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He’s got his thuhedit could do to with a e in a little opposable action…

"Can you drop me off over at his place?" I asked, as alked over to where erly, aware of just how caked I was in et the rateful to him and all but it’s after three AM"

"I’m sorry to keep you up so late," I said, automatically concerned for my dad’s health before I realized I didn’t have to be

"It doesn’t "

My dad started the engine as I buckled upthe labrys on le, with the curves of the ax head fitted overat the ax like it was a time bomb, and then buckled his own seat belt After which, he turned tohealthy"

"Of course it does It’s great"

"No, I mean, not just for me But for you, too"

I frowned at him "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you don’t have to worry about me so much And you don’t have to… always be around"

I tried to keep et rid of et my ax," I joked It fell flat

My father put his hand on htly, below the ax blade "No, Jane You know I’d never want to be rid of you You are, and alill be, irl"

I felt my eyes prickle with tears, but I held them back

"But you’re also a wo care of me I know you had your own reasons, and I’ll always cherish the tiether But I want you to know that I’ll understand, and support you, if you want to do so different?" I asked, unable to think of anything else to say

"Travel, move into your own apartment, move away from Rockabill even" He paused when he saw the look in entler "I ao I’d love for you to stay here, and in our ho as you want But I do want you to know I’ll love you just as much if you decide you need your own space"

"What if I want to join a cult, shaveKool-Aid?"

"Then I’led "Thanks, Dad" I thought of what the creature had said, about war coood to know you’ll understand"

We sat in silence for a few ht, then Next stop, Anyan’s Will you be co home at all?" he asked

"Um," I said, as he shook his head

"Never mind Just because I support your independence doesn’t ht, as I leaned back inin my head

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

My dad beat a hasty retreat after he dropped ht I stood for a second in the driveway, looking at the setting that had featured so heavily in ht to ht then, the screen door opened and out stepped Anyan, dressed only, and ht white T-shirt Surprisingly, it bore an advert for Whiskas

No,He is what you want

I strode toward the barghest, not caring that I was covered inout in aan ax And, except for giving my new toy a funny look, Anyan obviously didn’t care what I looked like, either He met me halfway down his wide front steps only to pickar to Anyan, the relief I felt at that moment so palpable it was like a tennis ball inmy dirty hands in his hair

His only response was to squeeze ," he said, "but I re," he replied "I just woke up here, naked, with a half-chewed rawhide toy hanging out of et ahold of anyone, at all, except for Iris who said that you’d gone down a hole a while ago, and hadn’t been seen since I was freaking out Especially since I can’t reo"

And that’s probably for the best, I thought, ith all the ball licking, peeing on things, and sniffing of the pee

"Trill told , thankfully It couldn’t have been that bad, right?"

Inoises and squir now,hand down my back

He walked up his stairs and into his house, and then he carried e to sit with me, still attached to him like a burr, on his sofa Before we sat down, I threw my labrys on his chair-and-a-half when I had the chance

"You’re filthy," he said softly, as he arranged us so that I was lying across his lap, htful, and it kept his sofa clean, the practical canine

"I was spelunking"