“The bankers all smiled but when you passed they frowned. You’re just a little too smart for a big dumb town”—Stan Ridgway.

Samantha walks through the long, lonely road by herself. A Johnny Cash cassette is playing on her cassette player. Samantha appears to be enjoying it, until “The Beast in Me” begins to play. Samantha pauses in her tracks, listens to a few lyrics nervously, then turns it off, and places her walkman in her backpack. There’s a beast in me too Johnny, she thinks. Sometimes she gits hungry…and she starts crawling around inside o’ me, and iffin ah dun feed ‘er, she starts eating me from the inside out.

Samantha stops to make camp for the night; she makes a small fire and begins eating a Snickers bar.

It’s so strange, ev’ry time ah went out here before it was so much fun, thinks Samantha as she sits warming her hands by the fire. She sniffs at the air. “Foxes…” she whispers.

I’d hang out with my family, with Alph…with friends, thinks Samantha. Sometimes when everyone else went to sleep while we were camping, I’d take off my clothes, get down on all fours and just start running. And sometimes I’d smell another fox, and sometimes they’d ignore me, or they’d be all atremble at first, but once they smelt me when I got close enough, I would yip at them, they’d know it was okay ,that I was one of them. And we’d start playing together, or hunting, and or we’d just start running sometimes and I’d never want to stop. Never want to go back. An’ ‘lessen they started getting too friendly-like, sometimes I’da thunk ‘bout staying wit’ ‘em fo’ever.

Samantha stares at the empty forest for a moment, and then looks sadly down at her lap.

This time I can’t go back.

Samantha lies back in the grass.

Here I am, sleeping like a person, she thinks. But it’s impossible to fall asleep out here with these thoughts, I wish I gave ma one more hug goodbye, I wish I built something else to give to Emily for her to remember me by. I wish I gave pa someway of contacting me again, not that I really know where I’m headed. I guess I can call from wherever I end up.

She pushes herself up into a seated position and sniffs at the air for a moment.

What if I just went back and told them I screwed up, but I was sorry, and I wanted to try again? They’d never give up on me, ma would be grumpy about it for a few weeks, but it would pass, Emily and pa would just be glad I was home. Part of me wants nothing more than to go back. But another part of me knows that if I do that now, I’ll be the same person I was when I left. Sure, I’ll be fine for another few months, another year, but eventually something will set me off and the cycle will just start all over again.

Samantha looks down at the snickers bar she has been eating.

Dang, I’ve been out here for three days, eating nuthin’ but junk. I bet I could catch a rabbit or something out here this time o’ night. Then make a den or something to crawl into…

Samantha pauses, and then forces herself to gulp down the rest of her Snickers bar.

I know there’s a town out there if I just keep on walking. I should stay at a hotel; I brought enough money to last me for a few months or so. Can’t sleep tonight anyway, maybe if I hurry I can find someplace by morning.

Samantha gathers her things, and begins walking. She notices a fox in the bushes, and smiles at it. She begins to get down on all fours to offer a “yap,” to say hello, but the fox gets scared and runs off. Samantha looks hurt; she gets back up on her feet and leans against a tree. She begins pounding it. “Everyone leaves me…” she sobs through gritted teeth. “Everyone leaves me…” Suddenly, Samantha hears the snap of twigs behind her, and bolts around. “Who’s there?” she asks loudly. “Go away! Leave me alone!” Emily then emerges from the forest with one hand raised. “Um…hey,” she smiles weakly. Samantha looks shocked. “What…what in tarnation are y’all doing out here?” Samantha asks, and then bites her lip. “Well…the whole family’s been out looking for you Sammy. Even ma. We saw you took the boat, and this is about as far as you could get with it before having to go on foot.”

Samantha looks a little ashamed. “I…I felt bad about leaving it out by the dock. I guess I jus’ didn’t think none ‘bout needing to carry it…and it was too heavy and…”

“I think pa’s more concerned about you than his boat Samantha.” There is a moment of silence. “We’ve split up, but we’re meeting back at the boat around seven tomorrow…hopefully with you. Pa even bought a new bloodhound to track you.”

Samantha looks away uncomfortably. She sticks out her tongue and bites down on it hard, drawing just a hint of blood.

“Don’t…don’t do that…” says Emily quietly, and kneels down by Samantha. She gently sticks out a hand towards Samantha’s snout. Instinctively, Samantha snaps at her. “Ah!” cries Emily, and looks at the blood on her hands. Samantha reverts to all fours, and draws back looking ashamed at first. Then she looks angry.

“I don’t want you here…you…you maggoty little moron,” hisses Samantha. Samantha then begins prancing back and forth on all fours. “You…you come out here, pretending you care, being all sweet and sympathetic, but whenever I really need you, you’re gone, and, and, and…” Samantha begins jumping a little. “You just want me back because you don’t have any friends right now! Back in grade school when you started playing with other kids, suddenly you never seemed to want to go out hunting with me anymore, or nuthin’ and now you only want me because you have nothing else!” Samantha reverts to all fours and begins pouncing around. “You stupid, spoiled, nasty little…YAP! YAP! YAP!” Samantha pounces around on all fours like a fox, mixing angry yaps with English insults. Emily does not respond, instead she merely sits down calmly, takes a first aid kit out of her bag, dresses her wound with disinfectant, and then bandages it. Samantha continues to rage at her, and Emily just sits there and watches silently, waiting for it to be over. Eventually Samantha wears herself out, and just stares at Emily with wild, yet human, anger and frustration. After a moment, she gasps out, “Whuh…whut the…(gasp)…whut th’ heck yo’ still doin’ here?”

“Y’all been like that since ‘afore I wuz born Sammy,” says Emily without expression. “I know it stops eventually.”

Angrily, Samantha gets up on two feet and stomps over to Emily. She points at her hand, “lookit whut I done to you! Git lost or I’ll do it again!”

Emily looks at her gently for a moment then replies, “you don’t have to go back wit’ me to meet wit’ ma and pa if ya don’ wanna.”

“By jiminy,” Samantha cries and throws up her hands in the air. “Yo’ finally got some sense stuffed into your thick head, girl?”

The gentleness never leaves Emily’s eyes. “But I’m not going back without you either.”

Frustrated, Samantha whirls around; she gets down on all fours and begins to bound off, then stops herself, and turns to look at her sister.

“Ah cain’t go back,” she says, her voice cracking, almost whining. “…if I’m ever going to grow up and get over this…this…” She looks at her furred hands and winces. Then they begin to shake. ‘…this stuff, I…I need to go away. This place is holding me back. Ev’ry time I do something bad, I think well, s’okay ‘cause I can jus’ go back to you ‘n pa so’s I kin feel…” she pauses again. “I don’t know…feel…normal? But I’m just not…and I’m never going to learn to adjust to world if I stay in this little town where everyone bends over to accommodate me. ” Samantha slinks back to the rock and sits down.

“It’s not good for a person to be alone Samantha,” replies Emily softly.

“Well now, I’m not exactly whut folks’d call a person am I?”

Emily is silent, not knowing exactly what to say. She looks worried, and glances away.

“People don’t do these things Emily,” whimpers Samantha on the verge of tears. “People…people…people just don’t bite their…their sisters just ‘cause they’re in a bad mood. People can control themselves.” Samantha begins to shake, she hugs herself.

Emily takes a seat next to Samantha on the rock, and is silent for a moment; she looks away as Samantha sits on the rock shivering. “Well…you know Samantha…it’s…it’s a very human thing to have flaws.”

“Not like the way I do…” whimpers Samantha, shaking her head and looking up at the trees. “Not the way I do…I need to go…don’t follow…” Samantha slowly gets up, and begins to walk off, then lets out a long sigh and turns around.

“Why do you even want to stay with me? You’ve seen what I can be like, you’ve seen me at my absolute worst, you’ve known me your whole life and…”

Emily slowly gets up, and walks straight towards Samantha. She looks her straight in the eye. “Yo’ right, and yo’ don’t stay with someone that long unless there’s a beautiful person inside of them.”

“No one else stays…”

“Thass jus’ ‘cause most people don’ understan’, but I do.”

Tears begin to well up in Samantha’s eyes, she moves back. “But…but look at what I do…” she motions to Emily’s hand. “I…I don’t deserve you…” Emily hugs her yet again. “You need me, and thassa all I care about.”

Samantha stares at her for a moment, not sure of what to say. Finally, chokes out “Other people told me they’d understand…that’s what Gala said…and Al…” she chokes on his name… “Al…Alphonse said…” her voice trails off. Emily then begins to hug her even tighter, while closing her eyes tighter as well. “I mean it. I mean it because you need it.” Emily pauses for a beat, opens her eyes pensively, and rolls her pupils towards the back of Samantha’s head. “And because you deserve it,” she finishes.

“But…I can’t promise you I’m never going to do something like this again.”

Emily puts her hands on Samantha’s shoulders and stares at her straight in the eye.

“But I can promise you, if it happens again, I’ll be here to take it.”

Samantha then shakes Emily off, and begins walking away. Emily stands there motionless and watches her for a moment. There is no sound but the snap of twigs under Samantha’s feet. Then she hears Samantha say, “We can call ma ‘n pa from the city once we git thar…s’what I was planning on anyways.”

Emily smiles weakly, as her eyes being to tear up. She wipes the tears away and slowly but steadily, begins to follow her sister. They walk on together through the woods for a long, long time until Samantha starts to think. I’m no human. I know that now, and I cain’t keep on wishing I was ‘cause it ain’t never gonna happen. But I ain’t no animal neither. I dunno what I am, all I know’s is thet I don’t like who I’ve been. Samantha smiles then, as she sees the city before them We cut to a splash page of her and Emily standing on a mountaintop before it. But I cain’t help but look forward to the person I’m going to become. The two sit and watch the city for a moment. “Did we really come all the way out here?” asks Emily. “I…I don’t think we’ve ever been this far out of the country before.”

“Ah reckon it so,” replies Samantha. “S’awl surreal-like though, hard to believe.” She pauses. “An’ not jus’ this, e’rythin’. I keep waking up some mornings, hopin’ the past couple weeks wuz jus’ o nightmare an’ thet everythang’s awwight now. But it ain’t, an’ I go through the day like it wuz some kindo crazy dream.”

“Ah feel all dazed mahself,” whispers Emily as she hugs herself.

“Me too,” replies Samantha. “But it’s th’ sanest daze ah’ve ever had.”

The End