FSE

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Bright and early Saturday morning, Arden pulled his old car up to the curb in a quiet cul-de-sac in the Valley. The heat had abated somewhat in the last couple of days in most of Los Angeles, but evidently the Valley wasn't given the forecast. He stepped out of the non-air-conditioned vehicle, cursing his thick black fur, and quickly slammed the door shut. He immediately trotted to the relative shelter of the mature shade trees that surrounded the houses in this part of the city.

Shaking himself slightly to try and release some of the heat caught in his natural insulation, Arden walked up to the front door, and rang the bell. The house was average sized, had its original wooden shake roof, and was painted a strange gold from a bygone era, but seemed to be in good shape. Birdsong mixed with airplane rumble in this corner of paradise, and Arden chuckled to himself at the juxtaposition, as he glanced at the contrails that crisscrossed the entire length and breadth of the sky. The wolf's keen ears soon picked up rustling from inside, and he turned to the doorway just as it opened to reveal a paunchy, frowning fennec dressed in a rumpled wife beater and khaki shorts. He was barepawed, and his headfur, which probably hadn't been brushed in the last week, was gray and stood at angles to his small head.

"Mmm?" he growled as he stepped to the doorway, languorously looking the lupine caller up and down with a scowl. "Whadayouwant?" he almost slurred.

"Um. I'm Arden Mongomery, and I'm here to see David Tyler?" The wolf's voice went up in pitch at the end of the sentence, and he mentally slapped himself for his apologetic behavior. He wasn't doing anything wrong, but it still felt like he was intruding on this older, and evidently peeved, man.

"I'm sure you are," he snorted dismissively, then turned to go back inside. Just before the door closed he sighed roughly, "Around the side to the pool house in the back."

Arden blinked at the odd and unsettling exchange, then made his way to the side of the house. Fumbling with the heavy, old, wooden gate, he finally managed to lift it slightly over the un-mown grass and push it open enough to squeeze through, laboriously reversing the process to close it behind himself.

The backyard was large, but evidently no one had cared about it in some time. The grass and weeds were patchy and beige-green, the concrete around the pool was stained and cracked, and the clothesline uprights leaned this way and that from years of overuse and weather, high tufts of dandelions surrounding their bases. The pool house itself could have used a coat of paint, maybe two.

Arden blinked in the glare from the sunlight reflecting off the concrete and the water. At least the pool itself appeared to have been maintained, the blue bottom of the deep end as clearly visible as the shallow. The diving board had been removed, as many had for safety's sake in the wake of a rash of severe backyard accidents, but the mounts remained. The wolf carefully skirted the tripping hazard.

As he neared the pool house, he saw that all the curtains were drawn over the double sets of French doors. For the second time in as many minutes, the wolf wondered whether this may not have been such a good idea after all. It was clear the fox in the main house didn't really want him here, and now it appeared that David was either asleep or gone.

Still, it had been a long enough ride to get here, and he thought he might as well see this through to the end. Stepping into the thin line of shade cast by the pool house overhang, Arden knocked softly on a windowpane. An old...washing machine perhaps, sat by the side fence, nearly overgrown with foxtails and cutgrass.

The door opened with a scritch of rubber weather stripping, and the thin muzzle of the fennec peeked out. "Yes?"

"Um, hey David," Arden began, "we were gonna get together today? Did I wake you up?"

The door opened further, and the fox took a step toward the wolf, grinning. "Oh! Hey Arden! I'm glad you made it. Naw, it's cool. Tim's just asleep. It's fine. He had a late night last night. We partied a little."

Arden didn't know quite what to make of the slight little fox standing in the doorway. He seemed fragile somehow, like maybe he were dealing with an emotional trauma. The wolf made a mental note to stop watching so many Dr. Killdeer reruns.

"Oh, well I don't want to wake him up or anything." The wolf started to back away from the door, when Tim's unkempt muzzle appeared over David's shoulder.

"It's fine," the opossum grumbled deeply, "I'm up."

The fennec stepped back through the door, and gestured for the wolf to enter. Arden slowly walked forward as Tim retreated back into the shadowy recesses of the pool house, tugging absently at the back of his over-stretched blue boxers. His fleshy, segmented tail dragged limply over the stained, dun-colored carpet.

Once inside, the wolf couldn't see anything, before his eyes adjusted from the brilliance outside, to the relatively low light of the interior. Gradually, he began to make out a rather cramped, rather cluttered room, with a couch and low coffee table to his right and a queen-size mattress near the wall on the floor next to it. Tall oak bookshelves lined the entire back wall, with narrow transom windows above them. To the left was a wet bar, and further, a doorway, which Arden assumed led to the bathroom. Every possible horizontal surface, including part of the mattress, was covered with objects of various sizes and shapes. While Arden's apartment was small, at least it was...clean.

"Welcome to the Tyler mansion," David deadpanned.

"Thanks," said the stunned wolf, as his eyes roamed over every laden surface. Speaker parts, switches, plates, glasses, candles, piles of books that wouldn't fit in the overfilled bookcases; every flat surface was taken. Even the airspace was claimed, as Arden noticed two huge, old wooden speakers hanging at an angle from stout chains on either end of the line of bookcases. Much larger than anyone would need for a room of this size, the sight made Arden's ears flatten unconsciously as he thought of the drum-splitting sound they could produce.

Noticing his body language, David quickly began straightening up the coffee table. "Um sorry," he squeaked sheepishly, "we got to bed really late, and didn't have time to clean up after dinner." His tail hung listlessly as he removed the dirty plates and utensils.

"No, really. It's OK. That doesn't matter." And though the wolf did feel out of place, his manners demanded that he make his host feel good about his home. "Wow, those speakers are huge! How did you get them up there?"

Caught unaware by the sudden shift in topic, the fox stopped cleaning and craned his neck up to the flying thumpers. "Oh! Well, it's kinda tricky. We just put 'em back up last night. They're heavy as hell. Tim's gotta get on the ladder and we both kinda shove 'em up there until he can snap the chains. They're easier to get down. Just unsnap the chains, and make sure you catch them." The fox smirked.

"Ha-ha." Arden favored him with a deadpanned spoken laugh and a grin. "Um, you take them up and down often?" Arden thought that seemed unlikely, but didn't know where else to go with the conversation.

"Oh, yeah. We use them for our stage show, and then we use them for our stereo here at home."

Our? wondered Arden, but simply asked, "Oh, did you have a show yesterday?"

"Yeah, for the Tuesday's Cub benefit. It went pretty well. We did the Shadowbox, and the rings. And I made my appearance with the Chinese Screen Illusion."

"Chinese Screen?" Arden asked.

"Yeah, it's cool! I had the hostess do it with me. The assistants wrapped the screen around her, and then I appeared in her place. It worked really good!" The fennec seemed more energetic now, as he talked about his performance.

While the two canids were talking, the opossum had shuffled into a pair of dirty jeans and had trundled out to smoke a cigarette. Arden noticed Tim's scent remained, as strong in the room as the fox's. There was something else, too, but he couldn't immediately place it.

"So...you guys were up late last night, huh? I wish I had known, I would have come over later." The wolf still hadn't been asked to sit down, and with the condition of the sofa, he wasn't sure he wanted to.

"No really, I'm glad you're here," David said, with a slight yawn, as he walked to the bathroom doorway. "I should have been up anyway..." He seemed distracted by some small bottles on the end of the bar, which he shuffled through while yawning again.

"I'm not sure Tim shares your opinion," Arden softly chuckled, parting the curtains to find the surly opossum, several feet from the door, squinting back at him disapprovingly, cigarette clenched in his crooked incisors. The wolf's eyes widened slightly, and he immediately let go of the curtain and turned to look again at the fox, who was now drinking a glass of water as he walked back to the center of the room. He placed the empty glass back on a pile.

"Oh, he's fine. And if he isn't, too bad, heh heh!" David said matter-of-factly, snickering softly at his private joke. "He's a night person...you know the whole nocturnal thing...plus he smoked a lot last night, and that always makes him crabby in the morning."

"He's smoking now." Arden said, looking back at the window, confused.

"Oh yeah, no. I mean weed. He always overdoes it after a show. Oh, by the way, sit down. I'm gonna go to the main house and get us something to drink. You want something?"

Arden blinked back his surprise at the blunt comment. He smoked too much weed? That's what he does after a show? Arden sniffed again...that was definitely one of the smells he couldn't place before. There was still something else, though...

"Hello?" David was staring intently at Arden, who had zoned out in thought.

"Oh, yeah, uh...a coke or anything...that would be great." Arden mentally facepawed himself for being such a babe in the woods. What other people did was their business, right? He didn't want people to judge him about how he lived his life.

"Cool. I'll be right back." The fox opened the door and slipped out silently, leaving Arden to look around and ponder the situation. He was in a shabby, unkempt pool house which smelled strongly of fox and opossum and pot and...whatever that familiar but elusive odor was. There was barely any room to sit, let alone work on illusions, which was why he had come over in the first place. He felt very disconcerted, and a little unsafe, for some reason.

"So you're a magician," Tim's accusatory drawl startled Arden out of his reverie and he just stared at him for a moment before his brain kicked back in. The opossum was still squinting at him, but now he was much closer - too close. The way he said 'magician' almost made it seem derogatory, like he was being facetious.

"Um. Yeah, I am. Been doing it off and on since I was seven or so." Arden thought it best to try and make small talk with Tim, at least until David came back to rescue him. He leaned back into the flattened cushions of the couch, mostly to put more space between himself and the opossum, though it might have looked to the casual viewer that he were making himself at home.

This did not sit well with Tim. "Well, David's been doing it since he was four, and been a professional since he was six." His unblinking red-rimmed eyes bore into the wolf. The opossum was clearly baiting him.

"Wow. That's cool. He said you had a good show last night?" Arden desperately hoped that the fennec would return soon, to put this interrogation to an end.

"David always has a good show. He's a professional. He's going to play the Château for Halloween. And eventually he's gonna play Vegas. With tigers." Tim spat out each sentence as if hurling daggers at the bewildered wolf. "The audition didn't show you anything that he's capable of. So don't think you're better than him, 'cause you're not," he finished emphatically.

Tim's tar-and-nicotine-and-morning breath nearly caused Arden's sensitive nose to wrinkle, but he held his composure, not wanting to give the opossum any ammunition for his tirade, nor give him any actual reason to take offense. The poor wolf couldn't understand why the coarse man had taken such a dislike to him.

The opossum's tiny ears twitched and a dangerous leer made it's way to Tim's thin pink lips, even as his eyes continued to stare unblinking at Arden. He leaned back and turned to the bar just as David walked back in with the drinks.

"I'm gonna go get some food for lunch, hon." Tim said simply, turning to favor David and Arden with a casual smile, having retrieved a wallet and keys from the clutter. "While I'm out I'll go to the pharmacy, too."

"Thanks." The fennec seemed a bit distracted as he handed Arden his beverage.

Tim left without another word, and the wolf, a bit shaken and more than a little confused, simply took a long drink from the can in his paw.

"I was really impressed with your audition," David said, his light hazel eyes focused now on the lupine. "You routined it well, and I loved the multiplying cookies!" His eyes twinkled now, and for the first time since he arrived, Arden felt himself relax a little.

"Oh. Yeah? Thanks. I mean, Yeah. I really worked on that one. Probably ate a few more than I should have in the last couple of weeks!" He took another sip from his soda.

"Yeah," the fennec began, ears splaying to the side of his head, accentuating his halo of thinning headfur. "I wish I could say ours went that well, heh heh," he chuckled nervously, glancing off to the side, as he absentmindedly rubbed his elbow with a slender paw.

"What did happen anyway?" Arden thought it might be too forward, but he'd just had a dressing-down courtesy of a disgruntled and combative marsupial, and decided to take a more aggressive tack in the conversation.

"Oh...that depends on who you ask." David looked wistful, and took a sip of his iced tea as he sat before continuing. "Tim says I told him I loaded everything. I never said that, 'cause we were late getting to the Château, and I had to change into my tux. It was just a giant clusterfuck. I think he was just flirting with the stage manager and lost track of time. It must've looked really stupid." His tone was more sardonic than defeated, but his tail was still, and his ears remained down.

Flirting? Arden let it pass. "Well, at first I thought it was a comedy act you know? Like you're the put-upon magician who has everything blow up? It could'a worked, maybe, except you looked so shocked."

"I was! I mean, I've had stuff go wrong before, but this was...nothing worked. And I didn't know it until it was too late. Hey look! I'll put this lid on this empty box... and ta da! It's still empty! I mean aaaaah!"

David raised his paws and waved them around randomly, as if having a mental breakdown, and Arden chuckled. The fox's ears had raised somewhat and his tail was wagging slowly as he laughed about the debacle with the wolf, who he thought seemed genuinely empathetic about the situation.

"I think I would have died right there on stage!" Arden laughed.

"Yeah, who knows, I actually could have! That would have been memorable! It'll probably happen some day," the fennec chuckled, and took another sip of his tea, but began again before a puzzled Arden could interrupt. "I don't think I'll get picked for the summer gig. But that's OK. I have a couple shows lined up for charity, and then we'll go to Vegas for some R and R."

Arden flicked an ear, but asked, "Tim said you are going to play the Château for Halloween?"

"Yeah, I'm so excited about that! Halloween is my favorite holiday, and the Château really goes all out. I'm glad that it's already scheduled, 'cause after that audition, I don't think they would have booked me."

"So, I guess you'll be replacing Tim by then?" Arden asked.

"Yeah, heh heh, I wish! A ha ha..." he trailed off before continuing. "My friend Alison's gonna do the show with me too, 'cause Jenny's gonna be out of town with her family. Do you know Alison?"

"Um...Alison?" Arden had no idea whether he did or not...there were certainly more than just one Alison in town. But more than that, he was still in disbelief that David was even still talking to Tim, let alone keeping him in the show.

"Yeah. She played nasty Nellie the Prairie Bitch on "Little Mouse on the Prairie." She does a lot of charity work. I've known her forever."

Of course Arden knew who she was. Who didn't know the vain poodle with the impossible curls who made life hell for the sweet and innocent terrier, Laura? Everybody had grown up with the stalwart Ingalls family, even if it had been through reruns.

"No, I don't know her personally. She does magic?" Arden couldn't quite get the picture of the poodle with the petticoats and the sneer out of his head.

"Oh yeah! I've had her in my show a couple of times. She loves to do the Halloween shows - she's really into gore! And her fans love to see her get tortured. We usually leave her impaled or something, and don't bother to bring her back. And if we can get a lot of stage blood in there, she loves it more! She's a hoot, you've got to meet her. She'd really love you," he said glancing up and down the tall wolf.

Arden got that prickly feeling again over his fur. He felt as if he were being readied for market, like a stock animal.

"Oh. Well, yeah. That's cool. Sure, I'd love to meet her." He finished the last of his soda.

"So, we should get down to business, huh? I'm sorry the place is such a mess. I try to keep it picked up, but Tim is just...I just don't have the energy to keep his shit picked up too." The fox began sweeping books and other paraphernalia off the coffee table, some onto the floor, some over to the bar, where he deposited items on top of whatever was already there.

"Oh, he keeps stuff here, too?" Arden said, distractedly looking around at the copious amounts of "stuff."

"Yeah. He has some of his stuff in the main house. When he moved in, he didn't have that much, and we moved out here to the pool house. Still not enough room. He just keeps collecting more."

Moved in? But there's only one... And that smell...

The fennec looked up at the blank-mawed wolf, who had stood up to give the housecleaning fox more access to the coffee table. "Oh." David stopped cleaning and turned fully to face Arden. "It's OK, isn't it? I didn't think..."

"Is what OK?" Arden's fur was pricking something awful, and he fought hard to keep his expression neutral.

"Um. You know I'm gay and Tim's my lover, right? I know you're straight, but I didn't think that it would bother you..." David's ears flattened out completely. He held his paws out as if to keep a distance between himself and the flustered wolf. The vulpine had a small grimace that he probably thought was a calm smile on his muzzle, as he stood motionless in the middle of the room, waiting for the rejection he had heard so often.

The pricking of his fur was now almost unbearable, but as Arden saw the pain in the fennec's eyes, he knew that his own discomfort paled in comparison. He decided instantly what he had to do.

"Why would it bother me? Does it bother you?"

The fox blinked in surprise. "Er, um, no. Heh heh. I...no." His brain, overloaded with fight-or-flight hormones, couldn't seem to focus on the reality of the current situation. He'd been expecting a very different response from the tall, black wolf.

"Then why should it bother me? And why would you care if it did? Your life is your own. You don't need my permission, or my approval, do you?" Arden stated evenly, careful to let no hint of his unease show. His mind was racing, trying to bring this excruciatingly uncomfortable conversation to a close.

"Oh. Well, OK. Huh. Cool. Sorry, I just..." The fennec finally gave up trying to re-rail his train of thought.

"So what illusions have you been working on?" Arden amazed himself with the rapidity and the artlessness of his segue. But once spoken, there was no going back. Hopefully.

"Oh. Yeah. Well, we hope to do an Azrah for the Halloween show, but you know how small the stage is in the Palace of Shadows," David said, rummaging around the bar and finally unearthing a large notebook, which he placed on the now-empty coffee table. He riffled through the pages. "So we need to find a way to make it work without the usual hookup."

Arden was at once relieved and perplexed that the fox so easily left the tension of the past few minutes, and seemed now to be wholly engrossed in his plans for the show as if no awkwardness had occurred. For his part, Arden couldn't just let it go. In fact, the rest of the afternoon it was foremost in his mind. No matter how interested he was in the planning, no matter how enlightening David's instructions for fiber optic construction, in fact no matter what, the wolf couldn't get one thing out of his head.

He had lied. It did bother him. A lot.