The Shed

A Story by Rachel Tierney

Practice

“God damn it Jim, I told you to clean this shed a week ago,” mutters Jane to herself as she struggles through broken lawn mowers, shovels, and various unfinished projects in search of lawn chairs for the neighborhood party tonight. A flash of movement catches her eyes as she tries to untangle herself from a long neglected jump rope. After freeing herself, she ducks and dodges though junk until she reaches the far right corner of the shed. To her surprise, she sees four fox cubs nestled in old tarps. She would have found them cute if one of them wasn’t foaming at the mouth. She backs away slowly, almost tripping over her golden retriever, Tiberius, who snuck into shed to see what the commotion was about. She steadies herself, grabs Tiberius by the collar and drags him away from the cubs. But she is too late and Tiberius sees the cubs and begins barking and trying to get to them. She manages to get Tiberius out of the shed and pulls out her cell phone out of her pocket. Jane calls the vet and tells him about the family of foxes. He warns her that she needs to keep herself and her dog away from the cubs and to call animal control. While she is thanking him for his advice, Tiberius wrenches himself out of her grip and sprints into the shed. She races after him, yelling at him to come back. When she finally grabs hold of his collar again, she is too relieved to notice they are right on top of the tarp. A cub hidden in the junk jumps onto Tiberius and bites him on the neck. Before she can react, another cub bites her on the ankle. She kicks the cub by her feet and yanks Tiberius away from the cubs he threw off his back. She limps back to the front of the shed, feeling woozy. She keeps dragging a more cooperative and sluggish Tiberius into her mini-van. She puts him in the passenger seat and starts the car up. While waiting for the light at the first intersection from their house to turn green, Jane collapses into the steering wheel.