Coyote Azazello

Chapter Three: A Close Call

Coy woke up the same time every day. She sat up quickly, looking out the window, looking out at her backyard and the cemetery. She remembered everything that had happened the night before. It could have happened a minute ago. She wished she knew how much time had passed, but she didn't look at the clock when she came back home last night.

She tried to shake it off. She was home, and she was safe. Her dad was here. She went to the bathroom and started brushing her teeth. She looked into the living room. Her father was laid out across the couch with his boots still on. On the coffee table was an empty glass and a full ashtray. An open photo album was also on the table. Coy looked at the family picture that took up one of the pages. She didn't recognize herself.

She went back into the bathroom, spit out the toothpaste and then found her backpack. She looked out the window. It didn't look like it would rain anymore, but she stuffed her raincoat in her bag anyway. Coy dumped breakfast in a bowl for Caesar, hugged her dog for a long time and then headed for school.

Over the next few days, the scare in the cemetery slowly melted away. Everything seemed alright for Coyote. She went to school and didn't find herself in trouble with Mr. Fischer. She played kickball at lunch, studied ancient Egypt in History class, and secretly brought her father's black bear skull to class for show and tell. At home, she and her father kept an uneasy peace. She was bored another rainy night and washed the kitchen dishes. Her father crossed through the kitchen to get ice out of the freezer and laid his hand affectionately on her shoulder. Coyote was happy on Friday afternoon when the lunch bell rang. It was almost the weekend, and freedom was so close.

Coy came around the corner to the lunchroom when she saw a bunch of the boys in the class following close behind Starling. They were pretending to limp behind him, and Henry was singing a loud song about the good ship "Man Goose." Starling tried to ignore them. He limped ahead while the boys laughed. Henry finished his newest verse and burped loudly, then he reached out and tugged on Starling's golden cord. Coy had been getting closer as they made their way down the hall. The boys had been walking slowly because of their fake limps and it was easy for Coy to catch up. She was annoyed that they were making fun of Starling. He was nice enough, and she imagined it was hard for him to be in school here after a life in more exciting places. When Henry began to sing again, Coy couldn't ignore it anymore. She sidestepped hard into Henry, which caught him off guard. He slammed into a locker and fell down. Starling swung around, and all the boys began to laugh seeing Henry laying there.

"Oh shoot," cried Willis, "Coyote's got a boyfriend. Be careful Henry or Caesar's going to eat your balls." All the boys laughed including Henry, who was climbing to his feet.

"I just don't like your dumb singing."

Henry and the boys moved on leaving Coy and Starling standing there. Henry started singing again and this time, he was joined by the others. "Coyote and Starling sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Caesar in a baby carriage." They laughed loudly as they disappeared into the cafeteria.

Coy had turned bright red. She looked at Starling, who was looking at her, his face blank. Coy didn't want to go into the cafeteria, so instead she turned towards the play yard.

Starling called out after her, "Who's Caesar?"

Coy ignored him. She was the first person in the yard and went over to the walnut tree. She climbed up, and looked out towards the water, after a few minutes Mr. Fischer and another teacher, Mrs. Kincaid, came down the school steps talking and laughing. Mr. Fischer looked across the field and saw Coy up in the tree. He said something to Mrs. Kincaid and then headed over by himself towards Coy and the walnut tree. Coy groaned.

"Come down Coyote, you know you aren't supposed to be up there."

"I don't know why not."

"Because it wouldn't look good for the school if you fell down and broke your head."

"I won't fall."

"Maybe not, but someone else might. All the kindergartners would think they have business up in that tree, and someone would get hurt. We can't have rules for some and not for others. Now come down."

She climbed down. "I want to go home, I feel sick."

He reached out to touch Coy's head, but she stepped back.

"If you feel ill, you can go home, but you know we have to call your father to come get you."

"Never mind," Coy grumbled and crossed to the other side of the yard.

Coy spent the remainder of the day staring out the window while the afternoon dragged on and on. Finally, with ten minutes left Mr. Fischer asked the class to pass up their descriptions of the Spring Science Project. Coy had spent a lot of time thinking about the project, but she couldn't think of what to do. She helped pass up the pieces of paper behind her but didn't turn one in herself. Over the next few minutes, Mr. Fischer looked through the sheets of paper and made notes in his notebook of the teams and their plans. When he finished, his eyes looked out over the class and settled on Coy.

"Coyote did you look at the description I made for this science project?"

"I think so," she answered uncomfortably in front of the class.

"I don't think you did." He got up from his desk and brought her the paper with the directions he had given her Monday. He pointed at the directions. "Read this out loud."

"The Spring Science Project is a multi-step project; all steps must be completed on time. By not completing one of the steps, the student will earn an incomplete on the project. The first step, description and planning are due next Friday."

Mr. Fischer snatched the paper back. "An incomplete is not a B, Coyote, is it?"

"No," she whispered. Coyote was really in it this time. Her mind raced. She opened her mouth but couldn't think of anything to say.

"It's my fault," called a voice from the back of the room.

Everyone's head turned to see who had spoken. Coy's head turned as well. It was Starling.

"How is it your fault, Starling?"

"Coy's part of my group. It's Sarah, Coyote and I. I just forgot to write her name on the description."

Mr. Fischer looked over to Sarah, whose face showed that this information was news to her.

"Sarah, is Coyote in your group?" Mr. Fischer asked.

Sarah turned away and didn't say anything. It didn't seem like she was going to say anything at all, but at the last moment, she nodded her head, "Yup."

Mr. Fischer must have been able to see the falsehood there, but instead, he let it go. "I'm glad to hear that. I'm sure Coyote will prove to be a valuable member of your team. This is pretty important to you, isn't it?"

"Yes, Mr. Fischer." Coy breathed a sigh of relief. He walked back up to his desk as the bell rang. The class immediately began to empty, but not before Willis looked at Coy and made a kissing noise before laughing loudly and leaving the room.

Coyote left the room and went out the front door to wait for Starling and Sarah to make an appearance. She had to wait for a long time. At long last, the two of them appeared. Starling stepped in their direction, but Sarah ignored her completely and walked off down the hill towards home.

Starling watched her go and sighed.

"I'm sorry," Coyote said. "Thank you. You saved my life."

"Sure," Starling shrugged. "Sarah said you could come over to the house tomorrow to work on the project."

"She seems super mad."

"Yeah I suppose so. I don't really know her. I think her aunts make her be nice to me. We live in the same house."

"She's the smartest kid in the class. You should see what her last science project looked like."

"I can only imagine. See you tomorrow morning?"

"Okay."

Coyote watched Starling, with his deliberate steps, head home. She turned and walked home herself. It had been a very long week.