The Adventures of Peter Gray Chapter 15: A Day with Gavin
Chapter 15
A Day with Gavin
One minute, I slept like a cub in a mother arms, the next
minute I'm sleeping on a broken crate next to a snoring 'yote.
"Ugh..." I pushed me paws to the wooden bed and lifted me
muzzle up in a yawn. I turned to the lump lying beside me on the ground, and
wrinkled me nose in disgust. "Never knew how much I missed the sound of snoring
in the morning."
I looked up in the sky, and smelled the scent of bread and
vegetables far away, as well as the woken mule hooked to the wagon me and Gavin
rested in overnight. It was the first day of Summer, and the rumbling in me
tummy felt like rocks against a cheese grater. It didn't help me either that we
were resting in a wagon full of vegetables in boxes. That was the last thing on
me noggin' right now when I winced at the loud snoring coming from Gavin's open
muzzle on the other end of the wagon.
Yeesh, how do his
parents sleep at night? I asked meself. With a quick shrug, I grabbed a
hold of the old blanket around the 'yote, and pulled with all me might. "Rise
and shine, me friend!"
"Augh!" Gavin jumped like a little kitten, and growled.
"What the 'ell, mutt?! I was sleeping!" I turned to me right, and folded me
ears before pulling Gavin up.
"Get outta there ya street brats!" a stocky and taller
mouse in overalls snapped at us. Gavin and I jumped offa the wagon and scurried
away from his growling. "I don't want yer filthy paws all over me food! Go on!
Git!"
Gavin faced the mouse several feet away and growled. "We
ain't filthy ya rat!" he shouted angrily with a curled tail. "We ain't street
brats either, ya smelly old-"
I clamped a paw over the 'yote's muzzle and grinned.
"'-young man with a wonderful smile' he said it, didn't he, kind sir?" I
finished saying to the mouse. I nervously chuckled before pulling me new friend
away from the alley. "We gotta go now, but have a wonderful day, sir!" I waved
with me other paw, and sighed with relief when the mouse grunted and went to
his mule.
Me and the dumb 'yote turned a corner, and I finally let
his muzzle go to chuckle. "That...was too
close, Gavie," I said with a swishing tail. "Ya nearly had that mouse there
pummel us all the way to Jersey."
Gavin groaned and rubbed his back. "This sucks so much..." he
growled with each rub.
"Ya
only been on the streets for two days, me friend..." I said deadpan as a corpse
in a graveyard. "Yer just complaining like a lil' girl."
Gavin
eyed me a look of evil, but I smiled back. "Outta all the punishments me ma and
pa coulda given me, why did they hafta turn me into a homeless mutt today?" The 'yote stretched his right
paw in the air and shook his muzzle. "I feel like absolute manure now."
I leaned beside him along the brick wall, chuckling
slightly. Me punishment for Gavin was like I died and went to Heaven. The 'yot
knew nothing about living on the streets, and his mom and dad said if their son
came home and tried to cheat outta living like me, then he'd get the whooping
of a lifetime.
This
was funnier. "It ain't that bad of a life, Gavie," I grinned with a wolfish
grin. "Ya don't hafta go to school, there's no worry of taking baths all the
time, and best of all..." I leaned forward into the 'yote's twitching ears and
whispered, "...no parents."
His ears perked up like a jackrabbit, and almost said
something, but then chuckled slightly before rubbing his stomach. I rubbed mine
too and wagged me tail at the thought of food. "Let's go eat."
For breakfast, me and Gavin went through the crowds of
furson and a few humans before finding a vendor selling bagels for only a cent
a piece. I got one with no nuts in it, but Gavin did. It didn't help when a
passing cheetah in worker's clothes bumped into the smaller mammal and dropped
the food into a muddy puddle.
"Dang it!" Gavin bent over to pick it up, and I lurched
forward to grab one of the 'yote's suspenders when another 'gentlewolf' bumped
him. I pulled him up and kept eating me bagel.
"Yer welcome," I
said in between bites.
Gavin grumbled, "Shut up, mutt..."
I chuckled and ripped me bagel in half, handing the dang
thing to him in the open. "It's 'shut up, mutt please' Gavin." Didn't his ma teach him to be polite?
Sometime later, after Gavin spent a few minutes punching a random
pile of flour sacks like a madman, me and the 'yote sent through a corridor
between two brick buildings a stone's throw from Mulberry Park. Above us were
open windows where the music of whistling women carried as they cleaned
clothes. It struck me, and before I could warn Gavin, a bucketful of dirty
water splashed on us like rain.
"Watch were ya walk, wolf-boys!" an and darker-skinned
human with mangled hair called down to us. From dozens of feet above, I could
hear younger kids giggling behind her. "That's nasty stuff there."
As I mumbled silently and shook the water offa me muzzle,
Gavin growled and pointed a finger at her. "Ya pinky wench!" he shouted. I
winced at the 'pinky' comment, and sighed inwardly at the 'yote's mad barrage.
"Watch where ya drop that water down on us next time!"
"Watch out and there won't
be a next time, coyote!" the human smirked at us like a witch and closed the
windows before me 'yote friend said anything else.
"This is just so wonderful," Gavin half-growled and
half-chuckled. "Been awake for only a couple hours and I've lost my breakfast,
nearly fallen over, and got dirty dish water poured on me!" The 'yote shook at his clothes and wagged the sludge
outta his tail, but dirt still specked it like chicken pox.
I flicked me ears and sniffed me underarms before wincing
at the scent of man odor and cabbages all over me fur. "Outta all the street
boys I've met Gavie," I choked at everything all over me, and willed meself to
keep me eaten bagel stomached, "yer the worst I've seen. Stop being a female
dog fer once and quit complaining."
I felt the heat and anger of Gavin's angry look even
without glancing. "Yer not the only one suffering, mutt!" he whined while
shaking his footpaws like a dancer. "I smell awful now, like...that old wolf with
a hairless tail ya hang out with..."
I perked me ears and raised an eyebrow. "Nah, Old Man
Holler smells more like a...old man than cabbages and sweaty fur." I chuckled and
sniffed again for the same scent.
"Listen, Gavie, I know a place not too far from here where
we can get clean," I explained while hurrying outta the range of the other
alley windows. "It ain't a bath, but it's better than a mud bath, right?" I
waited for an agreement, but folded me ears and frowned.
"Fine then! Lead the way, mutt," Gavin started walking
behind me wagging tail, and I heard the 'yote mumble, "And stop calling me
'Gavie."
A smile formed across me muzzle. "Only when ya stop calling
me 'mutt'."
While waltzing toward there, me and Gavin paused our
grudging stares a moment to notice kits running beside us. "No school! No
school!" they chanted and laughed under the thin smog and cloudless sky.
"Hello Peter!" a young folf from the school waved to me
while rejoining his friends. "Come here! I'll get ya!"
A human boy no older than seven played with a fallen stick,
pretending he and the younger folf cub were having a sword. Nearby were two
vixen girls me and ne 'yote's friend's age giggling with rag dolls in their
paws. When they glanced at us, I nodded to their pretty little muzzles while
Gavin did the manly thing and blushed like a tomato.
"So where are we going, Peter?" Gavin asked fer the fifth
time that day.
A grin formed across me muzzle. "Just wait yer pretty
little tail Gavin," I craned m neck to the left of a street and smiled at a
familiar street. Unlike other streets, this one was very dirty, with muddy
roads, empty of any wagons or carriages or streetcars, the red mortar buildings
were boarded and bricked up with dust, and something called 'opium' was whispered
in a nearby alley. One store down the block caught me sight and I said, "Over
there!" I grabbed Gavie's smelly paws and pulled him with me sluggishly under
we entered the shop.
The moment we stepped in, a whiff of heavenly smells
overwhelmed me nostrils. There were pine needles, flowers, mahogany, baked
chocolate cookies dipped in sweet, sweet sugar; even Gavin acted like a curious
'yote and nearly fell over with a twitching tail like I did.
The shop itself felt like a giant forest, and smelled of
that lovely Native scent I grew to know and love from this place. A mere moment
Gavin closed the door behind our tails, an otter walked outta the backroom.
The moment our eyes met, he smiled. "Peter!" he chuckled
with open arms. "It has been such a long time!"
I happily fell into the larger otter's dark-furred
arms and wagged me tail wildly. "Otet me friend! " I laughed. "How ya been?"
Otetiani, or 'Otet' as I liked to call him, was an
Indian otter that belonged to the Iroquois tribe of New York, and this was his
haberdashery of sorts. He usually sold braids, leathers, and whatever things
made a furson's nose fall in love with a scent.
We let go, and Otet wrinkled his nose with disgust.
"You smell like a pile of manure Peter," the otter coughed while
turning to Gavin. "Him too."
"Ya think we can borrow some soap from ya, Otet?
Please?" I asked. "Me and me 'yote friend were walking down an alleyway and got
dishwater poured on us..." I cheekily swished me tail and folded me ears as well.
Otet frowned slightly, and shook his head with a
sigh of irritation. Was that at me? "Kits these days want to be filthy and dirty..." he mumbled under his breath. "Fine,"
he turned to the counter and pulled outta a drawer a bar of the most
sweet-scented me and Gavin's nose ever smelled, "but only cause you said
please, young wolf."
The otter smiled and tossed the bar of soap into me
paws. "Gimme that, mutt!" Gavin begged fer it outta me paws, but I washed the
bar over me clothes and tail, then gave the soap to the desperate 'yote to wash
himself.
After a few minutes, I happily handed the bar to
Otet, me paws and self smelling like strawberries while Gavin smelled like a
rich vixen's perfume. "That will be ten dollars out of you each," Otet grinned,
causing me and Gavin to drop our jaws and run with the otter howling with
laughter behind us.
Meanwhile, while traveling down Pearl Street, Gavin
got himself the shock of his life when we spotted two familiar 'yotes by Alan's
Place. It was Ben and Carl, turning to us with eyes as wide as saucers and maws
howling like wolves to the moon.
"Hey look! It's Peter Gray and Gavin!" Ben shouted
incredulously. It was then and there did I spot a couple other fursons in
pedestrian attire, and noticed them carrying slingshots like they were made of
gold.
Suddenly, a pebble dodged between me and the 'yote,
causing us to stumble while Ben and Car's friends laughed at our expense. "Forget
about them. Just keep walking, Gavie," I mumbled under me breath.
Gavin growled. "Ben, Carl," he pointed his muzzle at
them while balling a fist. "What the 'ell is all this? Ya wanna get hurt, ya
two?"
"We ain't yer boss anymore 'Gavie'," Carl spat with
a few chuckles behind his confident, swishing tail. "The days of you pushing us
around are over!"
Gavin's ears perked as he showed the duo his canines,
and was about to charge through the street to tackle them (or yell and scream
like a banshee), when unexpectedly, three rocks flew from Ben and Carl's group
and one sent the 'yote back a few feet.
"Get them!"
I grabbed Gavin's shoulders and tugged the sluggish
'yote up. "Run fer it ya fool!" I cried. "Run fer it!" There had to be eight to
ten furson boys, and Lord knew how hurt me and the 'yote would get if we
stayed.
Ever since me little chat with Gavin's father, word
went around about how I supposedly whooped his butt like a schoolteacher with
glue. Luckily, while every parent found out about Gavin's lying about me
attacking him (mostly), all the other boys realized that Gavin was a large
coyote that could be hurt. Because of that, Ben and Carl formed their own Goons
to turn on us like a pack of wild animals in the middle of a winter.
A pebble flew past me right ear, and I turned to see
the ten furson boys aiming their slingshots with naïve sureness. I stuck me
tongue out a moment and pulled Gavin down a street open with automobiles and a
couple of noisy streetcars. On top of a crate full of papers stood a newsie I
knew and loved named Bromely, handing out a few rolls to lovely vixens and nice
gentlewolves.
Another pebble flew past me, this time hitting m
back knee. It stung, bu me attention went to when another pebble hit a raccoon
in the shoulder. Five feet away from me.
They were aiming blindly, and that gave me an idea!
"Bromley!" I pulled a few coins outta me pocket and
raised them over me ears. "Newspaper, please!" The eight year-old German
shepherd spotted me and smirked before tossing one over the crowd around him
and into me right paw. I threw the coin at him, and the cub happily took it in
his free paw. "Thank ya Brom!"
"Don't mention it!" he shouted back. When the
shepherd saw the boys passing by him, I saw a smirk on his muzzle as he
replied, "Good luck with 'em Peter!"
"Don't let the street rat get away, guys!" Ben
shouted like Gavin.
"Try something more imaginative, boys!" I laughed
shortly as a pebble hit me mouth. "That was
imaginative!"
Another pebble flew past us as Carl laughed. "Stop
running like cats, Gavin!" A shout from a gentlewoolf came behind me, and I
knew they mistakenly hit another furson. "Mutt!"
Gavin gasped as the boys behind us didn't stop bundling
through the bustling street. "What's the plan now, Peter?!" he choked in
breaths.
Holding the newspaper roll in me paws,
I turned a tight right down a street and pulled Gavin's shirt when he almost
went the previous direction. Thankfully, it was almost ten minutes past three
o'clock, when the Police Station came into view. And not too far from it were a
group of coppers buying their favorite coffee beans from the vendor owned by
the Mad Martin raccoon guy. We didn't have much time!
"Gavin, hold onto me paw if ya wanna
lose them!" I didn't wait fer an answer as I pulled the raspy 'yote with me to
the right. I jumped to the left, and made meself proud when the corner of me
eye saw a couple of small stones fire from Ben and Carl's slingshots to a wolf
copper's muzzle.
"Oof!" one of the copper's a blue
uniformed wolf, whirled around to stare at the 'yote's look of terror. "Yer in
trouble ya brats!" Long story short, me and Gavin ran like 'ell down a nearby
alley as we left the 'yote's former friends deal with being in trouble with a
sober copper that shot at.
By the time we lost them and found
ourselves in an empty street, the 'yote was wheezing like an old printing
machine without a cup of sweet oil. Me, I was laughing so hard that I nearly
coughed out me breakfast.
"Oh Lord, Peter..." Gavin heaved his
chest up and down, breathing heavily. "How...how the 'ell...do you stand...all this?"
I blinked and wagged me tail. "It
ain't nothing, Gavie. I had a great time there!" I laughed while leaning
against a nearby fire hydrant. "Ya could've been faster, but that game of tag
was still fun." I rubbed me belly when it rumbled, and turned to Gavin.
"What the 'ell did ya get the newspaper for anyway?"
Gavin asked.
After reading it over, and seeing nothing
interesting save fer an article on Trolley Strikes, I tossed it away. I coulda
told him I just wanted to know the news, but I decided to change the
conversation a wee bit. "Ya wanna get dinner?"
"Dinner?!" the 'yote's eyes widened in
shock. "We skipped lunch in all this time?!" I shrugged, and told the 'yote
that we spent a while running and another while walking. In response, Gavin
mumbled, "Somebody kill me..." At least he didn't hafta go back to his parents,
especially Mr. Flint.
When he was done whining, Gavin and I
took a quick trip to Joseph's Bakery a few blocks down. Joseph, being the old
wolf he was, seemed skeptical as can be when I invited Gavin in. After a bit of
awkward silence though, I told Joseph that Gavin was me friend now, and that
was almost enough for the baker's ears to hear.
Surprisingly, when Rosie came down,
Gavin really opened up to her. Being Joseph's wife, I expected the wolf to be
hesitant about letting the 'yote be near her, especially since she was three
months pregnant with a cub. Instead, the 'yote and Rosie chatted about the
baby, and it made me and Joseph smile while we ate our bread pieces and the
wolf buggered me to pay me tab.
Later that night, after wishing
Joseph, Rosie, and little Johnny upstairs a pleasant evening, me and Gavin were
waltzing down Mulberry. Time really went by, and it were sundown. I greeted
Hansel and Edward as they were sweeping the street.
"Evening Peter," the mouse said to me
with a smile.
When he saw the 'yote standing next to me, he
flicked his coiled tail. "Who's yer friend?" asked Hansel. Edward was still
cleaning a bit with his broom, but the fox acknowledged the three of us with a
nod.
"This is me friend, Gavin," I lifted a paw. "Gavin,
these two are Hansel," I pointed to the smiling mouse, "and Edward." Again,
another assured nod. "He's quiet."
Hansel checked the time in a pocket watch of his
own, and smiled. "We gotta go now, Peter but you and Gavin have a wonderful
evening," he waved to us and turned to Edward. "Come along now listig." Edward smiled his foxish smile
and waltzed with the mouse as they disappeared with their brooms down an
adjacent street. I swear I saw the duo offer me a pleased glance before they
left.
"Wow, people really know ya, don't they?"
Gavin said after a moment. "First a Native, then a baker, and a couple of
Germans. Who's next? Governor Roosevelt himself?" That would've been something.
Eventually, we slowed down along a dark street lit
with lamps, and I wagged me tail with his. "Ya don't know half of it, buddy," I
grinned mischievously.
The 'yote raised an eyebrow and cocked his tail away
from me legs. "When did I become yer, buddy, mutt?" he spat the question
randomly.
Ouch.
I paused a moment, and turned to the 'yote
expressionless. He just loved ruining nice moments. "Listen, Gavin," I spoke
after a moment of silence. Folding me ears, I explained, "Ya should find
yerself lucky ya ain't beaten up like a doll by yer...'friends', and I got us
outta there."
The 'yote crossed his arms, curled his tail, and
scoffed like a ninny in a novel. "Ugh..." he sighed/groaned.
I sighed/groaned too. "We haven't been friends fer
all these years. Ya been seeing me as street trash, I been seeing ya as a
coyote acting like a wolf, and it ain't done nothing to us but get us into
trouble."
"Says the wolf who doesn't mind getting into
trouble?" the 'yote asked skeptically. It was then that I noticed how me and
Gavin weren't that different in height. As I looked the 'yote over, he was
barely half an inch taller than me, but I was thinner than him and more swift.
It made me wonder how long I'd seen him as a large, stocky bully that loved to
torment me. "Uh Peter, ya there?"
"Huh?" I shook me muzzle and chuckled while
beginning to walk and lean against a nearby crate. "Well, that is true, but..." I
paused a moment, "...but I think we've been getting too outta hand with our
revenge schemes." I lifted me paw up for a pawshake. "When I told Joseph and
Hansel that we were now friends, I meant it. Truce Gavin?"
Gavin frowned lightly, and lowly growled. However, I
noticed a hint of a grin in his muzzle too. "Ugh, what the 'ell?" he gave into
the pawshake and grinned. "Where to next...Peter?"
A crease formed on me muzzle, and I pointed toward the
harbor. "This way," I happily pulled the 'yote with me (again he didn't know
the streets like I did).
Since
school was over, there was a tradition among the urchins and homeless boys of
New York City. When it was almost dark, and the sun was dipping down the
horizon, a call would be made throughout the city.
It
took a bit of coaxing, but I convinced Gavin to climb onto the rooftops with me
when we reached the harbor. Among the smoke stacks and the cobblestone roofs of
the city stood nothing but a blue sky filled with stars, the only light coming
from a few buildings, tenants, and Lady Liberty herself across the moonlit
waters in the distance. Lastly, to me right, Gavin could make out the
silhouette of the Brooklyn Bridge, and it was then that I heard it. As the last
sunlight disappeared over the water, and Gavin almost started complaining what
we were doing on a stone roof over Five Points, I heard it.
A
howl.
Gavin
heard it too, and we spotted it coming all the way from Brooklyn Bridge. It was
definitely Kid Blink, since it sounded foxish with a hint of raccoon. I smirked
down at the 'yote beside me, and saw him smirk back in the cool air.
"Ahhh-woooooooooo!"
I waved over Gavin to the edge of the building. "Ah come on and do it, ya silly
'yote!" I laughed at the moonlit sky as another howl howled around, this time echoing from Central
Park.
"Ahhh-woooooooooo-whooooooooo!
Woof! Woof! Woof!" it must've been a cub's first time.
More
and more the howls came, and more and more the complaints were heard. Shouts of
annoyance, an occasional howl being cut off for it to resume again. With a
little more push, Gavin joined me, and he howled not like a 'yote, but a
coyote.
"Ahhh-wooooooooooo!"
"Woof!
Woof!"
It
was a sight to behold, almost like an orchestra in the wind.
"Ahhh-wooooooooooo!
"Woof!
Woof!"
"Ahhh-wooooooooooo!"
Banging
noise came from the gutters around the building. "Shut up, ya street brats!"
someone shouted at us. "We're trying to sleep!"
The 'yote next to me smirked, and started to
laugh, like he were having fun. Frankly, I was too, and we howled like wolves
and laughed like hyenas throughout the starry night.