Getting from Abba Tuda to Kanifay Island
was one long wait after another. He
waited for his plane to arrive at Abba Tuda; then he had to wait for it to
leave for Guam. He wished he could make
the plane travel faster; but, even a Boeing 737 takes a while to travel 625
miles. After a long layover in Guam, he
had to travel another 525 miles to Kanifay Island. Even the taxi from the airport to the police
station seemed too slow.
After more than a day with too little
sleep, Tony rushed into the police station around 5:30 AM. Cindy’s father was there to meet him. So were a doctor, a nurse, and a chief of
police. “Where is she?” Tony asked.
“She’s in a jail cell, asleep,” said
Cindy’s father. “Come quietly. I’ll show you.” Tony followed the doctor, nurse, father, and
the police chief to a back room. From
there, they walked to a room in a jail, where a fox lay sleeping on a small
bed. Tony looked across the room and saw
that the morning sun was just starting to shine through the window and onto the
bed.
The police chief opened the cell door and
let Cindy’s father enter with Cindy’s skirt and tee shirt. The fox on the bed began to change. In just a few seconds, the fox had become
Cindy. The doctor, police chief, and
Tony turned their heads as Cindy put on her skirt and tee shirt.
Cindy looked at Tony and said, “You knew,
didn’t you?”
“I knew,” said Tony, “but I really
couldn’t make myself believe it.”
“Are we still friends?”
“Of course. Now more than ever.” Tony then said to Cindy’s father, “What will
happen to her?”
Cindy’s father looked at the police chief
for an answer. The police chief said,
“It depends on how well we handle this.
Thus far, only six people know about this: Cindy, her father, the
doctor, the nurse, Tony, and me.”
“One
more,” Tony cut in. “The homeowner where
I’m staying; but he’ll keep it quiet.”
“That’s seven. Tony, do you know what’ll happen to her if
the Department of Safety finds out about Cindy?”
“I know that they have a law that foxes
have to be killed, but Cindy is also human.
They can’t just kill her—can they?”
“They can’t kill Cindy in her human
form—not without a trial for murder, and she hasn’t murdered anybody. Under the law, though, as soon as she turns
into a fox, they’ll have to kill her.
They’d give her a shot to put her to sleep; then they’d give her another
shot to make her heart stop.”
“Like an animal,” Tony said. “You’re a police chief. Why are you trying to help us? Aren’t you breaking the law by helping us?”
The police chief forced a smile and said,
“Well, there’s the letter of the law, and there’s the spirit of the law. The letter of the law calls for law and
order; the spirit of the law calls for justice.
As I see it, I’m a peace officer.
The most important part of my job is to protect and serve. If we can get Cindy out of the country,
Kanifay Island will have one fewer fox and possibly less harm to people’s
property. More important than that,
we’ll be saving the life of a girl who has never harmed anybody. We have to get Cindy out of the country.”
“There’s a plane leaving for the
Philippines later today,” Tony said.
“No.
She can get to the Philippines, but she won’t be able to stay
there. And, if the layover in the
Philippines is too long, she could turn into a fox right there in the airport
or on the airplane. People from the
Carolines have the right to live in the United States without special
papers. If she takes a flight to Guam,
she’ll be in a United States territory.
At the right times, she can then fly to Hawaii, then to California, and
on to America’s East Coast. We can send
her college entrance exam papers and other papers to Congaree University, and
she can start as a freshman either this fall or next spring.”
Tony quickly looked at the others in the
room and said, “That’s why you wanted me to come as soon as possible. You wanted me to get her started with a new
life in the United States. I live with
my parents. Where will Cindy live?”
Cindy smiled at Tony and said, “We haven’t
figured that one out yet, Tony; but I believe in you. I know you’ll think of something.”
“There’s another problem,” Tony said. “The next plane to Guam leaves a week from
now. Can we keep all this a secret for
seven days?”
The police chief said, “We’ll have
to. Since the police station is a public
place, it’s a terrible place to keep secrets.
I’ll release her to her father’s care for now. If you need help in hiding Cindy or getting
her on the plane next week, be sure to let me know.”
“I have a question about Cindy’s move to
the United States,” Tony said. “Don’t
get me wrong. I’d do anything to help
Cindy, but—I’m not sure how to say it.”
The doctor said, “I believe you’re
wondering whether it would be wise to take a fox fairy to the United
States. You’re wondering if the Caroline
Islands’ problem might become America’s problem. Am I right, Tony?”
“Yes, sir. I don’t think of Cindy as a
problem, but I was, as you say, wondering how I could explain it if other
people found out.”
“For one thing, Tony, the Caroline
Islands’ problem is not with fox fairies but with foxes. Foxes are not native to the Carolines, so
they can be a problem for plants and animals that are native to the Carolines. The fox—even the red fox, which Cindy is—is
native to Europe, Asia, and even North America.
You would actually be moving Cindy to a place where she’s more likely to
fit in. As for Cindy being a fox fairy,
that shouldn’t be as much a problem as you might think. You’ll have to help her hide her secret; but,
a few years from now, when she starts having children, I don’t think they’ll be
fox fairies themselves.”
“How can you be sure?”
“After we learned that Cindy was a fox
fairy, I researched medical journals to learn as much as I could about her
condition. There’s not much medical literature
about fox fairies, but I did find something useful in the Hokkaido Journal of Cryptozoology.”
“What’s cryptozoology?”
“Cryptozoology is the study of animals
that some scientists say are not real.
Of course they’re real. If they
weren’t real, how could anybody study them?
Among other things, cryptozoology is the study of space aliens, giant
sea creatures, and fox fairies.”
“What did the article say about fox
fairies?”
“Her condition is called foxismonitism,”
the doctor said, placing the accents on the second and fourth syllables of the
word. “The article looked into the
question of why there are fewer reported sightings of foxismonites—that is, fox
fairies—today than there were a hundred years ago. Researchers found that it’s because there are
fewer fox fairies today than there were a hundred years ago.”
“Why would that be?”
“In most cases, both parents have to be
fox fairies for their children to be born fox fairies. It’s kind of like blue eyes and brown eyes:
In most cases, for a child to be born with blue eyes, both the child’s parents
have to have blue eyes. As for fox
fairies, if only one parent is a fox fairy, the child will probably not be a
fox fairy. Medical researchers also
found out another thing about why there are fewer fox fairies. In certain kinds of fox fairies, being a fox
fairy has to be passed from mother to daughter.
If the mother fox fairy has no daughters—only sons—there will be no fox
fairies born to that family ever again.
That’s why there are fewer and fewer reported sightings of fox
fairies. In another hundred years, there
will be no more fox fairies.”
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