Chapter 2

            “Seriously, Al, it’s ridiculous! She thinks she can teach him to talk-”

            “Man, I’m just hung up on him being an anthro! That’s so fucking cool!”

            “You’re-”

            “I’m heading out the door right now.”

            I glanced out my window down the street to see the front door of my boyfriend’s how closing behind him. I’d known Albert since we were little kids, and we’d always been good friends, but selectively. You know those friends that you get along with fantastically, but when someone else is involved, you wanna strangle that friend? That’s Albert. We ended up together at the end of last year by a series of strange, super gay events, and we were both excited to finally feel like we could value each other over others. I lost friends because of that, sure, but in getting together with him I made new, better friends.

            I went downstairs, figuring I should warn mom of his arrival, but all I saw was the dog on the computer. I had a moment of, “how the-” before the door swung open and Al walked in, grinning as he looked for his prey. He saw me and kissed me on the lips before talking, “So you’re mom isn’t home?”

            “Guess not, is the car gone?”

            “Yeah, where’s the anthro?”

            “On the computer. It’s weird, he actually... you’re not listening.”

            Al had gone over and was watching the anthro on the computer, who jumped when Al got within three feet of him. The dog scrambled away from the computer, babbling incoherently while gesturing at the computer. Al just walked over to him and scratched at the dog’s head, who immediately collapsed into his arms, enjoying the pampering. He kicked his foot and Al glared at me, “Psh, I can’t believe you’re so thick-headed as to mistake him for a dog.”

            “He’s a dog.”

            “He’s a fox.”

            “So he’s a cat?”

            “Vulps are Canids, babe.”

            “Uh-huh, and you’re still sane, right?”

            Al rolled his eyes and looked back at the “vulp”, and shifted to scratching behind his ear, which caused him to start kicking his leg and groan a little. If I weren’t so stubborn I would’ve admitted how cute it was, but it was also aggravating seeing that my adopted brother was getting more love from my boyfriend than I was.

            I looked over at the computer, suddenly realizing I should make sure he isn’t breaking it, and paused when I saw he was on the Wikipedia page for radioactive decay in molecules. I nudged Al, “Babe? Why is he on this page?”

            Al looked over and scoffed, “Wow, that’s funny.” He looked back at the fox and started baby-talking at him, “Does foxy wike chemistwy? Does he?” The fox groaned and took a step towards him, pushing more weight onto Al. His tail was swooshing back and forth, and I noticed Al wiggling his butt, which caused his fake tail to partially mimic it.

            I went back to looking at the computer, and checked the other tabs, which were about how to make donuts and why Beowulf is a terrible hero. I nodded, “Yeah, okay, he has no idea what he’s doing.”

            The fox must’ve turned and looked at me because he suddenly put a hand on my shoulder and made an incoherent noise at me. I looked at him and he was drooling as Al kept scratching his head. He pointed at the keyboard – which was weird, because so far he’d just thrown his hand in the general direction of something – and made another noise. I held the wireless keyboard up to him and clicked on the URL box. He rolled his eyes and pulled up the computer search bar with the keyboard. I had a moment of confusion, there was no way he understood anything, but when he started up word and asked me “What are your names?” I froze, letting the keyboard drop into my lap instead of grabbing it.

            He can read and write, but he can’t talk. First I had to wrap my head around this notion, I was confused because, well, you have to learn to talk first. But I guess if you can learn a foreign language by reading it first, then by talking in it, you might be able to learn communication by reading it. But sound and phonics play into that? Wouldn’t at some point he learn how to talk?

            I shook it out of my head and began to type on the keyboard, uncomfortably slower than he had, “I’m Tom and this is my boyfriend, Al. Who are you?”