Vector
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III
No surprise that the cat person didn't want me to leave its side; I mean, I was the one who saved it, but it felt nervous every time I'm just ten feet away. I'm starting to think that there was something more that happened than just the known animal abuser, like it's been through worse... well, whatever the reason, it won't do either of us any good if it's scared out of its mind, so I will stay close... I just hope it would understand I can't be there twenty-four seven.
"I'm quite surprised it's already become so... attached to you, Joe," Strebor said, noticing the cat person so calm when I'm next to it.
"You and me both, Strebor. I can understand it being so grateful, but I didn't expect this much. What I don't get, though, is how it's able to understand what we say and yet still can't speak to us."
"That intrigues me as well... but I'm afraid you'll have to figure that out on your own." Strebor carefully helps the cat person stand up and guide it to the couch to sit down. "I can't really stay much longer."
"Right, 'cause the hospital still needs you. Alright, then, thanks for the help." We exchanged goodbyes, then Strebor takes the wheelchair and leaves to return to the hospital. The first thing that comes up in my mind is that the cat person has got to be hungry, so I try to think of what it might possibly eat without getting sick. Of course, I get nowhere since I have no clue whatsoever, so I just simply ask if it's hungry and it nodded its head... and it even tried to stand up. "Ah, ah, wait! I don't want you to accidently hurt yourself. What, you want to see what I have?" At that point I kind of felt stupid when it nodded its head again; I should've known that. "Should've figured. Alright, hold on." I walked up to the cat person and helped it stand, trying my best to avoid putting pressure on the damaged leg, but then I felt guilty when I saw it wince. "Ah, crap, I'm sorry... I didn--"It quickly shut me up by putting one of its... restraining glove things, or whatever it was, right up to my mouth, then pointed at itself a couple times when I was quiet. I have to guess it accidentally bumped something on the damaged leg... maybe the couch. "Oh, I see," I say to it, relieved it wasn't my fault, "It's gonna take a while to get used to it, I'm afraid, but at least I'm here to help out." I think I might end up regretting what I said, because as soon as it started to lean on me for support, I started getting nervous, and it might take me a while to get used to it, too. I managed to hold it back for now, though, and helped the cat person walk into the kitchen.
"I'll be honest with ya," I said flatly to it, "We got to come up with a better way to talk to each other than just pointing fingers and moving our heads around, or we won't get very far." It nodded its head again, then tried to reach for an apple that was on the counter. I walked it over to the counter and gave the apple to it, and the cat person looked like it was trying to study the apple: looking at it from different angles, sniffing it a couple times and even licked it once. Eventually, it decided to take a small bite of the apple, a smart choice considering it's literally unknown territory in a lot of ways. There seemed to be nothing bad hppening when it finished the piece, so it continued eating the apple while we walked back over to the couch until we saw my laptop computer. Maybe we could use it to type out what the cat person wants to say... "I got an idea; How 'bout we use my laptop here to type out a conversation?" It thought about the idea for a moment, then shrugged. It was worth a try, so I turned on the laptop and explained what we might be able to do while the computer was starting up. "I was kinda thinking we could type our conversation on a word processing program so we could at least make it look like we might be talking to each other, but there's a couple things I want to tell you first." It paused from eating the apple and tilted its head a little, apparently interested. "Nothing too major other than keeping that apple away from the laptop, but just a couple things I do when I do this 'text messaging' as we call it. Here, I'll show ya." I open up the word processing program and give the cat person a couple lessons on basic computer usage, then show what I usually do on it. (note: "cat person's" text is colored a shade of purple for ease of recognition)
This is a sentence. *action*
"If you see any words within these tiny star-looking things," I explain, "Then that's when someone would perform an action, like scratching your ear, or yawning." Now the cat person became curious and started typing, even though the glove things didn't make it easy.
"So I type what I would normally say and you would be able to understand?"
"Yeah, and if using the star things is a little confusing to you, you can always show the expression to me personally when it's my turn."
"I see. Thank you, human." That took me by surprise a little. I'm sure it heard my name at least three times by now.
"Um, I thought you heard my name was Joe."
"I... I'm sorry, I must have forgotten."
"That's alright. We can't remember everything we learn right away. Sometimes it could take a while."
"I see... but I don't understand why you had to be so... harsh with the punishment." I knew the cat person's talking about my rescue attempt back in the alley.
"You weren't his first victim and I got really sick and tired of him getting bailed out every single time. That's all I'll say about it."
"It's all I wanted to know, thanks. I have to guess that you'd want to get to now me a little, right?"
"Yeah, I've been curious for a while now, but you don't have to tell me everything."
"Alright, but it might take a while, so let me just say one thing right away."
"What's that?" At this point, the cat person hesitated to tell me, like it was a big secret. Maybe Strebor was right that it was a criminal, but the sad look makes me think that either he's wrong, or that this poor soul regrets what he-- or she, I don't know which-- had done.
"I... I'm part of a species where females... are almost literally property, even in the higher-class societies." That right there made my eyes widen, big time. I knew something was going on since it has those glove things, but this one just blew me out of the water.
"Woah woah woah, seriously? No rights, no freedom, nothing? You're completely at the (lack of) mercy of whoever's got a hold of you?" There was definitely sadness in that poor soul's eyes. She's no criminal at all, she's in a victim's worst nightmare!
"...Yes, and you are right to assume I'm one of those victims." I set the laptop aside and move close to her, then she instinctively hugs me as she made sounds similar to sobbing over my shoulder. I don't even want to think of what happened back wherever she came from...
"Then it's about time I changed things up," I said to her as I hugged her back, "I'm going to make sure you at least get treated better than that, I promise you." As soon as I said that, she sobbed a little louder. I know I'm going to have to prove it, but this is the promise I wouldn't catch myself dead trying to break...
Even if it could save my life.
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