Chapter 11
If you thought I was a bundle of nerves before, hoo boy! Nothing made me more nervous than thinking about what Lola had done, inviting Sam and Sandra to Thanksgiving Dinner. Not only that, but Lori would also be coming down from Great Lakes City to visit, and she didn't even know about Sam yet!
That wasn't necessarily anyone's fault; attending Fairway University, her dream college, kept Lori so busy that she barely had time to eat and sleep, much less write or call. There must have been a stupid number of classes that were required to become a professional golf player like Lori wanted to be.
Anyway, I had more important things that I should have been thinking about: the parents of Lincoln's friend Clyde had hired me to take care of their cats while they were out of town for the weekend. There was one, teensy-weensy little problem, though. When I blindly accepted the job only because the McBrides were nice people and my other siblings were occupied, I'd forgotten that I knew absolutely nothing about caring for other people's pets! Thankfully, they mentioned that Cleopawtra and Nepurrtiti (names that were a little too creative, but still kinda funny) were good with dogs, so I wisely (if belatedly) enlisted Sam's aid.
I flopped onto the McBrides' couch, totally exhausted, as I waited for Sam to arrive. Thankfully, it wasn't long before the doorbell rang, and Sam's eyes widened as he took in my bedraggled appearance.
"Do I even want to know what happened?" he asked. I slumped against the doorframe with a heavy sigh, my left eye twitching madly. I was covered in canned cat food and bits of cake, my makeup was smudged, my hair was ruffled, the right side of my shirt had come untucked, and my skirt was crooked. Yeah, it had been a cat-tastrophy thus far (Dang it! Luan's rubbing off on me!).
"I hate pet-sitting," I told him. "Those darn cats ran me ragged after I didn't pay close enough attention to the instruction book the McBrides left for me. They pounced on me when I opened their food cans ten minutes too late. Then I took them for a walk, and they dragged me all over the neighborhood at top speed. I crashed into a guy delivering a fancy cake just down the block. On top of that, I still have to give them a bath and put them to bed!" I then did something I swore I'd never do to Sam: I utilized the infamous Loud Sister Puppy Eyes. "I can't handle it, Sam! I need help!" I whimpered. Pathetic, I know, but it had the desired effect.
"How can I say no to a face like that?" he asked with a smile, scraping a blob of frosting off of my cheek with his thumb and putting it in his mouth. "Hmm, strawberry! Not bad!" Taking offense at the witty remark, I reacted by punching his shoulder, only to immediately regret it. Sam's daily workouts with Lynn over the last month or so had made him miraculously buff, and the solid wall of pure muscle made my hand hurt. Seriously, none of us, him included, had any idea that he had those types of gains in him! Anyway, I stepped to the side to let him in while he rubbed the spot where I hit him with a chuckle. Sam then gave an impressed whistle. "Nice place they got here! And they trust someone they hardly know to be here alone with someone else they've never met?"
"First of all, dude, I know them better than you think; their son is a friend of Lincoln's. Second, they don't know you're here, and I never told them I'd be bringing a friend. I only texted you when I realized I was in over my head," I explained.
"Ah! No matter, I can still help out. So, the first thing on the list is bath time, right?" I nodded. "Okay, that shouldn't be too hard. Heeeeeeeere, kitty, kitty, kitty," Sam cooed, sneaking up on the cats, who were both laying on the couch with their eyes closed. "It's time for two little kitties to take a bath!" At the sound of the B-word, their eyes snapped open, and they bolted, leaving Sam staring at twin indentations on the cushion. With a dumbfounded look on his face, Sam said, "Okay, this might be a little harder that I thought. Why don't you draw the water while I try to catch them?"
As tired as I was, I didn't have the energy to chase the cats around the whole house, so I agreed. I took the McBrides' guidebook into the bathroom with me in case the cats had a specific bath time need. As the tub filled with warm water, I carefully measured the proper amount of bubble-bath solution according to Clyde's neat handwriting. I paused as a little snippet of text caught my eye. It read Cleopawtra and Nepurrtiti hate the idea of taking a bath, but not the bath itself. Their first instinct will be to run and hide, then to fight back upon being caught. Once they are in the water, though, their behavior will improve significantly. There is an old pair of hockey gloves hanging on the wall of the laundry room to keep them from scratching you too badly. That would have been nice to know BEFORE Sam ran off to catch them with his bare hands! I made a mental note to do something nice later to make it up to him. Within two minutes of me turning the water off, Sam came into the bathroom holding each cat by the scruff of the neck. He had claw marks on his face and the backs of his hands, but none of them were bleeding much. He unceremoniously dumped the yowling felines into the frothy tub, and they instantly quieted and started swimming around happily.
"Sorry, dude. I just now read that there was a better way to catch them," I apologized as Sam ran his scratched hands under cold water in the sink.
"Ah, don't worry, Luna. I've been through a lot worse than two angry kitties. And besides, my werewolf traits make me a fast healer. See?" He showed me his hands, and the scratches were already gone. Very little remained of the particularly deep one on his nose. Together, we finished bathing the cats and dried them off with the blow drier. I then decided to do something about the cat food and cake that still stuck to my skin and hair, and fetched my overnight bag from the living room. Inside was my nightshirt, a pair of cotton lounge pants, a towel, and a change of clothes for the next day.
"Hey, Sam, the McBrides left an envelope of money on the coffee table. Can you order a pizza while I take a shower?" I asked him.
"Sure thing, Luna. Is Meat Lovers okay, or do you have a topping preference?"
"Nah, dude, Meat Lovers is fine." It was a little strange using someone else's bathroom to take a shower, but it felt soooooo good after the kind of day I'd had! I felt a little bad for losing track of time while standing under the warm water, but I reminded myself that my hosts wouldn't mind. I dried off and dressed in my nightshirt and purple lounge pants (my nightshirt went pretty far down my thighs, but I was feeling self-conscious, what with there being a boy in the house and all). The shag carpet felt nice against my bare feet as I walked to the living room, where Sam was waiting with a piping-hot pizza and a six-pack of root beer. Before we ate our supper, we put the cats to bed, using my acoustic guitar to sing "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins as a lullaby.
With the cats asleep in another room, Sam and I sat on the couch and watched How to Train your Dragon on Netflix while we ate (the McBrides gave me free reign of their Netflix account as long as I promised not to watch anything mature-rated). It was actually pretty romantic if I'm being honest, and I found myself leaning against Sam as my eyes grew heavy. Once again, he absently wrapped an arm around me and pulled me closer. When the movie was over and the pizza was gone, I had just enough energy left to register Sam leaving with the promise to be back in the morning, the empty pizza box tucked under his arm to throw in the Dumpster on his way home. I threw the empty soda cans in the recycling bin, brushed my teeth, and sauntered off to the guest bedroom to sleep.
...
When I woke up the next morning and pulled my clothes on, Sam was in the kitchen with a box of apple fritters and two cups of coffee, all three items stamped with the Burnt Bean's logo (he had let himself in with the spare key under the doormat). I was touched by the fact that he had gotten up early to prepare coffee just the way I liked it and surprise me with breakfast. By the time we had each eaten our fill, it was time to make the cats' breakfast, and I managed to time it right this time!
After that, we took them for their morning walk, Sam holding one leash and me holding the other. However, I was forced to give my leash to Sam when the cat almost pulled my arm out of its socket. Whether he was supernaturally strong from being a werewolf or just strong from lifting weights, neither of us knew for sure, but either way he was able to keep the cats under control.
We got home and fed the cats again, then Sam pulled two sub sandwiches out of a cooler he'd brought that we ate for lunch with the rest of the root beer from the previous night. We then binged Dragons: Riders of Berk while the cats took a nap, and when they woke up it was time to walk them again. More time passed, and Howard, Harold, and Clyde came back right as Sam and I were getting ready to sing their cats another lullaby. Brief introductions were given before the McBrides asked us to sing. This time, our lullaby was Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence," which we sang in duet while Sam played my guitar.
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
"Fools," said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms, that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered
In the sounds of silence
By the time we finished, Clyde had fallen asleep alongside the cats. I apologized for having an unintended guest and explained that I contacted him in a panic, only for them to brush it off and split what they were going to pay me between both of us. In the end, everyone walked away happy.
