Some of my colleagues have made note of the fact that the female humans tended to brew the coffee more than William Walker himself did, and they tended to pour it. This, I assure you, wasn’t lost on me. I wouldn’t be much of an anthropologist if it was. It made me wonder if there was a division in sex roles over the coffee, and whether this expressed some form of dominance or subservience between the two sexes.
As it turns out… William is not particular about it, but his wife is. So, she tends to be the one to make it, and because of the way their labor is divided up, she is more likely to provide it. As William said to me, “When I was in the military, bad coffee was more or less a tradition, and when you get used to bad coffee, anything will do. My wife is more particular, she likes it a certain way, so I let her make it. As long as I don’t touch the pot, her little domain, she’s happy to handle the pouring too.” He snorted when he said it, a little amused by the anecdote, Rebecca however, quickly chimed in.
“I still think you weaponized incompetence because you like to watch me walk. Pervert.” I must add… human social interactions vary wildly, he and his wife for example, engaged in playful, teasing banter… they both had a deep love of language, and enjoyed playing with words and taunting each other. You have seen the use of ‘dadjokes’ and ‘dadpuns’ extensively already. It is telling of the recent stress that those jokes and puns were gone for weeks.
But now that it looked as if everything would be fine?
“What can I say, oh wonderful wife of mine, watching your winsome wiley walk will keep my eyes from wandering elsewhere, you can’t blame me for enjoying it.” He winked up at her when she went to put the coffee pot away and answered…
“I can and I’m more than happy to.” She said it with a wink, which I took to mean they were being playful with one another again. The mood of the Walker household was restored.
Most of the time, before things went bad, there was more banter about the house, but today, after everything, their eyes were mostly focused on their respective data devices. To be honest, so was mine. Orderly as they were, each of the trio was on a different streaming media platform eyeing the news for fresh information.
“...Derrick Horn, the amusement park mogul was arrested today by the EIB on federal corruption charges after multiple witnesses stepped forward claiming payoffs to victims. The alleged victims ranged from thirteen to thirty, all were allegedly accosted by his son, twenty-six year old Derrick Horn Jr. Additional charges include obstruction of justice, witness intimidation, destruction of evidence, harassment, assault, attempted kidnapping, and the forcible detention of a minor.”
That was what the broadcast said on my screen, and no sooner than the words were halfway through than William, Rebecca, and Fauve dropped their devices on the table with a loud enough and hard enough clatter that an only lightly touched glass of milk beside Fauve’s plate toppled over and spilled.
Nobody said anything, I doubt they even noticed, they rushed from their positions to stand behind me and look down over my shoulders.
“That’s him.” We all said at once, all my hearts pounded with excitement. The male I dubbed ‘Wolfbeard’ was waddling down the marble steps of a widespread mansion while drones hovered nearby, catching it all on camera forever.
Wolfbeard’s hands were cuffed and he was sobbing like a baby, “It’s not fair! It’s not faaaaiiir! They wanted me to do it! My dad even paid them to make it okay! You can’t doooo this!”
“Shut up, you imbecile!” The older man, presumably his father, answered. Derrick looked a lot like his son in some ways. He was clean cut, face shaved, well dressed in a business suit and tie, but he had a bit of garishness to him. The buttons of his suit were platinum, and his shoes polished to a mirror shine. His son was just a pathetic reflection of his father. Like a young version of the old man if he let himself go in his youth. The old man’s hair was fading into obscurity, and a steely eyed look in his eyes promising retribution was marred by one thing.
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Those ‘steely eyes’ kept darting around him. It reminded me of the way Fauve looked when she had to leave the house, afraid she was surrounded by threats.
The officers of the EIB were not dressed in anything resembling tactical gear, except for thin bullet proof vests. Other than that, their navy blue suits would have passed for any ordinary clothing from any ordinary person.
“The EIB… wow, this escalated quickly.” William whistled, and… unfortunately I had to ask.
“What’s that?”
“The Earth Investigation Bureau, they handle crimes that span the globe. If a conspiracy spreads out over more than one continent, they get involved. I’m surprised they’d get involved in something like this unless…” Rebecca trailed off and turned her eyes toward William.
“That’s bad. That’s very… very bad.” William went a little green in the face, but I was at a loss to explain why.
“I hate to ask more questions but, what?” I asked, keeping an eye on the screen as the pair was walked out of their property toward a waiting squad car.
Rebecca put her hand on my head and began to idly scratch, I leaned into it while she talked, touching my fur seemed to relax her some while she explained. “Bailey, Derrick’s son could have just meant people here, patrons to the park that he’d make uncomfortable or- or worse. But rich people travel, and some people travel to places where they can get away with a lot more, where people still don’t have all the options they should. It’s a horrific kind of tourism. Things are better than they used to be, but the planet only unified about two hundred years ago. Our little blue dot is a very big place to those of us who live here, and it takes a long time to fix everything.”
“In another hundred years, all that will be resolved, it just won’t be possible anymore. But until then?” William shook his head sadly, “Catching these kinds of people can be hard.”
“But wasn’t the point of all your wealth restrictions and systems, to keep people accountable and make sure they couldn’t just buy their way above the law?” I asked, and William nodded back to me.
“People cheat. And sometimes the cheaters prosper. We learn from them, refine our laws, methods of investigation… but making this world a better place is a constant struggle. Till we make a better human, we just have to make do with the good ones we’ve got, and look after our own family as best as we can.”
When he said that, he put a hand on my shoulder, and gave it a firm squeeze.
My tail immediately began to wag back and forth just as the pair reached the squad cars.
“You can’t! I’m a werewolf! I won’t survive in a cage!” Wolfbeard shouted as they pushed his waddling form down and made him get into the car.
“Idiot…” Was the last thing I heard his aged father say as the door slammed on them both.
Fauve raised her head to her parents, “Mom, dad, can I eat dinner later, I’d like to go play with Bailey.”
“Tennis ball?” I asked, my tail went into overdrive with its wagging.
“Tennis ball.” She answered in the affirmative, then saw the milk she’d spilled that was now dripping off the table after spreading over a fair amount of the wood surface. “I’ll clean that up first-”
“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.” Her father said and reached for a napkin from the center of the table.
“Go ahead, go play with him, the food will be in the fridge when you get back. Just use the well lit areas.” Rebecca said with a cheery smile and went to the other side of the table, picked up the plate, and brought it to the counter where she wrapped it up for storage while her father mopped up the mess of spilled milk.
“Thanks mom, thanks dad.” She said, paused, and while her smile never wavered, she added in a far more serious voice, “I mean it.”
“I know.” William said, “Go, play, have fun, we’ll be here when you get back, everything is fine.”
He tossed the wet handful of napkins into the waste bin, and Fauve and I headed for the door.
I didn’t yet know all that the future held for us, but I was sure of one thing in that moment.
William was right.
But there was something else, we still had two guards at the door, a human and a dlamisa who chatted amicably while scanning their respective areas. We wondered just what happened to the other two, only to find that they were already at the park, and the big dlamisa was rushing back to the human with a ball in his mouth that with every closing of his jaws, squealed like a captured beast.