Children of Bast

by Frederick Fuller

  “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.

  Fergus, of course, moved through the cars like a bouncing ball, hopping and swaying around the wheels like they were his partners in some kind of hideous dance. At one point he sashayed under a huge truck and appeared to pass through the wheels. Millicent and I stopped to watch his performance and almost bought it from a taxi.

  “Isn’t he amazing?” Millicent said.

  “No, he’s stupid. He’s scared me silly since I’ve known him and watched him cross streets. I’ll have to peel him off the street someday and bury his sorry tail under a bush.”

  It was Time of Owls when Fergus announce that we were there.

  “Where?”

  “Right there, Kith Brain. That very tall round thing that looks like a huge can.”

  I looked up and down to where it met the ground. I saw a large opening at the bottom where trucks lined up to pull inside one at a time.

  “So what is it?” Millicent asked.

  “I don’t know.” Fergus grinned. “But I do know lots and lots of amai are there, and lots and lots of mice.”

  “I don’t eat mice anymore.”

  “When your tongue is hanging out and your belly feels like a knot, you’ll eat mice two at a time. Besides, Nebibi, I am almost positive the mice here are not poisoned.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Well, I could be wrong, but there are lots of amai, like I said, and lots of mice. From what I’ve seen, the bašar here want us because we take care of the mice. I mean, they’re very nice bašar. They pet us if we let ‘em. They even give us some of their food from time to time, which is not all that good. It’s dry and tasteless to me, but I eat it to be polite.”

  “How do you know about this place?”

  “Me and Mutt spent two Seasons of Emergence here, the last one and the one before that. It’s warm, you got other amai to talk to, fight with, settle, if you know what I mean, and you never go hungry.”

  “Well, I don’t understand. What’s so attractive for the mice? Don’t the stupid little things know amai are here?”

  “I think it’s the seeds that the bašar bring in. See those trucks? They have seeds in them. All kinds of seeds. They dump the seeds and they fall through the floor. Mice love those seeds and come here to eat ‘em. And we eat the mice.”

  “Where do we stay?” Millicent asked.

  “Oh, that’s what’s so cool. There are places all over to make a nest. Look, instead of jawin’ about this and freezin’ our tails off, let’s go in.” He took off toward the large opening and disappeared inside. We followed.

  Chapter 27

  “I meant,” said Ipslore bitterly, “what is there in this world that truly makes living worth while?” Death thought about it. “Cats,” he said eventually, “Cats are Nice.” Terry Pratchett

  It was warm inside, but the air was dusty and made me cough.

  “Come on,” Fergus called. “This way.”

  We crossed a wide floor past a mountain of seeds. I didn’t see any mice or amai around the seeds, but there were several tom bašar working. The seeds were almost as big as one of my toes and were light colored, maybe white, I don’t know. They smelled earthy like the heaps of leaves in the park by the lake. I told myself to remember to listen to the bašar and find out what the seeds were called.

  We trotted after Fergus as he took us into a large open room where we saw stacks of stuff lining the walls and piled to the ceiling on boxes like the ones under some of the big barrels in the alley behind Smokey’s Steak House. Trucks were parked all over the place.

  Fergus leaped over some boxes close to a wall and disappeared, only to pop up and say, “Home! Just as I left it. Come on in.” The floor behind the box was strewn with coarse cloth that felt itchy to my paws. “I’m amazed no one moved in while I was gone. But I scent-marked this place before I left until I ran dry. Maybe that’s it.”

  “Yeah, well, it does smell like you,” Millicent said. “Very heavy.”

  “Stinks like you.”

  He jumped me and we rolled around like we were fighting.

  “Hey, you two; cut it out. We got things to do.” Millicent’s tone said that the next blows would come from her. We stopped, gave each other some friendly licks, and sat up.

  “What do we have to do?” Fergus asked, “Except get a few mice. I’m almost dead from hunger.”

  “What is this stuff we’re walking on?” I asked.

  “It’s stuff they put seeds in. There are lots of them in another room. I grabbed as many as I could after End of Light when nobody was here and drug ‘em here to give me a soft place to snooze. Cool, huh?”

  “Soft? It’s worst than sand,” I said.

  “You’ll get used to it.”

  “I kind of like it,” Millicent said as she laid down and rubbed. “Feels good and scratchy.”

  “I don’t know,” I mumbled to myself. “I’m surrounded by two really dumb amai who make nice about something that feels like a gravel road. I gotta be wacko. That’s all there is to it. And what’s worse, I chose to be here. You’re wacko, Gaylord, wacko like Mutt was.”

  “Dumb amai?” Millicent said.

  “Yeah, I heard that too, Millicent. Wacko like Mutt? No one was wacko like Mutt. I knew Mutt, and, Nebibi, you’re no Mutt.” He looked at Millicent. “I think the kith here needs a tail whipping.”

  Fergus got up, licked his chest a few times and then grabbed me with his front paws. Millicent landed on top of him and I was pinned. She gnawed on my tail while Fergus dug into the nape of my neck. “I’ll drag you like the kith you are” His voice muffled in my faraawi. All I could do was screech with laughter.

  When we recovered from my drubbing, Fergus suggested we go hunt. He took us to a pile of seeds that was so high we couldn’t see the top.

  “What do you smell?” Fergus asked.

  Millicent and I opened our mouths and inhaled. “Mice!” we both said together.

  “Right. Get into position, don’t move or say a word,
and wait.”

  “Thank you, oh great teacher. We who are kiths and this is our first time hunting mice, we bow before you.” Millicent and I bowed low before Fergus.

  “Shut up! Scorn will get you a whip up. Get ready, Kiths.”

  We did as he said. Suddenly, we saw a bunch of them scampering along the edge of a wall and over to the seed pile. They looked fat and sluggish. We sprang at once, and before long were stuffed.

  We waddled back to the den and could hardly jump to the box, and we hit the floor like fresh hairballs. The coarse cloth felt wonderful. We were asleep instantly.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  “What is that?” I screamed.

  The loudest noise I ever heard yanked me from a deep sleep. Me and Millicent cleared the box together, but when I looked for her, she was gone. I jumped back up and looked down at Fergus. He was still asleep with the shriek continuing; I thought my ears would explode. I jumped on Fergus and yelled in his ear, “How can you sleep? What is that awful noise?”

  He shook his head and looked at me through blurred eyes. “That’s the whistle they use to call everyone together. Won’t hurt you.” He dropped his head and closed his eyes.

  I shook him. “Millicent took off.”

  He jumped up fully awake. “We’ll have to find her. She could get killed because she doesn’t know her way around.” Right then the whistle-stopped.

  We jumped over the boxes and hit the floor running. Fergus told me to go to the room where the sacks were kept, and he disappeared behind the seed mountain. I called her name as I ran. I rounded a corner and skidded to a stop. There she was cuddled in the arms of a bašar who was petting and cooing to her.

  “Millicent? What are you doing?”

  “Getting petted.”

  “I can see that. But why? What’s going on?”

  “That sound, whatever it was, scared the khara outta me, so I took off. This bašar was sitting here and I jumped on his lap. Old habit, Gaylord. I used to do that all the time at home.”

  Fergus ran up and sat down, too winded to say anything, and stared at the scene.

  “You cats have it made,” the bašar said. He nuzzled Millicent close to his face and chuckled. “All you do is sleep and eat and play while we work. I swear. I wanna be a cat.” He laughed and put Millicent down. “Run along now, Miss Puss. I have to get back to work, which, I’m sure, you know nothing about.” He got up and walked away.

  “Nice man, huh?” Millicent said.

  “Yeah, but still a bašar,” Fergus said. “Unless they have food, I don’t go near ‘em. I don’t let ‘em touch me much, either. A little back rub, but no getting into a lap. They do trap us, you know. I’ve had friends disappear.”

  “I was a housie once,” I said, “and it’s a pretty soft life. But it’s also prison. I could never go back.”

  “I didn’t say I was going back.” Her voice was sharp. “I used his lap to settle myself down, just as I used to do when I was a housie.” She came over to me, licked my face and pushed my head with hers. “Gaylord, I’m here with you and I love it.” She turned and looked at Fergus who was smiling. “You, too, Fergus. I like being with you, too.”

  Fergus stretched and yawned. “Well, I’m going to eat a few mice and go back to sleep. I’ve missed too much sleep showing you amai around.” He walked off toward the big seed pile.

  “Me, too,” Millicent said. “Come on, Gaylord.”

  “You go ahead, “ I said. “I’ll catch up. Need some time to look around a bit. I’ll be back.”

  She kissed me again. “Okay,” she said. “Make sure you do come back.”

  I smiled at her and kissed her back. “Don’t worry. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.”

  “Afraid? Not in the slightest.” She turned and strolled after Fergus.

  My thoughts went to Adele as I watched Millicent walk away. “She would have loved it here,” I said to myself.

  I was a fortunate young amait. In my life I had two mollies to love me and to love back. Adele would always be the love of my life, and Millicent would be my dessert into old age.

  Adele filled my mind, so I decided to visit her in her special room in my memory. I laid down, put my head on my paws, closed my eyes and knocked on her door.

  “Come in.”

  She was as beautiful as ever: her deep white faraawi tinged with gray was perfect, and her gorgeous green eyes glistened. My heart almost burst.

  “Hi, my love.” I entered the room.

  “Gaylord. I was hoping to see you today.” Her voice was low and sweet, and her purr said, “I love you.”

  I went to her, licked her face, and pushed my head against hers. We stood for a moment enjoying each other. Oh, she smelled so good and felt so good and tasted so good. “I miss you so much.”

  “And I you.” She stepped back and looked at me. “I like Millicent. She’s good for you.”

  “Thanks. I needed your okay. Yeah, she’s a great amait. I do love her.”

  “That’s good. That’s very good.”

  “But I’ll never love anyone as much as I love you.”

  She smiled. “Yes you will, Gaylord. What we had was wonderful, and my life was complete for having known and loved you. But, I’m not here anymore. You control me because I am part of your memory, but that will fade, my darling, as time passes.” I started to say that that would never happen, but she placed a paw on my mouth. “Listen. That’s the way it should be. Life goes on, Gaylord, and although you’ll always remember me, life is more important than memories.” She paused and smiled again as she nuzzled my face. “I love you, Gaylord. I always will. And I know you’ll always love me. But you must go now to Millicent and make another life.” She guided me out the door, but before she shut it, she kissed me.

  When I came back from my memory, I found myself in a place I didn’t recognize. It looked similar to the room where Fergus’ nest was, and several bašar were working, filling sacks like what we slept on. I found a sheltered place and hunkered down.

  How wise and right Adele was. Life does go on. It has to go on because it is right now that we have. Not tomorrow and especially not yesterday. Now.

  As I sat in this strange room, Chubby, in this strange place, I decided to live there the rest of my life if Millicent agreed. How far I had come from when I escaped Ned and Harriet in the Season of Low Water to this Season of Emergence, and this place. I was a soft, green housie who had the great luck to meet Adele and you, then Fergus and Mutt, and become a real amait, capable to taking care of myself anywhere. I had to laugh. Who would have thought it?

  I got up and strolled around a corner where I saw a vision. Seated on a stack of sacks was a gorgeous mollie, a dark reddish tabby with deep dark eyes. Wow, was my first thought. She was cleaning her hind leg when she looked up and saw me, smiled and went back to cleaning her leg. She was exquisite.

  My lovely Millicent said as long as I come home, I can have all the mollies I want, and, of course, I need that release, don’t you know? I’m young, after all, and not fixed. Nature called. I walked toward her. “I’ll be home tonight, sweet Millicent, but right now, I have something to do.”

  Chapter 28

  Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function. Unknown

 

  “That’s some story,” Chubby said. It was dark and raining. He rolled over on his side and cleaned his paws.

  “What gets me, though, is how you could stick to a mollie that was fixed. Where’s the fun in that?”

  “You don’t know her. She’s really a lot like Adele. She knows what she wants and is tough enough to get it. But, she is so sweet and kind and giving. In fact, I have to watch her or she’ll give away everything we have, which isn’t much: a few mice, couple of sacks to sleep on. I love her, Chubby, and Adele approves.”

  “And how’s Fergus?”

  “He’s doing okay. He’s old, too. Sick a lot and not as lively as he was. Like you.”

  “I warned y
ou, Punk.”

  “Okay. Just kidding.”

  “How long have you been at the feed mill? That’s what it is, by the way.”

  “Yeah, I know that now. About four months, maybe longer. It’s really great, Chubby. You’d love it. Hey, why not come back with me? You’ll get to know Millicent and Fergus, and most of the other amai are friendly. There’s so much food and warm places to sleep, that no one gets cranky. How about it?”

  He finished his paws, sat up, and yawned. “Don’t know if I could go that far. You say it’s a long way?”

  “Yeah. On the other side of town next to the tracks. You could make it. We’d take two days, maybe three. You’d be with me so you’d be safe.”

  “I don’t know, Gaylord. I’ve been here all my life, know my way around and know all the amai in the clowder. Moving’s a big deal at my age.”

  “Is any amait gonna be here when your time comes?”

  “What’s it matter? You kick, off you kick off. We’re all by ourselves when we die, anyway. Besides, I think I still have some friends who’d be here. No, it’s not that I’m thinking about.” He looked away and watched the rainfall. I could tell he really wanted to come with me but was afraid of something.

  “What’s going on, Chubby?”

  He continued to watch the rain and said nothing for a while.

  “I have a son,” he said at last.

  “A son?” I was stunned. He never said anything about kiths. “The maama?”

  He looked into my eyes. “Adele.”

  “So, that’s why she treated you so special.”

  “She treated me special because we loved each other, not because we had kiths together.”

  “Okay, so tell me.”

  “It’s simple, really, Gaylord. Old amai can settle mollies, too. It ain’t as easy as when you’re young, but we can do it. You’ll see in time.

  “Adele appeared one day right after she’d escaped, and when she got rid of that garbage dump, Ralph, we fell in love right away, just like you did with her. She was like you when you first got here, soft and inexperienced. I helped her get it together. She came in, and, well, like I said, old amai do all right.”

  I couldn’t say anything. I was feeling mad and hurt at the same time. That Chubby and Adele made kiths was not what ate at me. It was that they didn’t tell me right off. Now I stared at the rain, which was easing up, and suddenly, I saw Adele’s face smiling at me. I drew a deep breath and looked at Chubby who stared at me.