Story: Tribulation - Chapter 5 of 5

[plonq]

 This is the final chapter of a 5-part story. Please see the first chapter for story notes and warnings.

As I said on the opening chapter, I welcome any comments or criticisms you can give me here. Thanks!

Tribulation

Part 5 - Tea with the Devil

"I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes

And just for that one moment I could be you

Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes

You'd know what a drag it is to see you"

- Bob Dylan (Positively 4th Street)

 

The dumpy little snow leopard would admit, if asked, that he had never given much thought to what tea with the devil would entail. In his mind, the idea conjured up images of an ethereal setting with lots of polished brass and white marble, where the fancy silver tea service reflected distant flames, and succubae in stylish tuxedos delivered dainties on gold-frilled carts. Reality looked more like a fast-food doughnut shop with worn linoleum floors and molded plastic chairs. The devil was waiting for him in a booth to one side of the shop, with two tall cups of tea resting on a white-topped table supported by a single metal pole bolted into the floor.

Plonq was certain that the tea would be to his liking, since they had spoken extensively on the phone the day before, and the other had confirmed his tea preferences twice. As he neared, the snow leopard noted that the devil appeared to be fiddling around on his phone. The dark prince did not notice his approach until he had reached the booth and was standing at the end of the table. The wolf finally glanced up from his phone, and after an awkward, aborted attempt to rise, he waved at the feline to sit across from him.

"Thanks for coming," said Larry. He pushed the unopened cup of tea across to Plonq after the cat doffed his coat, stuffed it into the corner, and then wedged himself into the narrow space between the table and seat back of the little booth. "I wouldn't have blamed you for not showing up, but I'm glad you did."

Plonq shrugged. "You promised me free tea, and I am a sucker for free things," he said. The cat flipped back the mouth on the edge of the lid and took a cautious sip of the tea. It was still a bit too hot to drink, but the proportions of milk and sugar were to his liking. It was clear that the wolf had paid attention to his preferences on the phone the day before.

The wolf gave a tentative chuckle at what he assumed was a joke, and then turned serious again. "I just wanted a chance to say I was sorry again in person," he said. "I ... geez, your head looks pretty bad. Are you sure you're okay to be out and around?"

The snow leopard delicately tapped the bandage on his temple. "It looks worse than it is," he replied. "They shaved away all my fur in the area so that they could put on the bandage - which is among the reasons why I kept telling them not to take me to the ER." He shuddered. "They also took blood and gave me a tetanus shot. The last time I had that many needles in me was when that drunken porcupine kissed me at the New Year's party."

"I remember that," said the wolf with a genuine laugh this time. "She was pretty loaded. I feel bad for her, because everyone blamed her for the party being a dry one the next year." He shook his head and sighed. "Geez, I'd forgotten all about that one. It was actually kind of a fun place to work back then." He drowned the remains of his laugh in a long draught of tea. "I remember when I used to not dread going in to work."

"Anyway," he continued, "I'm sorry about what happened last week. I didn't mean to drag you into my fight with the otter, but between the stress, and my recent migraines I hadn't been sleeping..." He stopped short and made a quick chopping motion with his right hand. "No, I promised myself that I wouldn't sit here and make excuses. I dragged you into my fight with Giblet, and I genuinely apologize for that." He paused to allow a particularly loud party of geese to pass their table before he spoke again. "Arjun said the fight was probably going to cost you your raise and bonus this year."

Plonq shrugged. "It did," he said shortly.

"Aw, dude..."

"Life goes on," said the snow leopard with a wry twitch of his whiskers. "I would have spent it foolishly on hedonistic pursuits and drunken debauchery until it ran out, leaving with me with no job, no clear memories, and a sad life of regrets. In a way, perhaps you helped me more than you hurt me."

"Is there nothing you take seriously?" demanded the wolf.

"I am very serious about my drunken debauchery," said the snow leopard with a hint of reproach. He punctuated the sentence with a sip of tea. "What about you? Arjun said that you pulled the pin."

"He told you that, did he?" said the wolf. He shook his head. "Well, whatever - everyone would have found out soon enough." He leaned forward onto the table, resting his right elbow on his left hand and waved his other hand while he talked. "I was ninety-nine percent sure they were going to fire me anyway, so I handed a written resignation to Arjun when he met me at the door. He was all like, 'Are you sure about this, sir?'," said the wolf in a remarkably accurate mimicry of the red panda's accent.

"I told him I was sure," he continued, "so he got hold of Hanna, and they told me that my resignation might be coming too late." He shrugged. "You know that whole 'You can't fire me because I quit' kind of thing. They were going to fire me with prejudice, which would have screwed me out of severance and other stuff. So they told me if I was willing to take full blame for the incident and offer my resignation, they would use it as leverage to give the VP an out so that he didn't have to fire us both. They said if I took the fall, they would ensure my resignation took priority over the firing."

The wolf stretched and gave a long, luxurious yawn.  "You know what," he said, giving his head and neck a quick shake, "I think I've slept better in the last five days than I have at any time in the last five years. I wish I could retroactively quit a decade ago; I think that's when work stopped being fun."

They drank their tea in silence for a couple of minutes. Plonq watched the ebb and flow of cold people entering the shop and warm people leaving with hot coffee and doughnuts. He cast a couple of sidelong glances at the wolf across from him, but Larry seemed to be floating in a sea of his own thoughts at the moment. It was the cat who finally broke the silence again.

"So, now what," he asked.

The wolf grunted. "If I calculated it right, I should be getting well over a year's pay in severance. As soon as that's securely in my bank account, I'm booking a flight to the hottest resort I can find and spending a month baking in the sun. After that..." he shrugged. "I've got a couple of irons in the fire. My brother up in Fort McMurray thinks he can get me a temp gig at the small company where he works. They're looking to get their data organized, and start measuring their performance. He said they were interested when he mentioned that I'm available. He's got a finished basement and said I could move in for as long as I need." Larry cast a piercing stare at the snow leopard. "I'm more worried about you than me."

It took the snow leopard a moment to process the wolf's statement. "Why are you worried about me?"

"Because I'm leaving you along with that little spawn of Hell," said the wolf. He waggled a finger at the cat. "Don't roll your eyes at me - I'm serious. You haven't seen how bad he can be."

"I know that there is a certain amount of ... enmity between you two," said Plonq.  It was his turn to lean on the table now. He rested his elbows on it and tapped his fingertips together while he thought. "I have been on the receiving end of his temper a few times, so I know how bad he can get..."

The wolf was waving his hands and furiously shaking his head. "No, no no, you don't know how bad he can be," he said firmly. "He behaves himself around you because he likes you. When you're not around, the knives come out. He knows how to get under your skin. He knows how to hurt you with tiny jabs and cuts. He's relentless." The wolf was staring right through Plonq now. He drained the last of his tea and crushed his cup in his right fist. "He behaves around you because he fancies you. You had better hope he continues to," he added darkly.

His gaze suddenly focused on the feline before sliding over to the crushed cup in his hand. "Oh, hey, how's your tea holding up? I think I could use a refill."

Plonq drained the last of his tea and held out the empty cup to the wolf. He watched as the canine dropped the empties into the trash and queued up for fresh cups. Larry quickly reached the front of the line and the snow leopard watched him point animatedly at the menu board before finally paying. When he returned he was carrying a tray with two teas and an additional bag of food.

"I bought you a bagel too," said the wolf. "I'm pretty sure these are the kind you usually get, with lox and all those other things that have no right being on a bagel."

The snow leopard graciously thanked the other, and they both sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying their respective bagels and tea. In keeping with his namesake, the wolf finished his in very short order.

"What do you mean when you said he 'fancies' me," said Plonq. He casually nibbled another bit off the edge of his bagel as he asked it, but his laser focus on the wolf belied any casualness in the question.

"Just what I said," the wolf replied.

Plonq gave a longsuffering sigh. "He and I are friends, Larry. I know it looks funny that we live together, but trust me when I say that we are just good friends and roommates living in a platonic situation. I am intractably straight, and he accepts that. If I cannot convince you otherwise, then I am not sure what else I can say."

The wolf chuckled dryly. "He says and does things all the time. You came in dressed really nice one day because you had to do a presentation to the lead team. When you wandered off for a couple of minutes, I commented on how nicely you were dressed and teased him about having dressed you that morning. He said, 'Obviously not - does it look like he is wearing buttless chaps to you?'"

"He was obviously trying to get a rise out of you," said Plonq, rubbing his brow as if he felt a headache coming on. "He is a nasty little otter when he wants to be - trust me, I live with him. You said yourself that he knows how to get under your skin."

"It's not just the things he says," countered the wolf. "He's constantly calling you over for help on things that he should know how to do. You always wheel your chair over to his desk, and he always makes sure your tails are touching while you're there. He does that and casts me these little smug looks out of the corner of his eye, knowing that I know what he's doing."

"Larry..."

"Or how about Halloween three years ago," said the wolf, who was on too much a roll to be interrupted. "When Giblet cross-dressed in those super tight shorts with that halter top, glitter and clip-on earrings. He makes a beeline right for your desk, pulls out your chair and then he struts a full circle around you, running a fingertip around your neck before he starts doing that ... that simulated lap dance with you. You'd have needed a micrometer to tell there was no actual contact."

Plonq held up his hand. "There was a bit of contact," he conceded, "but I am going to stop you right there. That was an amazing costume, and we both thought she was really hot before we knew who it was. You were over there patting your lap and saying, 'Hey, wolfie has needs too' while it was going on."

"That was before we figured out who it was," growled Larry defensively. "Once we knew it was Giblet, it should have ended there. Instead, he insisted on finishing the lap dance, and you let him."

"Because it was still kind of hot in a slightly disturbing and awkward way," said Plonq primly. "Also, I think he probably spent a long time practising that dance, and it just did not feel right to ask him to cut it short before he could finish. Besides, half the office was egging us on."

"That's how it works with these people," said the wolf grimly. "That was a really calculated thing by him. They find their target and they take little liberties. A touch here, a hug there - they're always testing the boundaries. Maybe sneak in a quick kiss and see how it goes. They work their way in until you start to question your own sexuality."

Plonq leaned forward and stared slightly askance at the wolf with a hard, dubious gaze. "Larry," he said slowly, "do you actually, seriously think that the 'gay agenda' is a real thing? I live with a gay otter, and he does not have an agenda." Larry started to interrupt, but the snow leopard pushed on over him. "We are talking about an otter who is so disorganized that he has a meltdown when he cannot find the work shirt he wants in one of the piles of clothes he has strewn about in his room and he does not care that there are lots of other good shirts because those are not the shirt he wants to wear today and we have to leave for work in three minutes and why does this always happen to him."

The feline paused to catch his breath. "An agenda of any kind, gay nor not, would be beyond an otter with such minimal organizational skills. Giblet can barely even dress himself some mornings, let alone enact a plan to turn his roommate gay."

The wolf looked around the restaurant and noticed a few heads turning their way while they spoke. "Look, grab your coat and tea and let's go for a walk," he said quickly. "This place is starting to fill up."

The two zipped themselves into their coats, collected their drinks and stepped out into the early-afternoon chill. Larry motioned down the street with a flick of his head. "My car's this way," he said. "I'll give you a lift home if you want." He strode off quickly while the shorter snow leopard stepped in double time to keep pace.

"The gay agenda is just political wedge words invented by people to push an agenda," said Plonq, puffing clouds of steam that dissipated quickly in the light breeze. "It is the same as calling something a gateway drug, or labelling poor people as welfare queens."

"The gay thing is real," insisted the wolf. "I know, because they got Sammy."

"Sammy?"

"My sister," said the wolf with a low, angry growl. They stopped for a crossing, and Plonq glanced over at the wolf while they waited. The canine's lip was pulled back slightly in light snarl. "She was a normal, boy-crazy, Jesus-loving girl until she went to college," he said. He shook his cup of tea, causing it to spurt up through the drinking spout. "That's one of their favourite places to find prey," he added coldly. The light changed, and they scurried across the street without speaking.

When they turned up the side street, Larry began to speak again. "She was fine through her whole junior year, and then she met Tiffany in second year." He turned and spat on the sidewalk, narrowly missing a pedestrian who had been coming the other way. "Goddamn otter with rings everywhere. Both ears, over the eye, nose, lip, tongue ... and God knows where else. I've never hated anyone more in my life for what she did to Sammy. I don't want to see it hap..."

"An otter..." thought Plonq as things began to gel in his head. Part of him was tempted to let the wolf rant himself out, but the snow leopard already had a good idea of where the story was going.

"Larry," he said sharply, interrupting the wolf in mid-sentence. "Sammy was always gay."

"She was not," snarled the wolf. He stopped dead in his tracks and whirled on the snow leopard. "I grew up with her, and I know my own sister. She was not gay until that dyke got to her. If she'd shown signs of it earlier, we could have got her help. She was completely normal right through her teens."

Plonq stepped out of the centre of the sidewalk and waved the wolf over to join him next to the building out of the way of pedestrian traffic.  The snow leopard slouched back against the brickwork of the building where they'd stopped. He took a sip of his tea and stroked his chin a bit in thought.

"Would you hear me out on something?" he asked. "It may sound unrelated at first, but just hear me out."

At first the wolf looked like he was going to decline, but then he gave a dismissive wave with his free hand and turned so that he could lean on the building too. "Whatever, it's not like either of us have anything but free time these days," he said.

Plonq cupped his tea and swirled it while he willed his own thoughts to stop swirling. When he felt they were sufficiently composed, he began to speak.

"Once, when Giblet and I had been drinking rather a bit, he started opening up to me about his own family. It pains him to talk about them, but I guess he decided he had found a friend who he could trust with his pain. They disowned him when they learned that he was gay. They have completely cut him off, as have all of the family friends he grew up with. They were a very close, loving family but now he has nieces and nephews whom he has never met.

"I asked him why he told them about it when he knew how they would react." Plonq paused and pondered his tea for a moment.

"And what did he say?" prompted Larry.

"He said it was because they had raised him to be honest. He said that in retrospect; if he had the ability go back and change one thing it would have been to not have been born gay."

"He - wait, what?" demanded the wolf.

"Nothing has caused him more hardship in his life," said Plonq. "He has no desire to change what he is, but he would sacrifice it to save his younger self from how much it has sucked over the years. He always knew that he was different as a kid, but he acted the way he knew he was expected to act for most of his younger life because it was easier than the ugly alternative."

He saws the wolf's jaw working, but when the lupine did not speak, Plonq pressed on. He drew another long sigh. "What I am saying is that your sister did not turn gay. She did not choose to be gay - no sane person does when they know how hard that will make their lives. Sammy might not have known that she was gay when she was younger, but I think she probably knew for a long time and was trying to wish and pray it away."

The snow leopard paused. "Did you guys completely cut her off?"

The wolf shrugged. He was focusing very hard on what was left of his tea. "Not ... as such," he said. "She knows how to reach me, but it's not like she's tried."

"Anyway," Plonq continued. "That was a few years back. These days when the subject comes up, he usually refers to them as 'my fucking family'. He does not say it with his old vitriol any more, rather as somebody who has buried them in the past with other misplaced shames." He paused for another sip of his tea, and he turned to eye the wolf over the back lip of his cup while he slurped. The cat lowered the cup again. "I am sorry if this is a very personal question, but do you still love your sister?"

"She knows where to reach me," repeated the wolf.

The two stood with their backs to the wall and finished their tea. As the cold began to seep its way through their jackets, Larry finally peeled himself from the wall and began ambling down the street without a word. Plonq turned to follow.

"Larry," he said, chasing after the wolf. "I know that I am not in a position to give you advice on something like this, but it would be way easier if you were to call her. If she is not reaching out to you, it is probably because she thinks that you want nothing to do with her."

The wolf shrugged, but did not slow his pace.

"She is still your sister. Call her. Let her talk."

"The offer of a ride is still open," said the wolf tersely. "My car is just over there." He turned when he noticed that the snow leopard had stopped walking.

"Thank you for the tea and bagel," said Plonq, "but I think we both have some things to think about. I am going to walk home from here so that I can clear my head."

The wolf nodded. He stepped back to the feline and held out his hand. "I know we aren't going to agree on this thing, but thanks for coming out today," he said. "Watch out for yourself."

"I appreciate that you are looking out for me. Good luck in Fort McMurray," said Plonq, accepting the hand. "I am going to miss you at the office, and not just because I am going to get stuck picking up a bunch of your work, you bastard."

The wolf laughed and pulled the cat in for a proper, manly hug. "I'll almost miss you too," he said.

Though Plonq was eager to get home and kick off his shoes, he stood by the curb with one hand in his pocket and the other clutching his tea, watching as the wolf got into his car, adjusted the seatbelt and mirror and then pulled out into traffic.  The two gave a final, parting wave before the canine drove out of his life for what they both believed was for good. Even after the car was out of sight, the snow leopard remained still for another minute and stared at his breath as it condensed out of the air and drifted away. Finally he took another good slug of tea and started the long trundle toward home.

The cat unzipped his coat enough to fetch the phone out of his shirt pocket to see why somebody (who he assumed correctly was Giblet) had been blowing up his phone with texts for the past few minutes.

"hi. where r u? trying 2 reach u @ home."

"hello?"

"r u there."

"helloooooooooooo. is this thing on?"

"R U OK?"

"Hullo," he texted back. "Sorry, I met Larry for tea and had my phone muted."

"ugh. >w<" replied the otter. "did u punch him?"

"Just talked," typed Plonq. "I will tell you about it later. Pretty messed up."

"kk," texted the otter from the other end. "picking up bf & fried chicken on way home can u pls dig out dining room tbl."

"Sure," said the cat. He could imagine how frustrating it must be for others to chat with him by text, since he struggled mightily with his fat furry fingers on the tiny virtual keyboard. On the other hand, he was a something of a perfectionist when typing, so the person at the other end often had to wait through a long stretch of '...'s at their end to indicate that he was, indeed, still typing a response. "I will clean up the place a bit when I get home."

"thx"

 ***

Plonq returned to work the following Monday with no fanfare, and almost no attention other than a few scattered 'good morning's as he passed. He knew, via Giblet, that Arjun had made the rounds, asking people not to make his return any more awkward than it needed to be.

Before he could even take off his coat, the cat was tapped for a meeting with Hanna to outline some rules for him in the immediate future, including a reminder of the mandatory course he was to take.

"Oh, you already completed it? Good. You should stop by HR with the forms before you do anything else today."

He was intercepted on the way back to his desk by Arjun, who wanted to discuss some of the work he would be picking up from Larry. He followed this with forty minutes on the phone with IT trying to get the suspension lifted from his user code. This is how it was almost two hours into his day before he was finally able to log into his workstation and start checking his email. He hoped that they had suspended his email account at the same time as they had locked his user code, but to his dismay he found that they had not.

The feline scrolled through a page and a half of status reports and noise before one subject line jumped out at him.

"From: Larry_T_Wolf@dogmail.com

To: Plonq.Snowcat@railway.ca

Time: 04:35

Subject: ok so I phone her lik you said"

He glanced over at the empty desk where the wolf used to sit. Facilities had worked their magic on that corner of the cubicle to the point where one might never guess that it had been occupied for years. Plonq looked back at the time stamp of the email, and the subject line that looked like it might have been written while drunk before he locked his workstation again.

He stretched and yawned before pushing back his chair and toddling over to where Giblet was hunched over his own workstation. Plonq tapped the otter gently on the shoulder.

"I think I need a bit more fortification before I deal with this inbox..." the cat began, but in a motion almost too fast to follow, the otter locked his own workstation, leapt from his chair and snagged his coat. He stood in front of the snow leopard with the jacket slung over his arm.

"Did I hear something about caffeine?" asked Giblet. "You know me and coffee. Lead on, good sir!"

Prisha was fighting with the laser printer again when she heard them passing. She glanced up and watched the pair walking in stride toward the front elevator. As usual, the otter was speaking very animatedly with lots of exaggerated arm waving that forced him to constantly rescue the coat that threatened to fall off his arm. The snow leopard, meanwhile, occasionally shrugged or made other small signs to indicate that he was at least pretending to listen.

"Now there goes double trouble," she said to nobody in particular.

Nobody in particular was inclined to disagree.

The End

Comments

[aurifer]

That was a good story!

[plonq]

Thank you! It's one that I have been meaning to write for some time. Most of the coworkers and managers in the story are loosely based on real people I worked with in my previous company, which I hope lends the characters an air of authenticity.