Foxxay

4

It was a cool foggy morning and I was driving Misty and myself down to the swamp to get some more of her mud. She was giving me directions in between the lyrics she was singing along to from the local 70's classics radio station. She was holding a milk crate full of mason jars on her lap and they would clatter together with every bump or pothole we rolled over. The radio started playing static and she turned it off.

"Almost there! Slow down now and in about two miles there's a narrow dirt road on the right."

"It looks so spooky out here like this."

"Only thing you have to be scared of is gettin' those pants dirty. You really didn't have anything more climate appropriate?"

"I can roll them up. These are some of my most casual clothes that I'm comfortable getting a little messed up. I'm not really the outdoorsy type."

"Really? The greenhouse is practically your sanctuary."

I shrugged.

"That's a controlled environment. I don't like creepy crawlers."

"We need to go shopping later this week for some clothes you don't have to worry about. I wanna start getting out here more often now that all those assholes who burned me skipped town to be closer to the new church."

I looked over at her and she looked uneasy. I put my eyes back on the road.

"Are you ok?"

She nodded.

"Yeah. It's just... well you know it's been awhile since I've been here and the only reason I dragged you out is because someone that I used to know called me last night and told me they were all packing up. It's sorta surreal that it's all just gone. The community I grew up in is no longer here to haunt me. Turn there."

I turned down the dirt road and it was silent with the exception of the mason jars for a while. The deeper we got the more thick the fog was.

"You didn't drag me out here, by the way. I want to spend more time with you away from the house. You know you can talk to me about stuff like that, right? I feel like you are always there for me, especially over the past month or so, and you haven't really... shared anything like that with me. Not that that's a bad thing! Of course not. You-"

She rested her hand on my shoulder.

"Honey, you're fine. I don't talk about it much 'cause I don't wanna think about it. Don't worry about it. I trust you and I know you're there for me. I just need time. You can pull over here. The road ends soon and with all this fog it isn't gonna be safe to go farther."

I pulled over and we got out. She shifted the crate onto her hip.

"You better start rollin' up those pants," she giggled.

I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever. You just want an excuse to see me bend over."

She giggled. I rolled the pants up over my knees, cuffing them to stay in place. I put the keys in my pocket and we held hands as she lead the way. The sun was slightly peaking out of the clouds now and the fog was getting easier to walk through while I got used to it. The chirping and croaking of the wildlife around us mixed with the crunch of the Earth under our feet as we walked was soothing. We came up to the waters edge and she set the crate down on a rock.

"This is just what the plants need! Not to mention all the potions we can create and enhance with this stuff. C'mon, let's start digging."

She pulled the trowels she brought out of the crate and handed me one with a jar. We got about halfway through the crate when I felt one of my pant legs roll back down. I leaned down to fix it and the jar slipped out of my hand. I quickly reached to catch it and the hem of my pants got stuck under the sole of my shoe.