Children of Bast (17 page)

“But, you said it was a prison.”

“Yeah, but I learned how to get out.” I turned around and went on.

“Being warm is nice.”

Her belly looked like it had doorknobs in it and sometimes they moved. I mean there was no doubt she was loaded. Would Harriet and Ned turn us away? Nah. I figured if we played cute, we could get in.

“Remember to purr a lot and loud. They like that. And rub on them. Wrap your tail around their legs and scent-mark them as much as possible. Soft suckers’ll melt right away. Even the hard cases will fall if you keep it up.

“Hey, don’t get me wrong. I respect them because they’re big and strong and really smart, but they’re soft hearted. Most of them, that is.”

“Will you shut up, Gaylord! Remember, I was a housie once. I know the drill.”

Dodging cars and crossing open grassy fields, we were soon at the seminary. I recognized the apartment building, dark brick with all the apartments facing the street. Steps led up to each door that all looked the same.

Which one do I want, I thought as we huddled in some bushes. Early Season of Emergence can be a very cold time, as you know, because we’re still used to warm weather and our faraawi hasn’t grown in. An icy wind blew across us there in the bushes, telling us to get inside somewhere warm as soon as possible. I drew Adele closer to me.

“They’ll be coming out soon.” I said.

“Will they recognize you?”

“I think so. I hope so.”

A door opened and a kid walked out, bundled to his eyeballs, crossed to the sidewalk, and went up the street away from us.

“Ours?” Adele asked. I felt her shiver against me.

“No. But I think it was the kid next door who made a lot of noise all the time.”

Another door opened, and sure enough it was Harriet. “Wait here,” I whispered to Adele and trotted off toward Harriet.

I liked Harriet. She was kind and was a first class sucker for anything I asked for. Rolling over caused her to reach down and scratch my belly every time, and if I wanted some extra food, a chirp and a rub always worked.

Ned could be annoying and was harder to train because he was distracted most of the time with whatever he did. And, he wasn’t home a lot so I could work on him.

Harriet was bundled against the cold, too. As she walked toward the street, I crossed her path and deftly wound between her legs, almost tripping her. She stopped and looked down. “Gaylord! Gaylord, where have you been?” She scooped me up and cuddled me to her face. Her breath smelled of coffee. “I thought you were dead. Why did you run away?”

I wanted to tell her why, but she didn’t understand our language. So, I purred as loud as I could, nuzzled her cheek and tried to show her why I came back. I thought maybe she’d get the drift that I wanted inside.

“You are a rascal.” She laughed, spun around and started toward the door.

I gave out a whiny meow of protest and struggled hard to get down. I ran to where Adele hunkered in the bush, looked back at Harriet and let go with a piercing distress meow. “Owr! Owr! Owr!” Next I gave out a regular meow, all the time staring right at Harriet; you know, Chubby, so she’d think I understood her.

“What is it?” Harriet asked when she came to me.

I jumped in the bush and said to Adele, “Come on out. She’s delighted to see me.”

Adele came out and offered the sweetest queenie meow I’d ever heard. She pushed her head into Harriett’s extended hand, rubbing, purring and scent marking with the side of her mouth.

“You’re a natural,” I murmured. Adele heard me and poured it on more. Harriet didn’t have a chance.

“So, is this your lady, Gaylord?”

I meowed and joined Adele in rubbing and purring. Harriet gathered us in her arms and whisked us inside the apartment. I sniffed the air and knew right away that we were the only amai there. I struggled to get down. I feared the worst. Where was my sister, Lamis? No litter box stink, and only a faint, stale amait odor. I ran to the living room, then to the kitchen. No one. Harriet put Adele down, and she ran to me.

“My sister’s gone.”

“Oh, Gaylord, I’m so sorry.” She licked my cheek several times.

“How sweet,” Harriet said. “You guys must love each other a lot.” She went to the kitchen, got two bowls, filled them with milk and sat them by the stove. “I gotta go. I’ll pick up some cat food on the way back. You guys enjoy the milk and sleep. Okay? I’ll be back around five. Ned’ll be here late this evening. He’s in change of evening prayer. Take care.” She opened the door and turned to us. “Glad you’re home, Gaylord. We’ll decide what to do with your lady when I get back.”

I recoiled. Decide what to do with Adele? You keep Adele here with me, if you want to keep me.

Adele looked at me. “I don’t like what she said.”

“Neither do I. We gotta think and plan. And I want to know what happened to Lamis.”

“Take it easy. Let’s eat first.”

“I’m not very hungry. Besides, I hate milk.”

“What? I love it and don’t ever find it on the street. What do you mean you hate milk?”

“Gives me the galloping khara.”

She dropped to the floor laughing. “The what, Gaylord? The galloping khara?”

“Runs, Beautiful Amait, if you need to know. It’s what my maama called them.”

She rolled over on her back, waved her legs around and laughed until I thought she’d puke. “I have never heard anything so funny. You are some goofy tom.”

She drank both bowls of milk, and we curled up together on the sofa. Adele fell asleep right away, but I couldn’t with my mind whirling. For one thing I was uncomfortable. I thought being back in the apartment would be great, but with my sister gone, it wasn’t home. And, there was a peculiar smell, which I could not identify, that made me nervous. I wondered if Adele smelled it, but all she thought about were the kiths crawling around inside her and paid little attention to anything else. It wasn’t that she looked forward to having them; she just wanted it over, and she wanted the kiths gone as soon a possible. Adele was a practical maama, as you know, Chubby, not a loving one, which concerned me a bit for the kiths.

But what really scared me was what Harriet said when she left about deciding what to do with Adele. Did she suspect Adele was loaded? She looked it for sure, but bašar don’t know much about amai, anyway, and Harriet maybe hadn’t noticed. ’Course bašar detect things we think they don’t know about, like cleaning a litter box. Since they don’t use one, how do they know it needs cleaning? Always puzzled me.

Anyway, I knew I had to keep on guard. The first sign that they were going to get rid of Adele was my cue to get us out. So, I had to have a plan just in case because it was the Season of Emergence and they didn’t leave the door open like they did in the Season of Low Water. Maybe there’s another way out, I wondered. I decided to go look for it while Adele slept.

I uncoiled myself from Adele, went to the kitchen and snooped around. I found some holes in back of the stove, but they had pipes in them. I tried to squeeze through, but no way. In Adele’s condition it was out of the question. I pulled open the cabinet under the sink, and found the same thing. After I sniffed the rest of the kitchen and found nothing that would get us out of there, I went back to the living room.

Adele was still asleep, so I circled the room and sniffed everything: nothing, not even a crack anywhere. But, that smell I didn’t recognize was stronger. It really bugged me.

I went into their bathroom. All its familiar, weird smells were there but not the mystery stink. I nosed around; found the towels damp and the sink faucet dripping. I took a drink, but gotta whiff of the crap they use on their teeth, gagged and hopped down. Only way outta there was the bathroom door.

Their bedroom I knew well. Me, Maama and sis slept there every night, cuddled up with Harriet and Ned. Like I said, they were pretty good bašar as bašar go.

I’d explored the bedroom many times, so I knew it was escape proof. See, I’d looked for a way to escape many times, Chubby, and I had explored about everything in the place.

I was about to give up when I noticed their closet door was open. That’s new, I thought. I’d never seen that door open. Slinking inside careful like, I sniffed, and coughed. Dust. Lots of dust. I sneezed and rubbed my nose. Clothes were everywhere, some hanging up; some on the floor tangled with their shoes and some socks in the corner that really smelled disgusting.

I spotted a shelf over their clothes, an easy jump. And Chubby, I struck gold. Staring at me in all of its beautiful darkness was a hole big enough for both of us. I almost cried. Even Adele in her condition could make the jump.

‘Course the door to the closet would have to be open, so I planned to make sure it was always open although I wasn’t sure how. Then I thought of an old trick I use to pull on them.

Before I ran away, I’d sometimes stare at something, anything–a wall, a chair, a spot on the rug, or, my favorite, the front door, which I wanted them to open–and scream my head off like I was wacked. I used to do it all the time. They hated my screaming, and yelled at me to shut up, but I’d keep on until they came to see why I was screaming.

What was really funny, Chubby, was when I stared at a wall and yowled; they didn’t know what to do. They could open a door or move a chair, but what could they do with a wall or a spot on the rug? I did it for meanness and because I was bored outta my mind. Anyway, I always got their attention. So, I planned to keep an eye on the door to the closet and make sure it was always open. Find it closed, I’d let out a yowl that’d stop their heart and keep it up ‘til they opened it.

The hole smelled like a rat’s nest and there was wind blowing through it. Good, I thought. Maybe it leads outside. I squeezed into it and was surprised that I could stand up. I slipped slowly along the side and waited for my eyes to adjust. Up ahead I heard a whirring sounded like the things Mutt, Fergus and I used to sprawl on behind buildings. Air blew out and cooled us when it was hot and kept us warm when it was cold.

~ ~ ~ ~

“I know what you’re talking about,” Chubby said. “There’s a place like that back of one of the dormitories. I go there sometimes. Hold on. Gotta dig a hole.”

“Me, too.”

“Gotta a hairball, too. It’ll take awhile.”

I went on when he got back under the shack.

~ ~ ~ ~

I came to a corner that went to the right and heard the whirring getting louder and felt air pulling my faraawi forward. When I got closer, I saw something that looked like a bunch of wires hooked onto each other. Behind the wires was this shiny round thing that flashed little sparkly lights and I could see through it. The wind got stronger as I got closer; I felt like I was being sucked up by something.

Between the thing with wires and the side of the hole was an opening big enough to get my head and shoulders into. That’s all I needed, so I pushed through and found myself falling toward the ground. I righted my body and landed on my feet. I was outside.

I looked up to where I’d been and realized it was going to be hard to get up there and crawl back. But, the side of the building was rough, and I decided I could climb up if my claws would hold me. It worried me that Adele might panic if she found me gone, so I leaped to the wall and spread my claws, digging them in as deep as I could. The first time I tried, I fell back to the ground, but I made it the second time and ducked in the opening. I ran to the closet and climbed down, using one of Ned’s suits that smelled a lot like him. I got to the living room, just as Adele woke up.

“Where’ve you been?” She yawed, hopped down and started smoothing herself.

“I went looking for another way out of here besides the door. We may need it.”

“Find one?”

“Yeah, in the closet in the bedroom. Wanna see?”

“Sure.”

She was impressed. I took her to the wire thing and showed her the opening to the outside, but we didn’t jump out. I figured if we needed to use it, we wouldn’t be coming back.

“Why wreck your claws,” I said, and she agreed.

The shiny round thing still whirred inside the wires. It looked dangerous.

“Let’s keep away from that,” I said.

Later, while we lounged on the sofa, Harriet returned, and we got the shock of our lives. She had a huge kilaab with her, mostly black with a lighter color on its face and very cold eyes. He mocked us with his stare, licked his lips and sat next to Harriet. I knew we needed to get to our escape hole, now and fast. The odd smell in the apartment? It was kilaab.

“This is Schatzi, guys, and he is a lover, not a fighter.” She rubbed his ears and scratched his chin. He lied to Harriet by wagging his tail, but he glared at us like we were supper. Schatzi was not her pet; he was a moocher that I could see was dangerous.

“Move slowly to the bedroom,” I whispered to Adele. “Do not run. And, do not take your eyes off him. If he comes toward us, back off slowly to the bedroom, swell up as much as you can, and hiss like crazy. I doubt he’ll do anything with Harriett here, but kalb are messed up in the head.”

I knew kalb didn’t understand our language, so I didn’t try to lower my voice; they can follow a few words from bašar, but that’s about all their simple brains will allow.