Children of Bast (25 page)

“Forgive me for acting like an idiot all week, Neko. I’m usually more trusting, but I guess I was so hurt I didn’t stop to think.”

“It’s in the past. Go nap.”

“Ragged alley amai?” Fergus said to me as we followed Millicent.

“Yeah? That’s what we are. So, what’s your point?”

Chapter 25

Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will piss on your computer.
Bruce Graham

I
t seemed like Neko never left us. I fell asleep instantly, and then she was there. Except for Katia, we crowded up at the bottom of the stairs while Neko quickly went over our plan and we took our places. I looked at Gato and she looked sick enough to die.

“Gato? Are you okay?” I said.

“I’m fine except for a hairball about the size of an egg. There will be no faking this one.”

Without warning she let out a yowl that caused our claws to clutch the floor. I felt sparks dance from the tip of my tail to my nose. Right on cue the others started screaming and yowling for all they were worth. Even Abyad wailed, but I’ll never know how she knew. We three bolted up the steps, took our places and stared at the door.

Almost as soon as Gato yowled, we heard the kalb barking. We just made it to the steps when the door opened and Newfie and Galin galloped down and started licking Gato. Pauly and Trish came right behind. Fergus, who was alone on the step opposite Millicent and me, dashed in first with us behind. Inside, I looked for Fergus, but he’d disappeared. Millicent darted under a something like a huge box, and I made for a chair that had loose cloth touching the floor. I listened to the noise downstairs, along with barks and howls from the kalb.

At last I heard Gato puke up the hairball. It splattered like a slap. Right away, I heard Pauly and Trish laugh, and the kalb whined that high pitch whine they use when frustrated.

Pauly and Trish laughed all the way back upstairs with Newfie and Galin trailing, and closed the door. Now all we had to do was wait.

I could barely make out Millicent under the box thing, and I didn’t see Fergus at all. Moving even the tip of my tail was out of the question, of course, and I hardly breathed. We waited and waited. No one came into the room, but we could hear voices coming from someplace. The kalb were quiet.

Suddenly, this gigantic, wet black nose popped under the chair and a booming voice jolted me from a short snooze.

“Hey, come outta there.”

My heart stopped, I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t move. My eyes focused on that nose.

“Come on,” bellowed the voice, “we know you’re here. We smelled you when we went up the stairs.”

I still couldn’t believe a kilaab could talk, Chubby, even though the one called Newfie spoke to Millicent downstairs. It blew me away that he spoke amait. I stuck my head out and gawked at this face and eyes laughing at me.

“Get your friends out here, too. One’s under the sideboard over there, and the other is scrunched up on the top shelf of the bookcase.”

Galin, his tail fluttering like a dry leaf in the wind, sat in front of the bookcase and watched Fergus who was trying to crawl inside a book.

“Come on out, guys,” I said in a loud whisper.

“You can talk normal. They went to bed. Besides, they don’t understand your words.”

Millicent crept out and stuck to my side like a wet feather. Fergus jumped down in attack mode, bristling and hissing at Galin, who just grinned and stared at him.

“He won’t hurt you,” Newfie called to Fergus. “Just don’t turn around or he’ll give you a sniff.”

Fergus broke and ran to me and Millicent, but glared at Galin and hissed if the kilaab so much licked his lips.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Newfie asked. He crumpled in front of us like a mountain with faraawi.

I tried to talk but nothing came out. Finally, I managed, “We’re trying to escape. The swinging door downstairs is locked, so we’re trying to escape through here. Your bašar were supposed to let you two out. And we were going to bolt then.”

“They use another door.” Newfie continued to look amused. “Why would you want to leave here? This is a great place.”

“It is. But your bašar do things to amai that we don’t like.”

“Oh. Okay.” He opened his mouth and began to pant softly. “’Scuse me, I’m a little warm.”

I was amazed at how sweet his breath was, Chubby. Kilaab breath smells the same as sewers. “I know what Pauly does to amai, and kalb for that matter.”

I gawked at him. “Kalb?”

Millicent almost fell over, but Fergus just continued to hiss at Galin, who had moved over next to Newfie.

“Yeah. Me and Galin got the fix, too, when we came here. He rescued us like he rescued you. See, Pauly and Trish just love animals. They’d rescue an elephant if it needed rescuing and they had a place to keep it.”

“You don’t mind what they did to you?” Millicent said.

“No. Takes pressure off. Bitches are just friends now. Don’t have to go through all that mess. Galin thinks so, too. Don’t you, Galin?” Galin said nothing but his tail beat the floor like a hammer. “Look, it’s your life and I don’t see locking you up just to please bašar like Pauly and Trish. You say the swinging door is locked?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, they got something planned, then. Wait here. We’ll get them up and make them to open the door. Then you run like you’ve never run before, even if it means bumping into them or us. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Get over by the door and hide behind those drapes. We’ll be right down.”

“Oh, Newfie, does Galin talk?”

“Yeah, but he don’t talk amait. He’s Welch and talks funny. Don’t ask me what Welch is because I don’t know; Pauly and Trish say it. I have trouble understanding him. We just buddy around, sleep and eat. We think it’s a great life.”

“One more question out of curiosity: how is it you speak amait?”

“I was brought up in a clowder. Amai have been best friends all my life.”

I glanced at Millicent who was grinning a know-it-all grin. “Don’t say it. I’m not changing my feelings about kalb, no offense to you and Galin. But, maybe some kalb are okay. Some, mind you. Not all. Maybe.”

She giggled and went behind the drapes where Fergus hid.

Newfie looked at me a grinned. “Had some bad times with kalb?”

“Yeah, some really bad times. Very, very bad times. Wish I had time to tell you. You and Galin here seem to be all right, but I gotta tell you, you’re the first kalb I’ve ever seen that are.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Okay, get ready. Galin, let’s go and wake ‘em up.” He spoke to Galin in lingua caninus, their harsh-sounding talk that’s mostly growls and whines. I joined Millicent and Fergus behind the drapes. It wasn’t long until Newfie and Galin started barking and howling. Something slammed the ceiling overhead, and Pauly and Trish bounded down the stairs.

“What the hell is going on?” I heard Pauly say.

Newfie and Galin continued to bark and howl as they raced to the door, then back to them, then back to the door, each time spinning around like they were crazy. Pauly threw the door open. Galin started scratching at the storm door while Newfie pushed his nose into the glass and barked, his breath and nose smearing it with goo. Pauly pushed the storm door open, and the kalb rushed out with us behind.

I never ran so hard in my life as I did that night. Snow was still deep, but we leaped through like toads, running over and through drifts. Millicent ran past me like I was standing still, leaving a trail in the snow that looked like a car track. I glanced back at Fergus who was loping along in his usual carefree manner.

I heard a voice calling to us. I stopped and looked back and saw Pauly standing in the doorway. As Fergus passed me, I said, “Hear that?”

“Nope.” He never broke stride.

I heard, “Good luck, you rascals. Take care.”

At first I thought it might be Newfie, but it was too high for his voice and it wasn’t amait. It had to be Pauly since Galin spoke with an accent, or so Newfie said. It surprised me that Pauly would wish us well, like maybe he was happy for us. Then I considered the fact that he had always made it so we could escape through the swinging door. Pauly and Trish didn’t imprison us. They gave us a safe place to live, food and free choice. We had always been free.

My attitude toward bašar changed. There are good bašar although I hate what they did to Millicent and the others, who probably stayed with Pauly and Trish because they had nothing else to look forward to. I smiled as I turned and started running again.

“Millicent is with me. Hope I’m worth looking forward to.”

Chapter 26

With the qualities of cleanliness, affection, patience, dignity, and courage that cats have, how many of us, I ask you, would be capable of becoming cats
? Fernand Mery

W
hen we got to the campus, we stopped and breathed. We needed a place to spend the night out of the cold and to find something to eat.

“Food’s gonna to be hard to find now that it’s cold,” Fergus said. Then, he looked at me and smiled. “Wait a minute. I got an idea. Hang around, I’ll be right back.” He fast-trotted across the snow.

“What’s he up to?” Millicent asked.

I saw she was shivering, so I hugged her with my front leg and we snuggled by a bush packed with snow.

“Haven’t a clue, but he’s an old pro. Born and bred on the streets. He’ll find something.” It wasn’t long until he came back with a tuyuur dangling from his mouth. “How in the world did you find a tuyuur?”

He dropped it in front of us. “They stay here in winter, and they crowd around places where lots of bašar are found. Remember at the lake, the tuyuurs they were feeding all the time?”

“Oh yeah, those big fat ones that waddled around scarfing up seeds and stuff from bašar. Wow, Fergus, this is great. Millicent, you’ll really love this tuyuur. They’re better’n rats even.”

“Anything has got to be better than a rat.” Disgust distorted her face.

“Dig in. I’m gonna to get another one.” He took off running and before long was back. “This is mine,” he said, “mine, mine, mine!”

We ate and I could tell Millicent was enjoying the tuyuur. She’ll do fine after a while, I thought. If I can, she can.

As I ate, I glanced over to the apartment where Adele was killed, and felt sad. But, I remembered what she said in the dream: she would always be with me, and I needed to get on with my life and hook up with Millicent, who needed me as I needed her. I perked up because I was doing what her spirit told me to do. “Make a special room for me in your memory,” she said. “Visit me from time to time, but go on with your life. I’ll always be in that room, as near as a thought.” I looked at Millicent while she finished her part of the tuyuur, and I knew I loved her. It wasn’t the same kind of love Adele and I had, but it was warm and sweet and tender. I was a lucky amait.

Fergus washed his face. “I know a place we can stay at all winter.”

“Where?” I asked.

“A long way from here, farther than our old territory, but we can make it in a day.”

“Okay, sounds good. Let’s find a place to sleep tonight.”

“I found that, too.” Fergus smiled. “Come on.”

We crossed the lawn, hopping over more snowdrifts, to where he went to get the tuyuurs. It was a building smaller than the apartments around it, and it was made of wood, not stone. It had a real high roof, Chubby, with a higher part in front, and on top of the higher part was the same thing Ned and Harriet had on their wall. Maybe it had something to do with gods. I dunno.

Anyway, Fergus led us around back into a opening under some stairs. It was dark inside, but when we could see, it was the space under the building. We crawled on our bellies until we came to a large area where it was warm like Millicent’s place at Pauly’s. We didn’t see a rusty box like she had, but it was warm, almost hot. “We came crash here,” Fergus said. He wasted no time dropping like a sack of grain and was asleep before me and Millicent laid down.

“He’s great,” Millicent said as she tucked her front paws under her breast and snuggled close to me.

“Can you get a little closer?”

“If I get closer, I’ll be inside you.”

“Like I said, can you get a little closer?” She pushed me with her nose and giggled.

“You got it right about Fergus, though. He’s the greatest. I wish you could have known Mutt.” I glanced at her, and she was gone to dreamland. I licked her ear and joined her.

When I woke up, I looked out on a bright day. It was very cold, but I knew the sun would keep us warm.

After shaking off the fuzz of sleep, Fergus went out and brought back two more tuyuurs, and after eating we took off with Fergus in the lead. He was right: it was a long way. We crossed several streets, almost getting ourselves smeared into the pavement a few times by cars that moved like a high wind. Millicent was really scared because she’d never been around many cars, except to ride to the vet, and didn’t know anything about dodging them. So, I came close to getting smashed helping her. Poor thing was numb with fear.