“Oh, look, his lordship deigns to come see us.”
“Pardon me?” Benji asked, easing back to look at my face.
Turning him around, I pointed up so he could see the sleek black cat crossing one of the beams in the vaulted ceiling. The way my house was, the second floor had three doors, one being my bedroom, with an en suite, one being the guest bathroom, and the other being the guest bedroom. The balcony on the second floor was wide enough for two people to walk, but there was only one way up or down, so if you were sleeping in the guest bedroom, or had to use the bathroom, you had to walk by my bedroom to return to the first floor. The fact that there wasn’t anything else up there left an open ceiling crisscrossed with beams that my cat, Kevin, made use of daily.
“Shaw, you have a cat?”
I grunted. “Do I have a cat or does the cat have me?”
“He’s so pretty.”
“Oh, he knows.”
“What’s his name?”
“Kevin.”
He turned to look at me, squinting. “Kevin?”
“Yeah. My mother always said if there was one after me, he would’ve been Kevin.”
His laughter sounded really good. “I don’t know that this is what she meant.”
I shrugged. “She didn’t mind, and I’m convinced there are times that she likes him better than me or any of my brothers.”
“You don’t worry about him falling?”
We both watched as His Highness, using a series of artistic pieces on the wall that looked like art but were actually functional, came down to the handrail of the balcony and then jumped down and took the people stairs to reach us.
“No, his balance is pretty damn good.”
“I’ll say,” Benji agreed, pointing at the pieces on the wall that Kevin had used during his descent. “Did you make those?”
“No, my brother Oran. He’s a general contractor. He can build anything. You should see the treehouse his kids have. They have Wi-Fi out there.”
“I love that,” he murmured, crouching down as Kevin trotted over to greet him, rubbing his chin on Benji’s knee before accepting the petting. He immediately began talking to Benji as well, explaining the house rules to him.
“He’s so vocal.”
“He’s giving you the rundown on how things go around here.”
“Is that right?” He turned to look up at me.
“Oh, yeah.”
“Well, since I don’t speak cat, might you translate?”
“He’s explaining how he gets all cereal milk once the cereal has been consumed, and how all doors in the house are to remain open at all times, including the bathroom, unless you want to hear the song of his people wailed at a decibel level that would surprise you.”
He was laughing softly, his eyes warm as he regarded me. “How long have you had him?”
“Uh, lemme think, it was five years this Halloween.”
It took a second to sink in, as it did for most people. Black cat on Halloween. There was a story there, and it couldn’t be good.
Benji caught his breath. “Halloween?” His face scrunched up. “Was it something awful?”
I nodded. “It was.”
“Tell me.” He girded himself: I saw him prepare to be horrified.
“You sure? I can keep it. You don’t need to share.”
“But I want to know things about you.”
I cleared my throat. “Me and some friends were at a house party and we had to walk down this alley to where I parked the car, and when we turned the corner, there were four guys, and they were pouring gasoline from a can on something on the ground. It took a second to see it was a little black kitten, and he was stuck there, crying because he couldn’t move. I yelled and they struck the match and—he was on fire.”
Benji gasped and, much to Kevin’s chagrin—I was sure from the moan of displeasure—
grabbed him and hugged him tight. Since it happened whenever I told the story, I doubt Kevin was surprised by Benji’s reaction, but he shot me a death glare anyway.
“What did you do?” Benji rasped.
“I took off my jacket while I ran over there, then wrapped him up and put out the fire.”
Benji nodded.
“My buddy Locryn was with me, and he caught the four guys and put ’em on the ground and waited for the cops, with our dates, while I found an emergency vet to treat Kevin.”
“Four guys?”
“And he had to chase ’em down first too, but if you knew Loc, you’d get it.”
“Okay. Then what?”
“The vet told me it was touch and go that Kevin would pull through, and with him being so small that it might be kinder to let him go.”
“What did you think?”
“I thought, with how quiet he’d been on the cab ride over but kneading my arm the whole time, that he wanted to live.”
He nodded, tears welling up in his eyes.
“So I told her that I wanted her to save him.”