Chapter 2: A child on their hands
After the long 30 minutes of mourning, Theo's crying eventually reduced to sniffles as he wiped away his remaining tears with the sleeve of his button up shirt.
"*Sniff* W-What am I going to do now? *Sniff*" The young kitten asked himself as he stood back up off the ground
Theo's problems were still far from over because not only did he lose his parents, he was now all alone by himself in the middle of a dark and quiet dirt road way outside of St. Louis.
"...This place looks scary." Theo said to himself as he had a chilling feeling of being alone in the night
He looks both ways up and down the dark dirt road to see if a car would appear from a distance. Everything was all quiet with the steady sounds of night crickets breaking the silence.
"W-Where will I go from here?" Theo asked himself again
Theo then looks over at the brightly lit city right across the Mississippi River in the distance. That's when the Tuxedo Kitten decided he could simply keep walking along the dirt road towards the city and hopefully run into some help along the way. It wouldn't be very easy walking all the way towards St. Louis by foot but Theo had no choice. He could not stay where he was for the whole night. He had to get moving.
After pulling himself together, Theo begins his walk along the dirt road towards the river. But not without taking one last goodbye look at his parent's burning car.
20 minutes later
Theo was steadily walking and walking along the gravel dirt road with the bright full moon helping him see where he was going. Not a single car has passed by the whole time. And things were about to get more challenging for the poor child as the night time outside temperature was slowly starting to get chilly given that it was getting close to November. The longer Theo walked and the more time passed, the more the outside temperature dropped to a point where Theo started to shiver a little while hugging himself with his own arms.
"*chitter* I-It's getting cold out here. *Sniff* I wish I had a blanket." Theo said to himself and he pressed on
Finally after 7 more minutes of walking, Theo reaches the Mississippi River. Now all he had to do was cross it and he would be home free.
"Woah. This is a pretty big river." Theo said as he took in the sight of the vast waters
Suddenly...
"Rocky could you please stop being useless and help us out already! Unless you wanna be our dirt rag again!" A young feminine voice shouted from nearby in a distance
"Oh please. You wouldn't wanna dirty up this fine blue thirty dollar suit." A male adult voice responded in a sassy tone
"Hey I think I found our supply down here!" Another male adult voice said
Theo's ears perk up upon hearing the voices. He looks over to his right and sees a large long railroad bridge close by and a large graveyard along the shoreline of the river.
"Huh? I hear people. Where could those voices be coming from?" Theo asked himself
From his right, Theo could hear that the voices were coming from a large vast graveyard just on other side of the railroad tracks close to the dirt road. Out of sheer curiosity, Theo wanted to go investigate the voices. Maybe he could get help from whoever was down in the graveyard. So without thinking twice, the young kitten walks off of the dirt road and crosses the railroad tracks heading towards the mysterious voices.
Meanwhile down in the graveyard just below the railroad tracks, the source of the voices belonged to none other than Ivy, Rocky, and Freckle. The three rumrunner cats that were part of the famous Lackadaisy Speakeasy runned by Mitzi May.
They were currently doing another routine bootleg run as Freckle was hard at work prying open a dug-up wooden coffin with a crowbar while Ivy held a flashlight for him. Rocky on the other hand was busy lollygagging around with his violin being useless as usual.
"Ugh. Sometimes I wonder why we even bring you along Rocky." Ivy said as she watched the happy-go-lucky immature cat with a disappointed expression on her face
*RIP! CREAK! THUD!*
"There got it!" Freckle said as he successfully pried open the wooden coffin revealing a huge supply of bottled whisky
"OOOH! LEMME SEE! LEMME SEE!" Rocky exclaimed excitingly as he dropped his violin and rushed over to the open coffin
"Sweet mother of alcohol! We hit another jackpot! Let's hurry up and load this before we get ambushed again!" Rocky said as he wastes no time on grabbing the bottles out of the coffin and loading them up into the back storage trunk of their brand new 4-door automobile
Shortly after their last bootleg run, the three cats managed to get a fresh new Model-T automobile after their previous one got severely damaged by gunfire.
As Rocky and Freckle worked together on loading up the bottles in the car, Ivy Pepper keeps a lookout for Serafine and her gang in case they were to show up and attack again. Just thinking about Serafine and her browning automatic rifle was enough to give Ivy the chill.
Meanwhile
Theo (Having been following the voices) had stealthly snuck deep into the graveyard the whole time and he was currently watching the whole activity from behind a large tree close by. Ivy, Rocky, and Freckle have not heard or spotted the young kitten child yet.
"W-What are those people doing? What are those bottles for?" Theo thought in his mind as he peeked from behind the tree
Theo was growing worried and nervous thinking that he stumbled upon an illegal activity because his father always told him to never go near a group of suspicious people in the middle of a private area where no one else was around.
Suddenly Theo accidently lets out a loud high pitched sneeze due to the cold temperature.
"Eh Ah ACHOO!"
The sneeze was loud enough to get Ivy's attention as she pointed her flashlight to the tree where the sneeze came from. Rocky and Freckle stopped moving as they also heard the sneeze.
"Am I the only one that heard that?" Rocky asked
"It sounded like a sneeze. It came from that tree over there." Ivy said
Upon overhearing those words, Theo hid fully behind the tree and slapped a paw over his mouth as he regretfully realized he gave himself away.
"I'm gonna go check it out." Ivy said as she carefully walked towards the tree with her flashlight
"Be careful Ivy. It could be a spy from the Marigold Gang." Rocky warned
As Ivy carefully walked towards the tree, Theo sat down and panicked as his mind raced on what he should do to get himself out of there. Should he make a run for it? Should he stay sitting still and quiet?
"Oh No! Oh No! Oh No! Oh No! I wish I didn't come down here! I wish I didn't sneeze! They're probably going to kidnap me! Or hurt me! I'm doomed!" Theo panicked in his mind
That's when Ivy came jumping out from around the tree catching Theo by surprise.
"GOTCHA!" Ivy shouted as she pointed her bright flashlight
"EEEK!" Theo yelped as he curled up in fear with his heart dropping for a second
Immediately Ivy's expression turns from hostile to shocked and concern when she finds only a young tuxedo kitten boy hiding behind the tree. A scared tuxedo kitten boy dressed in long black pants and a white button up shirt with a little black bow tie on the collar.
"What on earth!?...A-A kid!?" Ivy exclaimed
Not only was Ivy shocked, she was also confused on why there was a child all alone in the grave yard late at night far outside of the city.
"P-Please! I didn't see anythi- I PROMISE I WON'T TELL ANYONE OF WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING! Just please don't hurt me! I won't tell a soul!" Theo cried as he held his paws up with worry in his eyes
Ivy immediately puts on a caring expression as she gets down on her knees and sets her flashlight aside before softly resting her left paw on the boy's shoulder and putting her right fingertip over his lips to silence him.
"Hey Hey Shhhhhhh it's okay it's okay! Calm down! I won't hurt you! Shhhhhhhh! It's okay! Just calm down! Hushhhhhhh!" Ivy whispered to sooth the child
This seemed to work as Theo quickly calmed himself while looking into Ivy's kind assuring eyes before him.
"There we go. That's it. Everything is okay." Ivy whispered soothingly as she softly rubbed the kitten's shoulders
"I'm...I'm very sorry I was watching you. I was just curious." Theo calmly apologized
"*giggles* There's no need to be sorry little one. However you did have us worried for a minute. We thought you were a spy watching us." Ivy smiled
"...What's a spy?" Theo asked innocently
"Ehh nevermind that...But can you tell me what you're doing out here by yourself? It's unusual for a kiddo like you to be snooping around this late at night. Are your parents with you?" Ivy asked the child
Upon hearing the word 'parents', Theo's expression immediately turns back to grief and heartbroken as he looks down at the grass with tears slowly forming in his eyes with his mind flashing back to the car crash.
"Huh? What's the matter dear?" Ivy asked caringly
Theo then looks back up at Ivy with tears pouring down his furry face.
"I..*sniff* I don't have parents anymore." Theo answered sadly
"You don't!? What happened?" Ivy asked as she gently cupped Theo's cheek with her paw
"They're-...They're gone. W-We crashed in our car and-...*sniff* There was a fire and-...They-...They got burned! *Hic, sniff* I-I jumped out and...c-came here!" Theo sobbed before he hugged his knees with tears pouring out of his eyes like flood gates
"Oh my heavens!...Is that true!?" Ivy asked in shock
Theo sadly nodded 'Yes' as he continued to let out his mournful crying.
"...You...You poor thing." Ivy said as she had a deep sympathetic expression on her face for the poor child
With that, Ivy softly pets Theo on his head while wrapping an arm around him to pull him into a warm comforting hug.
"Shhhhhh. There there. I'm so sorry to hear that." Ivy caringly whispered in Theo's ear as his crying slowly ceased down to sniffles
That's when Rocky and Freckle came walking up from around the tree to see what was going on.
"Hey what's going on here? Was it a spy all along?" Rocky asked
"You guys can relax. We have nothing to worry about. It's just a little kitten." Ivy answered as she scooped up Theo and warmly held him close in her arms
"Huh? A child? What's a little fuzzball doing poking around here?" Rocky asked
"And why is he sad?" Freckle asked
"He's sad because he's not doing too well at the moment. He just lost his parents. He's all by himself." Ivy sadly explained
"Well I'll be. Everytime we do a bootleg run, we always have some kind of situation. And this is a very unusual one indeed out of most. Now we got a child on our hands." Rocky said in dismay
"So ummm how did he lose his parents?" Freckle asked
"Well from he told me, he just lost his parents in a car crash like not too long ago. Somehow he found himself here. I guess he must have heard all our chit-chatting." Ivy explained
"So what are you going to do with this child Miss Pepper?" Freckle asked
"We're going to take him with us. We can't leave him out here in the cold." Ivy ordered
"Good idea. We take him with us and we'll drop him at an orphanage along the way. Problem solved." Rocky said with a casual grin
"No Rocky! I mean we are really taking him with us. He will stay with us. I don't trust an orphanage one bit." Ivy said in a firm tone
"WHAT!? That's crazy! We can't have a kid getting in our way! And besides the Lackadaisy is no place for children. We're not a babysitting service here." Rocky pouted
"Look Rocky! Either we take this poor thing with us, or you go ahead and leave me here with him. If he can't go, then I won't go. Period!" Ivy protested as she held onto Theo tightly like he was her own child
Rocky could only facepaw himself in response.
"Ugh! Okay listen, we're only going to look after him temporarily until we can find a proper place for him to live. A place where he will be safe without me having to worry. Got it?" Ivy negotiated
"*Sigh*...Alright Ivy you win. You can put him in the back seat while me and Freckle finish loading the goods." Rocky finally gave in
"Excellent!" Ivy smiled
With that, Ivy carries Theo over to their parked automobile and opens up the backseat door. Ivy gently places the young tuxedo kitten inside helping him get comfortable on the leather seat. Normally Theo wouldn't be comfortable going in a car with a stranger he just bumped into, but he could see the honesty and friendlyness in Ivy's yellow eyes convincing him that he was in safe hands with the older female cat.
"In you go little one. Makes yourself comfortable. Lucky for you this is a brand new car we just got so you're gonna enjoy the ride." Ivy smiled sweetly at the child
While Ivy tended to Theo, Rocky and Freckle finished up loading the rest of the alcohol before strapping the back trunk basket shut.
"*Sigh* I can't believe she insisted on bringing the little furball with us. This is gonna be a long night." Rocky groaned to himself as he disposed of the empty wooden coffin into some nearby bushes
"Hey Rocky, I just noticed something." Freckle said
"What is it babyface?" Rocky asked in a pouty tone
"We finished loading up the whisky and...no one showed up to ambush us. It's still quiet." Freckle pointed out
"Well it must be our lucky night. Let's just get in and get going while we still can before someone does show up with automatic rifles." Rocky said as he walked up to the front of the car while Freckle went up to the shotgun door
Rocky cranks up the engine of the car starting it up before hopping into the driver seat. After turning on the headlights, Rocky drives smoothly out of the graveyard and back onto the main road en route back to the Lackadaisy. While Rocky and Freckle were sitting in the front seat, Ivy rode in backseat next to Theo to keep him company and help him feel safe.
"La La-La, La La-La" Ivy sang a little sweet tune to herself during the ride
Suddenly Ivy felt Theo shaking in the seat next her. When she looks over at him, she sees the poor kitten was shivering hard due to the growing cold temperature of the night.
"Awww are you feeling cold there?" Ivy asked in a soft tone
Theo looks up at his newfound caretaker and slowly nods 'Yes'.
"Here. Come here." Ivy said as she lifted Theo onto her lap
Ivy then takes off her yellow jacket and wraps it around Theo making it into a warm makeshift blanket before holding him close against her warm body.
"There we go. Is that better?" Ivy asked
Theo could only snuggle deep into Ivy's embrace in response before looking up at her.
"I'll take that as a yes." Ivy smiled as she stroked her paw between the child's ears
"Where-...Where are you guys taking me?" Theo asked curiously
"We're taking you someplace warm where you will be safe and sound with us sweetheart. You're going to be alright." Ivy whispered before she pecked a kiss on Theo's forehead
"Ummm...what is your name?" Theo asked again
"Oh my where are my manners. My name's Ivy Pepper, but you can call me Miss Pepper if you like. And that orange gentleman up front is Freckle, and the immature one behind the wheel is Rocky." Ivy kindly introduced
"How ya doing kid." Freckle waved back
"Oh please! I'm not that immature! I just like to have fun from time-to-time." Rocky protested as he kept his eyes on the road
Ivy only giggled at Rocky's little outburst before turning her attention back to Theo.
"Now since I told you our names, how about you tell me yours. Do you have a name sweetheart?" Ivy asked the child
"Ummm...My name is Theo. Theo Flakes." Theo answered
"Theo Flakes. What a handsome name for a cute and fuzzy little kitty like you." Ivy smiled before she tenderly nuzzled her face against Theo's like she was a loving big sister
End of chapter 2