THE CHRONICLES OF GIN
A Serialized Gingerbread Man Retelling for Adults
Part 12: Into the Betrayal
I suppose he was right about that whole “talking” thing. Once I started, the story just poured out of me, like it needed to be released.
It helped that Harvey was such a good listener. He'd stay quiet when needed and chime in with something supportive every now and then.
“That must have been so confusing and awful! Deep water coming up, climb up to my neck. There you go. Yeah, that sounded tough.”
And a little later:
“Wow, that’s true friendship right there. Oh, get all the way onto my nose, it’s pretty deep here. Yeah, that’s it. Mhm. You sure were lucky to have a friend like that. Mhm.”
But not long after that, something seemed to change.
“She got you to call her Miss Kitty? Bwahahaha!!” Harvey cackled, mouth wide open, revealing multiple rotted teeth.
“I thought you said no judgment!” I huffed, terribly embarrassed by it all.
“I know, I know, I’m sorry… but that was some Grade A, top-shelf stupidity right there, wow!” He stifled a snicker before bursting into full-on belly laughs again.
“You had to have seen her…” I mumbled lamely.
“Oh yeah, I’m sure she’s really something. And Scruff probably jumped in at some point like, ‘None of this is legal, Kitherine.’ Ha!” His impression of Scruff was eerily good.
A sinking feeling started brewing in the pit of my stomach.
“You know them.”
“Of course I know them, you dumb cookie! I spent the first year of my life on that farm.”
His grin was extra wide now.
“Fun fact,” he continued jovially, “the old lady who baked you? Her name is Katherine, and she named Kitherine after herself so they could be Kit and Kat. How cheesy is that?? Ooh! And that cockroach you made friends with? He used to check himself into the dungeon like twice a month and just leave whenever he felt like it, ’cause it’s impossible to restrain him or something. I’ve got the scoop on everyone. Ask me anything. Go ahead. What do you want to know?”
“I want to know why you saved me.”
He snorted. “Well, that’s easy. If I’d had to fish you out of the water to eat you, you would’ve been all soggy and nasty. I love gingerbread. And in case you haven’t noticed, there aren’t any bakeries out here. I wasn’t about to let you ruin this for me just because you’re ‘depressed.’”
He literally raised his paws out of the water to put air quotes on that last word before continuing to paddle, a satisfied grin plastered across his smug face.
“Just to be clear, no matter how fast you are, you’re not waterproof. So don’t even think about escaping. This is the end of the line for you. Hey, before I eat you, wanna hear my story? It’s been a while since I had a captive audience.” He cackled wildly at his borrowed joke.
“Sure. Whatever.” I muttered.
I was getting angry. The quiet kind of angry.
But at least this fox’s narration would buy me some time.
So you can't trust perfect strangers anymore? What?! I guess Gin may have bitten off more than he could chew this time. Who will save him? Will he save himself? What's Harvey's deal anyway? Stay tuned to find out in the next installments, definitely eventually 😉
