“There’s more than one cat. You really want to shoot them? That’s good publicity?”
“That’s why I’m here. I don’t want to do that. But you know damn well that the minute we start tearing down the place those cats are going to take off for the hills. No need to kill them. I just need you to not call the woman with the TV camera. Okay? They don’t care what the truth is, it’ll be all over the news that we got kittens dying, which is just stupid.”
“There won’t be any way to know they’ve all escaped. We need to catch them and then seal off the entrance,” Lucas said.
“No. What? That could take weeks. We need an immediate solution.” Gunter was silent for a moment. “Maybe we’re looking at this from the wrong angle. These units I’m building, they’re going to be real nice. Upscale counters, nice appliances. I’ll reserve one for you, two bedrooms. What are you here, one bed one bath? I know this complex, it was built in the seventies. No central air, window units only, cheap electric stovetop. Whole thing probably going to be torn down—everybody’s building, now that the new hospital is for sure going in.”
“We have two bedrooms. And our rent is subsidized. We can’t move.”
“That’s what I’m saying; I’ll subsidize you.”
“I don’t think that would work. It’s all tied into my mom’s VA benefits.”
“Dammit, kid, can you just help me out here? Okay, I’ll keep it simple. I’ll give you a thousand bucks, you stop talking to the animal rights people. Deal?”
“A thousand dollars to look away while you bring a house down on a family of cats.”
“Sometimes life’s like that. You got to look at cost benefit. Think of all the good you can do for Save the Cats or Greenpeace or whatever with a thousand dollars, versus the lives of a couple disease-ridden cats that’ll probably die this winter anyway.”
I yawned and scratched my ear. It didn’t matter if there were toys to chase and chew, people usually preferred to just sit.
“Five thousand,” Lucas said after a moment.
“What?” The man twisted suddenly, making a noise on the couch. I watched him curiously. “You’re seriously bargaining with me?”
“I’m just listening to you. You’re worried about months of delay. It could cost you a lot of money. Five thousand seems pretty cheap. Ten thousand, even.”
The man was silent for a minute, then laughed out loud. There was a harshness in his voice. “What do you do for a living, kid?”
“Mostly I’m a student. Next week I start a job at the VA hospital as an administrative assistant. It’s a good deal, because that’s where my mom gets treatment.”
I sprawled on the floor, bored.
“Well hooray for you. No, I offered you a good deal and you insulted me by extorting from me. So here’s what you get, a good lesson for you. Nothing. You could have had a grand. You think you can get by in this world as a contractor without making a few friends in the government? All I have to do is find an animal control officer who is willing to sign something saying no cats under the house. He’ll probably be a lot cheaper than a thousand dollars—I was trying to help you out. You clearly could use the money.”
“Actually, you insulted me first by telling me I should compromise for a few pieces of silver. We both know I wouldn’t take your money,” Lucas replied evenly. “And now you’re implying something about our standard of living.”
Gunter stood up. “You stay off my land. I catch you over there, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.”
“Appreciate you stopping by,” Lucas said dryly.
Sometimes people hug or briefly touch hands when they leave, but Gunter and Lucas did not do either.
“I’m not going to let them hurt the cats, Bella,” Lucas told me. I heard my name and wondered if it was time for dinner.
*
Sometimes Lucas and Mom left me alone. The first time this happened I was very upset and chewed things I knew I shouldn’t—papers and shoes, items that I was not given by Lucas’s hand and that were always snagged out of my mouth when I was caught with them. Mom and Lucas were angry when they got home. They shook a shoe in my face and yelled “No!”
I knew the word “no” and was learning not to like it. The next time they left me I chewed my toys and just one shoe. I understood they were angry again but I did not understand why they left me alone. That seemed to me to be the important issue.
When I was with Lucas the world was a wonderful place and when he was gone it was like hiding with my mother in the crack in the back wall of the den, where everything was dark and frightening. I did not understand what I had done and just needed Lucas to come home and reassure me he still loved me. Whenever he said “No!” I cowered and waited for him to stop being angry over whatever the problem was.
My favorite thing to do was go with Lucas to feed the cats. I was always thrilled at the sound and fragrances of the bag of food, though so far he had not let me have any. We would cross the street and Lucas would push through the flap in the fence. I wanted very badly to follow him to the den so I could play, but Lucas would tie me to a tree on the street side of the fence so that I couldn’t. I could smell three felines in there, now. Mother Cat never came close enough to the hole to be seen, but the other two sometimes were in the light.
“I can’t be here all the time, I have a job now,” Lucas said to the cats as he stood at the hole. “I’ll try to protect you, but if the machines come you’re going to have to run away.” Sometimes Lucas would wriggle into the den and I would whimper in distress until he returned.
One night we returned home and Mom and Lucas sat at the table and ate chicken! I sat patiently, waiting for a little morsel, and wasn’t disappointed—Lucas’s hand came down with a tiny piece of skin that I quickly took from his fingers. I loved chicken and anything else that came from his hand. “There are at least three of them now, maybe four. It’s hard to tell.”
“How do they get past the fence?” Mom wanted to know.
“Oh, there are plenty of places where a cat could squeeze through. Bella spends a lot of time sniffing at a gap in the back under the bottom frame—I think maybe that’s where they are getting in and out.”
I looked at him expectantly when he said my name. Treat? Go for a walk? More chicken?
“Any chance of luring them out?” Mom asked.
“No, they’re pretty spooked. Especially the black female—she’s oddly the most brave and will walk right up to the hole, but I can tell she’ll never come out while I’m there.”
“What about the woman from animal rescue? Wendy?”
“Audrey. Yeah, I talked to her. She says they’ll try to come back out, but they’re really swamped right now,” Lucas replied.
“She was cute.”
“She has a boyfriend.”
“Well … sometimes they’ll say that, but…”
“Mom.”
She laughed. “Okay. So what is the plan?”