Feral by Bev Cooke

Author:Bev Cooke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV000000
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2008-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Little Cat washes herself after the busy-time. She is comfortably full from all the food the two-legs dropped. She hears Candlewax’s voice. It’s making an odd noise, like the noise Player Man makes, but is not nearly as pleasant. It hurts her ears with its sharp edges. She shivers and ruffles her fur when he drops from a sharpness to a flat sound. She shakes herself all over as he makes one last sharp yelp and then stops. His footsteps come closer, so she crawls onto the platform, eases through the barrier and sits in the shadows. His sleep smell rolls off him in waves so strong she sneezes. He tosses something with a glowing end onto the tracks and sits near her, head back, looking up at the ceiling.

“Heeeyyyy, Little Cat! How ya doin’?” He pats the floor next to him, but she stays where she is. He chuckles. “Don’t trust nothin’ or nobody, that’s a good cat. Wise cat.” He nods and nods, watching her, his red eyes as unblinking as her own.

A train roars to a stop. Big and Affa step out, spot Candlewax and approach. Affa dances around near the stairs.

Big nudges Candlewax’s foot. “Good stuff, eh, man?”

Candlewax scrambles to his feet and stands, swaying. “Oh, man, you have no idea—where’d you get it? It’s the best.”

“Nightside provides nothin’ but the best. And there’s plenty more where that came from,” Big says. “Tell ya what I’m gonna do. ’Cause you’re practically one of us now, I’ll cut you a special deal, how’s that?”

Candlewax’s forehead wrinkles. “Special deal?”

“Yeah,” Big says. He winks. “Give you the stuff for wholesale. I gotta cover my costs, you understand, man. But you pay what I pay. Right? You cool with that?”

“Get it at cost?” Candlewax asks. There is an undertone in his voice Little Cat doesn’t understand. Even as confused as he is, she senses part of him closing off, shrinking inside himself. She shifts a bit closer to him.

Big nods. “Yeah. You got a problem with that?”

Candlewax looks from one to the other. He steps back and puts his hands in his pockets, shakes his head, but his voice says something different. “No, no problem, Big.”

This time even the two-legs hears the undervoice, the quaver and the hesitation.

“What’s the problem?” asks Big.

“Nothin’, it’s just that—what do I gotta do?”

“You know, man. We talked about it, just a while ago. You get the stuff at cost till we go down. Then it’s free.”

Candlewax turns this way and that. He takes a deep breath and lets it out.

Big steps close to Candlewax, puts his arm around his shoulders and walks him toward the stairs. Little Cat edges back, away from Big and Candlewax, as Affa comes up and stands close beside Candlewax. “You can’t say I’m not being fair here. Nobody else gets a deal like this.”

“It’s just—” Candlewax licks his lips, glances from one to the other. “You don’t know what you’re saying. Tell him, Affa.”

Affa looks from Big to Candlewax. He shakes his head.

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