The man who knew the fox

• Secrets •

I woke up that morning, got dressed in something comfortable and grabbed my packed backpack, and grabbed the note, it was real, 4976, I smiled. I headed to the train to get an early start to get to my mom's house, I hope they're there. The attic. A place of dust, of things, long forgotten. Some people don't know they have an attic. Some just don't acknowledge it. People forget they own an attic altogether. Very few actually use theirs. It's too fragile up there to keep all sorts of things like in movies, right?

Or at least, that's what I'd thought. Our house was very, very old. My grandma had passed it down to my parents, but it was mostly for my mom. We lived in solitude. All alone in the mountains, with nothing to do. Nobody to bother. Only the trees and grassy mountainside. The only connection we had to the outside world was our modern things, or more like mine. I owned a laptop and a tv. My mom owned a computer but the darn thing was so old It hardly ever worked, but on the rare occasion that it did, My brother only used it to look up how to build a treehouse and my mom used it for new cooking recipes. Other than the computer, when I was younger I would spend my days exploring our backyard.

I had never found an entrance into any sort of attic, no matter how hard I looked, and when I asked my parents they had said they'd never seen an attic. I just assumed there wasn't one. Even though, when I researched it, I figured out that an attic is important for maintaining the temperature of the house. I still assumed that ours did not exist. It wasn't like our home was always the perfect warmth or anything. The house was especially old when the weather outside was harsh. I got off the train and stepped out and onto the grey platform "I'm home" I whispered to myself.

I walked two blocks to my gate and entered getting attacked by a dog "what! we own a dog!?" I yelled "well, what did you expect? Hikaru was getting sad not seeing you after school and nobody to play with so, meet Yoshi" She said coming around from the garden. I learned he was an American Akita so he was twice the size. "Hikaru! your sisters here!" my mom yelled to the house "what are you doing here?" she asked coming up and hugging me. We walked to the front door "I saw grandma in my dreams and I saw this number and wrote it down, She told me it was to our attic" I lied "oh. wait we don't have an attic and how did you-" Before my mom could finish Hikaru came out of nowhere and hugged my legs, I picked him up and kissed him on the cheek.

"How are you, buddy?" I asked "good! I got a new dog!" he said excitedly and I put him down "I see," I said and walked into the kitchen. "trust me, mom, that's why I'm here because I know," I explained and set my stuff down, I grabbed my flashlight and the combination and headed upstairs "are you sure?" she asked "I'm certain," I said before ducking around the corner I hit every part of the roof until I was in from of his office "why do you keep this thing" I growled to myself "mom!" I yelled and she came upstairs "I need you to unlock his office," I said and she stopped "I know you and I would never go in there but I'm for certain it's in there" I mumbled and she went into her room and grabbed the "I'm sorry mom," I said and she just smiled, It was a pain for her to go in there.

we opened it and were greeted with 15 years of dust and debris "Jesus! oh my god!" I coughed. I grabbed a stool when the air cleared and tapped on every part of the ceiling "honey I don't think-" My mom stuttered "mom! look!" I said and pulled down some of the wallpaper that was taped to the ceiling "well god damn. There really is one" she said surprised "Hah!?" I cheered. I grabbed the string attached and stepped off the stool slowly when the stairs came crashing down into the bookshelf. Luckily no book was harmed or anyone. I grabbed my flashlight and turned it on, I walked up the stairs and half expected it to be filled with boxes or asbestos or something. "No way!" I yelled getting onto the attic floor.

I turned off my flashlight and turned on the attic light "it's furnished and there are tons of boxes! and there's- just get up here!" I cheered and helped her get up the ladder "Woah" she said "Woah!" she exclaimed even more. It was a neatly kept room but was covered in dust "Hikaru! can you get Mom's dust brush?" I yelled and heard scampering around and then a little boy came running up the ladder "I got it!" he yelled "good boy!" I yelled and he came and gave it to me "Woah!" he exaggerated "that's what mom said" I laughed, everything was so covered in dust that I couldn't read anything but the more I dusted I could read the boxes "mortgage, birthdays, photos" I read as I wiped "wait!" I breathed "there's a box with my name on it?" I said pulling off other boxes on top of it.

I took out the box and almost immediately dropped it "it's. So. Heavy!" I Stammered. I looked at it, wiped it clean, and saw my name was written on it and signed Chiyoko, which is my grandma's first name, I opened it and was very surprised. I saw special training equipment like a ball weight and other things. I looked around the box and saw an envelope "What!" I say "What?" my mom says and walks over "what is this?" I ask and my mom gasped "It. it's her will?" She says opening it "what does it say?" I ask and she grabs the old chair and sat down.

"my darling Katsumi, I have written my will to you for you to decide, I know you shall visit me in the future and I know you will find this, and so I tell you, you need to learn how to control Kenji, you need to learn how to get all 12 tails. I love you. and to my dearest Manami please be careful, your anger and stress will get to you one day, your strength will hurt someone dear to you, and also please let Katsumi have the package at the bottom, she will need it in the future, and for my lovely Hikaru, I have never met you before but I believe you are a lovely little boy, so I have left some toys my Kitsune made for you before I left this earth. so for all of you, be good, be safe, I love you guys so much"

My mom finished the paper and I opened the package and it had so much money and a necklace which was in the shape of a fox with two tails I put it in my pocket to put it on later. I grabbed the toys for Hikaru and he was ecstatic, he loved them, and for my mom, was the calming oil, and the written will for her. My mom began to cry a little "hey, mom it's ok" I said giving her a hug "I didn't know this existed either" I mumbled. I got down and out of the Attic telling my mom that I was leaving. She told me she loved me and I set off on my way back to the train station.