Chapter Five
The black-and-white animal butted its warm head against my chin as we sat on the casita’s front porch swing.
“She’s cute.” Max reached out with a cautious hand to pet the tiny creature, and it mewed. “Hi, kitty.”
“How old do you think she is?” I asked to distract myself from the conversation inside the house.
“I don’t know. Still a kitten.” He inspected the feline’s rear end. “Also, she might be he.”
The cat climbed me like its personal jungle gym, with one of its claws needling into the threads of my shirt.
Its fur radiated heat from the cloudless day.
I knew people sometimes dumped animals on the side of the street.
The bumpy back road by the house didn’t get much traffic, so thank goodness Max heard the meows on his way over to ask if I wanted to play.
“A pet is a huge responsibility.” My dad’s voice carried outside, and Max and I stilled so we could eavesdrop. “At the end of the day, the work will fall on us.”
“I’m fine with that,” Mom said, irritation making her pitch rise.
“Of course you’re fine with it, Amy, you’ll be running around the hotel while I’m taking care of—”
“We’re talking about a cat, Richard. We play with it, we feed it, we scoop its shit. It’s not that complicated.”
“I don’t want a cat right now.”
“What about what I want? Or what our Daisygirl wants?”
They hadn’t had a blowup like this since Dad moved back in a few weeks ago. I couldn’t bear for them to split again over this.
“Maybe…” I handed the wriggling animal to Max, not wanting to get too attached. “Would your parents let you keep him if mine say no?”
“You said your mom and dad had talked about getting a pet.”
“Yeah, like a fish or a gerbil.” My shoulders slumped. “Maybe Dad’s right that a cat is too much trouble.”
Max’s face turned sour. He held the cat inches from my nose, crowding my personal space, as the feline reached out to paw me. “You owe kitty an apology.”
“Stop,” I said through a halfhearted laugh.
I wished Max didn’t have to overhear Mom and Dad fighting, but I was so glad he was here to brighten my mood.
He had a knack for that. I put on as much of a smile as I could while the cat made circles in my lap and laid down into a croissant shape.
Peaceful, content. The little thing purred, safe perhaps for the first time in its life and comfortable like it had always belonged there.