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Diane held onto her daughter's hand and tried to keep up as her sister led them through the gathering crowd on the sidewalk.

“Here's a good spot. See the X on the street; it's a presentation spot. They'll come around the corner and any group that has a show will do it here.”

“Why did we need to come so far from the hotel?”

“This is the first presentation spot on the route. Now I need to hurry back to get ready. The parade should start in about twenty or thirty minutes. Watch for me.”

Diane sighed as Jane ran off, leaving her and Kristine in the middle of a crowd of strangers in an unfamiliar city. She looked around at the mix of humans and morphs. So many different kinds of animals. A couple days ago, she would have been worried about them being dangerous, but now, they seemed like normal people and some of the humans looked scarier.

“Cal! Get back here!” A female raccoon beside her stepped off the curb and beckoned sternly to a little raccoon boy across the street that came running back. “What did I tell you about wandering off?”

“Um, don't go too far?”

“And that was too far. Stay close to me now.” She ushered him back onto the sidewalk and stepped up behind him.

“Alright, mama.”

The familiar mothering scene comforted Diane and she made herself be friendly, “Is that your first?”

The morph mother turned to look at her, “…Yes.” She noticed Kristine standing close beside her, “Yours?”

Diane looked down and put her hand on her daughter's head, “My third.”

“I guess it gets easier.”

She smiled, “It depends on the child. My first was adventurous, but behaved. My second was wild until he found the internet. Kristine has a mind of her own and sometimes I think she is smarter than me.”

“Well, we can only hope they are and avoid our mistakes.”

Diane nodded and hugged Kristine against her side.

“Do you know how long the parade is this year?”

She shook her head, “This is my first time seeing it.”

The raccoon brightened and smiled, “Well, nice to have you. Welcome to Pittsburgh. I've been here every year. I'm Rene and this is Calaphon.” She offered her small paw as her son complained.

“Mo_ o _ o m.”

“Or just Cal.”

She looked at the raccoon morph's slender fingers and the black claws at the ends, then cautiously reached for it. “I'm Diane and this is Kristine.”

“I'm Big K.” She showed her badge.

Rene took the human's hand in both paws, “You're not used to morphs, are you?”

She looked at the furry paws on her hand, then up at the smiling animal face. “Well, in my town, there are two. An old dog that used to be a slave and a rabbit veterinarian.”

“That's a good job. I'm just a supervisor in the mail room for a company here in Pittsburgh. What do you do?”

“I – I'm a clerk for the power company.”

“That's an important job.”

Diane sighed and looked at Kristine, wondering if she would have noticed her problems sooner if she had not been working, “Not as important as being a mother.”

“You're right about that. Cal is a full time job.” She looked down at her son and ruffled his ears. “And you said you have three? How do you manage it?”

“Well, my oldest was almost Kristine's age when I had my second, so she was a lot of help. I wasn't planning on more children, but when I remarried …”

“Oh, they have different fathers?”

“Just my first, her father was killed.”

“Oh, I'm so sorry.” She put her paws on Diane's arms comfortingly. “We have a support group if you'd like to join. There's a meeting tomorrow here at the convention, but it's mostly online, because we're from all over. If you give me your contact info, I can send you an invite for the group.”

She shook her head, “He wasn't a morph.”

“That's okay. It's not about having fur; it's about helping each other through our loss.”

“It was a long time ago. I'm fine, now.” Diane didn't think she could have told a bigger lie. She still thought about Robert everyday and every time she looked at Julie Ann.

The raccoon sighed, “My brother was killed when I was Cal's age. It still feels good to have someone to talk to that understands.”

“Mom! I hear them!”

“If you change your mind, we'd be happy to have you join us tomorrow, room 417. It's on the schedule if you forget.” She smiled, then turned to her son, “I can, too. Can you see anything, yet?”

He stepped off the curb to look around the crowd and she grabbed his shirt, “They're coming. They're coming!”

“Alright, now get back up here and wait for them to get here.”

Diane started to hear drums and Kristine stood at the curb with Cal. She could see a tall banner coming around the corner and as it came towards her she could read “ANTHROCON” and “Pittsburgh, PA” The two fox morphs carrying it stopped at the X on the street, walked in circles to turn it all the way around, then continued as a pack of dog morphs with drums took their place. A sign on one of the drums read “Canine Drumline” and “San Diego, CA” She noticed that, along with the various species of dogs, the group included a cat, a horse, and at least a couple suits. They moved around each other as they played and the crowd cheered with each flourish, then they lined up in rows again and marched away.

The parade continued with decorated cars and trucks and morphs and suits and a band and so many different things that Diane was awestruck at the variety. She realized that even though she knew morphs were people and intelligent and agreed that they deserved their freedom, she had still been thinking of them as animals. Seeing them playing music and driving cars and enjoying themselves as people made it seem so much more real. It wasn't just something to agree with; this was their lives. And Brandon didn't want them to have it. He said they needed to stay in Australia and out of our world. He was wrong. He was very wrong. Morphs were people: creative, intelligent, vibrant, friendly, and she wanted them in her life more than she wanted him.

“Canary!”

Her daughter's shout interrupted her thoughts.

“Mom, look, there she is!”

A large, decorated display stopped on the X and music started to play as a dozen cat morphs danced on top of it. There were two yellow cats, but she couldn't tell which was Jane. Only one cat looked like a suit and it wasn't yellow. The cats finished their routine and started waving to the crowd. One of the yellow ones was waving wildly and looking at them and Kristine cheered and jumped up and down as she waved back. Diane looked closer as they started to move away, but still couldn't tell if it was her sister.

Kristine turned to the raccoon boy beside her as she pointed at the cats, “That's my aunt Jane.”

“Aunt?” Rene looked at Diane with a smile, “You're Canary's sister?”

“I – I … She's my sister, but we're not cat morphs.”

The raccoon laughed, “I can tell. So, you're the sister I'm supposed to look out for; imagine that.”

“She asked you to look out for me?”

“She sent an all call out to her friends, but I didn't think I would find you in all this, especially without much of a description.”

“What did she say?”

“Oh, just that you're an attractive woman with a dangerously cute young daughter and this is your first time at Anthrocon, so we should make sure you have a good time. Are you?”

“Um, I guess so.”

“That doesn't sound very convincing. You said you're from a small town. Is this your first trip to a city?”

“No, but it has been a while. I … think the last time was with … Robert.”

Rene put her paw on her new friend's back comfortingly, “Don't worry; you have friends here. It looks like the kids are getting along and I'd be happy to stick with you and show you around.”

“That's okay. We'll just wait for Jane.”

“She's usually pretty busy. I'm sure she would be happy that I found you. Have you met anyone else?”

“She did introduce us to a few.” She tried to remember everyone that was in the room. “Um, Tiva and Sandy and Brick and Klark, but he's not a morph…”

“He's a great guy; likes to help people too, but doesn't put up with assholes.”

Diane tried to think of who else she had met since she arrived. “There was a cat named Dan and … a fox …”

“RED!”

“Big K!” The fox morph squatted down on the X in the middle of the street with his arms outstretched and Kristine pushed out of the crowd to run to him. He picked her up in a hug and scanned the crowd, then waved to her mother.

Diane started to chase her daughter, but stopped at the curb.

The fox walked over and smiled, “Come join us, bonnebelle.”

“I can't be in the parade.”

“Sure you can. This is the end, where ever'body can join in.” He took her hand and led her off the curb.

“Hey RED.” Rene followed them out, into the tail of the parade as they continued down the street.

“Ah, my cheeky chaoui, you made it.”

“I hadn't seen you yet. Have you been behaving yourself?”

He glanced at Kristine, “I's been too busy to get m'self into trouble.”

“Oh, did they put you to work this year?”

“I've had other things to take care of.”

“Did you find another job, yet?”

He glanced at Diane, “Ah, no, not yet. Not sure where I be goin'. Ey, I need ta put ya down, K-fille” He let Kristine slide gently to the street, to mild objection.

“How's your mother?”

RED sighed, “Fine, las' I heard. She's not much fer talkin' these days.”

The raccoon rubbed his arm, “Well, if you ever need to talk, let me know.”

“Sí, you're my first call.”

Rene spotted Cal and hurried to catch up. “I'll see you later, Diane.”

Diane watched the fox's face, “Is something wrong with your mother?”

“I, uh, left her in Nova Scotia. She's uh,… They're taking good care of her.”

She hesitated, then stroked his arm soothingly.

He smiled weakly and patted her hand, then took it as he broadened his smile. “Looks like you're making friends.”

“She's nice.”

“Hard not to with Rene. She'll be yer friend whether you like it or not.”

Diane wasn't thinking about the raccoon; she was trying to figure out the fox, “So, you're from Canada?”

“Ah, no. I was born in Tennessee, raised in Lou'siana, and grew up in Cuba.”

“Oh, Robert was from Tennessee; a little town called Greenville.”

“We was near there, but nowhere.”

“What do you mean?”

“I … was born in hiding. My mama was an escaped slave, but we weren't really free. I don' remember much but what she tol' me. She say she name me aft my father, but I ne'er met him.”

“His name was Red?”

The fox smiled, “My name is Robert Elijah Dewitt. Elijah was the man that drove her to Tennessee and Dewitt was the doctor that birthed me out in the woods. We's only there a cup' years aft I's born, fore some couyon run us off.”

Diane was stunned by his name and only half understood what he said. “A raccoon?”

RED laughed, “No, no. Like Rene o'there's a chaoui, a mapache, a raccoon. Couyon's not so nice a thing to say, but neither is slave hunter.”

“Oh. Did they chase you?”

“Dey din' know who I's, Jus' clear the camp. We gone from the mountains to the swamp an' was safe till I's sixteen and another'n came. We'd been movin' around a lot, sometimes back where we'd been, but ne'er the same place twice. We jus' got unlucky once an' that was enough. We caught a boat to Cuba and stay there long enough to make some good friends; almost got married.” He winked at her and continued. “After slavery was abolished here, mama wanted to try to come back. We'd heard it were easier from Canada, so we caught a boat up the coast, but mama got sick fore we could make it in. I think she wanted to find my father again, but he had his own family.”

“You left her there?”

He sighed, “She's safe. I stayed for a while, but when she forgot who I is, I left for Montreal.”

“I'm so sorry.” She held his arm as they ambled along in the crowd.

“I got a good job there that sent me down to the states some and they helped me get my citizenship certified through the Recompense program.”

“I heard of that. I thought it was to make sure morphs were paid for their work.”

“That program did a lot more, like sorting through sales records an' such to work out births an'termine citizenships.”

“I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that.”

“Es ido y hecho. Now we have the future.” He grabbed her hands and danced around her with a big grin, then spun her around again and dipped her back. “An' it looks good to me.”

Diane looked up at the smiling fox as she clung to his shirt. Part of her wondered what it would be like to kiss him, while the rest of her was afraid that he would.

He stood her up again and brushed his shirt down as they started walking again with his arm around her shoulder. Someone patted him on the back and he turned to slap paws with a collie morph as he passed.

Diane watched the fox's face as he recognized people around him and greeted them. She wondered what her sister would think if she saw her clinging to this fox morph she just met like they had been together for years. She just felt so safe pressed against him; something she had missed since before the war. But even before he left, Brandon was only a substitute for the man she really loved. Why did she marry him in the first place? No, she wouldn't let herself regret it. She might not like the man, but it got her two wonderful children: Brian and “Kristine! Where is she?” She pushed away from the fox and looked through the crowd.

“Relax, sha. She fine wit' Rene an' her boug. Jus' look aroun' hea; folks is enjoyin' theyselves. You can too, if'n ya forget 'bout yer troubles fer jus' un rato.” He pulled her against him again and put his finger on her chest as he smiled at her. “Laissez les bon temps roulet?”

He was right, she felt like if she kept thinking about her life, she was going to explode. She didn't know what he said, but she wanted to relax, so she nodded, “Okay.”

“No, you say it.”

“What does it mean?”

He smiled, “Let the good times roll.”

She chuckled, “Let the good times roll.”

“Lay-zay – lay – bon – ton – roo-lay.” He looked at her expectantly.

She repeated carefully, “Lay-zay – lay – bon – ton – roo-lay.”

“Again, con ganas.”

She didn't know the word, but she knew what he meant and smiled as she took a breath to say it all together, “ Laissez les bon temps roulet."

The fox laughed, then threw his head back to shout, “Laissez les bon temps roulet!” Then he pulled her close and kissed her lips passionately.

Diane was surprised and a little embarrassed as she heard people around them cheer, but it seemed as if everything else melted away. Part of her still screamed at her reasons to stop: you're married, you're a mother, you just met him; but they didn't stop her. She wrapped her arms around him, wanting to stay in his worry-free world as long as she could. She felt him slow, but didn't want him to stop, so she grabbed his fluffy cheeks and kissed him back. She held his neck as his paws slid down her back and she begged for more with her lips. He pulled at her hips and she gasped, losing his kiss.

The fox smiled slyly as he stared into her eyes, just holding her body against his.

“Go sis.”

Diane gasped again and pushed away from the morph in surprise as she looked around, then noticed the yellow cat looking at them. “Jane?”

“Do you have another sister I don't know about?”

“I-I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking.” Looking closer, she could tell it was a costume and not a morph.

“Don't apologize if you liked it. Or didn't you? RED, were you taking advantage of my sister?” She put her hands, paws?, on her hips and glared at the fox mockingly.

“Moi? Jamais d'la vie! Je fais serment sur mes pattes. Con toda la cola.”

She stepped toward him menacingly, “Trying to seduce her with your Cajun/Cuban whatever?”

Diane pushed herself between them and held her sister back, “No, Jane, I-I kissed him.” It was weird seeing the cat face staring back at her, but the now surprised eyes were her sister's. Suddenly, the cat started laughing and hugged her.

“Oh, Diane, I'm so glad you've come around. Though, you could've picked a better fox…”

“Ey!”

She started walking her sister towards the hotel, “But I'll introduce you to all my friends and show you everything I do…”

“Jane?”

“Yeah, sis?”

“What's wrong with this fox?”

She was suddenly silent as she smiled and looked at RED, “Nothing. Nothing is wrong with this fox.” She grabbed the red furred morph and pulled them together, linking their arms, then took her sister's other arm and continued walking, “First, we'll go find Danvil and see if I can get out of room sitting duty. Kristine is going with Rene to the kids dance, so it's just us.”

“Too bad Morty couldn't make it.” RED squeezed Diane's arm playfully, “We could double date.”

“Hush you, we're thinking happy thoughts.”

“Who's Morty?” Diane looked to her sister.

“Oh, jus' her imagin'ry beau.”

“Just because we haven't met in person doesn't make him imaginary. We've video chatted. Besides, it's not easy for a morph to get up here from Austraila.”

The fox leaned to whisper in Diane's ear, “She din' argue the date part. Me gustó ese maté.”

Date? She couldn't go on a date. She leaned to whisper to her sister, “Jane, I'm still married.”

The cat looked at the fox, “RED, behave yourself.”

“Moi? I's a pinnacle of propriety. Garanti.”