FABLE

Chapter Twenty Six

The dappled afternoon sunlight is warm against my back as I cycle through Forest Park.

Everything is threaded with green, and the slow buzz of summer. Every now and again I stop riding to look at the sword ferns and bracken lining the dirt trail, and the thick canopy of firs and lushly leaved maples overhead.

It feels so good to be back in the forest. We've lived on the edge of the park my whole life, and I used to know it like the back of my hand.

Since the accident, I haven't visited even once.

After I've been riding for almost half an hour, I hop off my rusty old BMX and pull Felix's note out of my pocket.

Unfolding it, I study it for the hundredth time.

I still can't believe he drew me a map.

Two lines intersect at a 45-degree angle. One is labelled 'Wildwood', the other, 'Chestnut'. There's a big X where they meet.

And at the bottom of the map, in an elegant scrawl which I immediately recognize as Felix's handwriting, are the words 'Look up and follow the silver fox.'

It didn't take me long to realize that the lines were paths in Forest Park. I'd walked these trails with my parents as a kid, and I still have a vague recollection of the spot they meet. It's about an hour's walk from the park entrance closest to my house, and maybe half that time on a bike. Nothing exceptional about the spot at all, and definitely nothing related to a silver fox.

In fact, I don't know if we even get foxes in the park. Even though it's actually one of the largest urban forests in the whole United States (true fact), it's not like we have wolves or bears or even foxes for that matter. Not that I know of, anyway.

I continue cycling up the path, trying not to think about the look on Zee's face when I told her that she couldn't come along with me. I promised the guys I'd come alone, and that's a promise I've got to keep. And besides that, I wouldn't want to expose Zee to Felix's acid tongue. I want to protect her.

She said she wasn't upset about being left out, and having to keep everything a secret, so long as I fill her in on everything afterwards, but of course she's bleak. Who wouldn't be?

Telling her was the easy part though. Alix was the real challenge. He's already furious with me for missing last week's band practice, and now I'm pulling out again. Obviously I can't tell him the real reason, so I had to lie and say I'd be helping my parents out at Biblio.

He sooo didn't buy it.

He hung up the phone while I was busy explaining and wouldn't even look at me when he came to pick Zee up from my house.

He'll probably text me later to apologize for the temper tantrum. I guess because he's basically the king of our high school, he's used to always getting his way. It drives me crazy.

After cycling for a few minutes the path gets narrower. The forest is thicker and darker now; swathes of emerald moss drip from the branches overhead.

Just as the narrow dirt trail gets too steep for my rickety old bike, it plateaus and branches off in various directions.

I hop off my bike and stand at the spot where the Wildwood meets the Chestnut Track.

No silver foxes in sight.

When I first read the message, I thought the words 'silver fox' referred to Jeremy Faull, the grey-haired, admittedly hot (for an older guy) owner of BYG Records. I was half expecting him to be waiting for me under a tree, ready to lead me to the boys' forest hideout.