The revelation of his relation faded into the background as his last words echoed in my mind. My heart was pounding again, harder than when he startled me, drowning out whatever he said next. I saw his mouth moving, but I couldn’t hear him. The raccoon was back. Mr. Raccoon, or whatever his real name was. To tell me the truth.
Did I want to know the truth?
Could I handle the truth?
What if it had been me?
It had been my magic. My enchantment. I’d made that bookmark. I’d given it to Boris. I’d added the lasso mere hours before it went haywire and attacked him. It didn’t matter what Crystal or Ivan said. It had been mine. The raccoon had guided me through the process, but he hadn’t added his magic at all, at least not at that time. I knew better than anyone else what magical interference felt like, and I hadn’t felt it then.
But I had felt the lasso tightening around Boris’ throat later. It had woken me up in the middle of the night. Because it had still been my magic, and it had still been active, and I had felt every excruciating moment of his struggle against it.
I'd told no one about that part.
“Lily? Lily?”
Suddenly, Evan’s hands were on my shoulders, holding me steady as his concerned green eyes peered into mine. The pine cone had shattered into a million pieces on the sea ice.
“I need to see him,” I said, my voice hoarse.
Evan’s smile was gone. He pursed his lips and said, “Maybe that isn’t—”
“I need to see him,” I repeated.
He studied me for a moment longer, and then he nodded reluctantly and let me go. “If you’re sure.”
I rushed in a daze back to town, but walking into the police station snapped me back to reality. It made my skin crawl. I had to remind myself to breathe as I clenched and unclenched my fists, tensing to ensure there were no cuffs on my wrists. My anxiety only grew as Evan led me to the interrogation rooms. I wasn’t the criminal this time. I hadn’t been last time.
Or had I?
You weren’t.
“You!”
All hesitation fled at the sensation of his voice in my head. I pushed past Evan and burst into the interrogation room, surprising the blonde police officer sitting across the table from that darn raccoon. The offending creature twitched his whiskers and flicked a brown-furred ear, the only parts of his anatomy visible above the edge of the table.
Hello to you, too.
“You’re interrupting an—”
“Why did you disappear?” I raged, interrupting the interrogating officer.
Evan grabbed my wrist, but icicles burst from my skin and stabbed his hand. He yelped and released me.
Lily, you need to calm down.
“What in the name of Jack Frost is happening?” Evan asked.
“Oh, so you’re keeping this between us? Not letting anybody else hear our conversation? Are you trying to make me look crazy?” I stabbed an accusatory finger in the raccoon’s chest. “You set me up!”
Do you really believe that?
“Is that raccoon talking in my head?”
“Mine, too…”
“Tell them!” I shouted over the confused policemen now crowding the open door. “Tell them what really happened!”
The raccoon’s black eyes met mine evenly. He twitched his nose and swished his tail.
It wasn’t your fault, and that’s all I can say.
It was just like before. Just like sitting on my bed, arguing about Chinese food. As if nothing had happened and no time had passed. I felt the anger drain with the tension from my shoulders, and I sighed heavily. “Why can’t you ever give me a straight answer?”
I wouldn’t be much of a mentor if I did that, now, would I? He climbed onto the table and sat on his haunches, swishing his bushy, striped tail back and forth. But while I’d love to pick up where we left off, I’m actually not even supposed to be here right now, so our next lesson will have to wait.
“Wait a minute. Where are the cuffs? Why isn’t he handcuffed?” Evan demanded.
“The smallest cuffs we have are for Santa’s elves, and they’re too big for his paws,” the interrogating officer explained.
Handcuffs for Santa’s elves. Now, isn’t that sad? I guess there’s a bad apple in every bunch. Well, I said I was buying. What do you want?
I took the seat the raccoon had just vacated. “Are you seriously asking me that right now?”
Yep.
“Close that door,” Evan ordered. “The magic barrier for this room should—”
Yeah, no, but that’s a cute thought, the raccoon interrupted him. Even if you had cuffs that were the right size for me, there’s no limiting my magic. Same order as last time, Lily?
I shrugged helplessly.
Moo goo gai pain, moo shu shrimp, crab rangoon, egg rolls, and sweet donuts, it is. Hey, Red, that means there’ll be plenty for you, too. Make sure she gets home safe, okay?
“‘Red?’ My name is Evan, and you’re not going—”
Keep working on the pine cone thing. There’ll be a test next time.
And then he was gone.
I stared at the now empty table as police officers swarmed the room and then fanned out to search the police station. It was pointless. He wasn’t here anymore. Maybe he wasn’t even in this dimension anymore. I didn’t know. I never knew with him.
But I felt better somehow.
I stood and walked past the dumbfounded blonde officer to the door. “I’m going home.”
“Wait! I have to do some paperwork—”
“She isn’t in any state for questioning,” Evan intervened. “I’ll walk her home and fill you in tomorrow. Let’s go, Lily.”
Thankfully, that worked. The blonde officer stepped aside, as did the rest of the police officers, rushing about in a state of panic throughout the station, and Evan and I left in silence. When we reached my house, I left the door open, and he followed me inside. The Chinese food was waiting on the kitchen table.
“So…you gonna explain that?” he finally asked.
There was nothing to explain. I had no explanation. “Chopsticks or fork?”
He sighed and dropped into a seat. “Fork.”
The food was still hot, obviously a work of magic in the icebox of my house. I took the moo shu, he took the moo goo gai pan, we each took an egg roll, and silence fell again.
“My parents wanted to name me Ivan, but he was born first, and his parents stole the name. So, Evan.”
I looked at him across the table, studying his bland expression. “What does that have to do with anything?”
He shrugged. “It’s more interesting than sitting here, talking about nothing, and it usually comes up in conversation eventually. I figured I may as well get it out of the way.”
“O…kay…” I picked up a piece of crab rangoon, wondering why I let him into my house. No conversation was just fine with me.
“But if you’d rather talk about what just happened, why don’t we start with how long you’ve known that creepy raccoon?”
I didn’t want to talk about what just happened, or anything else, so I bit into the crab rangoon to buy myself some time. My argument with said raccoon regarding his creepiness flashed through my mind, and I smiled. “Not creepy. Cute. And we met two days before I was arrested.”
Evan tilted his head to the side. “And you didn’t think to mention that at the time?”
“I thought about it.”
He sighed and picked up a sweet donut. “I don’t understand you,” he muttered.
I dropped my eyes to the half-eaten crab rangoon in my hand. “Nobody does.”
“Try me.”
I looked up at him again. Bright green eyes, bright red hair—he and Ivan could have been twins. Except Ivan was probably at Crystal’s house for one of their non-dates, and Evan was here for a…non-date?
“What do you think of Crystal?” I blurted out.
He furrowed his brow, probably confused by the random question. “She’s bossy and more than a little intimidating, but at least she doesn’t attack me with pine cones.”
“Is that a problem?”
What was I saying? It almost sounded like—
He smiled. “Are you saying you want to see me again?”
That darn raccoon.
“...Maybe.”
*****
Date of creation: 02/26/2025
Word count: 3,000
Author’s note: I had to choose from multiple prompts and write a short story between 500 and 3,000 words. There was no genre requirement. I selected prompt #1: Your chance encounter starts with a misunderstanding but later ends into a different outcome.
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