Street Shadows

by Claire Gilchrist

  “Whoa.” Dane was the first to be able to speak. Pica smiled at him. Now that it had passed, she wanted to see it again. She had never seen anything that powerful or loud before. She forgot her pain for a moment, soaking in the power of the machine.

  “That was cool!” Kai exclaimed. “Can we stay here? I think Sage would love to see another one!” He bumped into her with his body, poking fun at her still-traumatized expression. She snapped out of it, pushing him back with all her force.

  “Be quiet, Kai. Let’s just keep going.”

  “Good idea, Sage.” Gree smiled in agreement.

  While they were travelling, Pica watched Gree sniff very carefully whenever they encountered a large patch of bushes or a tree, to find out what coyotes had passed through and if any lived there. A few times they had to leave the train tracks to go around someone’s home territory, but they always came back to the tracks after. Eventually, the land around them began to get busier with buildings, and they stopped in the shelter of a bush to wait for nightfall. Pica was relieved. She didn’t know how much farther she could go. She closed her eyes and fell into a deep stupor.

  The cold woke her up. She opened one eye, noticing that the sky had gone dark. She shivered hard — her fur was still wet, and the night breeze filtered under the shelter of the bush. She squirmed closer to the warm body behind her — it was Taba. She looked around sleepily. “Hey — where’s everyone else?”

  “Not far,” Taba spoke gently. “Just sleep for now. Mom is looking for a place where we can stay awhile, somewhere safe for you to get better. They will come back and get us soon.”

  Pica started to protest, but felt so exhausted and cold that she decided to curl up a little closer to Taba and wait. The next time she opened her eyes, it was in response to her mother’s insistent licks.

  “Pica.” Gree’s voice was concerned. “You okay?”

  “I think so.” Pica shook her head a little bit to try to clear her head. “Did you find somewhere for us to go?”

  “Yes. We found a spot nearby. It isn’t far, and you should be able to make it.”

  Pica rose to her feet. She was surprised at how shaky her legs felt. She felt suddenly very hot, and every muscle ached. She tried to hide it by taking a breath in and heading straight. When she stumbled on a root, though, she could tell her mother noticed. Coming to her side, Gree leaned gently into her. Pica felt the warm body breathing next to her, and it gave her some extra energy.

  “You can do it,” Gree whispered softly to her. “You have to.”

  As her mother headed off slowly, Pica followed her, just trying to keep her tail in sight and step where she stepped. Her siblings all ran on ahead. After a couple of hours, with lots of breaks, they arrived at the entrance to a park. Two large cedar trees marked the entrance, which was about one city block square. Limping slowly into the park, she smelled water and headed straight for a small stream that ran through the middle of it, drinking greedily. She hadn’t realized how thirsty she was. After sating her thirst, she sat down in the grass and closed her eyes.

  A meaty smell woke her, and she opened her eyes to see a fresh rat in front of her.

  “Caught it myself!” Kai said gleefully.

  “Thanks.” She smiled, and tried to eat it. It was odd — she didn’t feel very hungry. Suddenly, mid-chew, she heard Gree’s sharp bark, warning them of danger nearby. She jumped to her feet, Kai next to her, and they saw Gree and the others running toward them. Then, from behind her she heard another series of barks. She turned to see coyotes, one larger than any coyote she had ever seen. They were staring at her and Kai with hostility.

  “What are you doing here?” the female barked. Before they could respond, their mother was there.

  “Excuse us. We’ll move on now. Come on, pups, follow me,” Gree replied with a sigh. They left the park, and the two coyotes watched them leave, tails and hackles up. “Sorry about that,” Gree apologized to them. “I knew that it was someone’s home territory, but there was no evidence that they had been here recently. I thought we could get away with it just for a day.”

  They walked as quickly as Pica could go. The sky was lightening, and they could hear the first few cars of the day start up, coughing to life in the cold morning air. Pica knew they had very little time left to find a spot to sleep.

  “What are we going to do now?” Dane asked, worry in his voice.

  Gree paused, looking back at them. “Honestly, I don’t know. We need to find somewhere quiet to pass the next day. Somewhere close.”

  Pica looked down. She knew that she was the reason they were in so much trouble. “Maybe I can just find a bush, and you guys can go find somewhere for us to stay. You could come back tomorrow.” She looked longingly at a bush as they passed, the darkness beneath beckoning her.

  “We’re not leaving you,” snapped Gree.

  Pica stumbled on, her legs as heavy as lead, her head dropping down. She lost track of where she was as the minutes ticked by. Suddenly, she became aware that they had stopped in a big, empty field. A large building stood on the far side. They stood there for about a minute. Nothing moved. Then, Gree did a quick circuit.

  “No one lives here. It’s weird — such a perfect spot, I can’t understand it …” Her voice trailed off as she saw Pica’s exhausted face. A car turned onto the street they were standing on and passed to the side of them with a roar of blinding lights.

  “It’s fine for now, anyway,” Gree finished.

  They found a gap in the fence and headed to the largest clump of bushes, tucked into the side of the field, sheltered by a stand of tall oak trees. Pica sagged to the ground, making it only halfway under the bush, and immediately sank into darkness.

  She was only vaguely aware of the passage of time, feeling warm bodies lying next to her, trying to warm her up. Her mother’s rough tongue scraped her back, touching wounds that felt like they were on fire. During the day, she felt slightly warmer, but her whole body shook with the cold at night.

  It might have been a day, or maybe two or three, when suddenly there were barks and growls, and the sound of lots of people screaming and shouting. She opened her eyes, and saw a cluster of humans — many of them small — on the far side of the field, standing in a clump and pointing in her direction. Her siblings stood a few feet away, growling at them, standing their ground. She shook her head, suddenly alert.

  “Pica — can you come with us?” Gree barked at her sharply. “We have to go — there are too many humans here, and they see us. It isn’t safe.”

  “Mom — I can’t.” Pica was defeated. She knew she wouldn’t be able to travel anymore.

  “Pica, come on. We can’t leave you here!” Sage yelled at her, running over and burying her nose under Pica’s side, pushing to try to help her up.

  Pica tried to get to her feet, but her whole body shook and then gave out underneath her. “I’m sorry — I have to stay here. You guys go — maybe they won’t notice me.” She crawled a little deeper under the bush.

  Then, Gree was beside her, nosing her face. “I’m so sorry, but I can’t stay with you. I love you. Go deeper into this bush. We’ll distract them by running out the side. Don’t move, and we’ll come back for you tonight.”

  Pica gave a wry smile at the instructions “don’t move.” This was finally one time where she would obey her mother. With that, Gree and the rest of her siblings were gone. She heard more barking and shouting, and then everything was quiet. She closed her eyes and let her body relax into sleep again.

  FOURTEEN

  CITY

  Scruff

  Leaving the hillside, Scruff was numb. He didn’t know where he was going, unable to think about anything other than what had happened over the past day. He headed in a direction that he had never before travelled, moving quickly. He barely felt the freezing rain that soaked his fur. Images of Lamar’s body lying at the bottom of the pit haunted his thoughts.

  He snapped back to the present as something hissed in
front of him. Before he could react, a small black-and-white animal turned its tail toward him and covered him with a thick film of sulphurous poison. There was a moment where Scruff didn’t feel anything but surprise, and then his eyes were on fire, his nose seared, his throat filled with the thick gas. He couldn’t breathe or see, and as he tried to get away, blinded, he fell into the street and his head hit something hard. He made a high, keening wail as he tried to stand, but hit his head again — he was stuck under something.

  For the next little while, he rolled from side to side, moaning and trying to scratch at his eyes. His head pounded and he felt a burning deep inside his chest. Jagger had warned him about skunks, but he had never before experienced this. He cursed himself for not paying more attention. Now he was going to die here, writhing in pain, because of a stupid mistake.

  Over time, the pain began to recede, and he became more aware of his surroundings. He was able to open his eyes and see shapes, and he realized he was stuck under a car. Squeezing out from underneath, he stood shakily, his head pounding. It was then that he became aware of the smell. Burning up through his nose and into the back of his throat was an oily, sulphurous odour that blocked out everything else. He turned his head from side to side, unable to sense his surroundings by smell, as he normally did. Even though his eyes were open now, he still felt blind. He trotted slowly down the sidewalk, trying to escape it, but realized with a sinking feeling that it was following him. His fur was coated in the sticky substance.

  The sky was beginning to lighten, and humans began to appear on the street. Scruff was miserable: wet, cold, hungry, his paws throbbing. His head pounded from the stench. Rolling on the ground, he tried to scrape it off. That helped a bit, but as he trotted on, he realized he was now completely unable to smell danger or prey. He no longer cared that Jagger might be coming after him — he simply didn’t have any energy left. He needed to find somewhere to lie down and get out of the way of the humans for the day. Realizing that he wouldn’t be able to tell whether he was in neutral territory or not, he picked a bush at random and curled up underneath it, hoping for the best.

  He passed the day sleeping fitfully, waking frequently with images of Lamar’s body or the skunk swimming in his vision. When darkness fell again, his stomach rumbled loudly, forcing him to his feet. He set off, knowing he needed to get farther away from the hillside. He tried to find prey as he travelled, but was unable to smell anything other than himself. He resorted to picking through garbage to find food, barely even able to taste it. He found that he didn’t have to worry about other coyotes, because no one would go near him.

  A few nights passed like this, and, as he continued on, the buildings got bigger and closer together. One night, he stopped at a busy road and realized he could barely even see the sky through all of the tall buildings. He felt an odd sense of relief, knowing he was far away from anyone and anything he had ever known. He doubled back and found a quiet alley, and stood for a moment, listening to the sounds of car tires on wet streets, honking, and people talking. Here, it was noisy even at night.

  He began making his way down the alley, no plan in mind. There were cars parked in rows along both sides, leaving a narrow strip of road in the middle. He followed the edge of the buildings until he saw a large, dry area with cars parked in it. He ducked into the dry warmth gratefully, looking around cautiously to make sure there were no other animals or humans. In a corner, there were some tarps and blankets piled behind a car. Suddenly exhausted, he burrowed himself deep under the blankets. Closing his eyes, he fell asleep.

  What seemed like moments later, his sleep was interrupted by a shrill wailing noise. Panicked, he raised his head and looked around. The noise seemed to be coming from the other side of the lot. He jumped out of the tarp pile and slunk carefully around the side of the car, peeking out to see what it was. He breathed in as he saw that the dry covered area was filled with humans, getting into their cars, talking, and walking past. It was dawn. He could not believe the sudden transformation. His ears and nose twitched from side to side, trying to take it all in. The piercing noise suddenly stopped, and two humans climbed into one of the cars. Suddenly afraid of being spotted, he crept backwards, retreating toward the blankets. Digging into them again, he realized he was trapped. If he tried to leave now, he would be spotted. He curled up deeper in the blankets, eyes peeking out to see if he could find an escape route.

  Then, before he had a plan, two humans were standing right beside his tarp, talking. He turned his head slowly, assessing their distance, and waited, afraid to move another muscle. He heard two sharp beeps, and then they got into the car that was parked in front of the tarps where he lay. With a loud growl, the car started, belching a disgusting smelling smoke all over him. He panicked, his fear of cars magnified by the noise and smell. Jumping up, he left the blanket before the car could run him over. As he ran past the side of the car, he heard screaming and a sharp, painful honk of the horn pierced his eardrums. He ran quickly, trying to put some distance between him and the car, entering the alley and running along it, looking desperately for another place to hide. He saw some bushes behind a Dumpster, and dove into them, shaking. All around him, he heard noises. Humans talking, the banging of doors, radios and music.

  He lay there for the next few hours, alert, becoming slowly desensitized to all of the sounds. He began to be able to differentiate between them better. Cars passed through often, but there were long periods with no cars, too. Humans stayed mostly inside the buildings, and their muffled sounds filtered down through windows and onto the street. Occasionally there would be a much louder sound — a siren or a loud truck, but if he flattened his ears to his head, it helped to drown the sound out a little, and it would typically pass quickly.

  He had been lying there for several hours, waiting uneasily, when he suddenly became aware of a sniffing noise. He looked in the direction of the noise and saw a wet black nose poking through the bushes, a few feet from his head. He leapt backwards as it began to bark furiously. It leapt into the bushes after him as he exited the far side, running around the side of a Dumpster. He looked back and saw her — wide, floppy ears, a brown colour, and about his height, although a bit heavier. She barked loudly, and although he couldn’t understand exactly what she was saying, she sounded aggressive and angry. She began to run at him, and he fled into the alley, moving quickly and passing two humans, who yelled at either him or the dog, he wasn’t sure. He turned the corner onto the street.

  He stole a glance behind him — the dog was still in pursuit, a human running behind it. Panicked, he galloped across the street. To his left, he sensed an enormous shape bearing down on him — a truck! — and lengthened his stride, shutting his eyes and expecting to feel an impact. Instead, there was a sharp screech and nothing touched him, and then he was on the other sidewalk. He heard humans yelling everywhere, and he ran another block before slowing to look behind him again. He didn’t see the dog anymore. Unfortunately, though, he was out in the open on a busy street, full of cars and humans. He could hear shouts and other loud noises.

  He dove into another alley and found a patch of bushes. He hid, breathing hard, all senses on alert. The dog was gone, and nothing else seemed to have followed him. He sighed, a sudden longing for the peace of the forest washing over him. From the moment he had left, he had been assaulted by strange new terrors. But he could never go back. This was his home now, and he would have to learn quickly so that he could survive. Digging into the cold, hard ground under the bush, he lay down, hoping to get some rest while he could.

  He spent the next few nights exploring the city, looking for somewhere he could use as a home base. The skunk smell had weakened, but it still impacted his ability to hunt. Prey smelled him coming before he could smell them, so he was forced to eat garbage. Thankfully, in this busy part of the city, there was lots of food lying around on the streets, so he found enough to stay alive. However, he grew steadily weaker, suffering from a poor diet and a lack of de
ep sleep.

  One night he found a small park and stopped there, sniffing around the garbage can to see what he could eat. Digging into a paper-wrapped object, he found the leftovers of a human meal. It made his lips and tongue burn as he ate it, but he didn’t have too many other options. He lay down then, enjoying the brief moment of peace and quiet.

  “Hey!” Scruff’s eyes shot open at the sound of a gruff bark behind him. He turned his head to see a pair of coyotes staring at him, their hackles up. He jumped to his feet, lowering his head submissively.

  “Get out of our territory,” the female said, wrinkling her nose and turning to her partner. “I can’t even breathe with him around.”

  “This is our park,” the male added with a growl. “I don’t know where you come from, but you’re lucky you’re just a runt or we would take this more seriously. We’ll give you three seconds to get lost or we’ll show you what happens to coyotes who trespass here.”

  Without waiting another second, Scruff turned and fled, making a mental note not to go into any more parks until he could smell better. He trotted for hours that night, feeling desperate for a quiet place he could call home. Right as the sky was beginning to lighten, the sidewalk he was following came to a T. In front of him was a very busy road, with train tracks running high above the road on the far side. He stopped, listening. Something was coming down the tracks, and he jumped as a sharp squeal announced the arrival of a train running overhead. He watched it in amazement as it floated over the road, running along the elevated tracks. Then, his eye was drawn to a narrow patch of green that ran under the tracks. He ran to the edge of the road, looking carefully and waiting for two cars to pass before crossing and approaching the green area. There was a tall chain-link fence that separated the sidewalk from the bushes. He trotted along it, hoping to find some way in. Up ahead, he saw some people walking toward him and changed direction, looking the other way. Finally, he saw it — a low spot dug underneath the fence. He squeezed through, diving into the deep grasses and bushes on the other side. He paused, his heart beating, trying to take stock of where he was.