Chosen 1/5

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And here I am! This was a quick journey for sure, but now I have to understand where I ended up.
I look around taking advantage of my ability to see quite well even in the penumbra. I cannot see in the dark as almost all humans believe, true, but it is also true that for felines like me a small glimmer of light is enough to have a clear vision of the surrounding environment.
Let’s see … I’m in a bedroom. The light that enters through the window is enough to make me notice many things, including the furniture in the room and the various objects it contains.
Old disused toys, a laptop above a desk, a bed occupied by a human, wardrobes, a fairly dusty floor … a normal human room I dare say. Nothing strange here.
My target is on the bed, he’s sleeping. I won’t have a canine hearing but I can hear his breathing from here. I also perceive its smell in the air, so this is definitely his room.
I go to the bed. The mattress is not far from the ground so I don’t struggle to get up there with a leap, and once done I go towards the face of the human who is sleeping: I have to make sure that it is really him.
Uhm, let’s see … I don’t see wrinkles, tattoos or scars … his hair is blond and judging by his face he looks very young. Yes, it’s him.
Now let’s start with the first part of the plan.
With the tail I start to caress his neck, then the chin and finally the tip of the nose. The result is what I was hoping for: after getting a little agitated in sleep, he slowly opens an eye to understand what is bothering him, and for a few seconds he stares at me without doing anything.
His eye is dark, brown, and is immobile. He’s probably still sleeping so I decide to meow in his face, which makes him wake up completely. I see his pupils suddenly expanding to adapt to the darkness of the room, and a moment later he pulls himself up with an expression half surprised, half frightened and half sleepy.
He looks at me without knowing what is going on, he blinks to chase away the heaviness of his eyelids, and once he finds that I am really there he jumps off the bed and runs to turn on the light.
I just sit and watch him waiting for his next move.
Judging by the face he’s scared, and I can understand it: he woke up in the middle of the night with a completely unknown cat in front of his muzzle, so it is already a lot if he hasn’t started screaming or kicking me.
<<Mom!>> I hear him say at a certain point while he opens the door without looking away from me <<Mom!>> he repeats in a higher voice, and noting that she doesn’t answer he turns quickly towards the outside of the room <<MOOOM!>>
<<I-I’m coming! >> says the voice of a distant woman <<Give me a moment!>> after a few quick and heavy steps I see a tall woman in pajamas peeking inside <<What’s happening?>> she question to the son, and in response he points to me.
<<Look there.>> he says, and the mother shifts her dazed and annoyed stare to me.
She too has just woken up, so she must first rub her eyes and focus on me to understand what I am, but after approaching me for a few steps she finally seems to understand my nature.
<<It is a cat >> she says casting a puzzled look at his son <<Did you just wake me up for a cat?>> asks him with an almost reproaching tone.
<<Yes!>> he exclaims <<There is a cat in my room!>>
<<Y-yeah, I see that …>> she yawns.
<<And what he is doing here?>> he continues.
<<Well, I do not know. >> she rubs her eyes once again and looks back with renewed curiosity <<Uhm … well it’s nice though. Look the eyes he has.>>
<<Mom …>>
<<It’s true! Come and see!>> she says, getting closer; now she is right in front of me and she’s studying me with her gaze <<He has a wonderful eyes. Even the fur is not a joke. This kitty is just gorgeous.>>
<<Be careful, he will bites you if you get too close!>>
<<Come on! It’s not a dog. Cats don’t bite, do they?>> she brings her index finger close to my face, probably to touch my nose, and in response I lick the tip of my finger and start purring <<Oh … look at him, what a puppy!>>
The boy sighs as he hears the sweetened words of his mother and approaches me with less anxiety and tension than before; he looks at me with a little more suspicion but the fear seems to have disappeared.
<<What is he doing in my room?>> question <<The window is close. The door was closed too. How did he get in?>>
The woman picks me up while her son speaks, and starts to cuddle me. I follow the script and keep purring and meowing softly. I know perfectly well that my target’s mother loves cats, especially if they are small and white like me. This body was also given to me for this reason, to make my intrusion into this family unit easier.
<<I don’t know how he got inside your room>> she says starting to walk <<but he’s definitely hungry.>>
<<He is hungry? Are you serious?>>
<<Yes! Did you see what face he has? This is the face of a hungry cat.>>
<<But it’s a cat! All cats have that face!>> protests her son while chasing her.
I am taken to the kitchen. The woman leaves me on the table after which she takes a bowl and opens the fridge pulling out a white box. In the meantime the boy stares at me at a safe distance, as if he were afraid of being attacked at any moment. This human is truly suspicious.
<<Mom …>> he still speaks after we looked each other in the eyes for about five seconds <<doesn’t it seem strange that he entered in our house even if everything was closed?>>
<<Maybe you had the window open.>> she talks while pouring white liquid into the bowl.
<<I told you that it was closed!>> he immediately replies.
<<Are you sure you closed it well?>>
<<Yes!>>
<<Sure, sure, sure?>>
<<Yes, I say yes, it was closed! Go check it out, I didn’t touch it when I got up. I bet it’s still closed!>>
<<Maybe the cat was already in your room then.>> she speculates.
<<And why I haven’t seen it before?>>
<<Maybe it was hidden under your bed.>>
<<And what was he doing there?>>
<<I don’t know, but if you would clean your room more often you wouldn’t find animals down there.>>
<<What does this have to do with the cat now?>> he still protests, but the mother just ignores the words of the son and places the bowl in front of me. I smell the liquid it contains and I sense that it is milk.
Uhm … milk … no matter how good it may be, it will cause me diarrhea if I drink too much of it. But let’s take a couple of sips. I just hope it’s whole milk and not skimmed.
<<Look how sweet it is …>> comments the woman while I drink <<he probably got lost, poor puppy.>>
<<Yes, he got lost in my room.>> continues the son << On my bed. In front of me. When everythings was closed!>>
<<Maybe he went to you searching for help.>>
<<Of course, in fact it is well known that it is a typical behavior of a stray cat to ask for directions to humans when they get lost.>> he comments with irony.
<<Maybe he’s not stray. >> continues the mother.
<< It doesn’t seem to have a collar though.>>
<<Yes, but look what hair he has. He is too good to be stray. Stray cats are dirty, this one is quite clean. He looks like he came out of a laundry.>>
<<Okay, whatever, but this cat woke me up while I was sleeping. I found it above my bed staring at me.>>
<<It means that he likes you! >> she says immediately stroking my head << Look how beautiful he is … by the way, we cannot continue to call him “cat”. We have to give him a name.>>
<<A name?>> he exclaim <<Seriously? He’s not ours!>>
<<Well as long as he is here we have to call him somehow, right?>>
<<Yes, “cat”. He’s a cat, so let’s call it “cat”!>>
<<He’s a wonderful cat though … so let’s call him … Toffo!>>
<<Toffo?>> exclaims the boy with disgust.
<<Batuffolo?>>
<<No, please …>>
<<Batoffo! Let’s call him Batoffo.>>
<<Why don’t we call someone that can come and get him away instead?>>
<<And who?>>
<<The laundry from which he came out, for example.>> is his ironic proposal.
<<Laundries are closed now.>> is the sour answer of the mother.
<<Then call a kennel.>>
<<There are no kennels for cats.>> she continues.
<<Then throw it out the window! It’s full of stray cats out there, he will have a lot of friends.>>
<<Are you crazy? >> she exclaims indignantly <<Batoffo, do not hear him. >> he says turning to me << He is always like that when they wake him up, he will calms down, you’ll see.>>
<<Oh God … >> I hear from the boy <<Well then, do what you want with him, as long as you don’t let him enter my room again! Now I’m going to sleep, is not even morning.>>
<<Yeah, go to sleep, it is better since you are disturbing Batoffo. He need to eat in peace now. >>
<<And please, stop calling it like that. We don’t even know if it’s a male.>>
<<Yes, is a male, I checked before. >> Mum says.
<<Ok, but don’t call him Batoffo. Please. Call it … let me see … ehm …>>
<<Batoffo is fine.>>
The boy sighs in a disconsolate way << Oh well, bye then. >> Having said that, I hear him going away; I lift my head from the bowl just to see him go out of the kitchen and head back to his room.
<<Don’t pay attention to him, Toffo.>> I hear his mother say while giving me another little caress <<Tomorrow we will look for your owner, okay? And if you don’t have one, you will stay here with us.>>
I glance at the woman: she has dark eyes like her son, and she seems really happy to be able to pamper a tender kitten like me, but if only I could I would laugh.
These humans are so stupidly predictable beasts … this one at least has excellent food tastes: the milk I am drinking is not skimmed.