It was the morning after Hallowe’en and some of Toronto’s fine citizens got the jump on taking down their seasonal decorations.

  On his way to the Tim Hortons around the corner from his apartment, Kay spotted a few jack-o’-lanterns in trash cans. Most people weren’t that early on undressing their lawns and windows. Kay got to see plenty houses with bat decals still in place and plenty front yards with ghosts haunting the grass. That morning wasn’t any quieter than any other Saturday, but it felt quieter in contrast of Hallowe’en the night before and the ghouls and goblins around town had to contend with overstaying their welcome.

  Kay and Philly had planned on hitting Riverdale early that Saturday, and Kay was a little sleepy so he figured he would go get a coffee to help him wake up.

  Likewise, Philly got the idea to arrive at their rendezvous early. He snuck into Kay’s part of town, skulking through quiet lanes and snaking behind trash cans and planters. The fox was always careful to keep his large brushy tail well out of sight! He zipped from one cover to the next, a sneaky fox on the trail of his good friend.

  And the trail of Kay did he find! There was little that the vulpine could not sniff out. He got Kay’s scent and followed it to College St where he saw the young man out, wearing his signature leather jacket and shaded eyeglasses just in case the overcast sky let one of the sun’s rays of light burst through and assault Kay’s vision.

  Philly couldn’t say hi, though. There were too many people around and he wasn’t up to reveal himself a talking fox to the public. The everyday citizens of Toronto were still getting used to the existence of the city’s legendary water elemental. No, Philly stayed quiet and out of sight. It was harder to find hiding places on a busy street like that one, but Philly ducked into a construction site where the sidewalk was closed off and (while hiding behind some scaffolding and board) watched Kay from across the road– the young man sipping a coffee.

  Philly would have to wait until Kay turned into a street not teeming with extra bodies and voices before he could get the fellow’s attention.

  As Kay walked, with his head in his earphones, a voice called to him.

  “Hey, Kaaaaay!”

  The call was loud enough to cut through Kay’s music. He turned around to see Lana waving at him, her approaching with a couple of friends.

  That Saturday she was rolling the streets with Fixer and Alessa. Fixer Kay had met at school once, but Alessa didn’t go to YCCI so Kay was unfamiliar. Lana met Alessa through a part-time job and hung out a lot.

  Kay lowered his earphones. “Oh. Hi, Lana.”

  Fixer slapped a wave. “Yo, Rockstar.”

  “Rockstar...” A weird nickname but Alessa parsed the origin looking at Kay’s shades and leather jacket.

  Lana grinned. “How’s your day been?”

  Kay shrugged, having no exciting information on the matter. “Just woke up.”

  And then Lana remembered something. She lit up and clapped her hands together. “Oh, that’s right! How was the party yesterday?”

  Did somebody tell her that Kay went to Huxley’s party? Kay cocked his head away. “I didn’t go.”

  “You didn’t go to the party?” asked Fixer. He didn’t know what party Lana and Kay were talking about but it was weird hearing someone not go to a party.

  Were they gonna bother him about it, too? Kay tutted. “I didn’t want to.”

  Philly, in all this, was watching and listening in. He thought to himself, Kay was invited to a party?

  Kay hadn’t turned off his music off. Hard rock guitars and grungy voices burned out of the foam. Alessa, scratching under her ski cap, asked, “Is that Nickelback?”

  Oh boy, here we go, thought Kay.

  “Yeeeeeah,” Kay replied, bristling in anticipation.

  Alessa huffed a little chuckle, but didn’t say anything. Fixer thought they were a bad band but didn’t care to acknowledge Kay listening to them.

  Lana smirked. “I thought you didn’t like new music?”

  New hard rock was the exception for Kay. He said, “They sound like old music. They’re like a classic rock band.”

  “Alright,” said Lana, sounding neither convinced nor unconvinced.

  This conversation was pointless. Kay wanted out, so he said, “I got places to be.” And without a beat in between, he followed, “See ya.”

  Lana nodded him off. “Alright. Bye now.”

  Kay slapped his earphones back on and walked away. Both Fixer and Alessa were surprised by how cold Kay was being. Lana was a little more understanding, knowing Kay better than her friends. Still, it was a rude way to move on with one’s morning.

  The frigidness wasn’t lost on Philly. Speaking to a boy who would not hear him, the fox murmured, “Geez...”

  Kay, Lana, and her friends went on with their days. Philly kept on Kay, waiting for the guy to turn into any line that wasn’t College St. When Kay took a turn at the vintage clothing shop onto a less busy road, Philly saw an opportunity.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  He dashed across the street, keeping close to the side of the building and ducking beneath any windows making sure that brushy tail was wiping the ground and staying out of sight. The fox was so quiet that Kay would have never heard the vulpine sneak up behind him. As Kay passed by a unit of mailboxes, Philly poked his head out from behind a leg, pointy ears a’flickin’!

  Kay was took. He looked around to see if anyone was around, lowering his headphones. “Philly!” he said quietly.

  “That I am,” said Philly. His grin dropped, and gestured at the conversation just had with Lana. “What was that about?”

  “What?” asked Kay, crouching down and keeping his voice low.

  “That girl you were just talking to,” said Philly. Okay, he should have known better. A public street was not a place to make small talk. He pivoted the topic at hand. “Never mind. Let’s get the backpack so you can patrol the city.”

  Kay looked at his coffee. It was still mostly full but between the walk to the backpack and finding a safe spot to transform, Kay would have time to finish his brew.

  It didn’t take a half hour before Ghost Thing was up and soaring across Toronto’s buildings. It might have been a new month but the thrill was same as always. Even if he had to concern himself with the safety and comfort of the urban fox riding in his backpack, jumping across the skyline was joyous.

  Philly, however– his mind was on Kay’s little encounter on the street back there. How dismissive Kay was to someone who seemed interested in him! She was a friend, and Kay blew her off.

  After Ghost landed on the roof with a thud and waddling Philly with the impact, Philly spoke up. “Hey, Kay...”

  “What?” asked Ghost, puzzled why his friend would use his real name while he was in water mode. It was only rooftops around, so it’s not like anyone was going to hear that slip.

  Philly knew this question was going to tick off the liquid fella but he felt bluntness was necessary. “How come you don’t like people?”

  “What?” Ghost asked again, confused by the strange question.

  He slowed himself down, thinking all the hustling and hopping was getting in the way of his hearing.

  “You don’t seem to like people,” said Philly.

  No, Ghost heard clearly. Insulted, he said, “I like people fine!”

  Philly shook his head. “No, slick. I don’t believe you do.”

  “Ugh!” Ghost Thing felt to urge to remove his backpack so he could stare down Philly better, but he didn’t want to use his weekend getting sidetracked by arguments. After giving Philly a few seconds of stink-eye, he turned back around and got accelerating. “We don’t have time to talk about this. Let’s focus on finding bad guys.”

  Philly wanted to carry the conversation, but resigned. “You’re right. We’ll talk about it later.”

  And talk about it later they did! After a few hour of patrolling South Riverdale, they took a break on a random rooftop and Philly brought up the discussion once again.

  He asked, “Who was she anyway?”

  “Huh?” Ghost Thing had his legs stretched out across the floor. By the tone of Philly’s voice, Ghost figured out who he was talking about. “Oh. Lana. She’s in my Media Studies class.” Ghost looked away, disinterested. “She’s okay...”

  The overwhelming white of the cloudy skies hadn’t let up into the afternoon. That didn’t keep people inside. Down below on the sidewalks of Riverdale, people walked the streets. There was chatter and laughter that echoed into the upper deck of the city where Ghost and Philly roamed.

  “She thinks you’re cool, slick,” said Philly.

  Ghost was silent. That didn’t feel possible. Most people mocked Kay’s personality, fashion, and tastes. If someone said they thought he was cool, he was predisposed to not believe them. Ghost Thing said, “I don’t know about that...”

  Philly didn’t think those words were sincere, but then again maybe the kid had real feelings about it. “You don’t think so?”

  Ghost puttered and squirmed, discomforted at analyzing those feeling. “I don’t know,” he groaned.

  “You should be treasuring kids like that!” said Philly, letting out a sly grin. His expression dropped, though. “Y’know... some of us can’t make friends like you do.”

  It was about Philly being a fox again. Ghost Thing understood how hard it was for Philly to have relationships with him being a talking animal and not a lot of those kinds of creatures were around. Aside from Ghost, the fox didn’t have any real friends.

  “That’s not my fault,” said Ghost Thing.

  Philly sighed. His friend wasn’t being a cooperative discussion partner. The fox kept quiet for the rest of the sit-down. Maybe another opportunity would come around to have that conversation.

  And so, Ghost Thing and his backpacked friend Philly rode the tops of South Riverdale’s buildings, looking for purse-snatchers, stick-ups, or anyone who might have been involved in the gang after Ghost. It was a search for clues. What did the gang look like? Where did they operate? Was there any word of their presence around the neighbourhood?

  Hours had gone by, morning turned to afternoon, and there wasn’t a sight to be seen. There was an occasion where Ghost Thing thought there was a carjacking but when the pair went to investigate they saw it was just some guy who spilled coffee on his front seat. The area was quiet and the spectre that attacked Ghost Thing the other day wasn’t up on the rooftops dancing like he was known for.

  It was on top of a KFC where Ghost thing looked out into the horizon, griping, “Maybe they’re not here after all.”

  Philly chuckled, poking his head out of Ghost Thing’s backpack. “Didn’t your school friend tell ya that you that Tall-Dark-and-Handsome was cruising around this spot?”

  “Yeah, but...” Ghost took a wide look around. “He’s not here.” He billed a hand over his brow. “You think he can turn invisible?”

  Philly chuckled. “Figures he ain’t showing up now that you’re looking for him.” He pulled a foreleg out in a shrug. “Just out there enjoying your day? He comes to wreck house. But you searching the neighbourhood for him? Empty seats.”

  “Yeah,” said Ghost, grinning. “At this point, I don’t even want to talk to him. I want to see him, y’know? Just a confirmation that he’s here and exist and not just some person that appeared to hurt me weeks ago.” He bowed his head and kicked a stone with his watery foot. “Just a confirmation that I’m not wasting my time.”

  It was frustrating dealing with an enemy that was so discrete. The absence of the shadow man (and his respective gang) was so noticeable that it got Ghost Thing questioning his cognitive abilities. It was similar to... well, nothing that Ghost had ever experienced in real life was like it but thinking about searching for a villain that didn’t want to be found reminded him farming for a Kangaskhan in one of the Pokémon games.

  Philly took out his other paw and placed it on Ghost’s shoulder. “Hey, don’t get blue. We’ll find ‘em.” He put his paws back in the pack. “Just gotta be patient.” Philly thought for a moment. “But I see your point. It’d be nice to confirm that Mr Silhouette or anyone that has to do with whoever’s after you was around.” He perked his nose around Ghost’s watery shoulder. “Wanna split up? I take one side of the neighbourhood, you take the other?”

  Ghost Thing thought about it. It made sense. Ghost liked having Philly have his back (quite literally), but he could also deal with not having the fox around for a bit. He would have to be extra cautious but he could handle it.

  “Okay,” said Ghost, nodding his fishbowl head.

  Ghost took Philly around the way to an empty street. After making sure that no cars were coming and no one was strutting down the sidewalks, Ghost let Philly out to slither through a fence and run off to the northern parts of the neighbourhood. Ghost went back atop the buildings and stashed the backpack between some vents, sure nobody would find it.

  With that tucked away, Ghost Thing headed off, scanning the realms for those who would do evil.