Things were great…but not thrilling. That’s good though. Fast joy is dangerous and Uncle Paul says emotional peace is better. So things were great in the safest way.
We’d shut the shop down and were en route to our weekly animethon. Daylight savings afforded us some bonus sun. We ambled the back streets, petting stray kittens.
Fluff was a gorgeous cat. A living pom-pom of cashmere-soft fur. I always brought cat- treats and tickled his neck while he cracked them in his little lion jaw. Sated, he narrowed his round, amber eyes. That’s cat for ‘love’.
I considered how things had changed. Two years ago was a blur of dexies and delusion. If not for Paul, I wouldn’t have survived.
Kyle and Monica giggled down the lane. This was contentment. Easy friendships. Fluffy approval for this critter. My heart, warm with belonging… then the cloud came.
It was large, low and dense but seemingly from nowhere. One second, high Spring was in the air then, suddenly, it prickled with cold. I shivered into my cardi. Paul took me skiing once. It looked like snow clouds…only more yellow-green. The weird light cast the street in a Lautrec glow.
Fluff and I always bop noses. But now, when I leaned my face in…he hissed. I blinked, confused. Maybe it was the light, but the cat looked different. Moments ago, he was playful. Now, he seemed distant.
"Jo!” Kyle and Mon waited on the hill.
I snapped out of it and caught up. Rounding the corner, I realised it was warm again. A clear, blue afternoon.
“Mon, can you swap shifts on Friday?” I gave her a beer.
“Sure, hon.”
“Soup’s on!” Kyle interupted presenting a mound of chilli and we loaded our plates.
We laughed ‘til the wee hours, teasing Kyle’s crush on Countess Bot.
“She’s basically human!” he protested.
Washing dishes, the stars lit Kyle’s kitchen window. The cloud episode had just been…nerves.
Then, the room dimmed. A cold prickle shimmied up my spine. A sudden quiet. Drying my hands down the hall, I found my friends engaged in animated whispers. Mon blushed when she saw me. Who were they talking about?
Kyle smiled coyly, “Dessert?” he tossed me the jubes.
On the couch, I downed some sugar, surely I was catastrophising.
“We going to Comic-Con?” I attempted to relax… when Kyle laughed hysterically. I laughed along, “what’s funny?”
“Nothing,” at this, they laughed ‘til they cried, avoiding my gaze like they knew something I didn’t.
“What’s… funny?”
“FUCK,” Kyle barked, “Jo! CHILL!”
We finished the cartoon in painful silence.
“I’d better head.”
“Yeah,” Kyle said flatly.
At the door, I heard Monica’s voice, hissing.
“Sorry?” maybe I misheard, “did…you make a noise?”
“Huh? You’re hearing things.’’
I fretted on Kyle’s porch. They never act like that. Worry flooded me. I needed something to count.
Counting calms me. As a kid, I counted stars at Paul’s farm. But there were no stars to speak of. The glittering sky was now clogged with…cloud. It was the same sickly, chartreuse as the other cloud. The moonshine brought an eerie, jaundiced glow.
The next day, I met Paul and the poodles. We ate and gossiped in the park. I love this man. He gets me. When he came out, Pop disowned him, so our family was all kinds of toxic.
“Anyway, darling. How are you?” He cared.
“Fine,” I sounded chirpy, “but yesterday-”
Then behind Paul, the cloud, sick and green, crowning him like a giant cobra. I searched his face. This man was my truest kin. I looked at him, imploring, and he hissed like a scared snake.
My heart shook my whole frame with cold prickles. I found my feet and fled. Paul sat bolt upright and hissed bitterly. The cloud carrying the hiss on its breeze. Bile yellow lightning flashed. A workman, gardening, hissed. A skater flew by and she hissed. I just made the packed bus but when I boarded, the passengers faced me and in unison they hissed. I screamed like a red fox. My eyes went black.
I woke in hospital with an aching skull. A kind nurse took my arm and told me I fell. She gave me good drugs and I floated to calm. Later, they wheeled me into theatre. The relaxed surgeon explained the procedure as if it was no big deal. I nodded, trusting, as they fit my mask.
I breathed in and my throat prickled, hot and cold. I looked down to see what they had given me…gas, glowing yellow and green. As I drifted, a team of experts stood above me. They hissed.
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