Stepping out from the darkness, a figure emerged. It was Freddy’s father, who had been on the other side of the door for a while now. Although he didn’t catch all of his son’s conversation with Michael, Freddy’s father heard enough of it to get the gist of where his son was yesterday and what kind of danger he faced. He thought about quietly going into his room, but he decided that he should talk to his son and let him know that his secret will stay with him.
As Freddy settled into his room, he heard a knock on the door.
“Uh, come in” Freddy called out.
The door opened to reveal his father coming in hesitantly and then shutting the door behind him.
“Hi Freddy” his father began. “Can we talk?”
“Dad” Freddy replied with a surprise in his voice. “What are you doing home?”
“Can I sit down?”
Freddy nodded as his father pulled up the rolling chair and sat across from his bed.
“I’ve been listening in to your conversation with Michael, Freddy.”
“What!”
“Freddy, it’s not a big deal.”
“Dad, it’s a big invasion of my privacy for you to be doing that. And when did you get home, anyway?”
“Well, your mother, Josh and I were heading home when I saw that the lights were on in your room and I heard loud yelling. Not wanting to bring them into it, I asked your mother to drop me off a few houses down and take your brother out for pizza and ice cream. Josh didn’t question that, of course. Anyways, I waited until I heard loud screaming again and then I went into the house and walked upstairs. I thought to knock on the door to ask what was going on, but when I started hearing the conversation shift to about what happened yesterday, I decided to wait behind the door and listen in.”
“You weren’t supposed to hear all of that. It was supposed to be private. Michael was right. We should have spoken at his house where his parents weren’t going to be home.”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t because now I know…”
“Dad! I wasn’t trying to keep these things from you because I hate you or don’t think you’re trying to be helpful. I did it because Michael and I are dealing with some very dangerous beings at the moment and I was worried for you and mom’s safety. I was worried that if you got tangled up in all of this, that you could get hurt because of a mess I made!”
Freddy started to cry as his father looked on silently. Not sure what to do, his father reached out to him and patted him on the shoulder.
“There, there Freddy. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s best that I know now anyway.”
“No dad!” Freddy snapped.
Freddy’s father normally would have scolded his son for such a reaction, but he could see that his son was in pain and genuinely worried for his safety. Against his parenting instinct, he held his tongue.
“It’s not ok” Freddy continued. “Michael specifically didn’t want you to know about this and when he finds out, he’s going to be mad at me and scold me and…”
“You don’t have to tell him I know, Freddy.”
“Didn’t you hear any of what we were fighting about, dad? One of the whole points of the spat was that we keep too many secrets from each other. Now, you want me to go against everything we said we wouldn’t do and keep another secret from him?”
“You could always tell him I know, Freddy.”
“And get yelled at again. I don’t think I can hear another ‘Freddy, you idiot, I told you. I told you. I told you.’ Bleh.”
“Freddy, it isn’t so bad.”
“Dad, I didn’t even want you to know about this curse in the first place. If it was up to me, I would have handled this all by myself.”
“It’s best that you didn’t do that, Freddy.”
“Well, if I had kept it secret from you, at least you wouldn’t have treated me like a bad dog.”
Freddy’s father looked at him, knowing that what his mother had discussed with him the other day rang true.
“Freddy…”
His father sighed before he continued.
“Freddy, your mother confronted me the other day about what happened at the dog park. She really laid into me harshly and stuck up for you. She didn’t like the way your brother and I were treating you as a dog, but in fairness, if you were concerned about us knowing where you were yesterday, then we were just as concerned about your brother finding out about your secret. Josh isn’t the most discrete person in the world and hiding it from him has been very difficult.”
Freddy nodded.
“I had to play along that you were a dog so that he wouldn’t start to get suspicious” Freddy’s father continued. “Which, by the way, Freddy, he already has. He found out that we never put up any missing dog posters in the neighborhood and he confronted us about why we weren’t doing more to look for Fido. When he saw the tail…uh, your tail, yesterday, he was about to call the cops. If we didn’t undo the hinges on the door, it could have become a much more difficult situation to deal with.”
Freddy processed this information, glad that his father was confessing the extent of Josh’s yearning for Fido.
“So yes” his father continued. “I shouldn’t have treated you as badly as I did. I shouldn’t have pulled at your leash to the point of choking you or yelled at you when you wouldn’t follow orders. But you know that if you’re going to be a dog in this house and Josh is around, then you’re going to have to play the part until this…thing gets resolved.”
“You don’t have to be so harsh to me, dad. Even as a dog, I didn’t deserve all that.”
“I’ll do better in the future, Freddy. Speaking of which.”
Freddy’s father got up to head out the door.
“Now that I know what you were up to, yesterday, I decided that you can stay home from school tomorrow if you want. Your mother didn’t want you going in today and she begged me to let you stay home, but I insisted that I wasn’t going to put myself out there and fight your school on this unless I had a good explanation for your disappearance. Now that I know where you were, I’ll just tell them that you need another day off and that’ll you’ll be ready to go back on Monday. And if for some reason the curse still isn’t solved by then, then we have all weekend to formulate a long term strategy.”
Freddy’s father gave a smile as he turned to leave.
“The choice is yours, Freddy. Think about it. Good night.”
“Good night, dad.”
Freddy’s father shut the door as Freddy sat up in bed. His father briefly opened it again to make one more comment.
“Oh, and by the way, let’s keep our conversation between the two of us, shall we?. Don’t go telling your mother about what we discussed tonight. She doesn’t have to know.”
Freddy nodded as his father closed the door once again.
Freddy had a lot of decisions to make in a short period of time. Was he going to risk the temptation of changing into a dog again at home or in school in front of his peers? Was he going to tell Michael that his father was in on what happened yesterday or will he keep yet another secret from him? Freddy didn’t have to decide all of this right now. As he drifted off to sleep, he decided that he'd make up his mind on these things in the morning.
The next day….