn’t around, and it isn’t like we are tiny puppies anymore.”

  Taba broke in with a snort. “You are not even close to full-grown yet, and there is no way you would stand a chance against a large male like Jagger.”

  Pica couldn’t help herself, and chimed in. “Well, even if we still have to stay together, maybe it’s time for us to try leaving the hillside — we could try hunting in the streets.” She held her breath, wondering if she had gone too far.

  Gree looked at her with a sigh and a smile. “I’m not surprised that you suggested that — I think you’ve been ready to cross streets since you were born. But yes, in fact, we have been talking about it and it is probably time.”

  “All right!” Kai jumped up, throwing himself at Dane in excitement. “Streets! Houses! Finally!”

  Sage joined in, and then all of the puppies were jumping and growling at each other joyfully. They could barely contain their excitement. Before they could get started, however, they had to wait for the deepest, darkest part of the night, when the fewest cars would be on the roads. They waited impatiently, listening to their mother drone on with specific road descriptions and instructions.

  “It is the most dangerous thing you’ll ever do. More dangerous than other coyotes. More dangerous than humans.” She spoke gravely. “You need to be brave, and never, ever let yourself freeze in fear.”

  “It’s pretty dark — can we go now?” Kai was always very excited when it came to a new and dangerous adventure.

  “Just about. We should wait just a few more minutes,” Gree said. “Then it will be easier for us to become shadows. But before we go, there is just one last thing we need to talk about.”

  The pups jumped up and began to crowd Gree and Lamar, knowing that they were minutes away from leaving. Pica jumped in closer, accidentally stepping on Kai’s tail.

  “Hey — watch where you’re stepping,” he snapped.

  “Watch your tail then,” Pica snapped back, impatient to get going.

  “Why do you always —”

  “Hey.” Lamar’s growl interrupted them. “That’s exactly what we need to talk about. You all need to control your excitement. If you act heedlessly, you could get killed. Pica, Kai, you two, especially. No messing around
by the side of the road.”

  “Sorry,” they both mumbled. Pica felt anxious — could she remember to follow all the instructions?

  “Okay,” Lamar continued, “beyond the rules we have talked about, it is important that you grasp the concept of not just moving through the night, but being the night. When you leave our safe haven, it is important that you learn to blend into the night. We don’t want to be detected by any humans out there. Humans are unpredictable and dangerous. You shouldn’t move when they pass by, whether it is in a car, on a bike, or on foot. You must press your body against something and be completely still — you have to become part of its shadow. When you are outside this place, you must not be a living, breathing body. You are a street shadow.”

  The pups listened, intently. Then Kai ran over to a bush.

  “Check it out! I’m a shadow!” Then he froze.

  He was joking, but Pica tried closing her eyes and then opening them again, and found that he had all but disappeared. The soft blending of his fur from brown to silver and the furry edge of his profile helped him to disappear completely into the grey palette of the bush behind him. She smiled as she understood what her father had been talking about.

  “All right, very nice, Kai. Okay, I think we’re ready. Now, one last time — what are the three rules you have to follow no matter what?”

  Sage piped up quickly. “One — no humans. We don’t exist for them. Two — don’t mess around when we are crossing the roads. The machines are very fast and we have to learn to cross at the right time. Three — don’t talk to other coyotes until we are bigger. And don’t pick fights with anything too big.”

  Gree nodded her head. “Good. Everyone got it? Most important, you must promise to obey us, whatever we say. No matter what it is.”

  Pica thought that sounded a little extreme, but all of her siblings were nodding their assent, so she nodded, too.

  Gree’s eyes picked her out and stared at her, laser sharp. “Pica? No matter what?”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  “Okay, let’s go. I’ll go first. Lamar will take the back. Stay together. Taba — you want to come, too?”

  “I can’t handle the watching,” Taba replied, stress lacing her voice. “I’ll do my own thing and meet you all back here later.” She gave them all one last glance. “Good luck!” she called out as she turned and loped away. Everyone else headed out toward the road.

  FIVE

  CROSSING

  Pica

  Pica repeated the three rules to herself as she followed her family. No humans. No fooling around. No other coyotes. It all seemed so simple, but she still had so many questions. What made humans so dangerous? How fast did you need to move across the road to avoid the cars? What were the other coyotes like — and could she really not talk to any of them? She hoped that she would find out the answers to all her questions soon.

  They reached the rock wall that served as the border between the hillside and the road. As Pica scrambled over it, she realized how much bigger she was than the last time she had stood next to it. Now she was able to jump nimbly to the top and scramble down the other side. She joined her family, who was huddled under some bushes by the side of the road. Pica squirmed to the front beside her mother, and peered into the darkness.

  “You never just cross,” Gree instructed. “Find a place to wait, and listen carefully. Feel that? That rumble in the ground that you can feel in your paws means a car is coming. Now you can hear it. Here it comes —”

  Pica looked down the road and saw a blinding spot rushing straight at her. It almost seemed like it would mow the bushes over, with their whole family in its path. She fought the urge to close her eyes, staring hard as the car whipped past them with a few feet to spare. She heard Sage yelp in fear. The branches on the bushes whistled back and forth as the wake hit them.

  “There, it’s over. So you have to learn to not be afraid of that. The cars stay on the pavement. You need to stay off the pavement until you are sure it is safe. We’ll go in two groups.” Gree looked back, thinking. Another car whipped by, and this time it didn’t scare Pica as much. She looked at it as it passed, exchanging smiles with Kai. “Okay, daredevils,” Gree continued, nodding at Pica and Kai with a smile. “You come first. Dane and Sage, go next with Lamar.”

  Pica’s heart jumped. She grinned at Kai, who grinned back nervously. At that moment a truck roared past, louder and brighter than the previous two cars. Both Pica and Dane jumped. “Look and listen. Feel the vibrations with your paws. All clear?” Gree asked them.

  Pica waited. All she felt was her own breath, coming sharply in and out of her lungs. “All clear,” she replied.

  “Okay, one … two … three … NOW.” Gree barked with an intensity that they could not ignore. All three coyotes scrambled up to the pavement and galloped across the road. Pica couldn’t look to the side, not wanting to see a bright light bearing down on her. She didn’t even breathe in, begging her muscles to work harder and harder. Just as she reached the other side, she tripped over something on the road and somersaulted forward. Regaining her balance quickly, she dove off the side of the road, rolling into the bushes. Kai rolled down after her and landed on her. They laughed in relief.

  “Wow. That was scarier than I thought it would be,” Pica told him.

  “Ha — that was nothing!” Kai replied with a grin.

  “That is not true! You were totally scared!” Pica jumped on him as she said this.

  “Pica!” Gree growled at her. “Don’t mess around. And with your bad eye, you need to concentrate harder. You can’t be tripping over your feet when you’re on the road. Next time, I want you to breathe more deeply and try to be a bit calmer.”

  Pica scrambled to a sitting position, suddenly serious, looking intently across the road. She knew her mother was right — she needed to be twice as good as her siblings to make up for her eye. The others waited on the far side for the right moment. Pica watched and listened. “Don’t do it. Not yet,” she whispered. The rumbling feeling intensified and a truck passed with a howl. She held her breath, hearing Lamar give the all-clear to the other two. The second group scrambled across the road safely, Kai and Sage having a similar reaction to their siblings, laughing with relief.

  “The first time is always the worst,” said Gree. “Now, let’s go exploring. Stay close!”

  They set out along a footpath and hit a road that was rimmed on either side by a deep ditch. “We stay in the ditch — it’s dry this time of year,” called Lamar as he jumped down. They loped along in the ditch, occasionally having to pop up onto the street to cross a road. The roads were very quiet, and only a few times did Lamar bark, “Down! Freeze!” And they would all crouch in the ditch as the car passed, its headlights illuminating the road. Once, they came across a crowd of humans, who were walking and talking loudly. Following Gree and Lamar’s lead, the pups crouched in the ditch, not moving, and the humans walked right past them, just a few feet away. As they faded into the distance, Pica let out her breath. She couldn’t believe that they hadn’t been detected. The humans seemed so clumsy and stupid for creatures who were so powerful.

  Lamar led them along in the ditch until they got to a wide expanse of pavement leading up to a series of large, low metal buildings. He stopped to face them. “As you travel, you have to be very careful where you go. We’ll teach you where it is safe to go — this city has many other coyotes, and they will defend their territory. At first, make sure you stick to the places we show you — no coyotes are defending them. As you get bigger, you can decide for yourself where you want to go. And always keep your eyes peeled for dangers — other coyotes, humans, dogs, anything that moves, really.” He paused, making sure they were listening.

  “This area is sometimes a good place to find rats. Spread out, and try hunting on your own. Remember what I have always told you. You have to put yourself into the mind of the animal you are trying to catch. What is their mood? What are they doing? You must anticipate their mo
ves and be one step ahead of them.”

  Pica set off to hunt, but an hour passed with no luck. A few times she got close, but either made some kind of a small noise that alerted the rat to her presence or missed it on the pounce. When she heard Gree’s bark to come back together again, she trotted back, frustrated. She was the last one to arrive, and she could hear her siblings talking excitedly about their kills. As they found increasing success hunting, she felt more and more sensitive about her failure. Would her eye injury stop her from ever learning how to hunt? And if that happened, would her family continue to take care of her when she was an adult? She didn’t think they would be able to, especially next spring when there were new mouths to feed.

  “How did it go, Pica?” Sage looked at her with a hopeful smile.

  Pica hesitated. “Great! I caught one!” Even as she said it, she felt ashamed. As her siblings pelted her with questions, she had to quickly make up her story. At the end, she saw Gree looking at her carefully, head cocked, but her mother said nothing.

  Pica quickly suggested, “Let’s keep going.” She was relieved when her parents nodded and took the lead again.

  Over the next few hours, the family made a wide arc, slowly returning to their starting point. Pica’s head swam with all the new things she had seen. She learned how to hide under a parked car when a human walked past if there was no ditch. Taba showed them how to find edible food in the humans’ backyard gardens. Kai found a dead raccoon, and they all learned that if something smells really bad, it could be dangerous to eat it. It was still dark when they reached the first road again, but all of the pups were ready to go home. They were exhausted.

  This time, Gree made them cross one at a time, each checking with her when they thought it was safe and then scrambling across. Pica went first again, more confident this time. At the other edge of the road, instead of diving into the bushes, she jumped gracefully off the embankment and turned around to watch her siblings. Dane was next, followed by Kai, and she was proud at how confident and strong they both looked. She felt older somehow, as if crossing the road had also caused them to cross an invisible line between puppyhood and independence.