Set Me Free!
5
Florian was very nervous the next day. After my long weekend, it was time for me to go back to work, and he didn't seem to enjoy the idea of being on his own. I gave him a spare key and told him not to worry. As long as he was my guest, he had a free run of the house, so to speak. I called my next-door neighbour, Mr Wilkins, a retired old construction worker who used to help me out with Ten, and told him she needed no walkies for the rest of the week. Given a task, Florian relaxed slightly, but I still felt a shiver in his hand as I shook it good bye. On an impulse, I hugged him briefly, and before he had recovered from the shock, I had closed the door. That was a vision I knew would follow me through the rest of that day; Florian with his mouth wide open, eyes almost bulging, a jumpiness to him like he had been burned by something. I couldn't help smiling to myself as I drove the short distance to HQ. Once inside the glass doors, I immediately knew it would be a while before I could head out on patrol. A wide grin walked towards me, dragging a slender Doberman with it. I handed him the report from last Friday while pretending not to notice the coy look in his eyes. He gave it a brief glance, then walked with me towards the offices.
"Morning, Jeff. County still holding together after four days without me?"
"Just barely. Murder, rape, robberies and mindless violence, and there's an outbreak of anarchy over at St Mary you need to check in on. Other than that, we're peachy."
"Good." I nodded towards the report. "Who's handling that?"
"Peters, but it's all but closed. With the medical examiner's report and all, it's death by natural cause. How's the kid?"
"So-so. He seems strong, but sometimes he can be so fragile. He's had a very protected life."
"No dirty tricks?" He grinned, leaning in to nuzzle my neck. "If you've cheated on me, Scottie, my heart will break."
"I wouldn't dream of that," I said, patting his rump. He yelped with surprise, and I was able to dodge out of the inevitable kiss. "See you for lunch if I'm in town by then."
I didn't have lunch with Jeff that day, but we chatted a bit over the radio. The patrolling officers kept alternating between different parts of the county, and that day I was at the farthest end of our district. The day was mostly routine, except for one incident just an hour before my shift ended. Jeff called to tell me I had to pick up a runaway kid at a bus station just outside Columbus.
"Seems he's been trying to hitchhike his way down to Florida, but only got as far as Columbus before he got caught."
"Where's he from?"
"That's the treat for you, Scottie, he's from here."
"Here?"
"Yup. Here as here in Treasure Chest. I've had his mother yelling in my ears all day. She even came down to HQ to tell us off for not finding the boy."
"So I'm taking him home, and then I'm off for the day?"
"That's the thought. Should just about take you the rest of that hour." There was a shift in Jeff's tone, and I had a not-so-vague idea what was coming next. "Then you're free to go home to your new little pet."
"Jeff, not again..."
"Damn, I'm jealous! I'd give my right arm to get taken care of by you, you know." Is it possible to hear a wink over the radio? "Getting tucked in at night, then snuggle up to..."
"All right!" I tried to make my voice stern, but I knew he wouldn't fall for that. "Get off the air, you, before I charge you for indecency!"
"I'm not the one being indecent, Scott. I'm not the one keeping a cute young boy all to myself."
"How do you know he's cute? You've never met him."
"He sounded cute on the phone. And I've always known you're one to go for tender young beauties." He laughed. "That's why all-out masculine hunks like me never had a chance with you."
Shaking my head, I hung back the radio receiver and turned off of the freeway. Hunk? Sure, I guess. Jeff was well-built, and spent a couple of hours in the gym every week, but masculine? Well, he had a man's body, that much I knew, but he seemed ever so eager to live up to the queer cliché, tittering and giggling and flirting all over the place. Still, he was as good a friend as I could wish for, and he seemed to know just how far he could push me. I never had to feel embarrassed or awkward when he started fooling around.
The kid turned out to be a fox boy in his early teens, whose parents had forbidden him to go to Miami to see his internet buddy. Tired of begging for permission he'd never get, he had tried to make his own way there. He didn't want to talk, so I didn't push him. This kind of stuff was routine; there were thousands of kids on the run, every day. Some of them had very good reasons to, other were just seeking adventure, like this boy. My thoughts kept returning to Florian. He'd never had any reason to leave his home. He had been loved, and had lived a quiet, sheltered life. Maybe too sheltered. Now that he was leaving the nest, he was so scared and nervous about it that it made me heart bleed for him. I kept reliving the hug I'd given him that morning, picturing his face before my mind's eye. Before I knew it, I had passed the town border, and it took me an effort of will to remember the kid's address. A minute later, I pulled over to drop him off, when he turned to look at me with a sly glint in his eye.
"You're in love, aren't you?"
"What?"
"I can tell." He grinned. "You just zoned out, you know. Is it a lucky love?"
"Well, I..."
"You're not married, \x91cause you got no ring. Just dating?"
"Not really." I felt myself blush. "At least not yet."
"I bet you're gonna be a happy man. My sister looked just like you when she got married. She said it was the happiest she'd ever been."
"You want me to follow you in?" I tried to change the subject, and he let me.
"Not necessary. I'll just get hugged, told off and sent to bed. In about that order."
"Stay at home now, you hear."
"Okay. I think." He got out of the car, but before he closed the door he leaned in and grinned at me. "Tell your boyfriend I said hi, and that you'd better be happy together."
With a giggle at my dumbfounded look, he bounded up the stairs to his house and went inside. It was a couple of seconds before I could gather myself enough to drive home. I parked the car on auto pilot, bought myself a newspaper and stopped by to pick up the mail. Not until I put the key in the lock did I snap back into myself. From the mouths of children... If it was that obvious, then it was a wonder Florian hadn't caught on. Or maybe he had. Maybe he was just afraid to be imposing, or wasn't sure how strong my feelings were. As if I knew that myself... As I thought about it, hadn't Jeff sounded very sincere in his tauntings? I blushed again as I realised I had basically admitted to him that I thought Florian was cute. Something like that should have set Jeff off to no end. He loved to misinterpret every word I said, yet this time he hadn't pounced. Was he being considerate? Leaving it to me to sort out my own feelings? I realised that I must have stood there for a couple of minutes, and I felt more than a little foolish as I opened the door. Inside I met Ten, not quite so bouncy as she usually is when I get home. I scratched her ears when my nose picked up some wondrously delicious smell. Florian was in the kitchen, humming quietly to himself as he was peeling potatoes. I thought he hadn't heard me, and was just about to greet him when he turned around.
"I thought you weren't coming in," he said, his voice somewhat subdued. "Afraid of what you might find?"
"No, not at all! I was just stuck... thinking."
"About what?" He put the potatoes on the stove, then nodded towards the oven. "I've got a nice roast cooking, hope that's okay."
"Sure. Can I pick out the vegetables?"
"It'll take a while before it's time for that. So, what were you thinking?"
"About lots of things. Just before I got home, I let off a runaway kid at his house."
"Oh no, was he... I mean was it bad?"
"No, nothing like that. He wasn't abused or anything. More likely, just bored. Anyway, he got me thinking."
"You're still not telling me what you were thinking," he said, smiling.
"Well..." I made the l's long ones, to give myself time to figure out what to say. "I was thinking about children. About young kids like him. Sometimes it doesn't turn out as good as this time. The worst downside of being a cop is that you sometimes have to deal with kids that are hurt really bad."
"Oh. I never thought of that."
"Then I started thinking about you, Florian."
"A-about me?" He blushed deeply. The corners of his mouth twitched a bit, unsure of whether to turn into a smile or not. "You thought about me?"
"Yes. I thought about how you told me about your life, and I found myself wishing that all kids could grow up like that."
"What, like...?" He laughed, and I knew what he was thinking.
"No, not getting spanked and that. More like... I don't know. Just growing up in a good home, with a parent, or parents, who love them. That would be my vision of the perfect world."
"But in such a world nobody would need the police. You'd be out of job."
"That's a small price to pay." We laughed. "So, how was your day?"
"Mostly boring. I spent the morning watching a movie, then Ten and I played in the park."
"That's why she's so tired." She had curled up in her corner of the living room and gone to sleep. "Normally she tries to climb up into my face when I get home."
"Well, we did play for quite some time. I called the undertaker's, too. Everything's set for Friday."
"Want me to drive you there?"
"No, really I don't." He smiled sadly, and a shiver ran through his body. "Thanks for offering, but I need to do this on my own. It'll be a last good bye and then... Then I can move on."
"I don't know if it helps, Florian, but I think you're being really brave."
"Thanks." It was little more than a whisper, and I could see that he had to fight back tears. "It does help. A lot."
"By the way, that kid told me to say hi to you."
"He did? Why?"
"Well, we got talking, and I kind of told him about you. And he asked me to say hi."
"Oh. Well, tell him hi back if you meet him again." He glanced at me with a puzzled expression on his face, then returned to his cooking.