Chapter 7: The first jobs
Simon arrived at the address, he had a tough rime finding because he of the streets with the same name except they would have different ending like "Drive" or "Road." His client inside was an old woman with a house full of cats she referred to as her "children," she was, surprisingly, okay with Simon being late and getting lost.
"It's okay dear, people get lost every once in a while, it's a fact of life." She told him.
"Sorry … um … Why do you need someone to look after your cats?" He asked.
"I'm going to be gone for a few hours, I someone who isn't allergic to cats to look after them while I'm gone." She said. "Here's a list of what the cats need." She said, giving him a few papers. "Will you be able to handle them?"
"I'll be all right mam, thank you." Said Simon. The old woman left Simon alone with at lest 10 cats. Simon looked at the list, it read:
1. Don't let Margie into the food bag
2. Make sure that Lulu stays in her room
3. Don't try to get Mittens out of the hole in the ceiling, he'll come to you if you are patient
4. Ru can't clean himself so he needs a bath, try not to get scratched
5. Give Popsicle lots of attention, he loves it
6. Clean up after Teddy after she kills rats.
And so on. Simon couldn't remember all the cats names so he resorted nicknames based off of habits and appearance. For example, he calls Ru Fat cat, Popsicle is Affectionate cat, and Mittens is called Hidden cat. He had trouble keeping up with the cats, once he got one cat away from the stove, another cat was shredding the curtains and at the same time one cat brings a dead rat to him, leaving a bloody mess at his meet. He had a cat scratching at him while he looked for a place to get rid of the rat, he settled on tossing it out the window, like what he does with cockroaches. The cat he didn't have trouble with was Lulu, or Kitty, because she was a small timid kitten, she mewed when she needed something. He wished that all the cats were that tame because he didn't want to get scratched when he separated two cats from wrestling, or something that looked like it. It felt like an eternity of meowing, biting, scratching, feeding, catnip, cleaning and Fat cat making him immobile by simply sitting on him during the hours the owner was gone. During the time his eyes started watering, and he was woman got home in the evening and he looked like a zombie with shredded clothes and blood shot eyes.
"Oh my are you all right dear?" She asked.
"I'm all right mam." He said his voice sounding very guttural.
"We should talk outside dear, I'm terribly sorry dear, I didn't know that you had allergies." She insisted.
"Neither did I." Said Simon, his voice sounding better after they got outside.
"Where my children any trouble?"
"They do love to scratch …" Commented Simon trying not to sound offensive, "I made sure I did everything on the list. They weren't too much trouble."
"That's good, other cat sitters I've had found them to be a pain after one time." Joked the old woman. "I see that all of my cat are taken care of." She said filling out a piece of paper. "You did a nice job, here's your evaluation and your pay." She gave him the slip of paper and the promised 50 gald. When he went back to the guild building, Clause was just about to lock up when he took a look at Simon.
"Damn, what happened to you?" He asked.
"I just got back from a job."
"Oh well, at least it's proof that you were working." He shrugged, "You can't tell if a man has done his work unless he's even a little dirty. That's how it is these days. Now, do you have your evaluation?" Simon gave him the slip of paper. Claus looked over it, "Hm … you're off too a good start." He complimented.
When Simon returned to the inn there was a bit of a commotion going on at the back and no one was at the front desk. The inn's employees were sitting at a small table with Robin's sisters while Robin was cooking in the kitchen.
"What's going on?" Simon asked.
"A celebration, it's the owner's birthday." Said Robin.
"Okay, and they're gonna celebrate here because of money issues I presume?"
"Yeah, since this inn is like a home to them."
"I see … Robin," he began, changing subjects, "You know how to fight right? Well can you help me train?"
"I don't see why not, we can start tomorrow when we finish our jobs."
Yeah ... Some of these filler chapters will very short, or can be short, I won't be updating for a bit because of school and such.
Before I forget, Icey, I would like to thank you for reviewing and for pointing out that my computer does something weird with the spacing, turning it into a big wall of text.