REDEMPTION

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 16
Mending of the Heart
 

Gathering for one of the last assemblies in the auditorium of the Clark Savage building, the different Vulps of the Abeona group mingled with the friends and families of those that could attend the farewell party Marcelo had put authorized. The Furs from the other Wings also attended to say goodbye to the friends they’d made among the various anthrofoxes, and it seemed that there was a never ending stream of individuals that wanted to meet Sofiya. By the end of the first hour her head was spinning at trying to remember all the names of those that had been introduced to her. Fortunately Richard appeared with a cup of chilled juice and led her away from the throng of well-wishers and to a quiet corner of the auditorium.

“My knight in shining armor,” the vixen said with a warm smile for the silver fox.

“You looked a little lost. I couldn’t just stand by while you were mobbed.”

The vixen laid a gentle paw against the side of her partner’s face and graced him with an adoring gaze. “You are very kind, charivnyy. I will have to think of a way to show proper gratitude,” she told him with a mischievous look.

Before the silver fox could reply, Sofiya looked past him, her eyes growing wide with surprise.

“I did not think you would be making it,” the vixen said to whoever had approached from behind Richard.

“You were very…persuasive, young lady,” a man’s voice that was very familiar to the male Vulps said.

Spinning around, Richard found himself eye to eye with his father, a man that he hadn’t seen in almost fourteen years. For the briefest moment, he felt extremely intimidated before realizing that he was not only grown, but had seen and been through far too much to be considered the boy that had become alienated from his own family.

“You’re looking well, Richard,” Nathan Tavington said.

The Vulps’ heart was beating hard at the unexpected appearance and it took him a moment to find his voice. “You’re looking well, too, Dad. A little thinner than I remember, but not too bad.”

There was the slightest battle of conflicting emotions on the elder Tavington’s face before the barest of smiles tugged at the corners of the man’s mouth. “Being a Fur seems to suit you, son. I think you’re one of the more impressive examples of Vulps that I’ve ever met.”

Richard closed his eyes for a moment to get his mental and emotional equilibrium. “Not to sound like a complete ass, but what are you doing here, Dad? I mean, I’m glad to see you, of course, but…”

“You can thank the young lady behind you,” Nathan told his son with a snort. “As I said, she’s very persuasive.”

Richard spun to look at the vixen, his eyes full of trepidation, anxiety, but most importantly there was the flicker of hope.

“Richard…we need to talk. We need to…well, it’s something that we should have done years ago,” the man told the Fur in a soft voice. “Is there somewhere quiet we may retire to?”

“Classroom three is being open,” Sofiya told the pair. “Take a little time. I will be by in a short while with refreshments.”

Both males agreed, Richard giving the red fox a quick nuzzle in gratitude and to draw strength from her before taking his father to the indicated room. No sooner had the two stepped out of the auditorium than Marcelo approached the anthrovixen and pressed a doctored cup of punch into her dainty, paw-like hands.

“That was a serious risk you took,” the man said looking in the direction the two Tavington males had gone.

“I could not let this opportunity pass by,” Sofiya said, turning eyes that were a touch misty to the Director. “We do not know what may happen when we leave, and this must take place or both will be filled with regret the rest of their lives. I love Richard and would not see him suffer so.”

Marcelo smiled. “I think I need to warn Angelina Flynn. She has some competition when it comes to helping others, it seems.” He sipped at his own punch. “I’m just impressed that you were able to get Nathan here. The man isn’t known for backing down once he’s established a position on something or a point of view.”

Sofiya shook her head. “But there is more than just that, Marcelo, and that makes all other considerations inconsequential.”

“Oh?”

The vixen nodded slowly. “He is a man that loves and has missed his son very much.”

 ***

When Sofiya paused before the door to the classroom, she wondered if the reunion between father and son had gone as she hoped and wondered if an hour and some minutes had been long enough for the two to reconcile. After knocking softly on the door with a furred knuckle she opened the door slowly. What the vixen saw caused a lump to form in her throat as man and Fur, father and son both clung to each other in an embrace that was over a decade overdue. Both held on to the other as if he were the last solid thing in the world.

She tried to make a quiet exit to give them more time, the drinks in her paws all but forgotten, when Nathan Tavington called to her. “Don’t you dare leave, young lady.” Sofiya stopped and froze like a deer caught in headlights, a look of anxiety in her eyes. “Come here, please.”

As she approached, Sofiya saw that both males had damp eyes. As she drew up alongside Richard, the silver fox’s father took the paws of the two Furs and put them together before retreating half a step, a warm smile on his face, the first such expression she’d seen on the dour human.

“I really don’t know what to say,” Nathan began. “For so long I resented Richard for not following the path that I had chosen for him. I never realized or took the time to see that he was my son, not a younger version of me. He had his own directions to take…his own choices. I was too stubborn to understand this.”

“You weren’t the only one guilty of being stubborn,” the silver fox said with a self conscious smile, his ears lowered in chagrin.

“At least we didn’t kill each other,” the man said with his own sheepish expression. “I used to pride myself on being an intelligent and educated man…now I see I’m not as bright as I thought. I owe you a great deal, Sofiya.” Nathan turned back to his son. “I never stopped loving you, my boy. And I have never been more proud of you than I am right now.”

“Even though I’ve become a Fur?”

Nathan shook his head. “I don’t care what you look like. You are my son. Nothing, not even becoming a Fur will ever change that. Nor will it change the fact that I love you.”

“I love you, too, Dad,” Richard said with a tremulous whisper before the two caught each other in another hug.

As they held each other, Sofiya felt her own eyes fill and hoped that somewhere her own Poppa and Mamma were proud of her. When they parted, Nathan took her hands in his and put his lips to her furred knuckles. “And you…welcome to the family, Sofiya. Welcome, indeed.”

*** 

Richard’s mother, Amanda Tavington, joined the small family group an hour later, her flight from the home she and Nathan had in Florida having been delayed due to a series of storms that had blessedly passed to the south of the Institute. She knew nothing of the machinations of the vixen that had partnered with her son, but was thrilled at the outcome. As her husband was the Director of Colonial Operations for the Terran Colonization Coalition, she had quite a bit of sway and power of her own and when she told Marcelo Delgado that she was taking her children into New York City for a couple of days, there was little that the head of the Adirondack Institute could do to argue.

“You’re the one that my son has chosen and I want to get to know you before you leave,” Amanda informed Sofiya while patting her hand in a matronly fashion. She then spent the rest of the evening monopolizing the vixen’s time.

Nathan and Richard were all but forgotten as Amanda sat close to Sofiya, learning everything she could as father and son watched. “I see Mom hasn’t changed in the slightest,” the silver fox said with a chuckle.

“There are actually some things in the universe that are a constant,” Nathan commented in agreement. The man caught the Institute Director’s attention and waved the other man over. “I hope you aren’t too vexed with Amanda, Marcelo. When she gets a notion in her head, there’s no stopping her sometimes.”

Marcelo laughed. “They still have a week before they depart for the West Coast. I don’t see the harm in both Richard and Sofiya disappearing for a couple of days. To be honest they could probably use the rest.”

“I take it they’ve been busy?” the elder Tavington asked.

The swarthy head of the facility snorted. “These two are always the first ones to jump in when there’s a problem. It doesn’t matter if it’s with the colony tables of organization and equipment or one of the other Vulps couples having difficulties, they’re both there for them. Then there’s the training and coming up with exercises for the others to better prepare them for life on Bastien.”

That bit of information actually made Nathan stand a little taller, his chest puffed out and a look of admiration for his son. He grasped the Fur’s shoulder in parental pride. “I know you’ll be able to send messages and images back while you’re on Bastien,” the man told the silver fox beside him quietly. “Just make sure we get pictures of our grandchildren when the time comes.”

 ***

“You are not angry with me?” Sofiya asked from the small bathroom of the room she and Richard shared, the door pulled to with a narrow gap so that they could talk with no difficulty.

“Why would I be angry?” Richard asked in reply from where he lay on the bed, his PBJ propped on his chest as he went over some of the reports from the original Bastien colony group that the vixen had forwarded to him.

“I was afraid that sending the message to your father would anger you.”

Though she couldn’t see it, Richard smiled warmly. “I think it was the best gift that you could have given me.”

“What…what if I said I had another gift to be giving you tonight?” the vixen asked after a few moments of silence. “I talked to Doctor Ramirez earlier…”

The silver fox looked up in the direction of the bathroom in curiosity, just in time to see the red fox Fur emerge. She wore her favorite robe from before becoming a Fur, though unlike every other time, save the night that she’d first invited him to her room for a drink, she wasn’t wearing furman shorts under it. Sofiya walked slowly to the bed and untied the sash, letting the robe fall open to reveal nothing but her own fur beneath.

“Wha…Sofiya,” he whispered, his bronze colored eyes widening. “Are…are you sure?”

During their months as a couple, they had foregone anything more than warm displays of affection and had only slept together, simply enjoying the closeness of the other. They hadn’t gone further than that, and the look in the vixen’s eyes said tonight promised to be very different.

The robe puddled on the carpet of the floor at her feet as she let it slide from her shoulders and took the final step to the bed. “I am very sure, miy liubov. Ya tebe liubliu zavzhdy, Richard.”

“And I’ll love you always, my beautiful Sofiya” Richard whispered as he took her in his arms, a tremble of anticipation running through them both.

— NEXT CHAPTER —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.