fuzz

Jane crept down the sidewalk, mumbling a piece of coffee cake from the corner cafe. The little blonde girl who closed down at night always left her something nice on the back step. Sometimes it was day old pastries, or a broken cookie. Once she'd left an entire slice of chocolate raspberry cake. Jane had saved it, eating just a little piece of it each day, making it last as long as she could. And there was always a cup of coffee, still warm if she was lucky. It was her first stop of the night.

Sidling up to the window of a candy store two blocks down, Jane slipped between the bars of the gating and jiggled the window pane she'd worked to loosened over the past week. Setting the glass gently down on the concrete, she clambered over the sill and into the darkened shop beyond. She flitted between the shelves loaded with candy, moving toward the back shelf where streetlight glinted off beady glass eyes. There were solemn bears with incongruous hot pink bows, giraffes and ducks and myriads of kittens and puppies.  She greeted them each in turn. Which to rescue? Moving up and down along the shelf uncertainly, she stared into each furry face before finally settling on a staid old gentleman bear whose bowler hat was perched rakishly over one ear. 

Fingering the fuzz on his nose, Jane whispered to him of freedom from oppression, of the role that awaited him in the resistance, as she climbed out the window, pushing the glass pane back into place. Scuttling down the street, she ducked as a car swept by, hiding her face from the lights. A siren sounded in the distance, and she scurried faster, at last reaching the corner cafe and turning sharply into the alley behind it. Hurrying to the far corner of the blind alley, she crawled behind the dumpster into a narrowed out space between two buildings. With a happy chirp, she turned on the flashlight she'd hung from a bent nail sticking out of the wall, casting light onto the silent host of animals crowding every spare nook and corner of the tiny space.

"Everyone, this is Fuzz. He's very tired from the escape, but he's safe now with us. What's that Ellen? No, don't worry, there are militia everywhere, but I made sure we weren't followed. For now we should just lay low until they've given up for the night. We'll go on another recon tomorrow."

Chris tossed the last few dishes in the washer and swiped at the counter with the dishrag. "I'm out, Janie. Don't forget to lock up on your way out. And don't let Dot catch you leaving stuff out for that crazy or she'll fire you yesterday."

"I know. I just want don't want her to starve, you know?" Janie emptied the last pot of coffee into a cup and grabbed a blueberry muffin from the counter. Swinging the trash bags over her shoulder, she walked out the back and set the coffee and muffin on the step before locking the door. Her mother honked, waiting out front in their blue Datsun, and she dropped the bags into the dumpster on her way to the car. 

"How was work, baby?" 

"Long. How come you're driving daddy's car today?" Janie pulled Reginald into her lap, stroking his pink fuzzy nose as she rummaged through the glove compartment for a stick of gum. She frowned as a picture of a girl in a pink jumpsuit clutching a faded blue teddy bear fell out onto her lap. "Who's this?"

"Oh, that's your grandmother. Your dad's mother."

"I never knew I had another grandma! I thought it was just Gramma Amy."

"Well you've never met her. She was a photojournalist. She went missing somewhere in the Middle East when your dad was still young. I hear she used to collect stuffed animals too. You're named after her, actually."