Earlier in the day they\u2019d built a flying saucer in the front yard out of painted boxes and scrap metal. Mukey had admired how the twins knew what their dad\u2019s tools were called, and how to use them.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad says aliens are too far away to reach us by spacecraft,\u201d Pukey said. \u201cThey\u2019ll contact us through other dimensions we\u2019re not attuned to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mukey wished his own dad talked to him about stuff like that.<\/p>\n
It was a long street with large oaks and modest 1940s homes at the edge of an industrial zone. It was a half hour walk from Eddy and Bug\u2019s to Mukey and Pukey\u2019s homes, which were next door to each other. Mukey couldn\u2019t stop thinking about the torture he\u2019d witnessed that afternoon, sometimes from the point of view of the pets themselves, sometimes from the point of view of their owners. He imagined the looks of disgust he\u2019d get if his sister ever found out he\u2019d been there and done nothing to stop it.<\/p>\n
As they passed the decrepit Okawee Metal Fabrication Company, they scanned the muddy patch of lawn for interesting scraps of metal. In winter, the almost century-old foundry was encircled by icicles hanging halfway to the ground which, when they were younger, they used to pull off and use as swords or batons or magic wands. But now, in the early summer heat, its rickety doors and windows were thrust open. White-hot light sprayed from its depths with the same intensity as the crazed look in the eyes of the cat the instant before it died.<\/p>\n
Months later, a flashback of these eyes would launch Mukey like a projectile doomed in its mission to separate the force of life from the force of destruction, and he would collapse, splayed out like tangled fishing line, knowing that his sister was wrong about why blood was jetting from his gouged forehead and streaming in rivulets down his face.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2019\/03\/leave-image-1.png\")
<\/p>\n
The next day, Mukey was sitting on the front step, when and his dad drove up. Mukey ran toward the truck, elated. There was a new ding on the driver\u2019s side. When he saw his dad\u2019s frown he stopped running. Had someone told him about the missing pets?<\/p>\n
\u201cHi Mukey,\u201d his dad said, giving him an absentminded hug. \u201cJust picking up some stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mukey was relieved he wasn\u2019t in for a lecture. But he felt worried. He\u2019d known for weeks that his dad was moving out, but it didn\u2019t seem real. His dad glanced around the yard as he trudged up the walkway. A few minutes later, he emerged from the house with a suitcase in one hand, a beer in the other, and the painting of a fishing ship that had sat on the mantle under his arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like that painting,\u201d Mukey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll see it again. At my new place, when I get it fixed up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going now?<\/em> For good?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFirst I\u2019m gonna drive around the alley to get some stuff from the garage.\u201d<\/p>\n Mukey had the strange sensation of living a moment he would remember all his life.<\/p>\n \u201cCan I come?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy not.\u201d<\/p>\n His father drove recklessly up the alley behind their backyard, beer between his legs, his bony, weathered hands slightly shaking. Mukey sensed that his dad was seeing the neighborhood from the point of view of someone who no longer lived there.<\/p>\n He ran over a pink bicycle. \u201cGod damn!\u201d he said, swerving, and then hit someone\u2019s garage door.<\/p>\n Mukey noticed there was now a dent in the garage door. By the time they approached their own garage, Mukey was clutching the door handle so hard his hand ached.<\/p>\n His dad put the hand drill and circular saw into the station wagon. Tools, car jack, shovels, pails, wheelbarrow, lumber, chicken wire\u2026 all kinds of fascinating stuff was hoisted from dark recesses of the garage and tossed into the truck. Mukey wanted to help, or do something dramatic to get his dad\u2019s attention, but the sight of the garage being stripped of his Dad\u2019s stuff was oddly paralyzing.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought\u2026 you could show me how to use this some time,\u201d Mukey said, picking up the hacksaw by its blade. \u201cOww!\u201d he yelped under his breath, and dropped it back on the bench.<\/p>\n \u201cCareful, son.\u201d Mukey\u2019s dad put the hacksaw into the truck, and other things Mukey didn\u2019t know the names of.<\/p>\n \u201cHere,\u201d his dad said. \u201cYou should have this.\u201d He held out a rusty metal box.<\/p>\n Mukey took the box and opened the lid. It was filled with intriguing gizmos and shiny, intricate insect-like objects. He looked up at his dad and beamed with gratitude, feeling as if after weeks of rain the sun had come out.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a tackle box. I have two. This one belonged to Grampa. See\u2014lures, flies, weights, hooks. Some single barbed, some double barbed. They catch different fish.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThanks!\u201d Mukey said, examining its contents. There was a shiny orange minnow that he found appealing. But his favorite lure was an iridescent dragonfly with sapphire-blue wings and a needle-sharp hook. He wished his dad would show him how to attach a lure but this wasn\u2019t the right time to ask. His dad was already pushing a dingy rolled up carpet deeper into the truck so he could shut the tailgate.<\/p>\n He swatted it shut. Mukey ran to his dad and found himself clinging to him as if to a life preserver out at sea.<\/p>\n \u201cSo long, son.\u201d His dad hugged him, and then pried him off gently.<\/p>\n Mukey turned away, embarrassed, not wanting his dad to see his tears.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until his dad drove away that Mukey saw blood gushing down his hand. He was surprised and a little hurt that his dad hadn\u2019t noticed. He went inside, washed his hand, and placed the tackle box on his bedroom dresser. That night he woke up and the moon was shining through the window on it. The next morning Mukey awoke semi-delirious, encrusted in partially hardened goop. He was in an unfamiliar world of pink frills and lace, which turned out to be his sister Louise\u2019s canopy bed.<\/p>\n \u201cSorry,\u201d Louise whispered. \u201cI was trying to be quiet.\u201d She was grabbing hangers draped with girly clothes from her closet.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the crap am I doing here?<\/em>\u201d Mukey asked. His voice was so scratchy it scared him.<\/p>\n \u201cMom wanted you near her room so if your coughing gets so bad you have to go to emergency, she\u2019ll know.\u201d<\/p>\n It stung to hear his parents\u2019 bedroom referred to as his mom\u2019s room. Mukey didn\u2019t remember coughing, but his throat felt raw. Lou the calico cat (named by Louise of course) was curled up at his side. On the bedside table, in addition to Louise\u2019s kooky crystal ball, were a glass of water, a remote, two boxes of Kleenex, and some neatly stacked books. He tried to get up but felt weak.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t see any books in your room so I put some of mine there.\u201d Louise was staring down at him with concern. Mukey had never seen her look at him like that before.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t read books. And I don\u2019t want to be in a girl\u2019s room.\u201d<\/p>\n He had an uneasy feeling about Pukey.<\/p>\n \u201cLouise, has Pukey come by looking for me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you sure?\u201d His voice faltered.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t seen him.\u201d<\/p>\n Mukey felt an urgent need to find Pukey and say something to him that would make him laugh his unique sad-eyed laugh, to set out on an adventure together… but he was trapped. Other than his heart, which was thumping like never before, the rest of him felt like a corpse.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can watch my TV if you want,\u201d Louise said.<\/p>\n Something must really be wrong with him for her to be so nice. He turned on the TV. Close-ups of volcanos spewing lava. Impressive, but he craved stillness. He patted Lou the cat, watched him expand and contract as he purred.<\/p>\n Sometime later, Mukey awoke from a dream in which he saw<\/em> people\u2019s feelings. His dad\u2019s were blurry popcorn-like flickers. Pukey\u2019s were dappled watery purple. It felt deeply sad and surreal. Louise\u2019s sugarplum-fairy bed must be making him dream like her.<\/p>\n When he tried to get up, his limbs ached and his brain felt bloated. Boogers dangled like ratty socks on a clothesline as he stumbled to his own room. He took the dragonfly lure out of the tackle box, brought it back to Louise\u2019s room, and put it under the pillow. It would be a secret lifeline that kept him from drowning in girlworld.<\/p>\n Mukey was in a dazzling place dotted with radiant beings.<\/p>\n \u201cSorry!\u201d Louise whispered. \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to open this chest of drawers quietly.\u201d<\/p>\n The dazzling place was gone. Lou was on the bed. He was getting fat lying around so much, but Mukey enjoyed the company. Huge green eyes. Splotches of orange, black, and white. Mukey wondered if Pukey and his dad had forgotten about him and just gone on with their lives. He wondered if they knew how sick he was. He\u2019d lived his life never suspecting this kind of aching loneliness was so close at hand. Maybe they\u2019d visited him while he was asleep.<\/p>\n Lou came over and licked his hand. Lou now seemed to be the closest thing he had to a friend.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Lou scratched your neck,\u201d Louise said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t you know the cat\u2019s a girl?\u201d Louise said, piling ruffles into her arms.<\/p>\n \u201cNo he\u2019s not<\/em>,\u201d Mukey sneered.<\/p>\n His sister was four years older than him but imbecilic. Pretty, sort of, but with a hollow face, as if her heart were not strong enough to fight the force of gravity and pump blood up to her head, an impression that was strengthened when you tried to talk to her, which Mukey did less and less. Fortunately for her, the brain-dead look was in vogue, and she made money modeling for Homer\u2019s department store, which she spent on books about paranormal stuff, and clothes, in addition to the clothes Homer\u2019s gave her. Clothes were bursting the seams of her room.<\/p>\n A different set of seams were threatening to burst with last night\u2019s glass of water. Mukey ran so quickly to the bathroom that he collapsed into the wall when he reached the toilet. After peeing he felt strangely depleted. Looking in the mirror, his lips were faintly blueish, and there was snot, in squished and partially solidified form, mashed into his face, hair, and pajamas. There were two tiny blobs of blood on his neck. His mouth was full of goop that demanded to be spat out. On the way back from the bathroom he noticed that his sister\u2019s clothes were now strewn across his room as well. But she had given up her room with a TV for his room with no TV. She had a decent side.<\/p>\n He wished he\u2019d stayed in the bathroom longer because there was a whole backlog of gunk in his mouth that didn\u2019t show up until the first load had been spat out.<\/p>\n \u201cHo-ly!<\/em> Louise, wanna see a glob of yellowish-green phlegm the size of your eyeball?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t wipe it on my bed,\u201d Louise said.<\/p>\n Mukey sighed. Pukey would have been eager to see it. He fondled his dragonfly lure. \u201cHey Louise, did you move my tackle box?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHuh?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was on my dresser. Dad gave it to me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI moved some stuff. Sorry.\u201d She gave him a concerned look.<\/p>\n Mukey felt well enough to sit up in bed and watch Beavis and Butthead reruns, but they made him miss Pukey even more. He had a growing premonition that Pukey wasn\u2019t missing him nearly so much as he missed Pukey. He clawed his fingernails into his skin to overpower the sting in his heart. To distract himself from wondering what Pukey was up to he picked up one of Louise\u2019s books. The only one not about vampires was Spirit Guides and Inner Light<\/em>. \u201cSee not with your eyes, but with your inner eye,\u201d it said. \u201cYour third eye, located in the middle of your forehead. It sees through superficial appearances to the intrinsic essences of things.\u201d It said a person\u2019s Third Eye is particularly prone to cracking open when they\u2019re sick. There must<\/em> be something wrong with me, Mukey thought, if he was finding this crap interesting.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat kind of sickness do I have?\u201d he asked his mother when she came in the room.<\/p>\n \u201cPneumonia.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCan a person die from that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo. Not usually. Have you been scratching your face?<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHm.\u201d His mother\u2019s brow furrowed.<\/p>\n This was his life: sleeping most of the time, dreaming of intricate otherworldly places, waking up coughing in a slovenly fever, with no idea what time of day it was or even what day it was, feeling abandoned. Occasionally his sister or (less often) his mother would be staring anxiously at his snot-covered face. He was too hoarse and sniffly to talk much. A wave of loneliness came over him whenever someone left the room, but at least he was no longer expected to follow whatever the person had been saying, or respond. Sometimes he stared into Louise\u2019s crystal ball, since it was next to the bed, and he didn\u2019t have energy for much else.<\/p>\n One time, much to his amazement, he realized that he was witnessing, within the crystal ball, an alternate version of the cat torture afternoon in which he was heroically forcing the twins to stop what they were doing and set the pets free. He picked the crystal ball up to take a closer look. The scene inside shifted, and what actually happened started playing itself out in all its gory detail. He dropped the crystal ball, and it rolled off the bed and fell to the floor with a loud thump. His body was unbearably hot, but his teeth were chattering.<\/p>\n \u201cGoodness, what was that?\u201d he heard his mother say. Mukey had to reconsider the possibility that Lou was a girl cat when he woke one day to find a kitten coming out of it, goopy and helpless, white with itsy orange spots. His sense of betrayal at Lou\u2019s not being a boy gave way to amazement as he watched her thoroughly lick the kitten and chew off the string that protruded from its belly. The kitten whimpered faintly and then sort of crawled around blindly until it found a little bump on its mother\u2019s belly. It plopped itself there and started sucking.<\/p>\n Mukey stared dumfounded. There was a smell that was unfamiliar but not unpleasant. A deep serenity pervaded the room.<\/p>\n Lou\u2019s body suddenly jolted and she let out a scraaaaw!<\/em> Something was happening. Another kitten! A dark, fist-sized globule, taking its time to come out. When it finally emerged, it wasn\u2019t moving, and he wondered if it was alive, but Lou licked it incessantly and eventually one of its teeny paws moved. It crawled up and found a spot next to the other kitten. Mukey noticed it was striped.<\/p>\n Lou looked over at Mukey, proudly it seemed, though clearly exhausted. Mukey smiled back and patted her. Her fur was thick and soft. He had almost never felt so close to anyone as he felt to Lou right then.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s having her kittens!<\/em>\u201d Louise shouted, and rushed to the bed.<\/p>\n Mukey winced at the word \u201cshe\u201d though obviously it could no longer be denied that Lou was female. His mother came too, and a hush fell over them as they witnessed the emergence of new life. The bed was no longer a place the world had forgotten.<\/p>\n After the fifth kitten it seemed there were no more coming out. Lou was an attentive mother, making sure her kittens were washed and fed, nudging them toward her when they crawled off in the wrong direction and started to whimper.<\/p>\n \u201cI wonder why she didn\u2019t have them in the box we made for her?\u201d Louise asked.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have to move them,\u201d Mukey\u2019s mother said.<\/p>\n \u201cMove <\/em>them?\u201d Mukey said, startled. \u201cThey\u2019re totally happy here!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat if they fall off the bed?\u201d Louise said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat if you roll over and suffocate them?\u201d his mother said.<\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey can stay a bit longer but then we have to move them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow much longer?\u201d Mukey asked, voice quivering.<\/p>\n His mother sighed. Mukey noticed strands of grey in her hair for the first time. She left. Louise followed.<\/p>\n Night fell, but the moon shone in on the sleeping blobs of slimy fur. Mukey watched, captivated, as their tiny bodies breathed in and out. He himself was breathing too quickly. He pulled the puffy, pink comforter up over his shoulders carefully so as not to disturb Lou, who was lying against his thighs with her kittens. Clasping the dragonfly lure to his chest, he felt like part of the cat huddle, and it was cozy.<\/p>\n His mother peeked into the room. He feared that once he fell asleep she would take the kittens away. He tried to stay awake but he was so sleepy.<\/em><\/p>\n The next time Mukey awoke, all that was left of Lou and the kittens were a few blood stains on the pink bedspread (which thankfully wasn\u2019t his). A new kind of loneliness enveloped him. He was chilled, shaking in fact. He happened to look out the window and see Pukey walk down his driveway and turn the other direction. Probably going to the corner store to get black-bottomed green and yellow gummy tarantulas. He watched smoke billow from the forested mountains that encircled the town as he waited for Pukey to come back. Twenty minutes later Pukey hadn\u2019t returned. Mukey didn\u2019t see how he could possibly have missed him. There was a strange clenching around his heart.<\/p>\n Finally\u2014there he was. But it wasn\u2019t Pukey; it was Pukey\u2019s dad. Looked just like him: ultra-pale, with deep-set eyes that glinted strangely. Mukey had always been a bit afraid of him, but he wished he could ask him about talking to aliens by tuning into other dimensions.<\/p>\n He overheard his mother gossiping on the phone in the room he still thought of as his parents\u2019 bedroom.<\/p>\n \u201cBroken ribs and no tail,\u201d she was saying. \u201cI know. It\u2019s horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n Mukey shuddered to think what she might be referring to.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd another one completely dismembered. Yes, on this<\/em> street!\u201d<\/p>\n Mukey covered his ears with his pillow, and then uncovered them upon hearing his name.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s lasting too long to be the flu. Probably pneumonia. I\u2019m worried,\u201d his mother said in a voice that wasn\u2019t adult-like.<\/p>\n Mukey\u2019s head pounded. He touched his cheeks and then his forehead. They were hot as scraps of Okawee metal lying in the sun. His whole body was ablaze.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s back in the hospital. Came by a few days ago, drunk as a doorknob, of course. Asked to see Mukey but Mukey was asleep.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s talking about Dad, Mukey thought. In the hospital? Again?<\/em> But he tried to see me! He wished his dad had woken him up.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to keep it together, but Christ!\u201d his mom said. And then, \u201cYep, talk to you later.\u201d<\/p>\n Mukey was deathly thirsty. The glass of water by his bedside was empty.<\/p>\n \u201cMom?\u201d he called out weakly. \u201cMom?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n He felt the bed move, and turned expecting to see his mother. Instead there was Lou carrying the white-with-orange-polka dotted kitten in her teeth!<\/p>\n \u201cLou!\u201d he said, grinning.<\/p>\n Lou dropped the kitten on the bed and left. Mukey was bewildered. Then she came back with the striped kitten, who, he now could see, had faint orange stripes as well as grey ones.<\/p>\n \u201cMom!\u201d Louise screamed from somewhere in the house. \u201cTwo of the kittens are gone!\u201d<\/p>\n Mukey tried to get out of bed to get some water. Reality wobbled. He grabbed the iron curlicues of the bed to steady himself. By the time he got back with a glass of water there was another kitten on the bed. Then another.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019s she taking it?\u201d he heard Louise say.<\/p>\n Cats and humans converged at his sick bed, which was again the happening place to be.<\/p>\n \u201cLou is strong-willed,\u201d his mother said. \u201cI guess we\u2019ll let her raise the kittens on the bed.\u201d<\/p>\n They pushed the bed against the wall so there was only one side where the kittens could fall off, and piled pillows along the floor so that if they fell they would fall on something soft.<\/p>\n \u201cLook mom, there\u2019s blood on the pillowcase,\u201d Louise said. \u201cDid you wash it after the kittens were born?\u201d<\/p>\n Mukey\u2019s mother frowned. \u201cNo, just the bedspread. I didn\u2019t notice that before. I\u2019ll get a fresh pillowcase.\u201d<\/p>\n When his mother returned, she untied the sheer curtains that fell from the canopy bed so that Mukey and the cat family were hidden in an ethereal oasis surrounded on three sides by translucent dusky pink curtains, and to the left a large window. Mukey could barely make out the mountains due to the forest fire smoke, and the sun was a hot-pink smear. He curled himself around Lou and her purring pile of kittens who had decided that they wanted to be with<\/em> him<\/em>. He fondled the dragonfly lure with one hand, and wiped tears of happiness from his eyes with the other. No matter how soundly Mukey slept, he was aware of the kittens, careful not to roll over them. He\u2019d awaken to find them nestled into crannies of his body: the black one in the crook of his arm, the striped one between his legs, the white-with-orange-spots one on his face! Sometimes he\u2019d be strangely cold, fingers and toes almost numb. He\u2019d try to stay still so the kittens wouldn\u2019t wake up, grateful for these tiny lumps of warmth.<\/p>\n He saw them open their eyes and see the world for the first time. When the mostly black one first opened her eyes she happened to be looking right at him. Mukey was amazed and honored to be the first thing in the world she took in. They stared at each other for minutes. From then on he felt as if he were as much her mother as Lou.<\/p>\n When the kittens were a month old, five weeks after Mukey got sick, his mother drew back the canopy bed curtains and tied them with dusky-rose sashes at the four bedposts. Mukey\u2019s body became the kittens\u2019 playground, full of possibilities for climbing up or sliding down or chasing off or crawling through. It was bewildering even to Lou. Mukey found himself laughing out loud at their kamikaze exploits, such as when the grey one\u2014the adventurous one\u2014climbed a curtain to the top of the canopy and jumped\u2014kachoom!<\/em>\u2014onto his chest. The black one gave a startled look and scurried down a tunnel in the covers. It was the scaredy cat. They would have cracked Pukey up! Only once did one fall off the bed\u2014Spira\u2014and when Mukey scooped her up she was fine. The more he watched them, the more he remembered what it was like to be young and healthy and see the world as full of possibilities.<\/p>\n He gave lots of thought to their names. The grey one was Dirt. The mostly black one had a white and orange belly and paws, like the white and orange deep in the cracks of a lava flow. It was Lava. The striped one was Spira. The one with the orange patch on its eye was Patch. The one that looked just like it but with the patch on the other eye was Scratch.<\/p>\n \u201cYou realize that whoever takes the kittens will be allowed to name them whatever they want, right?\u201d his mother told him one day.<\/p>\n Mukey stared in amazement.<\/p>\n \u201cCan\u2019t we keep them?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSix cats! Of course not.\u201d<\/p>\n Mukey\u2019s lip quivered. He averted his eyes from his mother and noticed Pukey walking down the road, toward Eddy and Bug house. It slowly dawned on Mukey that Pukey had been playing with them all summer. There was a convulsing in the pit of his stomach.<\/p>\n He was surprised how happy he was when his sister came in the room.<\/p>\n \u201cHave you seen Dad? he asked.<\/p>\n Louise paused. \u201cDad\u2019s not doing so well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHave you been to his new place?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah,\u201d Louise said unenthusiastically.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s it like?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe only thing in his fridge is beer.\u201d<\/p>\n That night Mukey lay in bed listening to canned laughter from his mother\u2019s television, unable to sleep. Everything seemed wrong, and he was powerless to do anything about it.<\/p>\n Seven weeks after Mukey got sick, he woke up to the astonishing realization that he was seeing with his inner eye, just like he had read about in Louise\u2019s book. It was as if a blade of light running from his forehead to the back of his skull, and he was aware of the world in a whole new way. For the first time he could remember, his nose was clear, and he was hearing and smelling acutely. The window was open enough to feel a slight breeze. He could smell his mother\u2019s lavender and hear a grating mechanical sound coming from the Okawee Metal Fabrication Company. He propelled himself from the bed like a rocket but his body couldn\u2019t keep up with his mind, and he collapsed to the ground. Dizzily, he climbed back into bed.<\/p>\n He heard Louise\u2019s voice: \u201cHe\u2019s in my room.\u201d<\/p>\n Then muffled voices. Familiar. It sounded like Pukey!<\/p>\n \u201cNice bed,\u201d Eddy said.<\/p>\n Mukey was mortified; he couldn\u2019t imagine a more embarrassing situation than being caught in a frilly pink canopy bed. He was facing away from them. He pretended to be asleep.<\/p>\n \u201cWe came for the kittens,\u201d Bug said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere they are,\u201d Eddy whispered.<\/p>\n \u201cNo!<\/em>\u201d Mukey bleated. Crazed cat eyes flashed through his mind. Without thinking, he flopped his upper body protectively in front of the kittens. For a second all he saw was a red blur, then Eddy\u2019s outstretched hand right in front of Mukey\u2019s nose.<\/p>\n Eddy retracted his hand. Mukey looked up. The twins\u2019 tufted unibrows lifted in unison.<\/p>\n Pukey was bent over as if examining the floor. As he stood up, Mukey caught his gaze. Pukey\u2019s eyes widened in surprise, and then he seemed to be staring at Mukey without really seeing him. It was as if they were looking through the gauzy canopy bed curtains, but the curtains were still tied back with sashes; there was nothing separating them but air. Mukey felt as if his eyes were trying to suck out some kind of connection with Pukey. Pukey turned away and put his hands in his pockets.<\/p>\n \u201cThe kittens are too young to leave their mother,\u201d Louise called out from Mukey\u2019s room. \u201cVisiting hours are over.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a drilling sound. The kittens fled. Then another drilling sound, and another, at regular intervals.<\/p>\n Pukey took a cell phone from his pocket and pushed a button. The drilling sounds stopped.<\/p>\n Pukey gave Mukey a defiant look, and fled. Eddy and Bug were already gone.<\/p>\n Mukey was still splayed at a strange angle across his bed. His body recoiled. It blew his mind that Pukey had a cell phone. First, his family was poor. Second, why should he need one given his best friend lived right next door? Were<\/em> they still best friends?<\/p>\n Dizzily, he pulled himself back under the covers. The kittens clamored over to him. All but Spira.<\/p>\n \u201cLouise,\u201d he called. \u201cWhere is Spira?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s not there? Yikes! What did they do<\/em> to you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNothing,\u201d Mukey said. \u201cIt\u2019s the kittens they wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n He noticed deep red stains on the bed. He put his hand to his face and realized blood was gushing out of his head. <\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019s mom?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n \u201cMom\u2019s not here.\u201d Louise got a facecloth, washed his face carefully, and wrapped gauze around his head. \u201cOne of the cats clawed you good.\u201d<\/p>\n They peered in the cracks and crannies of the bed, and around the bed, but no Spira. Louise searched under the bed, in the closet, and throughout the room, but no Spira. She looked all over the house, but no Spira.<\/p>\n Louise went next door to ask Pukey if they\u2019d taken her.<\/p>\n \u201cWas Pukey there?\u201d Mukey asked when she returned.<\/p>\n \u201cYes. But he said they didn\u2019t take any kittens.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t get it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure she\u2019s somewhere,\u201d Louise said.<\/p>\n Mukey felt nauseous. His heart was beating fast. He couldn\u2019t bear the thought of never seeing Spira again. Just this morning he\u2019d heard a little cry and found her under the covers way down near the foot of his bed. When he rescued her she\u2019d looked up at him contemplatively, and he\u2019d noticed how interesting her pattern of orange and grey stripes was getting as she grew. Four kittens instead of five\u2014it felt so wrong. He was in a sweat, his heart racing.<\/p>\n The pain in his third eye region pulsed back through his head in branching paths; he could almost hear his brain sizzle as new understandings dawned on him. He became aware of a place in the pit of his brain that was strong and stable, an anchor. The pranks he\u2019d spent his life thus far scheming about seemed far away from this essential core of him. He wasn\u2019t quite sure what this essential core was,<\/em> but he could feel it there, waiting in hiding to orient him and express itself. It was deeper than his bond with Pukey, deeper than the bond he shared with anyone.<\/p>\n Two tiny paws pressed against his leg; one of the kittens was stretching in its sleep.<\/p>\n Almost two months after Mukey got sick, he was better. He put on his clothes (after months of pajamas!) and moved back to his own bedroom. Timidly, the kittens followed, and once they had glimpsed the vastness of the world, their curiosity was piqued. The whole house was their circus yard. People came to see them. Then the sad day came.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll take that one,\u201d the lady said.<\/p>\n Dirt was innocently chasing his own tail with no idea what was befalling him. When the lady carried him out, Mukey felt a pain in his heart greater than anything he\u2019d ever experienced. He couldn\u2019t stop replaying over and over Dirt\u2019s birth, his unique chirpy meow, his crazy antics.<\/p>\n That night, Mukey cried. He hated himself for it. He was even more upset than Lou, Dirt\u2019s mother. And everything in his room had been moved around. He tried distractedly to put things back the way they were supposed to be, but some things seemed to be missing, most notably his tackle box.<\/p>\n \u201cLouise, where is my tackle box?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou should be grateful I cleaned your pigsty room.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLouise! Tell me you didn\u2019t throw it out.\u201d Mukey\u2019s lower lip quivered.<\/p>\n Then he realized he didn\u2019t know where the dragonfly lure was either. He searched everywhere but couldn\u2019t find it. He\u2019d never had such a painful feeling of loss over an object. And he missed his dad so much. It had been forever since he\u2019d seen him.<\/p>\n When his mother tucked him into bed that night she winced as he wiped his nose on the arm of his pajamas. But when Mukey looked up at her with teary eyes, her face softened, and she told him he could keep one of the kittens.<\/p>\n \u201cWhich one?\u201d Mukey asked between sniffles.<\/p>\n \u201cYou choose.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPatch and Scratch have to be together.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe other one then.\u201d<\/p>\n Lava. They\u2019d always had a special connection. She often stared into his eyes and she slept on his chest. And, unless one of her siblings was sailing through the air and kerplonking right next to her, she wasn\u2019t such a scaredy cat after all.<\/p>\n \u201cMukey!\u201d Louise called from the front door, \u201cDad\u2019s on the phone!\u201d<\/p>\n He talked to his dad longer than they\u2019d ever talked before. Turned out he\u2019d been sick too.<\/p>\n Mukey was sitting on the front porch waiting for his dad to pick him up, when he saw a tiny bedraggled bundle of bones and fur behind the lavender bush below Louise\u2019s bedroom window.<\/p>\n His eyes lit up. \u201cSpira,\u201d he said softly.<\/p>\n He stared at Spira\u2019s corpse for a long time. He wondered how close he\u2019d come when he was sick to joining Spira in Heaven. Or wherever she was.<\/p>\n Then he noticed Pukey in his front yard staring at him. Pukey waved tentatively.<\/p>\n Mukey averted his gaze. He looked at Spira\u2019s corpse and wiped his clammy hands on his pants.<\/p>\n It occurred to him that it would have been difficult for Pukey to have had no one at all to play with all summer. He lumbered toward Pukey, head down. The dandelions were plentiful and pretty. Pukey\u2019s front door slammed shut. Looking up, Mukey noticed that Pukey had gone inside. He froze to the spot, feeling doubly betrayed. But then Pukey returned, hand clenched.<\/p>\n \u201cHi Mucus.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHi.\u201d Mukey said.<\/p>\n \u201cI picked something up off the floor in your house a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t\u2026 a dragonfly lure?\u201d<\/p>\n Pukey looked surprised. \u201cYes, actually. Here,\u201d he said, holding it out to Mukey.<\/p>\n Mukey took the lure in both hands and stared at it. \u201cWow, thanks!\u201d he said. His hands were trembling slightly.<\/p>\n He looked up, suddenly aware that Pukey was looking at him. He had forgotten how Pukey\u2019s deep-socketed eyes made him look morose, even when he smiled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Lime Tree<\/strong> I knew what the package would contain: a copy of my sister\u2019s first book of poetry. She was in her early twenties like me, but was already being noticed as an animal activist and a writer. I was flipping through the slim volume when a poem\u2019s title made me stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2156"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3921,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions\/3921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nIt was only a coarse brown envelope from home, but it fetched a smile of pleasure in me. I had been feeling low, facing an uncertain future as an international student studying in Toronto. The latest changes to immigration laws had made returning to India a real possibility.<\/p>\n