“You seem pretty pleased with yourself, old man,” I said bitterly.
“Takes one to know one,” he said with a wink.
With the wind snatched from my sails and nothing left to stay, I stood to go. Larry walked me to his front door, making a show of twisting the knob to show me there was no lock on his door either. Before leaving, he clapped me on the back and said, “Stick with me, Cipher, and I’ll teach you everything I know. Prove your loyalty to me, and you’ll be running this town before you know it.”
He’d made me a pretty promise, one he could probably even fulfill, but I didn’t crave power or prestige. I craved freedom.
And to be left the hell alone.
SIX
KITTEN
It was probablya bad idea to eat those mushrooms, but Cipher had left to run an errand, and I still had the rest of the day off, so when Macon came home from work with his pockets full of fungi and asked if I wanted to do something fun, I figured, why not? Gizmo was in his workshop, aka our garage, and we convinced him to eat some too.
Now the three of us were sprawled out on the living room floor, and I was feelinggooooood. My fingertips caressed the carpet while Macon and I tried to describe its color as if it were a flavor of ice cream.
“Vanilla bean,” Macon said, the words coming out so slowly that it sounded likevaaaanillllaaa beeeeean.
I sniffed the carpet. “Doesn’t smell like vanilla. Cotton maybe.”
“Buttercream?” he suggested.
I tried licking the fibers. “Tastes more like cat hair.”
“What is dark matter?” Gizmo said. He’d misplaced his glasses awhile ago and was squinting as if trying to make things come into focus.
“What’s a matter with me? What’s a matter with you?” Macon said.
“And how can a hypothetical form of matter account for 85% of the universe? It just boggles the mind,” Gizmo said.
Macon shrugged, head swiveling back to me like it was spring-loaded. “Stop licking the carpet, Kitten, or you’ll be hacking up a hairball like Little Miss Purrfect.”
He shoved me lightly so that I rolled over onto my back. I laughed–I don’t know why–and then, as if by magic, my cat appeared. I sat up and stroked along her back. “How are you today, my darling?” She purred and head-butted my belly to tell me she was well. “Wonderful to hear it. Your fur is so soft and lovely, Little Miss. You’ve been doing an excellent job of grooming yourself here in Promised Land. What is your secret?”
“Three square meals a day,” Macon said. “It’s easy to look good when you don’t have to go scavenging for food all the time.”
“So true,” I agreed as I got lost in the feel of her fur, tickling my fingers and gently skimming my cheek. There was nothing softer, except maybe Cipher’s hair. It was growing back now. “Have you noticed?” I asked them both.
“Noticed what?” Macon said.
“It clumps and gravitates but passes through atoms and light,” Gizmo said as his fingers danced, metal digits flashing like Cipher’s knives when he went into combat mode. So elegant and swift, they left the most dazzling trails of light behind them.
“Do you see that? It’s like a silver rainbow,” I said.
“I see it.” Macon nodded. “Like fish scales sparkling in the sun.”
“Do you think it’s working?” I asked them because I wasn’t so sure.
Macon nodded. “Definitely working. Hey, Kitten, what’s the plural of mongoose?”
“Mongeese, obviously,” I said with a giggle.
“That’s what I thought too. Hey, what’s your favorite word?”
“Fibonacci,” Gizmo answered straightaway, then started reciting numbers. We listened with rapt attention until eventually, he drifted into silence. “That’s as far as I know.”
“My favorite word is deciduous,” Macon said. “De-cid-u-ous.”
