Albert’s home was cluttered, but comfortable. Nitpicking housekeepers and an overly concerned younger sister prevented Sarah from enjoying her homeliness, but this honestly already felt more like home than her mega-mansion back in town.

“Hey babe,” with a quick kiss on the cheek, Albert made his way to the kitchen leaving Aubrey on the couch making some kind of crocheted… Scarf? Sweater? Shoe?

After a week of her brother’s generosity, Sarah grew just as comfortable as her two housemates. Plummeting like a five foot tall rock, she fell into the worn recliner with stains she had long considered benign, yet still mysterious.

“So how was work? Is Marty living up to her reputation as ‘the stinky ghost’?” With a chuckle, Aubrey did not look up from her forest-green and periwinkle project. She seemed too young to be interested in crochet, but without any internet out on the remote ranch home, she had to find new ways to pass the time.

“Bleh.” Leaning back as far as the recliner let her, Sarah stuck out her tongue, “And yeah, Marty’s just as rank as I’m sure she was since you left. She probably hasn’t even left the cafe since then.”

The two girls chuckled, “I really need to check up on that woman. Hopefully I can convince her to have lunch with me someday.” Aubrey was a softer girl. Her black hair matched the black frames of her glasses quite well, as they both contrasted with her pale skin. Both Albert and Sarah thought she would have developed a tan, much less a sunburn, after spending the past two months out with ranch work when she came in from her office job, but she maintained her unsullied porcelain complexion though it all. “Does she still have a bit of that mean streak in her?”

“Nah, she’s chill with me, but my co-worker…”

“She might have a thing for him.” Aubrey shrugged, still focused on her crocheted catastrophe, “She was wild like that back in school.”

Sarah silently gagged. Kyle made good pastries, but she could not see anything in the kid. Plus, he was still in High School, while she was…?

“But yeah, work was fine, I’m kinda getting the hang of it.” Sarah glanced over to see her brother polish off a whole rotisserie baked chicken pulled from the fridge, leftovers from last night’s barbeque.

“Hey babe, I’m gonna hop in the shower.” Albert put the bones of the bird into the trash and darted across the room, closing the door behind him.

“Seems like he had a rough day?” Sarah asked, leaving the two of them in the room as Mr. Harrison, the old bird dog, slept on his cot in the corner underneath the antique flatscreen T.V.

After a few perls, Aubrey set down her complex knot with her glasses onto the coffee table in front of them, “Yeah, one of the goats got caught in the barbed wire fence.”

“Oh no. Was it ‘Goatsie’?”

With a sombre nod, Aubrey continued, “Yup. He was pretty upset. Even buried him next to the barn he said he helped birthed him.” She picked up the glass of wine from the table and took a quick sip, “He didn’t cry in front of me, but he might not get much sleep tonight…”

The room grew silent. The goat was sickly, but Albert did a great job helping it put on weight. It was probably the reason why he was late in picking her up, causing the pit in Sarah’s stomach to grow deeper.

“So…” Aubrey swirled the crimson elixir in the stemmed glass, “I never heard the full story, what brings you out here? You don’t exactly strike me as a ‘cowgirl’.”

With an unnecessary scan of the room, Sarah rubbed the back of her neck, “I dunno if I can talk about it right now. It kinda makes Albert angry.”

“Albert? Angry? He can do a whole lot, but I doubt he can even get close to being angry.” Another quick sip, “Besides, he’s taking one of his legendary ‘Hour-Long-Showers’.”

With a sigh, Sarah relented. Maybe it’d do me well to bitch a little bit…

“So, I’m sure you know all about my family, right?”

Aubrey popped up, getting into an overly interested position, legs still wrapped in a blanket that might’ve been older than both of them put together, “Mmm, yeah. Albert and Sarah Weatherford, your dad owns The Weatherford Group, something in finances.”

“Yeah, Albert hates dad by the way, never bring him up around him.” Sarah started to feel the pit recede back a bit again.

“I know that. I accidentally asked him about it one time.” She swirled the glass once more pensively, “Maybe I have seen him get angry once then…”

Tucking her legs in, Sarah continued, “Dad really put a ton of work into us. Albert just decided that he didn’t want any of it and ran away from home out here back when he was 18.”

Eyes wide, Aubrey placed the glass on the table, making sure not to add to the myriad of stains on the loveseat, “But he’s 26 now…”

“Yup. I only heard things through the grapevine for the past few years, but supposedly he got in with some big rancher and struck it out here. I don’t really know the full details on that either, last week was the first time I really saw him since he left…” Sarah remembered the fresh-faced youngster, prized center of the homeschool football league he was in. Crazy how much has changed.

“I get that. I never really met my dad, he’s probably a dick too.” She sat up straight, “So you hadn’t seen your brother in eight years and you just randomly decided to move in out of the blue. You ran away from home too?”

Restraining herself by biting her lip, Sarah looked away, “No. It was much stupider than that…” With a deeper breath than she wanted to take in, she continued, “Nah, my dad read something in an article about how college aged kids become more mature when they live on their own… Or something like that.”

Pause.

“That’s it?” Aubrey stood up, dropping the blanket, “He just read a clickbait article online and kicked you out of the house?”

“I mean, yeah?” Her face grew flush, “It’s not the worst thing. My sister spent a month stranded in the wilderness after dad heard it makes for great corporate leaders.”

Another pause.

“Missed her 16th birthday though… Becky’s still afraid of fish.”

“And where’s your mom in all of this?! I know she’s still alive, Albert told me that much!”

Looking out the window into the darkness, Sarah shrugged, “She’s around, kinda. I think she likes work more than us. She wants to make her own corporation bigger than dad’s.”

The third pause within a minute.

“That’s not right. That’s not right!” Aubrey looked like she was about to cry, “You can’t just kick your kids out and make them do stupid stuff just because you read it on those stupid clickbait websites! How does living in the wilderness make you a better corporate jockey? Who just lets their husband do stupid stuff like that and ignore your own kids?!”

Sarah shrugged, “Dad’s weird, but he knows what he’s doing. I mean, Becky and I know 13 different languages after all our trips.”

“What, did he abandon you in all those countries as well?”

The blonde ringlets whipped around as Sarah shook her head vigorously, “No! No, those were just family trips. We actually did normal family stuff like visit tourist traps and met some of the locals.”

“I have a hard time believing that.” Aubrey had long since drained the wine glass and finally got around to pouring another one, offering it to Sarah.

Grabbing the glass, she held it in both hands, “No, for real. I think the nicest thing we did was have dinner at an Arabic prince’s house. His son still bothers Becky to this day.”

“I’m…” Aubrey knocked back her own glass, “I’m not surprised, at this rate.” She sat back, after placing the glass on the table. She leaned back, rubbing her head, “So now what? What are you going to do until your dad takes you back?”

Sarah joined in the leaning, trying her best to look up, “I dunno. Pops made it to where the whole family can’t talk to me. I don’t have my phone, a place to stay, nor any money…”

“What. The. Fuck.” Aubrey’s eyes swam as she grew to be quite flush, “Did the article say that too? Cut off all family and just kick ‘em out to make them homeless? Do you know what they do to pretty girls like you on the street? Especially with-”

Sarah rolled her eyes, “Look. I don’t know!” Her lip started to bleed, “I don’t know!” Getting up, the glass of wine found its way off the table and onto the chair and, of course, her shirt.

With the door slammed behind her, Sarah fell to the floor, tears streaming from her eyes, snot running from her nose, and blood pouring from her lip.

The stars shown unabashedly out in the country through Sarah’s window. Stripped down to her skivvies and an old t-shirt in case her new housemates decided to just ‘pop-in’ to check in on her, she sat upon her unmade cot. The bed was an absolute mess of blankets, pillows, and used clothes. On one hand, it provided a familiar comfort, one of the few remaining things left in the world she could have absolute control over, but on the other hand it reminded her of the very ineptitude that inspired her father to send her out.

Timothy Weatherford was an eccentric man, but people and clients worldwide heralded him as an unabashed genius. While having a history of being flippant, his hobbies and passions changed week to week. But one thing he did care for, at least more consistently than his other interests, was his family. Sarah knew this was not meant to be primarily as a punishment, but a learning experience.

She hated that.

While her ‘ape brain’ wanted her to be angry she missed the newest episode of “The Actual Homemakers of the Greater Tri-State Area”, she found it hard to actually seat the anger. And that made it worse.

Laying on her back, she looked at what little popcorn ceiling she could see in the dark. Thankfully, she was finished with work for the week. It was going to be another long night.

Shit. I’m going to miss another Sunday brunch with Crystal...

As the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions began to make their rounds again, a familiar sound pierced her mind. Squeak!

...And now this shit has come along to fuck me over too!

Sitting up, she did what she could to stop the waterworks from running again. A strange glow greeted her on the desk across the cluttered room. Teal-green in color, the ephemeral efflorescence emanated eerily.

‘Ape brain’ screeched in fear while her body seemed to agree. Rolling off her cot as quickly as possible, she nearly landed face first on the floor. Not even stopping to consider any possible injuries, she scrambled behind the punching bag before standing.

The glow sat there. Menacingly.

Whaththefuckjesuschristwhatthefuck.

Just after Sarah felt a modicum of safety around the only light source in the room, she began to come out from behind the punching bag stand. Taking a step towards the desk, something appeared within the glow, prompting a sudden reversal of her action.

A head popped out, like it came out of a hole in the wall. It appeared to be a small mammal of some kind with large ears, it’s coat the same unnatural color of the glow. Shortly after, the rest of the creature followed. Familiar, and yet strange to see it moving, the cat-sized fox-like animal stood on the desk, bathed in the blue-green light that seemingly brought it here.

Sarah observed it from the safety of the exercise equipment she cowered behind. It seemingly could not see too well, sniffing around and almost falling off the edge of the crowded desk a few times. The beast looked to be non threatening and unlike any animal she had ever seen. Coming out a bit once more, it continued to survey what little surroundings it had on the old cluttered antique.

“Hello?” Her voice reached out.

Turning towards her, the animal chirped, “Squeak!” The familiar sound eased Sarah a bit.

“So I guess it wasn’t anthrax after all…” With a few more steps, she stood above the carbuncle that seemingly apperated itself onto her desk. “Unless hallucinations are a part of it too…”

The creature appeared exactly like it did on the card art: teal-green fur, small in stature, with a diamond-shaped hole in its head just above the space between its eyes. It appeared friendly as it sat and pawed at her.

“Fuck, that’s cute…” She whispered as she tentatively reached out, putting her hand on the creature’s head. Her hand passed right through, like a hologram. “Well, that kinda sucks.” She waved her hand through the carbuncle’s visage a few times.

“Squeak squeak!” Gemless Carbuncle chirped. It did not seem to mind the ghostly accosting.

“So, what are you?”

“Squeak!”

“Yeah, I’m gonna need a lot more than that, buddy.” Sarah sat on the bed, relieved that her death was not at her lowest point in life. The carbuncle leaped from the desk onto the cot like a cat. It rubbed up against her, partially phasing into her body. “Well, it can’t be a Glimmer. I don’t even have my phone on me.”

Sitting back, she rubbed her eyes. Slapping herself after a few vigorous rubs, all feasible explanations were out the window.

Sitting next to her and looking expectantly, the small animal chirped and cooed lightly, as if trying to communicate.

“So, where did you even come from?”

Her new friend stood on all fours and leapt back to the desk, nearly falling off. Motioning with its paw, Sarah stood and drew close.

The deck box lost its luster and the alien glow it emanated no longer remained. If it was not for the creature that radiated the same teal-green light, she could have thought she just hallucinated it.

Placing the cards back down on the desk, there had not seemed to have been any changes. “Welp, on one hand, I am glad to be freed from the clutches of anthrax induced auditory hallucinations and tinnitus, but on the other hand I don’t know what the fuck is going on!”

Carbuncle chirped in confirmation. Or was it in explanation? Unfortunately, radioactive rabbit noises were not in Sarah’s list of linguistics. It strode up to her, looking up expectantly.

“Well, you obviously came from somewhere…” She looked into its blue eyes that glimmered in a way reminiscent of holographic foiling, “And you are pretty cute. I guess I can keep you around.”

Suddenly a wave of questions hit her. What does it eat? Can other people see it? Does it pee and poop? If so, can they see that? Is it a boy or girl? Seriously, does it eat? I’m broke after buying these cards.

As she sat upon the bed, Carbuncle jumped onto the cot, delicately landing in her lap. After looking up at her, followed by a few tight turns, it plopped down into her lap, seemingly tired after an interdimensional journey.

“Well, that’s probably a good idea…” Her eyes could barely stay open after such an exhausting day of card games, emotional breakdowns, and finding an extraterrestrial fox creature. While the small creature was intangible, she still felt it was rude to jostle it from its sleep. With expert moves, she managed to swing herself underneath her covers and right into the deepest slumber she had in years.