Week 10 Story: It's a Bad Idea, Me and You

There is something about bad boys, I think, as Kaxo climbs out of bed and stretches his shoulders. We had been at this for weeks, despite the fact that my parents hate him. The tribal tattoos along his shoulders stretch and move, almost like they are alive on his tanned skin. The wolf between his shoulder blades moves as if alive, the skull between its jaws escaping some unknown horror inside. 

What I image Kaxo's tattoo looks like. Found on favim.

It had been weeks since this had started, weeks since my parents kicked me out and sent both of us packing. The entire community backed them. They never liked him; Kaxo was an outsider in their eyes, someone who would never leave up to the impossible standards that they had set for everyone around them.

And I was going to have his child.

We had found out only a few days before, when I had been sick over a long period of days without any other explanation. We couldn’t see a doctor – neither of us had insurance – and I was far too prideful to go to a clinic. So, a pregnancy test it was, and it was positive.

“I’m going to meet Crow.” Kaxo tells me, turning around with that smile that got us in so much trouble in the first place. His best friend is the only one from our old neighborhood that keeps in contact, the only one that believed Kaxo was just as amazing as I believed him to be.

Together, the two of them were going to figure out what Kaxo and I were going to do. With the baby on the way, there was nothing that I could do but sit and let the baby grow.

From what Kaxo has told me, they believe that if my parents believe that if I broke it off with him, if I really prove to them I have come to my senses, they would take me back in. I could have the baby taken care of and when he, or she – Kaxo firmly believes it’s a boy – is born, I leave again.

But the problem is, I don’t know if I can leave Kaxo for that long. I guess we’ll have to see.

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Author's Note: The original story is The Dog-Husband, and it talks about a young woman who is seduced and has an affair for a man who's a dog during the day, and human during the night. In the original story, when her parents find out, she is exiled and the man is killed. She goes to the beach and has the babies. A crow helps them later on in the story, when the babies are born and start to grow up. The main character is forced to make her village believe the babies are dead, and they except her back. But the babies come and end up ruling the tribe. In my story, it's modern day, and  I've named the young man. Kaxo is actually the Quinault word for dog. And I kept the Crow in the story so that we have a sense of the original story in mine. I made it first person, and I also kept Kaxo alive because I hate death. Hope you liked my (short) story.

Bibliography: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929). Link to online reading.