The Fox Always Returns

Lulu wept hot tears into the wheel of her white Datsun. It was almost midnight, the eve of her thirtieth birthday. Sirens drowned out her wails. Earlier that evening, her boss Ted, a grumpy ex-military guy with a salt-and-pepper beard, fired her from Morgan’s, accusing her of stealing from his fancy liquor stash.

Bald accusation, Lulu thought. She had stopped drinking nine months earlier while trying to get pregnant, and hadn’t stolen for much longer. Yesterday, Hana, her girlfriend of three years, had packed up her stuff in their tiny studio, calling her baby obsessed. We don’t want the same things, she said, lugging a suitcase and bursting garbage bags out the door.

“Why all the waterworks, sweetheart?” piped a deep voice next to her.

A two-headed fox popped into the passenger seat, his ears grazing the sunroof. Moonlight made his eyes gleam. Ordinarily, this would have been strange, but Lulu figured with the day she was having, hallucinating was on par.

“Can’t a girl cry in the privacy of her own car?” Lulu cleared her nose in a wad of napkins. “Who the hell are you, anyway?”

“My name is Tao. Most people ask me for a wish,” he said. “Suit yourself.” He shrugged, closing one set his eyes in resignation.

“Wait,” she cried. “You can grant me a wish?”

*

The next morning Lulu sat up in bed and swallowed the date seed Tao had given her. It slid down her throat with a swig of tea and bloomed inside her like a secret, a ripening fruit. He told her it might hurt. She didn’t care. She welcomed physical pain to distract her from the throbbing ache of Hana leaving.

The fox had offered her the one thing she desired most. A child of her own. A ravenous hunger had been growing inside her empty womb. Her cravings were immune from reason. A baby would fill the void in her heart. Blindly, she accepted his offer.

*

Almost eight years later, Lulu and Nomi stood in front of a painting at the atrium of the library, where they went every Friday afternoon. The title said “Little Red” and a girl in a red cape holding a basket in a dark forest of shadows chased by a monster.

“That looks more like a fox than a wolf, Mama,” said Nomi.

“You’re right,” said Lulu. “Girls have to protect themselves from tricksters. They come in different shapes and costumes.”

“Tell me where I came from, Mama.”

“You know this story by heart. I wanted you more than anything in the world. I wished and wished and one day my wish came true.”

“But who’s my father?”

“It’s always been the two of us.”

Tears pooled in Nomi’s eyes. She was tired of the same story.

Lulu saw disappointment etched on her eight-year-old’s face. The two of them never stayed in a one place for more a year. Too many questions Lulu couldn’t answer. People made up stories: an abusive ex, witness protection, a secret trust fund.

In the library parking lot, Lulu felt panic rise in her throat when she saw a man in a fur hat scowling near their car. She touched her head, tracing the zigzagged scar at the nape of her neck, to calm her nerves. The scar was hidden by her dark mane of black hair. She thought of her mother, who had accidentally cut her once after she was playing in the woods.

Her mother snipped her hair while she sat on the edge of the bathtub.

“Your head is a nest of nettles, child. Did you cut a deal with the two-headed fox?”

“Wah? Who dat?”

“Oh, you never heard the story of fox? The two-headed fox has been around since the time of dinosaurs. He lives by the gingko trees and he will offer you seeds, promising to grant your deepest desire. A girl named Yu asked to be made the most beautiful maiden. She got her wish, but in return, she could never return home. The price is always too high. Don’t fall for his tricks.”

Her mother’s hand slipped in distraction and the sharp tip of the scissors marked the back of Lulu’s neck. It didn’t hurt, but left a wound.

Lulu had long forgotten her mother’s warning.

*

“Make a wish,” she told Nomi. The cake had eight candles and pink roses. Every year Lulu baked a cake, sweeter than the last.

There was a loud bang outside. They stepped through the front door. A furtive creature with two heads and sharp ears appeared. Tao was back.

“Happy birthday, Nomi. Didn’t your mother tell you about me?”

Lulu stepped in front of Nomi, blocking Tao’s path with her body.

“I’ve come to collect her,” he said. “We had a deal.”

“No,” she said, summoning a calm tone to mask her fear. “Let’s make a new deal. Take me instead,” Lulu said. “I will do your bidding. She has a life to live.”

“You will sacrifice yourself in your daughter’s place?”

She didn’t hesitate with her answer: Yes.

“Very well, I happen to be an old fox who like twists.” His heads bobbed in excitement.

She kissed her daughter goodbye, wiping the tears on her face. “You are everything to me. I love you, darling.”

Lulu looked into her daughter’s eyes and she saw their life together. Singing to baby Nomi. Splashing in puddles. Reading books in bed. Baking chocolate cupcakes. Chasing Minnie the kitty. Giggling at their shared jokes. Her mother’s words echoed in her ears, The price is always too high. The girl got her wish but she could never return home.

Lulu looked up at the sky. A constellation of clouds inched closer and closer to her. It was worth the price. A milky white fog embraced her, gentle as a mother’s cradling arms. She sank deeper and deeper into a hypnotic slumber, enraptured in a luminous sea of yearning.