Day Seven

It was four in the morning and I woke up before something could be dropped on me. Three seconds later the favored spider was presented to me. I tossed it to the foot of the bed and it was solemnly brought to me. I deliberately scrunched my fingers under the cover and the war growl issued forth and my fingers were soundly trounced under the blankets. We played for maybe fifteen minutes before Butternut settled down by my pillow and started purring.

Being awake, I turned on the light and grabbed Eleanor's book to read. The poems were silly, and I tried a tentative "MacCavity?" Butternut opened and eye and shut it promptly. Growl-Tiger was also refused, though I thought it fitting. Sadly it didn't work out well for Growl-Tiger. Eventually I returned to sleep.

I knew I was dreaming again. I was on the docks watching the sun rise over the water. A sun dog was in the sky. The dock was wet with the rain that had fallen the previous night. It was a peaceful scene, ruined only by the corpse leaning on a old pylon. Usually I saw the Kid's body where it was found, not on my dock. I was mildly curious, but not so much that I needed to go look at the body I'd found when I was a boy.

Unfortunately that body decided it needed to come visit me. I backed down the dock as it twitched and rose to it's feet. The Kid cam closer to me. I backed up. This went on until I reached the end of the dock. Somehow it had lost the landmass that supported it. I was hanging with my heels over the open water and a corpse advancing rapidly at me. It gripped me by the throat and started to choke me. A low, threatening growl vibrated the docks.

A liger walked off Gerty and bounded down the dock towards me. It took me a moment to identify the cat. I'd only seen one once at a Ren Faire in Massachusetts. It was 700 pounds of pissed cat. He was tawny and stripped and about 11 feet long. It didn't take the cat long to reach us. He gave a war scream and then bit into the corpse. The corpse didn't let go. All three of us went into the water.

The corpse kept its death grip on my throat, and things were getting dim. I remembered being told that if you died in a dream you would die in the real world. The liger dove under the waves and bit off the arm. It kept its grip, but without the horror of the rest of the corpse, the arm was a little easier to handle. I grab at the wrist tendons and forced the hand to open. I gasped as I cleared the surface. A few moments behind me, the liger surfaced too. Then the parts of the corpse the liger had dismembered also floated to the surface. I awoke before I saw the ruined face of the Kid again.

Beside me Butternut breathed softly and quietly, with a soft purr once in awhile. Guess he wasn't why I was getting throttled this time. I shrugged of the dream, deciding that it must have been artifacts of reading the poems and reminding Eleanor about the people dying in their sleep. I got up and called Nathan now that it was the much more reasonable hour of nine. When he refused to answer the phone, I called Audrey. She answered on the second ring.

"Are you going to come down here to see that Butternut has survived a whole week with me so that I can take him back to his shelter?" I heard the edge in my voice, and regretted it.

"Yeah, Duke, because Nathan and I have nothing else to do today, but stare at you and your cat. We'll be right over." She wasn't too happy with me either, it seemed.

Within half an hour they were aboard Gerty and had confirmed my kitten's vitality.
"Are you keeping him, Duke?" Nathan seemed to be honestly curious about if I would keep my little friend.

"Nah, he has to go find a good home. Things are too strange in Haven for him. He wants to leave. He told me so." The cat had to make a liar out of me by twining around my ankles and purring loudly.

"I don't know, Duke, I think he likes you." Audrey reached down and petted the orange menace.

"Likes me or not, he's going. It's for the best," I answered. I turned around and got the cat carrier out of the closet.

"The best for who, you or him?" Audrey asked. She had an unreadable expression on her face. I wondered what answer she would prefer. I wondered how exactly I entered into the equation. Certainly he'd been good for getting me out of bed in the morning, but that was about it.

"The best for him. The ocean is a mysterious and dangerous place, Audrey. It's better that he get a nice home inland and away from the craziness that is Haven." I smiled at Audrey and scratched the side of my neck.

Audrey snorted. Nathan remained grimly silent. It was wearing on me. "So, Audrey, what are you doing tomorrow night? I have a boat, and Boston is just a little south of here. Nathan has a date to pay for now..."

Nathan made a strangled noise that I assumed would be his disagreement until he realized that I had, in fact, won the bet. It was day seven with the kitten. The kitten and I were still alive. And I had cleaned the litter box, which I probably would have avoided but he had to see my degradation in person.

"Gee, thanks Duke, but I was just in Boston. Sorry." Audrey canted her head, knowing that I would not be put off this easily, and that I would come up with a counter offer.

"Well, I can take you up the coast to a lovely little town in Canada. There's a band I know playing up there that you may like. I can pretty much guarantee that they will not play 'Love Will Keep Us Together.'"

"What he's not telling you is that it will take five to six hours to get there and that much again to get back. I'm thinking he means to take you to Yarmouth or St. John's." Nathan was such a kill joy.

Audrey shook her head no. Bested from the south and north, I decided to try Northeast. "There's always Portland."

That got me the raised eyebrows of almost acceptance. She looked over at Nathan, who glowered at me. Audrey must have taken that as being with in an acceptable distance by boat.

"Why take on the highways and byways when you have the open sea? What do you say, Audrey. I know you haven't been able to get up to Portland. It is Maine's largest city." I gave her my best smile.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, if only to stop you from begging me to go to the Gull with you."

I quietly beamed my success at Nathan, who deflected my beam of happiness with his shield of disapproval. They took their leave shortly thereafter.

I suppose it was a good thing that I had absolutely nothing to do the last day I had with my kitten. I took a couple of pictures of him and a video of his playing, and noticed he'd eaten the corners off of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. I guess I would have a way to remember him. Eventually the time came and I had to put him in his box, and drove what seemed like days to get to Butternut's former home, the animal shelter.

Mop Girl was there, and took Butternut back to the kitten room. She seemed sad that it hadn't worked out. I closed my eyes when I heard Butternut crying at the door of the kitten room, and left before I could see him throw himself at the door. It didn't stop me from hearing it though.

That night I was flipping through the book that Butternut so thoughtfully autographed. I found the perfect name for him in that book. I'd never get a chance to see if he'd answer if I called him it. That night I didn't dream, but I didn't sleep past 4AM either.