When he looked up, I saw a very scarred face with pure malevolence on it. Those vibrant rainbow sparkles exploded into angry, vermillion daggers that rained down into the table all around us.
“Whoa, whoa, not interested in furnapping your friend,” I said, holding my hands up. “I just wanted to let you know that she looks young enough that you might need to help her go. Do you know how to do that?”
He stared at me for a long, long,longmoment, but I was more than happy to wait while those daggers dissolved into dust. Yellow shimmers of apprehension but also keen stripes of cerulean interest replaced them.
“How’s that?”
“It’s a little gross, but basically, a mama cat will stimulate their baby’s genitals with their tongue, so if your friend isn’t going on her own after a bit, you want to take a warm washcloth and gently wipe her backside. You won’t need to do it very hard, but you need to be consistent with it.”
“I… I didn’t know that,” he said before lifting another spoonful of broth and holding it down by the kitten, who drank it down like she was starving, which she probably had been. “Always liked cats. Never had one of my own. This one got into my toolkit.”
“Sounds like the good ol’ CDS to me.”
“Wazzat?”
“Oh, cat distribution system. Internet slang for?—”
“Yeah. Heard of that. Thanks for telling me that.”
“Sure, no problem.” I paused to evaluate if I was wasting my time or if this could give me a lead. “Hey, do you have a smartphone?”
“Why?”
“Well, if you want, I can show you some good cat channels to follow on YouTube, ya know, just in case you have questions later and have a hard time getting to a vet.”
“I’d like that.”
And then he was straight up handing me his phone. I hadn’t expected that. Not wanting to abuse his trust, I turned it toward him as I followed several channels, including that one bald guy who had been on TV lots of times, especially working with inmate-pet programs.
“There ya go,” I said, handing it back when I was done. “That should do ya.”
“Thanks. I owe you.”
“Think nothing of it,” I said, waving my hand before leaning forward. “But, if you’re so inclined, have you heard of any good…contractslately?”
He didn’t even look up from his kitten friend, who was done with the soup and now trying to insert her whole body into the sleeve of his biker jacket. Determined little thing.
“What kind of contract?”
“Oh, any. Got a lot of different skills. Just looking to make the big bucks.”
“Heard ’bout a hit, but ain’t my bag.”
“A hit, really? Must be juicy.”
“Probably.”
“Do you know who put it out? I can go pester them for details instead.”
“Nah. Don’t think anybody knows. Just heard about it.”
“Right, right. Well?—”
“I thought I said I’d be right back,” Paul’s voice said from beside me. He must have been steamed, because he didn’t even seem to realize that I wasn’t alone until he was right up on me. “Oh, hello, uh, Mister…?”
“This is my friend and his new cat,” I said quickly, smiling broadly at the biker. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Didn’t give it. But this is Cheese.”