REDEMPTION

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 17
So Long and Fare Well
 

Blue skies with only a few thin streamers of clouds greeted the Vulps of the Bastien mission as they filed out of the auditorium for the charter buses that would take them to the train station in Rennselaer which also served Albany. Despite most of the Furs coming from different Institutes, Marcelo had gone with something that had become a bit of a tradition and each had an envelope containing a personal letter from him.

Sofiya watched as the swarthy man spoke to each of the Adirondack Furs in turn and as a group while she monitored the individuals climbing aboard the two buses with Hector’s assistance. As she watched a few of the Institute staffers loading their personal luggage into the underneath storage bins, a touch on her arm caused her to turn around. She smiled when the Director grinned at her.

“It has truly been a pleasure to have met you and I’ve enjoyed your time with us immensely, Sofiya,” Marcelo told the vixen earnestly.

“You are a good man,” she replied as Richard came to stand beside her. “I can see why you have had so many outstanding Furs come through your Institute. It is because you have shown great care in their time with you.”

“I like to think they were all outstanding before coming here,” Marcelo told the red fox. “It takes a special kind of person to do what all of you are doing. If what I’ve seen during your time with us is any indication, I don’t think you’ll have many problems on Bastien you won’t be able to overcome.”

“We will,” Sofiya said with conviction. “This is a very good group. We will doing better than just succeed, I believe.” She watched as the last of the foxes climbed onto the buses and Hector waved with a nod and the universal A-OK sign before she turned back to Marcelo. “I think I will be missing you, too. I hope for nothing but the best for you, Marcelo.”

“The same goes for you, Sofiya,” the Director said as he accepted a quick embrace before shaking the paw-like hand Richard extended.

Without further hesitation, both climbed the steps and took the front seat, their hands clasped tightly. “We are ready,” the red fox told the driver.

Nearly all of the Furs on the two buses looked out the window back at the Institute, some having been there for just a few months, others saying good bye to what had been their home for almost two years. Other furman types carried on as always, training in the crisp air and snow covered ground while yet more that hadn’t fully progressed in their transformations also moved about, human instructors and staff interspersed among them.

Sofiya leaned back against the seat, her mind on what she had learned here, the friends she had made, and how she would take from it skills that would be used in the rapidly approaching future on Bastien. She was brought out of her reverie by the voice of Matthew Sykes.

The red fox Fur had been irritating when she’d first arrived, acting like a petulant child. A long talk with Richard and some of the others like Rupert, Hector and Joel had seemed to have gotten the male to straighten up and mature, and now he was well his way of becoming one of the major contributors to the colony group. “You know, I think I’m gonna miss Sunday football the most,” Matthew lamented. “Barbeques…cold beer…”

“Football?” one of the Buenos Aires foxes, Ruiz Tomas Vallejo, a former mechanic asked with his ears standing up. “You mean American football, yes?”

Sykes laughed. “I keep forgettin’ that’s what the rest of ya’ll call soccer!” He watched as the Argentine Fur that had selected a bat earred fox as a donor nodded. “Yeah. American football. And baseball! Nothin’ like a hot dog while watching a summer baseball game!”

“Chocolate ice cream,” Tipper said with a dreamy look. “Or a Valentine’s Day box of candy. And sundaes.”

“I think I’m seeing a trend here,” Richard observed with a laugh.

Conversation turned towards what everyone would miss, the things that they’d had access to all their lives until someone called from the rear of the bus. “What about you, Sofiya? What’ll you miss?”

The vixen turned in her seat and gave the Furs behind her a smile. “I might miss coffee, a good, strong cup with real cream first thing in morning…for a while, at least,” she said. “But there is much I will not miss!” She saw the interested look from many of the others and smiled again. “No pollution is one. Always hearing of sad news on the television. No young people with their very strange ways of dressing! What is point of showing underwear?” The vixen sighed. “I have read in the reports that the sea that the colony is near has water of deepest blue. I wish to see the sunset on that water. And I want to see these trees that have wood of so many different colors. Or three moons! Imagine lying under the stars in grass that is tipped in what looks and feels like feathers and seeing three moons!”

Sofiya sighed happily.

“No, I do not think I will miss much.” She turned and gave the silver fox next to her a look of warm affection. “I have too many things to look forward to.”

That steered the conversation to a more positive light, and soon all of them were talking about the wonders that they would see for themselves. Someone asked Maria and Daniel what they were most looking forward to during a lull in the conversation and both foxes smiled.

“We’re looking forward to creating a school for the children that we’ll eventually have,” Maria told the rest of the bus.

The rest of the journey to Rennselaer was filled with talk of the hopes and dreams that all of them would take to the planet of Bastien.

 ***

Because of the nature of the passengers, the Furs for Abeona were given a private set of cars that only railroad personnel were permitted to pass through. The Vulps were given two lounge cars, three sleepers, and a dining car for their use. Many of the Furs were excited as they’d never been on a train before, and the large windows enabled them to look out at the countryside as they traveled, though most of the first leg was plagued by snow, obscuring much of the outside.

Richard appeared at the small booth he and Sofiya were sharing in the dining car with a cup of tea for the vixen as the train clacked over a bridge that ran over a segment of frozen river, the female looking with a sense of joy at the small herd of deer that stood on the edge of the woods looking out over the iced over watercourse, completely nonplussed by the racket of the train. When the cup of tea with a touch of honey and milk was set before her and he touched her arm lightly, Sofiya looked up with a wide smile.

“I have always loved to be on trains!” she enthused. “It was how Poppa and I used to be going to Yalta for holidays of sailing on the Black Sea. We also were taking it to see my Uncle and his farm.”

“Believe it or not, this is my first time on a train,” the silver fox admitted. “Whenever we went somewhere when I was a kid, we flew by private jet. I kind of like it.”

The red fox picked up her tea and hid a smile that was almost girlish behind the rim of the cup. “I have never been in a sleeper car, though. I think it will be feeling like a mother rocking her baby to sleep.” Her grin grew more pronounced. “Though I will be preferring your arms.”

Richard chuckled as he leaned closer, the tips of his fingers touching the female’s elbow. “Are you hinting at something?” he asked with one eyebrow raised.

Sofiya’s grin grew so large she was unable to sip her tea.

Before the conversation could get any more intimate, Tipper passed the table, a black case in her left paw while the Buenos Aires Fur, Ruiz, followed with a guitar. “What is this?” Sofiya asked cheerfully.

“Ruiz is going to teach me some of the songs from Argentina and I’m going to help him learn a few old American Folk pieces,” Tipper said cheerfully, the Arctic fox vixen excited at having someone to play music with. “Fortunately I can still play my viola. If anything, the claw tips actually help.”

“It will be nice to have someone to play music with,” Ruiz said, though the bat eared fox’s expression was clearly saying he sincerely hoped for more. The former mechanic had been quite smitten with the white furred vixen since the arrival of his group at the Adirondack Institute.

“It will be good to have music when we get to Bastien,” Sofiya agreed.

The pair continued on to the lounge car with their instruments all the while talking excitedly about music and favorite artists.

“I’m amazed at how you were able to get everyone to come together like you did,” Richard said as he sipped his coffee with a straw so he wouldn’t have to lap at it.

“It was more than just my efforts. You were most helpful, charivnyy.” She took his paw, twining her fingers with his and stroking the fur of his shortened index finger with her thumb pad. “You are as much the motivation behind this as I am.”

Richard shook his head while laughing, “Oh, no! Not me, Lady! I simply did my job as liaison!” He gave the vixen a warm look. It was you, sweetie. You brought everyone together. You didn’t give anyone any time to form little groups or let any kind of prejudice get in the way. From the start you treated all of us as if we were already on Bastien.”

Sofiya developed a guilty look and was unable to meet her partner’s eyes. “It was Americans like you I was most concerned about,” she admitted.

“Really? How come?” the silver fox asked with a bemused expression.

The vixen sighed. “There have been too many troubles between East and West. So much miscommunication and feelings that have been hurt. I am thinking it is because both of our peoples are very passionate about those things they believe in, and we do not like to have those beliefs challenged. In Eastern Europe, friends and family are the center of our lives, the most important things to our hearts. From what I knew of Americans before coming here, your people are very independent and passionate about your freedom.”

The vixen sighed again.

“To be very truthful, after meeting you and the others from your country, I am thinking that you are better able to go to other worlds and tame them than any other people from any nation. To explore and discover…it is in your blood and the very center to the culture that you have built. I have since learned that my misconceptions were clouding my judgment and I was being very stupid in my misunderstanding.”

Richard smiled widely. “So, you were worried that we wouldn’t get along, and that we’re the best suited for this because we’re a bunch of…of cowboys?” He developed a thoughtful look. “You know, I think that’s how most of the world sees us. I guess we haven’t really done anything to dissuade this perception.”

Sofiya nodded mutely.

The silver fox laughed. “You know, I never saw us like that. Americans, I mean.” He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “You do realize that none of us will be Ukrainian, or American, or German or any of the other nationalities for much longer…if we even are right now. We’re Bastiens…or Abeonans…Abeonians? We’ll be on a different world. One that we can do what your father said. It will be better than this one, or we’ll make it so.”

Sofiya smiled in return. “And I cannot tell you how happy I am that I will be with you when we do this thing.”

Instead of answering with words, Richard leaned forward and rubbed his muzzle with hers, trading scents.

“Hey guys!” Charity called to the couple from the other end of the dining car. “Tipper and Ruiz are giving a sort of concert! They’re really good, too!”

Richard and Sofiya smiled at each other as they got up from the booth, their hands twined together even more tightly than before, their eyes never leaving the other.

— NEXT CHAPTER —

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