Try as they might, neither Merilee or Angelina could come up with a satisfying plan for dealing with Dick the Elf that day. It was a Sunday, something Merilee tried to wrap her head around. She’d been chased from her house by the three thugs Tuesday night, transforming herself into a cat. It hadn’t even been a week. Yet she’d already lost most of her lives.
There was a nagging sense that possibly she was meant to die that first night, that she should have been killed on Tuesday. All these lives were just borrowed time.
She didn’t bother trying to convey that to Angelina. She didn’t want to worry her sister.
Particularly since Angelina appeared to be worried enough already. Merilee kept catching the looks that Angelina gave her, concerned looks about the state of Merilee’s health.
All right, so maybe she’d lost a couple of teeth eating breakfast that morning. And possibly a few of her claws were so split she’d end up hurting herself rather than hurting someone else if she tried slicing them apart.
And her fur…yeah. Okay. Her fur was no longer anywhere near as luxurious as it had once been.
Still, she didn’t have any regrets. She just had to make sure that she went out with a bang.
A big enough one to take Dick with her.
“You know that I’m going to have to go to work tomorrow, right?” Angelina said that night as she made dinner. Though Merilee no longer could appreciate a fine marinara sauce over pasta, she still thought it smelled good.
Nothing artificial. Angelina had thrown out a bunch of chemicals from her pantry, sighing at the expense. She explained to Merilee that she’d at one point been a pretty good cook without all those fancy things. She could get back to that.
“Mrrow,” Merilee said, disapproving. Surely Angelina had enough sick time saved up that she could afford to take a couple more days off?
“Just for a few hours in the morning,” Angelina assured her. “I won’t be long.”
“Mrrow,” Merilee said firmly. No.
Angelina sighed. “I know. I know. But Sue has some questions for me. And I really need to go in.”
Merilee jumped up onto the counter and walked cautiously toward the stove. She knew that the sauce Angelina had put together could bubble and spatter, and she really didn’t want to have to clean that sauce off her nice white fur.
Especially since she’d spent so long this afternoon getting it to lie right, hiding the few patches of skin that now showed.
“Mrrow,” Merilee said again, demanding Angelina’s full attention.
Angelina turned the burner down and caught Merilee’s eye, long enough so that Merilee could get the concept across.
Not alone.
“I can’t take you into the office,” Angelina said. “There’s a strict ‘no pet’ policy. If there weren’t, we’d be dealing with Jim’s hunting dogs. Believe me, you don’t want one of those things slobbering on you on a regular basis.”
Merilee thought for a moment, then she Mrrowed again, keeping Angelina’s attention on her.
She carefully made her way across the countertop, heading for the far corner, where Angelina kept her breadbox. (And the stuff in there was definitely going to have to go as well. It was made from a few ingredients held together with a mass of chemicals. Yuck.)
Though the kitchen was fairly well lit, this corner held some shadows. After making sure that Angelina was still watching, Merilee growled loud in her chest, paced back and forth a couple of times before stepping into the shadow.
The look of astonishment on Angelina’s face was worth every ounce of energy that it had taken to get the damned shadows to cooperate.
“You can just hide? Like that? Even in a well-lit place like this?” Angelina demanded, sounding both pissed off as well as a little envious.
Merilee stepped back out again into the light. She cocked her head to the side, waiting for Angelina to see the implications of such a thing.
“So if I take you to the office, you can just hide in one of the conference rooms, right? No one will be able to see you,” Angelina said, musing.
“Mrrow,” Merilee said. She’d be hiding under Angelina’s desk, not off in some conference room. But on the whole, Angelina had it right.
“Fine, you can come with me,” Angelina said. Then she gave Merilee a grin. “And you’ll make sure I don’t stay too long as well, right?”
“Mrrow,” Merilee said firmly. Affirmative.
Though Merilee had never been that close to her sister while they’d been growing up—there had been too much rivalry between them—she was glad that they had the opportunity to get to know each other better now.
She’d never realized that Angelina was such a messy eater. Must be the “dog person” inside of her.
Despite being told how “unhealthy” meat was, Angelina still served herself good portions of it on a regular basis. She explained that it just meant that she ate a lot of salads when she was with other people.
Hopefully, Merilee could break her of her habit and continual need to compare herself to others.
Merilee certainly no longer needed to. She was a magnificent cat. Who could come close to her brilliance?
The pair of them spent the night cuddled up together on the sofa, Angelina splitting her time between consulting old spell books and watching a silly rom-com movie, while Merilee curled up next to her, pressing her back against the warmth of her sister’s thigh, purring and sleeping.
The next morning, though Merilee woke up with the birds, she didn’t bother doing more than getting up, stretching, drinking a little water, then going back to sleep until Angelina got up.
Then, it was a race. Outside to do her business. Inside to eat. Angelina gathered up everything, forgetting her glasses the first time, then one of her spell books the second time before they got out to the car.
Merilee jumped more easily onto the passenger seat this time. Hmmm. Maybe she was getting used to this age.
Or maybe she’d finally slept enough and felt renewed.
She suspected the feeling wouldn’t last, as the warmth of the seat lulled her back into a quick nap.
Angelina parked in her usual spot. Merilee climbed over to the driver’s side then out the open door.
“Mrrow?” she said, rubbing her side along Angelina’s shin.
“I’ll be fine,” Angelina said after a bit. “Funny. I used to love my work. Used to thrive on the competition and the power games. Now, it kind of seems silly, you know?”
“Mrrow,” Merilee said, agreeing. It was why she had such a low paying, low prestige job. She’d never cared for the rat race, as it were.
“You want me to get you into the building?” Angelina said. She held up the backpack.
“Mrrow,” Merilee said. She’d say please if she could. Hopefully Angelina heard it anyway.
Angelina had modified the backpack again so that Merilee could no longer see out the back of it. Which meant that Angelina was no longer as safe. Merilee couldn’t protect her sister as well as she’d like. It also meant that no one could see Angelina smuggle Merilee in.
“This feels so much more comfortable, carrying books this way,” Angelina said quietly. “Why did I think I needed a briefcase? Particularly one that always made me feel as if I were going to lose my arm carrying it?”
Merilee knew. It was part of Angelina’s bid to fit in.
She didn’t bother pointing out that Angelina’s outfit that morning was much more sensible than what she normally wore to the office. Her soft, off-white blouse actually fit her, instead of being too tight. Her skirt was looser as well as longer, made out of navy-blue cotton.
Angelina still wore kitten heels, which was only appropriate.
Merilee didn’t like being in such an enclosed, dark space. It gave her bad flashbacks to being stuck in a burlap bag, the one that the thugs had used to drown her.
Still, she settled down as best she could. She spent her time ferreting out all the different scents. First, there was the parking garage, that stank of oil and gas, along with exhaust. Then they were outside for a bit. She could hear the birds in the park across the street, the cars driving too fast down the quiet road. The wind carried that all-too-present scent of humans, along with a faint whiff of coffee from an outdoor cart they passed.
Then it was up the stairs, into the building. Inside, she heard the sound of many human feet crossing the broad marble floors, talking softly to each other, no one wanting to break the quiet of the morning. The cleaner used on the floors carried the smell of fake lemon, but as she didn’t catch any hint of dust underneath it, it was probably effective.
Up a quick elevator ride (and wow, did that feel different to Merilee, both as a cat and because she was riding in a bag), then into the office.
As they crossed the threshold, Merilee felt a quick pass of some sort of magic.
Who else was magical in the office? Why was the door protected? What was it supposedly protecting the people inside from?
She didn’t like it. She didn’t have space in the pack to start grooming herself, but she really wanted to straighten out the fur that had been mussed up by that spell.
Angelina paused, and Merilee heard Sue’s voice, asking them about their weekend, if the mysterious cat had been cleared up.
“Oh, yes,” Angelina said. “Turned out it had belonged to my sister Merilee. She’d gotten into a bit of a fix,” she confided. “I got her out.”
“Good for you!” Sue enthused.
Merilee wasn’t certain, but she thought the woman was lying. If only she could see! She’d gotten really good at spotting Angelina’s lies.
“So everything’s taken care of?” Sue asked. She sounded slightly disappointed, as if she’d wanted to take part of the adventure.
“No, not really,” Angelina admitted. “I’m only here for the morning. I’m going to have to take the afternoon off.”
“But what about the Fredrickson case?” Sue said, practically whining.
Merilee braced herself for the disappointment of her sister forgetting her promises to Merilee, that she’d only be here in the office for a short while, that then they’d spend the afternoon figuring out what to do about Dick.
“I can’t continue with it,” Angelina said firmly. Possibly even a little coolly. “You’re going to have to get Marti to take it, or someone else.”
Hmmm. What exactly did that mean? Merilee wasn’t certain.
Had Angelina actually come to see the light? To understand that this wasn’t a good place? Merilee couldn’t actually smell the greed and corruption, but she knew it was there, just under the surface.
Angelina had joked more than once that she worked for the only honest law firm in town.
Merilee wondered now if that was true.
Angelina had her own office, a small but quiet space. Merilee instantly felt better in there, her fur settling down.
However, Angelina didn’t close the door. She’d already explained that she couldn’t. That would have been a sign that something was wrong. If she had a private phone call she could. Otherwise, the door had to be open. Merilee just had to hide.
Angelina put her backpack on the floor, opening it up.
Merilee didn’t say anything but jumped out before Angelina started pulling files and books out.
“You know, I hate to say this, but I think there’s something wrong with Sue,” Angelina said softly. “I’d never thought about it before. She was the one who introduced me to Dick.”
Merilee bobbed her head up and down for a brief moment, giggling that she’d finally gotten Angelina to stop calling him Richard.
“You be careful around her,” Angelina warned. Then she sighed.
Merilee rated it low on the kitty scale. Perhaps a 4.2. If she was being generous.
“I really do have some work to do this morning. Particularly since I’m taking the rest of the day off,” Angelina said. “Will you be okay down there?”
“Mrrow,” Merilee said softly.
She curled up in a dark corner, hidden in the shadows. No one would be able to see her. Even Angelina had to squint to catch a glimpse of her.
“Thanks,” Angelina said as she went to work.
Merilee was worried about her sister. Worried about the pair of them being in this office.
It felt like a trap.
Hopefully, no one realized that Merilee was there too, that the surprise she’d bring would offset the mistake they’d made by coming here.