They had an arrangement. Rebekkah had Dillon ninety percent of the time she was home, but she left to do hair on movie shoots pretty regularly, so Craig would move into her spacious place with their son and a menagerie of pets while she was gone, usually three weeks to a month.
Dillon was a blast, seven years old, funny, energetic. They would play hide and seek, and occasionally Craig would get lost because Rebekkah has remodeled the beautiful Tudor so extensively.
This time Rebekkah was off in Montana working on Velocity Kings III, the ungodly successful action franchise. He was happy for her success, a bit jealous maybe, a little residual lust for sure. But she cared way more about their little boy and her pets than she ever would about him, and he knew it.
Craig let the dogs out so he and his son could play hide and seek without raising the suspicion and ire of her Dobes, and while Craig was in the backyard Dillon would hide.
He loved his son, but in reality he was never in a hurry to find him.
He’d grab a beer, sometimes snoop Rebekkah’s mail, occasionally calling out to Dillon to let him know he was looking.
She had new leaded glass in the dining room, and some fancy new knives in the pantry.
Craig opened a closet that a seven-year-old might have chosen for a hiding space, sipped his beer. Opened a different broom closet off the back hall.
As he began to reach in he saw his own reflection and realized the closet had been glassed over.
Craig stopped, slightly disoriented. Just two months prior this had been a normal, domestic rather mundane utility closet full of average household items.
After further inspection, it was a giant habitat of her collection of pet rats.
He was certain that their feeding instructions were written in the extensive notes she always left him, but she had not mentioned the new habitat.
Her eccentricities were part of what he had loved, but he rolled his eyes at the thought of an adult woman converting an entire closet into a rat hotel.
As Craig processed this concept, he noticed something else. Three of her rats were completely hairless.
“Dillon!” Craig called, “are the rats sick?”
Dillon didn’t answer. Smart kid. They were, after all, playing hide and seek.
Craig walked over to the kitchen island where Rebekkah always left the instructions.
There were two sheets of legal paper, mostly containing stuff Craig had known since the arrangement started.
The only thing new was that Dillon had an optometrist appointment on Thursday.
He called her cell.
“Hey, happened to notice the rats are bald. Are they ill? I don’t see any medications or special instructions.”
“No,” Rebekkah answered. “The rats are fine. Thanks for the concern though.”
“Beck, if they’re fine...why are they bald?”
“Oh jeez, Craig, I’m not supposed to…”
“You’re not supposed to what? Why are the rats bald?”
“You can’t tell anyone, Craig.”
“Tell anyone what?”
“Malcolm Dorner is the villain in this one. “
“Yeah, ok...he’s that really intense bald Welsh guy, right?”
“Yeah. He’s playing a character named The RatCzar.”
Craig clucked a bit. “Ok, and…”
“You promise you won’t say anything? I could lose my job.”
“Sure, Beck. Why the fuck are the rats bald?”
“Because in the script Malcolm’s character wears a rat hairpiece. They gave him a human hair hairpiece and he went ballistic.”
“Rebekkah, are you telling me…”
“Yeah, Malcolm Dorner gave me twenty grand to make him a hairpiece out of real rat fur.”
“Twenty grand to shave three rats?”
“Well, I had to make the hairpiece too. You can’t tell a soul.”
“Hey Beck?”
“Yeah?”
“Is it ok if I take two months off child support?”
“No, Craig, it is absolutely not ok. Dillon is your child and--”
“You just got twenty grand to shave three rats!”
“That’s irrelevant, Craig, you’re oblig-”
“Rebekkah, I’m hanging up and calling TMZ.”
“You’re a dick, Craig. But okay. Two months. And not a word I swear to…”
“Ok, Rebekkah. Not a word. I’m gonna finish playing hide and seek with Dill.”
“Ok, give him a kiss from Mommy.”
“I will,” Craig said, “Right after I call TMZ,”.
Craig hung up the phone and went to search for his kid.
***Photo by Shari Sirotnak on Unsplash
i'm most interested in what would prompt you to come up with this story.