"Are you getting up at all today?" Donna's voice asked
through the door. "'Cause your cat's laying out here in the
hallway making it a little hard to get past."
And as tempted as I was to not answer, to just let the
whole damn world go hang-- "Go ahead and let her in, thanks,
Donna. And sorry. I...I think maybe I've been overdoing it
lately."
The clatter of her keys in the lock, the swish of the door
over the carpet. "Go on, Brujo," Donna said. "D'you need a
Tylenol or anything, Gus?"
I kept my face pressed into my pillow, reached a hand over
for my nightstand, rattled the pill bottle there while
pretending to groan the way I would've if my shoulders had
actually been hurting. "I'll be OK," I told her. I mean, I was
already lying to her; what difference would one more make?
"OK." I heard the door scrape shut and her key relock it.
That's the best reason, after all, for being polite to the
staff: when you want to be an ass, they'll put up with it for a
little while.
Another shuffle, a whoosh and a weight thumping onto the
end of the bed. "I take it," El Brujo asked, her voice sharp as
a knife, "that you don't care one way or another if I've yet
eaten this morning?"
"Oh, good," I said into the pillow. "Push my guilt button.
Just what I need right now."
She sniffed, the weight of her moving slowly but steadily
along my side toward my head. "What you need is a good,
swift kick, August." She paused, set a paw on my lower back
exactly on the border where all my lower dead flesh starts
melting into the upper parts of me that can still feel, and let
her claws tap my skin ever so gently. "Besides, isn't your
little pony program on today? The final episode of the season,
is it not?"
The only thing that kept me from swatting her right then
was the healthy respect I've gained for her ability to make my
life a living Hell when she feels the need. "Oh, look." I
waved a hand vaguely upward. "The window's open. Perhaps a
certain cat of my acquaintance would like to leap up there and
settle in for a long, luscious nap. I know I sure would
if I was able to."
A second paw joined the first, then a third and a fourth
and finally the full warm stretch of her furry belly, El Brujo
stradling almost the whole length of my back. "If you miss your
program, you'll never forgive yourself, you know."
"I'll catch it on YouTube later."
"It won't be the same." She started kneading between my
shoulder blades, sharp little pinprinks moving in and out.
"It'll be exactly the same!"
"On your laptop instead of the big screen in the front
room? The sound rattling from those tinny little speakers
instead of from the--"
"God damn it!" I shoved my hands under my chest and
pushed, flipped myself onto my side, glared at her easily
jumping over my torso to land at the edge of the mattress. "Why
should I care about some stupid little fantasy show, huh?? God
damn friendship is God damn magic my God damn ass! It's just a
cartoon, not anything real, and I sure as Hell don't need
to be wasting my time with it!"
"Of course," she said, her eyes half-closed. "Because you
live so firmly in the real world, after all."
I reached down to straighten my tangled legs, refused to
look at her.
"And your real world is one of ashes and sackcloth, isn't
it? One where you'd rather sit in the darkness and eat worms
than roll up to the full banquet and indulge, isn't it?"
She was getting too close, damn her. Same as she always
did. And the fear that gripped my gut made me want to fling
myself back down, bury myself in the blankets, pretend that none
of it had happened, that I hadn't seen the horror on her
face when she'd turned around and run back into her house.
"You still have time," El Brujo murmured right into my ear,
and I jumped, snapped my head around, almost slammed my nose
into hers.
"Time??" I couldn't keep from shouting. "For what?? To
have her call the cops?? To see the curtains rustle on her
front window when she sees it's me and runs deeper into the
house?? To have her call me a monster or laugh in my face or
drip pity from her eyes?? Time for that??"
El Brujo blinked slowly. "Time for your program." She
nodded to the digital clock on my nightstand. "Fifteen minutes
to get into your chair and out into the front room." She raised
a paw, licked between the toes, her claws popping in and out
meaningfully. "I could help you move faster, but I doubt either
of us would enjoy that." Those dark, deep eyes fixed on me, and
I couldn't look away. "One way or another, however, you will be
leaving this bed within the next few minutes."
It made me grit my teeth, but-- "Fine." I shuffled
around, El Brujo jumping to the floor. "If it'll get me some
peace, I'll go watch the damn show."
"Of course." She licked her paw again. "Then we'll take a
trip down the block to see how little Heather is getting along.
We've not been by since last week, after all, and I always worry
about a puppy in a new house. Must be good neighbors, mustn't
we?"
"No!" I slapped a hand against the mattress, but, well, it
was a mattress. Not the thing for a big dramatic crash, in
other words. "I don't want--!"
"But you do, August. You want it desperately." Her
voice was quiet, but every word bit. "And while it may all come
to naught, that's the guaranteed outcome should you
continue lying here."
"God..." I muttered, flipping my legs down and inching
myself over to position them in front of my chair.
She huffed. "And here I thought you considered yourself an
agnostic." She reached a paw up, patted the cuffs of my
pajamas. "No need for the tuxedo yet, of course, but I might
recommend something a bit spiffier than that."
I couldn't help laughing, slinging myself into the seat,
unlocking the wheels, rolling to the dresser. "Maybe my 'I'm
not crazy' t-shirt?"
"Really, August." She slipped between the wheels and
leaped up onto the dresser. "As if they'd let you have one of
those."The story continues with 12!
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