LIVVY
Chapter 1
It is summer now at the apartment, but it's too hot. Hoe's adopted son, Kojo, my master by the way, doesn't waste money on such things as air--whatever money is... I don't know. I have never had any, not that I have any need for it. Kojo provides everything I need free of charge, but it isn't much I need, a bed and furniture as well as plenty to eat and drink, and also a place to go to the bathroom.
Hi by the way. They call me Livvy among other things. For example I don't pay it much attention when they call me Livvy. I like being aloof. Now when they call me Vihee, I will pretty much always take them more seriously, but I simply will not answer at all when they call me by my real name, Vihes.
Do you come here often? I've never been here before. I'm only here with my master. Where he goes these days I go, at least until I know my way around. I don't know my way around here, not like I do the apartment.
Kojo has a friend that comes over a lot; Kettie. Kettie is really nice. She pays me a lot of attention, and I like her a lot because of it.
Kettie likes the laptop and something called the Internet. But I don't know about that. I check it out sometimes but it seems that when I get my paws on it, it's turned off and I don't have the slightest idea how to turn it on even. She sure seems to like it though.
Kojo, himself, has a regular PC, an eMac. He does most of his writing on that, and so he spends a lot of his time at his computer too.
He is trying something new to him lately. He lets the eMac read his stuff aloud somehow, and sometimes I listen. I've got to confess, however, I have very little idea what is going on, even in his more normal stuff.
One day we were lying on his bed and he was just sort of rubbing me all over. No. It's not like that! There is nothing sexual to it. Not that I would mind, mind you. He just never touches me that way, if you know what I mean.
Anyway the phone rings... well sort of... all he's got is a cell that makes an obnoxious noise something like a ring would. It startles me and I run off to the living room away from the thing, not that I'm, actually afraid of it, it just startles me.
It's Kettie and the first thing I know, they are off to the local Tucksay, a sandwich shop about eight blocks away. They love going there and I don't really
mind except that I've got to stay home alone. What am I saying I am always home alone.
Soon Kojo leaves and I hear Cuvvestcovdi (Cuvves for short) crying because his master, Sohes, has left him again. And the little one next door, Gredelmet, she's playing her heart out and could care less about what's happening with Cuvves and me.
When I go back to bed, Kettie is telling Kojo about a time her dad beat hell out of her for something incidental. He feels bad when she does that. He doesn't want to ignore it and he doesn't always want to feel with the sort of intensity it takes to identify with it, so he just politely says one more time that he's sorry that it ever happened to her, hopes it doesn't get her upset with him and tries to change the subject.
He's in a joking mood so he simply says, "Twenty-four eighty-six," as matter-fact-like as he can manage.
It works. Kettie, having no idea why someone would say something like that is amazed, but only for a moment for she knows what Kojo is doing. Thus, she makes a face as if she's really angry and almost yells the number thirteen at him.
He is surprised that it worked and that she caught on so quickly, so he smiles and says, "Sixty-nine," with a sexy tone as if he were inviting her toward something illicit.
"Ooo! Ooo ooo!" Kettie yells gaining the attention of nearly everyone in the sandwich shop without realizing it perhaps. She repeats, "Sixty-nine!" at least as sexy as Kojo had sounded when he had first said it.
Then the pair laughed.
I smiled inwardly for I knew they were not much more of a sexual couple than me and my master were. What were they doing saying numbers to each other and in such a way? I was amazed, and I think that many in the Tucksay were also.
But one in particular rose and walked toward their table, and when he got there he said, "Who the hell do you think you're laughing at?"
Kojo looked at Kettie, and Kettie looked at Kojo. It had all been in fun and they had meant to be laughing only at each other, no one else. 'What could he mean by the affront, he was causing!' they were thinking instead of answering.
About that time the man reached out, and grabbing Kojo by the shirt, the man picked Kojo up out of the booth he was sitting in, for he was a big man, and slapping him at the same time. Kettie reached for the cellphone successfully, and punched in 9-1-1 while the big man punched Kojo in the face. Then when he saw that Kettie had grabbed the cell, he let go of Kojo, whose nose and lip were bleeding. Then as Kojo made a break toward the rear of the restaurant, the big man backhanded Kettie and made a break for the only door.
Kettie rose to her feet now. She was angry, very angry and though her face was already red and swollen she raced toward the door as fast as she could. And as he made a dash for it, she was right behind him, Kojo's cell still in her hand, but she was talking to the police with every step. When the big man saw what she was doing, he turned and with large, rapid steps he power walked in her direction.
He had only gone a short distance when an off duty police officer saw what was going on and hassled the big man for what he appeared about to do. The big man grabbed the cop as he had Kojo but with much less success for the off duty cop was also quite a bit bigger than Kojo was. Thus the off duty police officer boxed the big man's ears both at the same time, disorienting the man. Then the off duty cop was joined by two officers that were on duty and the three of them wrestled the big man to the ground.
Kettie stuck around to see what happened next and a police car pulled up and when they got out they took charge of the prisoner, cuffs and all, placed him in the car and then, and only then, asked what was going down. Kettie had made sure the big man was arrested and now she was about to press charges to boot while all the big man could do was stare angrily in her direction.
She was in that process when Kojo finally caught up with her, limping from the restaurant all the way to the scene of the arrest for the big man had not only bloodied Kojo's nose and cut his lip, he had also wrenched Kojo's right leg in the process. When she saw him she began to cry for the first time, and walking toward her friend Kojo they embraced unashamedly right there in the street while the big man fanned himself with a small piece of paper.
"Ma'am," the officer said wanting to know what they had been talking about before they laughed. Now Kojo looked at Kettie, and Kettie looked at Kojo. Then they laughed as all of the horror in the situation dissolved away.
It wasn't long after until they were home and cleaning their wounds when Kettie suddenly looked at Kojo in horror. "My, oh my!" she exclaimed screwing up her face to indicate she was very unhappy. Then she looked at me and Kojo who was sitting next to me on the couch, with horror in her eyes. "He knows where we live!" she whined. Kojo rose to comfort her. "How can he possibly know where we live?" Kojo asked her. Now she was crying hysterically, "When he was in the car he flashed that piece of paper when we were laughing, remember? Kojo said he did, but barely. Then she went on to explain that was one reason she chased the man, he had stolen her jacket which had her ID and everything in it.
"Great and mighty Mose!" Kojo yelled now very upset himself. "Mose! Stop him. Stop him, now!" Kojo prayed though he seldom did such a thing in front of even his friends.
Kettie was hysterical, she was wild and crying and laughing at the same time. Why Kojo hadn't asked Hoe to help Kettie I wasn't sure at all? "Ketut! Ketut! Ketut!" he was screaming and I didn't know what to do so I went and hid.
There was a very loud knock at the door, and Kojo and Kettie quieted down a lot as Kojo went to the door, knowing it was too soon for the big man to get to them. It was Sohes wanting to know if everyone was alright. But, when Kojo explained what had happened to them and what they expected might happen further to them, Sohes wanted to know whether it had been right here in this town, Cenieki! The big cities or somewhere like that he could understand it, but here in a middle sized town in Nippetova! There was no way. He had never seen anything like it since he came to this planet and time, let alone this very town.
Kettie became angry on top of everything else and began to shout at Sohes that, that made no difference. There was a "joof" out there and he'd be coming soon and it didn't matter a hill of beans where they were at. People like that are all over the galaxy for Hoe's sake.
But Sohes made his point that was not what he meant, and that he was just commenting on how unusual it was in this city for a "joof" to actually get all fired up mad over nothing. "I was saying, if you would let me now... I was just going to say that he must be some kind of psycho!" Then Kojo got mad at Sohes for making out that all mentally handicapped people were potentially crazed psychos.
"I was just saying that he must actually be insane to be doing what he's doing, drugs or not," Sohes asserted when Tut tao and Xaype came to the door wondering what all the commotion was about.
"My Hoe!" Tut tao yelled when she saw Kojo and then went whining to Kettie when she saw her face and the swollen eye that was already beginning to get black.
Xaype stopped in front of Kojo staring at his wounds, and said, "Are you alright, Guy?" and when Kojo snapped, "Does it look like it?" with all the finesse of a snapping turtle snapping at flies, Xaype added, "You will be though?" as Kojo, feeling sorry he had snapped at Xaype said he would be okay and apologized for what he said.
Then as things settled down a little Tut tao wanted to see me and she came to me and grabbed me and literally picked me up and tried to put me on her lap. And when I got away she yelled after me, "Vihesmett!" (That is what she calls me, "Vihesmett," I have no idea why.) Vihesmett! Come here! Come here! Vihesmett," she yells and starts chasing me around the apartment.
Sohes and Tut tao begin yelling over the idea that she should leave me alone and Xaype tries to understand what is going on as the small crowd makes its way to the door, and Kojo closes it.
I don't know about Kojo and Kettie because I am so busy with my sigh of relief, that I only expect theirs and don't really see it.
"What should we do?" Kettie wants to know.
"What can we do?" is Kojo's question.
"We can call the police!" Kettie says, reaching for the cell. Then punching in 9-1-1-1 she asks to talk to an officer. She explained the situation but wasn't given any real options and hung up more exasperated than mollified. As a result she paced wildly until at last she excused herself and went to her home.
Kettie had no more than left when Kojo laid down to sleep on the couch, the upset of the evening had left him feeling drained of energy. The pain was bad enough but the fatigue and anxiety caused him to do something he often does anyway. He forgot to take his medication.
Therefore, I was not surprised when he shouted loudly, waking not just me but also himself. He came to himself lying on the floor next to the couch for he had also fallen out of his makeshift bed when I asked him what his problem was, complaining loudly that he had ruined my sleep.
"I am sorry, Livvy," he said then suddenly sat up. "He knows what Kettie's apartment number is, not mine. It was her ID he got. I have to let her know before...! O my, Hoe!" he shouted, punching the number for Kettie's cell which she most often leaves at home.
Of course she didn't pick up. She never does. But he didn't give up until he got her voicemail the second time. Then he slammed the lid and rushed to the door to then almost jog down the hall.
If he would have only asked me I could have told him she had finally managed to drift off to sleep after stewing over the situation all night long. She was safe and sound. No one went anywhere near her apartment all night, or I'd have let him know.
It was like five in the morning and Kojo's at Kettie's place, knocking on the door. she doesn't answer of course, but just then as he gives up, he tries her door. It is unlocked! He's in!
She is lying on her couch under a quilt asleep when the door knob turns. She jumps out from under her covers and makes a dash for the dish drainer which holds several potential weapons, like butcher knives, scissors, and a meat cleaver. Having no idea what she is doing really, and startled by her rapid movements he makes no effort to stop her as she grabs the meat cleaver.
Finally he does start to grab for her arm in an effort to prevent her using the cleaver on him when she is suddenly fully awakened and realizing who it is she is about to attack, she stops and puts the cleaver back in the rack, turns and just stares at him.
"You're okay!" he says.
"What did you expect, you'd find me dead and unprotected?"
"I just finally realized it's your address he knows and not mine," he says.
"I know," she says.
"And yet you went home alone?" he asks.
"Yes. Well, you didn't seem to want to come with me and anyway the two of us were no match for him before, what makes you think we would be this time? I just can't let that crazy 'joof' keep me away from my own home."
"Why not? I mean for a few days. You are welcome to stay with me and Livvy until he dies, or gets distracted from wanting to harm us. You know what I mean." he says.
"What do you mean by that? You just lost me." she complains.
"It's okay. But you do know that you're safer at my place than here?" he says.
"Yeah? So?" she says.
"I just thought we... I mean, you... you could avoid trouble for a few days anyway if you just stayed with me, but-"
She shrugged her shoulders, looked at him, then raised her arms and shook her head a little as if to ask what he was going to say next.
"You better come to my place. Don't you think?" he says.
Just then the big man from the Tucksay steps out into to full view from the bedroom, which Kettie uses only for storage, but which has been his hiding place. Kettie sees him immediately and her eyes instinctively move toward the cleaver.
"I wouldn't," he says drawing attention to the small gun in his right hand. It's a Derringer. "Only one shot, but I'll bet I won't need another," he says in addition.
Kojo then moved away from Kettie a little bit.
"Don't!" the man shouts. Then he motions for the two of them to leave the kitchen counter area, shouting, "Slowly, slowly!" when needed until he has them both by the couch.
But while all of this is going on I realize he is not there to kill them at all, still I pace the floor in front of the door like a wildcat in a small cage, hoping I am not wrong.
Then he goes to the dish drainer and taking out the cleaver, all the knives and the scissors he drops them in behind the range. The two would-be victims are disheartened until he throws his Derringer in with the knives behind the stove.
As Kettie looks at Kojo and Kojo back at Kettie, I have to smile. I am right again. He didn't come to kill them at all.
"I- I'm sorry," he says and they can't believe what they are hearing. "I am so sorry for what I did," he continues. "No excuses. Nothing. I was just plain wrong and I am asking you to forgive me?"
"Oh, well, hell, that's alright then!" Kettie says, forced to blink her left eye with is not only swollen but black with hardly any blue. "We'll just forget it then, Thanks for everything," she adds.
"I- I know it doesn't help right now, but if there's anything I can do? Just name it and I'll do it, if I'm at all able. I really will. What will it be? Money? You need somebody beat up? Your sewer drained? Whatever? Anything?" he says.
"Are you serious?" Kojo asks without his friend's sarcasm. Then realizing he is, he says, "By Hoe! You really are"
"Just what the hell is your problem?" Kettie said. "You think you can just bat us around, and scare us clear to death and back, and then all you have to do is say you are sorry, maybe do a few things for us, or give us some money and all of a sudden like you're off the hook, debt free, forever, no problem!"
"No. I mean it. Anything you ever need, or even if you only just want it, it's yours if it's in my power to get it. I only mean to help. Then anytime in the future you need anything, it's yours. Anything you need now?" he said.
They both realized then that he was serious in the silence that then ensued, and as they all realized the only thing that was really needed. They were saddened beyond any previous sadness when he slowly turned and went out the door of the apartment building, out of their lives, forever, the kindest thing any of them could have thought of.
I was really quite moved but I would never want to let on to them that I was, so I just went into my pet taxi and laid down, then licked my fur as unconcerned as I could manage. It would have worked too had it not been for the purring. I just can't seem to control that part, ever.
"She's purring!" Kettie said. Awe! Kojo, the big old lovable kitty is happy! I wonder why? What have we been doing to make her happy? She knows! Sometimes I think cats are psychic!"
"That one is anyway," Kojo said. "I'm sure of it
.
Chapter 2
One day, soon after Kettie and Kojo had healed from their injuries, they were sitting in the Tucksay talking about how hot it was going to be when Kojo made a comment that would set the course for the next several days.
"I wish we could just go to a lake somewhere and go swimming. I mean, right about now, I would dearly love to just go sit in a lake right up to my neck," he said.
Kettie was animated now but said, "Yeah, that would be nice but it's too late in the season for it. There would be swimmer's itch wherever we wanted go."
"Yeah," Kojo agreed. "But what about a swimming pool somewhere? You know, like the Ramade?"
"The casino!" Kettie said excitedly. "That's a very good idea."
"I know," Kojo added as the excitement grew. "They don't serve booze there, and we don't drink. And we wouldn't have to gamble. We could just go swimming and come home, couldn't we?"
"No, you can't do that there," Kettie informed him. "The swimming pool is for hotel guests only."
"It is?" Kojo said, thinking he might have already known that. "But that's so expensive. I could never afford it now anyway. And surely not for a month or more, but now is when it's more fun."
"What is more fun?" Kettie asked. "Do you mean, doing things on the spur of the moment? That's always when it's the most fun to me."
Then Kojo made an unhappy face and said, "But we can't afford it anyway,"
hating to think he was too poor to even enjoy life like that.
"Well, I have enough in the bank to pay for it." Kettie said, raising Kojo's hopes of going. "You might not be able to, but I can afford it."
"Yeah," Kojo said still not sold. "But, I'd feel guilty about making you pay for a hotel room."
"Don't be like that," Kettie demanded. "I would be glad to go, and I have the money, so what's the problem? We are friends and that is what friends do, isn't it?"
"Okay," Kojo said and started making calls.
At first it looked like there were no vacancies anywhere there was a pool includin
the Ramade. Then they decided to try for the next day, and before they knew it they were committed for the Ramade Hotel at the Datt Lake Casino.
What about me? I was okay. They arranged for a nice lady named Cascasa to look in on me, and I'll tell you this much she took a lot better care of me than Kojo does. She even changed my litter box when Kojo forgot to before they left. She was so nice I had my own little vacation from Kojo and Kettie for about a day.
It wasn't until they were about to leave the casino that anything even seemed to be amiss. In fact it was even after they signed out of the hotel and that they were waiting for the shuttle van back to Cenieki and even after Kojo decided he wanted another diet coke.
Remembering the casino furnished free soft drinks to anyone on the floor, he piled his overnight on top of his lap top, and set the spiral notebook he always seems to carry atop that on his side of the bench outside the main entrance where they had been sitting for some time in the morning sunshine.
"Watch my stuff for a moment?" he said to Kettie, when what he really was asking was whether she was alright with being responsible for them or whether she even felt safe doing it at all. Kettie was put off by the implication it might not be safe and Kojo was off.
When Kojo was gone a thin white man less than six foot tall came out of the main doors and spotted Kettie sitting amidst the clutter of luggage, for she had placed her own backpack on the seat also. He didn't say anything at first but Kettie did notice he did not move to the other side of the doors where she would have felt a lot better about their interaction. Then he moved over to the wall space between her and the doors on her right, and though she was quite uncomfortable with the move, she weighed her discomfort with the prospect of moving all the luggage somewhere else and figured he would probably just follow anyway.
"All of that stuff yours?" the man asked.
Kettie ignored him.
"I wish I could afford a computer like that. What kind have you got in there?"
Kettie said she didn't know intentionally so softly she figured he wouldn't be able to hear her.
"You don't know!" he said letting her know he had heard her and no longer making the pretense he was just making conversation. "Do you mean that if I took it away from you, you wouldn't even be able to tell them what kind it was?"
Kettie just clutched the lap top under her arms to alert anyone watching to what the man was after. However, as she looked around her again, she could easily see there was no one anywhere around, as he moved in closer and said to her, "I think you had better just give that to me, and I'll just walk away with it and that will be all there is to it.
But, then as he made a move to grab the bag it was in, the big man from the Tucksay that day burst through the doors and put the thin man in a bear hug as Kettie began yelling for help, which produced immediate results, bringing security from every direction so it seemed. What neither she nor the big man expected was that security took the man from the Tucksay that day to be the aggressor again, since the thin man had nothing in his hands and began to yell for help also, and at about the same time Kettie had.
The first security guard to arrive then said to the big man, "Sir, now just release this man and we can talk about this. There is no need for anyone to get hurt here at all. Now is there, Sir?" The big man began to tell the guard what was going on but the thin man yelled, "Get him off me! Please! Get him the hell off me! Help! Help!" The guard was alerted to the thin man's discomfort and said to the big man, "Now, sir, just settle down. Nobody is going to force you to let him go. And, there is no need for you to hurt him. Right, Sir?" Then as the thin man began yelling for help again, the guard drew his gun, and the big man tightened his grip so as to force the thin man to lose his breath, and the guard became concerned the big man would injure the thin man. "Let the man go, Sir," the guard said. "Let him go now!" she repeated.
In the silence of the standoff that resulted Kettie finally came to herself and said calmly, "Don't! Don't hurt him. He saved me from being robbed." Then as the first guard was confused and a second one arrived Kettie continued knowing she had both of their ears and in a much kinder voice than usual she said , "He was only trying to protect me like he said he would. That one (She pointed at the thin man.) he tried to steal the lap top!" Then she said to the big man, "It's okay you can let him down now," as he relaxed and let the thin man fall to the ground and be immediately placed in handcuffs as Kettie ran to the big man and hugged him appreciatively for a brief moment.
The police took both the big man's and Kettie's statements while taking the thin man away. Then and only then were they allowed to speak to each other.
The big man cleared his throat then said, "I- I'm glad you're okay," as she was
caught by his gaze, but said nothing at first. Then she said, "I- I do not even know your name," as they looked at each other and laughed. Then he looked at her and said, "They call me, Mashe," and his voice sounded reluctant to Kettie. "Thank you, Mashe," she said and an unexpected silence took place before Mashe said, "It sounds nice when you say it," just before they again began staring at each other and a little while before Mashe turned to walk away.
"Mashe!" Kettie almost yelled as he turned toward her again though a small distance away now. "When will I see you again?" she asked but he was silent. "Tucksay. Tomorrow?" she said as he smiled brightly and walked away while Kettie watched, glad she would be meeting him again, feeling she had completely forgiven him now.
A silent while later and Kojo returned through the same doors he had left through with two plastic cups filled with diet Coke. He noticed the police cars that still lingered and chatted with security, seemingly about nothing, and then in the distance the big man getting into his vehicle. He looked at Kettie and saw she was watching him closely.
"What did he want?" Kojo said to Kettie who just shrugged and sat down again.
Kojo sensed something had happened but took the lap top from Kettie and sat down beside her as she laid her head on his shoulder briefly, but then, perhaps too soon, the shuttle arrived and they boarded in silence for their trip back to Cenieki.
Just to make sure the first security guard on the scene stuck her head in the van and asked Kettie if she was alright and Kettie just nodded, then looked at Kojo and smiled.
Chapter 3
The next day Kettie was distracted or aloof, Kojo thought when he went to visit
her, surprised to find she was not sleeping. She did not ask him to leave, but he sensed she wanted to be alone. Kojo was not sure he liked the idea, but he didn't want her to feel obligated to filling her day with his presence if she really didn't want to be with him.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
Kettie just shrugged.
"Is it something I did at the casino?" he persisted.
She just looked at him and he had no idea what it meant.
"Something I didn't do?" he added.
"Why does it always have to be something you did? Why can't it be what someone else did, or something else entirely?" she asked more agitated than necessary so Kojo thought
Kojo was silent by plan for awhile before he finally asked her if she wanted to be alone for awhile.
Kettie didn't say anything. At all.
Kojo rose, walked part way to the door, turned to Kettie and said, "Sorry. See you later?"
Kettie, quietly and Kojo thought, sadly, said, "Sure. Okay."
Kojo walked to the door, opened it and , looking back at Kettie said, "Good-bye."
"Yeah, okay. Okay? Just go, okay?" Kettie complained.
Kojo abruptly shut the door and, heading down the hallway was wondering.
Kettie locked the door and the sound of it seemed almost to echo in the hall.
Kettie was not glad to be alone. But that, she was, alone. Alone with her thoughts and memories. Alone with her feelings. Alone.
She didn't want to be with Kojo either. She did not want to keep the meeting she had made with Mashe either though. Would one or both of them be mad at her? Would they understand? Could they? How could they? She didn't.
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GOD IS GRACIOUS--FORGIVE ME?
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