The Fox Nose

I swear she came out of nowhere.

The field went out far as the eye could see. No way somebody could have come up without us knowing it. There wasn’t anything there but miles of dead chopped corn stalks. We’d turned our backs for a minute, shuffling through the bed of Devon’s truck for the guns. Not that we were going to hurt it right then and there, but you know. Just to be safe. In case the thing got flighty and tried to attack. It took us just a minute. One minute, I’m telling you, and when we turned back, there she was. Standing in a deep green raggedy dress, between us and our catch.

She wasn’t very tall. Maybe five-two. And she had on thick, green leaves for shoes. But they were boot-like and tied with grass all the way up to her knees. It was cold and you could see her breath in the air. Her eyes were dark, most intense eyes I ever saw. And her hair was a dusty color, matched the twigs sticking out from it. It was like she’d just crawled out of a bush the way her hair was with leaves and moss all up in it. But it didn’t matter, cause she still stood queen-like with the sun setting behind her. Looked like a girl from a fairy book.

When we turned round we all staggered, made an awful ruckus crunching the frozen ground under our feet. I about lost my britches I jumped so high. I’m telling you, it scared me to death.

“I’ll give you a hundred and fifty dollars to let it go,” she said.

It took us a minute to figure she was talking to us. Couldn’t believe she was even there to begin with. When we came to our senses, Devon took a step forward and spoke to her real low. I knew he was scared too, because he got to tapping his thumb real fast on his jeans, but even then he hid it better than me and Charlie. We didn’t move, frozen stiff.

“How’d you know ‘bout that?” he said. “And where the hell d’you come from?”

“A hundred and fifty dollars right now if you let it go,” she said, staring him down.

Charlie, standing next to Devon, nudged him and whispered, “Just take it, man. This ain’t right.” Devon didn’t take his eyes off the girl, but he nodded.

She held out her hand. It had two green bills in it. They fluttered a bit in the wind. Devon approached her, slow but cool. At arm’s length he stopped, looked at the money then back at her. She raised her brows like she had somewhere to be. Then he grabbed it.

“He’s all yours your highness,” Devon said as he tucked the money into the pocket of his jeans. When he turned back toward us, he mouthed with wide eyes, let’s go.

Devon and Charlie turned tail to the truck right away. I took some backward steps but kept watching as the girl got down and pried open the trap. That fox didn’t move, didn’t snarl. I swear he didn’t make a peep. Thing was a wild beast for the rest of the world, but not for her. For her he was a tame pup. When she got it free, she held its paw for a minute, whispering something all the while. And then, I’m not lying, that fox set his paws on her knees and brought its nose up to hers. And their noses touched. That wild fox touched its nose to that girl’s, I swear it. Then it ran away, spry as can be, right toward the spit of woods on the east side of the field.

She stood and looked at me. Probably I was gawking with my mouth open or something. I tried to speak, started to, stuttering like an idiot.

“How’d you—” 

“You’re fools,” she said, then turned and headed east.

I watched her walk the whole way. And sure enough, she went into the woods. Who knows what she did there. Where she lived. Who she was.

When we were back in the truck, engine rolling, heat blasting through the vents, Charlie said it first. “How the hell did she know, man?”

“I don’t know,” Devon said as he shifted gears and turned toward the road.

How did she know we’d been hired to catch a live fox? The price, if we could deliver, a hundred and fifty dollars.

But that wasn’t what got me most. What got me was the fox’s nose. I could still see it outlined by the sun setting behind them. The critter stretching out its neck, fur twirling in the icy air, and then resting its nose for a wild second on hers. Like it was thanking her or something.

“Did y’all see them touch noses?” I said.

But they didn’t see that part.