Kal finally caught the fox and sat him on the bed—as near to sitting as Dirham got. Samantha carried water in her cupped hands from the bathroom, the sheet wrapped around her in a sorry imitation of a sari to keep the evidence of what they’d been doing from Dirham and his friend, but the fox had such a wild look in his eyes that Kal had a feeling their state of undress was the last thing the fennec was registering. Dirham started to hyperventilate so Kal yanked the pillowcase from a pillow and wrapped it around the fennec’s snout. “Take deep breaths, Dir. You need to calm down.” “But… problem…” Dirham mumbled inside the pillowcase, his gasps segueing into choking when Kal sat on the corner of the bed. It took two whacks between the shoulder blades for Dirham’s breathing to get in sync, but his eyes were still the size of his ears and his tail was ramrod straight, every strand of fur sticking out as if he’d shoved all four paws into electrical sockets.
