“Alannah,” he answered on the fifth ring. “Is everything okay?”
I rarely called him, and it was closing in on eight p.m., so he probably figured something was up.
“Kind of,” I answered. “I found a kitten.”
“You found a kitten?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “Some bastard left it in a cardboard box in the car park of me buildin’.”
“Is it alive?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, though he couldn’t see the action.
“Do you want me to come and get it?” he questioned. “I can keep it and bring it to the shelter tomorrow.”
I paused. When I rang Alec, it was for help for the kitten, but at that moment, I realised I had only called him for advice. I didn’t want him to take the kitten. I wasn’t sure when I made the decision, but I wanted to keep the kitten myself.
“No,” I answered. “I’m keepin’ it.”
Alec was silent.
“What?” I pressed. “What’re you all quiet for?”
Alec was never quiet, so his silence spoke volumes.
“You … you aren’t very good at taking care of animals.”
My lips parted in outrage. “I am too!”
“You step on Storm a lot when you come over to our house, and he is bigger than you. I still don’t understand how you don’t see him.”
I would never admit it to my friends, but my eyesight wasn’t the best, and with each passing year, it was obvious to me that I was going to have to bite the bullet and make an eye test appointment to get the glasses I knew I needed. It didn’t help that I didn’t exactly watch where I was walking when I was distracted either.
“I don’t watch where I place me feet, so feckin’ sue me.”
“Tyson growls at you whenever he sees you because you stepped on him one too many times. He just watches you whenever you’re around him now.”
That bloody dog couldn’t forgive and forget like Storm could.
“Listen,” I stated, “every time it happened was a total accident.”
Alec laughed.
“I’m keepin’ the kitten, and that’s that,” I said with a huff. “Can you just tell me what I need to buy? I’m clueless.”
“I can do you one better,” he chirped. “I can go to Maxi Zoo before it closes and bring what you need to you since you shouldn’t leave the kitten alone.”
My heart warmed, and my shoulders sagged with relief.
“Thank you, Alec.” I gushed. “I don’t know how old it is until I bring it to a vet tomorrow, but it looks really young, so get kitten food. Bring the receipt when you come over, and I’ll pay you back when you get ’ere.”
After we hung up, I went and sat next to my new roommate, peeking into the blanket. The cat’s fur was completely white, and from what I could see, it had one green eye and one blue eye.
“You’re so gorgeous,” I cooed.
The cat didn’t move a muscle, so I carefully picked up the blanket and cuddled it against my chest. When the kitten eventually wriggled around, I reached in and picked it up. Quickly, I checked between its legs and discovered the kitten was a girl. I put her back inside the blanket and let her get used to whatever it was that she was sniffing and scratching.
“What, baby?” I asked when she began meowing and didn’t stop.
I wondered if she was hungry, and then I wondered how old she was once more.
“You should have a cool name,” I said when the kitten popped her head out of the blanket and stared at me, then looked around the room. “Oh, what about Nala? She was a cool lioness in The Lion King.”
The kitten looked back at me and stared at me, unblinking.
“I’m takin’ your silence as a no.”
I pondered on a couple of unique names that sounded cool in my head, but when I said them out loud, none of them suited her. Her bored expression told me they all sucked, too. I switched on the television and selected my YouTube app. I scrolled through the videos, and when one of Barbra Streisand’s music videos was suggested, I stared at her name, then looked down at the kitten.
“What about Barbara?”
The kitten meowed as if replying to me. I stared at her, took the meow as a resounding yes, then chuckled. My ma’s middle name was Barbara, so I was sticking with that spelling because I knew she’d get a kick out of it.
“Barbara, it is.”
I picked up my phone when it began to vibrate and answered it without looking at the screen.
“Alec said you found a kitten.”
I smiled. “Hey, Bee.”
“Where did you find a kitten?” She continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “I saw Alec get into his car when I was puttin’ Branna’s wheelie bin out. He said you found a kitten, and he was goin’ to get you some stuff for it.”
I filled her in on when, where, and how I found the kitten, and she grunted. “Evil bastard whoever left it.”