Read Online Children of Bast by Frederick Fuller - Free Book Online Page A

grew up and didn’t play as much. Got so everybody ignored me a lot. I got bored, felt trapped, so I split.”
    “I know a lot about that.”
    Without warning, Chad dove into the fountain and swam away. “You’ll have to come in a get me, Adele.”
    “Drown, you crazy amait.” Adele laughed. “Catch you later, Chad. Behave.”
    “Never!” He dove under the water and disappeared.
    “Okay, how weird is that?” Adele asked.
    “Very weird, but, you know, it sure looks tempting.”
    “You’re beginning to worry me, Gaylord. Let’s find some food.” She darted off toward our alley with me scurrying after.
    A dumpster provided us with some kind of meat all covered with salty gunk that I didn’t like, but Adele lapped it up like water. After eating and washing, we crumpled down in the shadow of the dumpster and talked
     

Chapter 7
    Cats speak a subtle language in which few sounds carry many meanings, depending on how they are sung or purred. “Mnrhnh” means comfortable soft chairs. It also means fish. It means genial companionship . . .and the absence of dogs. Val Schaffner

    “So , Gaylord, what are your plans?”
    “I don’t have any plans. I like it out here a lot, but maybe that’s because I’m with you.”
    “Don’t go sloppy on me, now. Of course you like it out here with me. Even I like it out here with me. But I won’t always be here.”
    I stopped bathing and looked at her. “Where you going? What are you talking about?”
    “Don’t get hair ball. I’m just saying that you never know. I might decide to leave and go somewhere else, or I might wind up flattened by a car or something. Happens all the time. You got to be able to take care of yourself, Gaylord. First and foremost, you got to take care of you.” She pushed me with her nose.
    I must have looked stunned because she smiled and we nuzzled.
    “I know you’re right,” I said. “I just never thought of you not being here. I mean, I don’t own you, but I never . . .” I walked into the park that surrounded the fountain and sprawled under a bush, whipping my tail. Adele followed.
    “Hey, take it easy. Nothing’s gonna happen right away.” It’s that I’ve been here for a while and I know what to expect. An amait’s life ain’t easy out here, you know.”
    “I might just go home.”
    She flinched away and growled. “You idiot. Gaylord, that’s madness.” She stopped and sighed. “Look, if I promise to do all I can to stick around, will you promise not to go back to that awful trap? I was kidding about going to the cemetery.”
    I kissed her. “Seminary. Okay, I promise.”
    “Yeah, well, you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing me through my time of the month. You’ll probably want to leave then for sure.”
    “Time of the month?”
    “Come on Gaylord. How naïve can you be. I already told you when I come into my heat, I’d mate with a Rottweiler if he wouldn’t eat me after.”
    “Oh, that.” It occurred to me that I was a kith, out here running around with amai way older’n me, especially Adele and Chubby. “You get really bad, huh?”
    “Like I said, if I tell you to scram, do it. Do not think about it, do it. Run like hell and wait for me to find you. Go to Chubby. He’ll know what to do.”
    “After he gets finished laughing himself to death.”
    “That too, but I’m not kidding.” Standing up she pushed a paw under my chin and flipped my head back. “Take me seriously, Gaylord. I cannot be responsible if you don’t”
    “Okay, okay.”
    Again, I was ticked off because she made such a big deal out me being so clueless and dense. I couldn’t help it if I’d been in an apartment all my life with only my maama and sister to talk to. Talking to them was like talking with a chew toy; they walked around and purred, but that was about all. Then, I wondered, how come they didn’t go nuts, too. So I asked her.
    “They were probably fixed.”
    “Oh. I never thought of that.”
    She sighed and gave me an