#80: The games began

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The lady ‘manning’ the reception desk had looked up and smiled as the older gentleman approached her desk. She subtly focused her desk cameras on him and run a Google “person-search”. While he was still walking toward her she had an executive synopsis of his life on her computer screen. She read it and smiled again...My how interesting...let the games begin.

Each of them had access to everything public about the other. The question is, did the other know that other knew? Or did the other know that the other knew that they knew? ....how good was the other person's Google-fu? How fast could they skim and integrate information? Such was the manner of social interactions lately. As always new technology changes culture and the culture of the Second Republic of Texas was changing rapidly. The immediate and ensuing small talk would establish the ground rules.

Pleasantries were exchanged and the Old Man got immediately to business with no small talk.....he was making his own rules as usual.

“I want a cat” he said. “my pets and companions of damn near three decades have both recently passed on and I find myself extremely in need of companionship.”

The lady grinned slightly at that. This guy had been a 'hunk' when he was younger and he still wasn't half bad. If she were only ten years...or hell, even FIVE years younger she'd show him 'companionship' all right......ah well. Life doesn't play fair sometimes.

“I see that you've adopted cats from here before, or rather from our predecessor, and they've lived until recently? My that's a very long time. You must have taken very good care of them. That speaks well of you.” she said.

“Yes” he said “they were my companions for a long time. I feel lost without them”.

“Let's see if we can fix that problem.” she said. “If you'll follow me we'll take a tour of the facility and you can see all the cats and kittens”.

And so they did.

It was a large facility and it housed much more than just cats. It contained a huge variety of animals. This was, after all, Texas. Everything is bigger in Texas. There were a great many dogs, some rabbits, some snakes, an armadillo, a descent-ed skunk, some ferrets and there were even birds. There were, however, a LOT of cats. They looked at the cats since Sam wanted a Cat. They watched the kittens play for a good long time. If a person can't enjoy watching kittens play they need to be buried...they may be still walking around but their soul is dead.

Eventually the lady and the old man were walking back to the cafeteria. They had been decided that he would view the entire facility then take a coffee break and consider what he wanted to do. They were passing in front of a closed steel door with no windows when the old man stopped cold. He turned to her abruptly and asked while pointing at the door.

“What is this?” he asked.

“Its the medical facility” she said slightly taken about by his sudden turn of behavior. “it's where we take the sick or injured animals and keep them quarantined in an attempt to prevent the spread of any disease or to keep them calm while they heal from an injury. Why do you ask?”

“I felt something stir in my Soul. What happened to the cat that’s in there.” he asked

“The cat was horribly injured.” she said, puzzled,

What is this 'soul bit? How did he know there was a cat in there, when it could as easily have been a dog or a rabbit? She thought to herself.

“It's a really, really strange case.” the lady said out loud “ _ The other day the cat was brought in by some fire fighters. They had recovered it from the basement of a house that had burnt to the ground and then collapsed into the basement. It was pure happenstance that they found the animal. It seems that some kind of cult had tried to crucify the cat in a ritual. It was Halloween, it was a black cat. Something went wrong and the house caught fire. The cultists all died in the fire but somehow the cat lived. It was horribly burned and it appears to have broken bones and possibly internal injuries. The poor thing resists all of our attempts to help it. Oddly enough the intern can't seem to get a needle to penetrate it's skin. and hasn't been able to sedate it. The poor thing was brought in on Friday Night...this is Sunday, when the Staff Vets come in on Monday morning perhaps they can come up with a solution. Right now it’s just left alone with food and water._”

“The cat is obviously in great pain...it makes horrible noises,but it's eating like a horse, and drinking water by the gallon. The intern is baffled. He doesn’t know what to do so he does nothing. Frankly he is afraid to approach it again.” she said.

As they were talking they had opened the heavy sound proofed door and walked into the medical facility. They stood observing the cat. It was laying in it's food dish...weakly eating yet more food. It was shoveling the food into it’s mouth with one paw, it’s head laying in the bowl to one side. It didn't even seem to be chewing. It was just swallowing the food.

“I’ll take it” said the old man.

“Oh no, we couldn't let you do that” said the receptionist." the animal is in terrible shape, it's not even clean. It might die any minute”.

“I might die any minute too” said the old man...” being old is like that. This is just what I want. I'm not likely to outlive it by much. I won't be adding another stain to my poor tarnished soul, and any time I manage to keep the little boy alive is just a bonus for him and karma points for me. If, as you say, he should be dead. He doesn't look really healthy does he?_”

The receptionist shook her head. “It won't allow anyone to come near it, what do you think you can do.”

“No idea.” Said the old man. “Open the cage and let's see what happens.”

“But...” she started to say...

“It’s in such bad shape that it can’t run away...the worse that can happen is that I might get bit or clawed...that won't be new to me. I've had cats before.” He said.

“OK” she said, opening the door and stepping back.

The old man stood there and looked into the open door of the cage. Then he sat down on the floor in front of the open door. The cat looked at him...then slowly, as if in great pain...inch by painful inch the cat drug itself over to the old man and crawled into the old man’s lap...into his outstretched arms. The old man gently cradled the cat against his chest. It was purring. It was a BIG cat. It just looked small because it was gaunt. It was worn, very worn. Kind of like the old man was. The two beat up old toms, one human one feline, sat there on the cold floor.

“You'll be alright fella. Let's go home”. Sam whispered in the cat’s ear.

Next Episode
#81: In Sickness, and in health.…
Previous Episode
#79: Do you have any Cats
First Episode
# 1 : In the beginning…

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