“Then that’s good enough for me.” The beaver huffed as he turned back to his patrol car. “Come on Mic, it’s time to go home. Its late enough as it is.” One of the dogs walked around and got in the passenger side door. The car rolling before the door closed, not a single hesitation as it turned and sped away from the scene.
The remaining German Shepard walked Rob over to Tyler. “I assume you guys must be pretty shaken up right now, it’s been a big night hasn’t it? Did you want me to give you a lift?” He was addressing Tyler, Rob was only implied.
Tyler’s eyes flicked between Rob and the cop. “I suppose… that would be awesome, if you wouldn’t mind actually… I live just down…”
“I know where you live.” the dog interrupted, but not aggressively. “Come on, it’s getting late.
No one said a single word on the drive the drive back to Tyler’s house. They had nothing to say to each other. Rob had been interviewed for hours, Tyler already had everything worthwhile on record, and the dog already knew more than he would ever need to about both of them.
It was the most awkward five minutes of his life, the silence only punctuated by the dog telling them to take care as they exited the vehicle.
David was playing some shooter on the Xbox as they walked inside. The yahoo frat boy style arcade shooter was the only computer game he would touch, but he would play it often enough in his downtime to make up for his narrow pallet.
David called out to them as he watched them enter the house. “Oh fuck Tyler, if you had have called me to let me know you were bringing a party home, I could have prepared something…”
“Shut up David, it’s been a long night.” Then a thought occurred. “Have you seen anything on the TV?” he asked innocently.
“Nup, haven’t been watching it. Why?”
“Never mind, Just curious” Tyler trailed off.
“No, but seriously Tyler.” David pushed. “Who is that guy?” he asked, flicking his head at the rabbit.
“This is Rob. He’ll be staying with us here in the study tonight. Oh, and Rob, this is my brother David. I probably should have told you about him.” Tyler apologised, but between spotting his unconscious foot and walking into the house, he couldn’t think of where he could have squeezed it in.
“Aren’t you two hipsters getting a little old for the slumber parties?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I said shut up David, don’t be rude to guests, not tonight.”
“Tomorrow morning then.” David agreed, turning his attention back to the xbox. “But tell your friend that I can smell him from here, and that he should have a shower before he comes around next time. But don’t be rude about it or anything.”
“Ignore him, he’s not actually this hostile, he’s just showing off.” Tyler assured the rabbit loudly enough for his brother to hear. Without dividing his attention from his game, David grinned. “Sounds like a challenge.”
Tyler led Rob upstairs. “You must have been in that house for hours man… with the cops, I mean. What took you so long to talk about?”
“Well…” The rabbit began hesitantly. “When I told them I was a foreign student, that I wasn’t a citizen, they seemed to just assume I was a terrorist.” He began calmly, though he was clearly suppressing how upset he was. “And then they demanded to see my passport, but that’s obviously buried in the rubble or spread out over the street, like everything else I own… owned now I guess. I thought that would be obvious, but it wasn’t obvious, they demanded my passport over and over again… they said they would arrest me and not let me go, that I …” his voice was growing more hysterical as he spoke, until he finally ended up choking on his own words.
“It’s ok man…” Tyler said, patting him awkwardly on the back. How should one console a virtual stranger? “We’re here now; they’ve let you go… It’s all working out.” Should he be saying that? It sounded kind of patronising.
Rob nodded, taking a few moments to compose himself before rubbing his dusty eyes with his dusty forearm. “Yeah… sorry” he said apologetically. “I have to report in to them every day, and seek immediate consular assistance. Hopefully they find my passport in the rubble or something. They said they would let me know if they found anything. I don’t even have any proper clothes, or my wallet. I only had one unpacked suitcase and that’s all gone now.”
He suddenly pulled himself from his thoughts and laughed. “So yeah, thanks for letting me come over and everything, it’s very kind and greatly appreciated.”
Tyler had to consciously help his smile form. AND I saved your life, he thought almost angrily. I pulled you from the house and made your heart beat. Why is this not a thing? “Don’t worry about it. David’s an ass, but he’s right. We both need a shower. And you’re going to need something else to change into.”
Tyler went looking in his room for some clothes he could lend Rob. He smiled wryly to himself as he searched his wardrobe. Everything was going to be too big, which was a rather unique conundrum for him. “I hate to say it man, but I think the only things I have that will fit you will be some of my old teenage stuff.”
“That’s fine Tyler…” Rob assured him. “Anything is better than showing up tomorrow in this.”
Tyler cursed under his breath. I’ve got some bad news for you…” he said as he pulled out a box of old clothes. “I was a bit of a nerd in high school… actually, I didn’t need to qualify that. But still, my dress sense was slightly louder about it. You’re welcome to everything in this box, but I’d better apologise in advance for your eventual selection.”
Tyler showed Rob to the empty study, and organised a mattress and blankets while the rabbit showered. And then Ron went to bed.
Tyler was still far too worked up to call it a night just then. He went back downstairs after his shower. David had returned, leaving him free with the TV. He turned straight to the news, and perhaps unsurprisingly, they were talking about the exploding house thing.
He recognised the shots of the rubble as the presenters talked over the images, and some of the local ‘onlookers’ which they interviewed.
But he gasped when he saw some of the viewer footage. There were at least three shaky phone recordings of a projectile flying through the sky. It kind of looked like a rocket. But it looked like it was travelling far too fast, and breaking up as it moved along. Was the house struck by a meteor?
None of the videos showed the impact of course, the streak was just filemd flying over suburbia, not landing in it. But there were so many angles, showing recognisable chunks of the city, with the same dark, ominous clouds in the evening sky as there were this morning. He was convinced they were genuine. So the explosion was caused by a projectile.
And then he was on TV. He didn’t recognise himself straight away. The camera was shaking, the light was hard against his purple scales… but it was him. There were a number of voices , but a sole female rose above the crowd. “What did you see sir?” it demanded. Tyler stood frozen dumbly for a few seconds before… grunting? That was a grunt. A confused grunt.
Tyler buried his head in his hands as his face flushed red in embarrassment. Oh God, he couldn’t watch this. “There was some sort of an explosion, and the house exploded”, he heard his own voice coming from the television. Well… that was a quote for the ages, he thought to himself. Mercifully, the footage then cut to some more dark footage of the rubble and the news cast moved on. But Tyler remained head in hand, completely mortified. No, this wasn’t a moment he’d be sharing with his grandkids about.
“Well, it’s got to be asked now…” one of the news reporters began as they cut back into their studio. There were four of them, sitting on a panel. “An undocumented foreign student moves into suburbia, and two days later his house blows up. So we really have to be asking ourselves what we are opening our doors up to when we allow, when we share our city these kinds of people.”
“What?!” Tyler demanded his TV with exasperation. The newscaster continued “I mean, sure, we have to wait until all the facts are out, we can’t be getting ahead of ourselves here. But does anyone honestly believe something like this would have happened if a local student lived there? Has an event like this ever been recorded for local students?” He paused to allow the rest of the panel to either shrug or shake their heads. “No? This is how they can come into here…you know, fairly easily. Student visas are a real weakness for us. We need to be looking more critically at this area, or else the events of tonight will probably become increasingly common.”
Tyler turned the TV off. He hated politics at the best of times, but that was fucking ridiculous. They had no idea what they were talking about, but they were being paid to talk about it until the early morning hours, so they had to say something. His own little first-hand experience with news.
He let the frustration of the world’s troubles flow off him as he settled into bed. He reflected on the surprising twist in his day. He still felt hard done by, if this were a movie he’s have his picture in the paper holding a medal for his bravery and heroism. Perhaps it’s just a sign of the times. Or perhaps it was always just a fanciful portrayal of reality from TV and movies. Whatever the reason, eventually drifted off into sleep.
It wasn’t until Morning when things started to get weird.
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