Page 3 of Keystrokes and Kittens

After placing an extra two bags of food, I headed to my office.

To be greeted by plaintive cries.

Okay, so I’d left it too long. I prepared the food and headed to them. Since all three were crying, I opted to pick the smallest one and feed it first. Him? Her? I just didn’t know and wasn’t going to go checking at this point.

I managed to get it fed and its bladder stimulated. Then the next. Then the next. Thank God the litter was just three. I’d seen bigger on adoption days.

A knock sounded at the door.

“Hey, it’s my lunch break.”

“Oh crap. Sorry, Desiree. I’ll be right out.” I double-checked that the heating pad was working, then headed to the front of the store.

Desiree stood there with her purse. “I’ll be back in thirty. You call Dr. Genner’s office yet?”

I winced.

“There are two shoppers in the store right now. If you get a break, maybe you can call? Otherwise, you can do it after I get back.” With that, she was gone.

I assisted the two customers. Then three more. A lull allowed me to call the vet’s office, and they arranged to fit me in at the end of the day. I felt guilty they were making room—but was also incredibly grateful because, if there was something wrong, I wanted to know. Or if there was anything I needed to be doing, but wasn’t. Whatever it took to succeed.

Desiree returned.

I hustled to check on my little charges and found them asleep.

I shoveled down a sandwich, set an alarm, and then headed back into the store to do more restocking.

When the alarm sounded, it caught me off guard.

Upon arriving at the box, I found three sleeping kittens. I prepared their food and then gently woke each to feed them. Okay, maybe this wouldn’t be too tough.

Except you’re a guy who needs eight hours of solid sleep to be able to function. Two feedings in the middle of the night are going to be brutal.

Well, yeah. It would. But these little creatures were more important than my beauty sleep.

Once the store was closed and the money was in the safe, I packed up my stuff and headed home. I had several hours of paperwork to do, but I could do it at my dining room table.

Organizing everything at home took little time, and I was heating a quick meal in the microwave when my phone rang.

“Hey Quinta, how’s it going?” I injected as much enthusiasm as I could. Not that I wasn’t happy to hear from my niece—I just happened to be exhausted.

“Hey Uncle Sam, how’s it going?”

I rubbed my face. “It’ll be better once you’re home and working at the store. Soon, right?” We were already in the second week of May. Her semester at UCLA ended weeks ago, but she said she had to stay to finish up some last-minute things. Since I hadn’t attended college in person, I couldn’t really question this.

“Yeah. Soon. I just have some labs to complete. Another couple of weeks. That’s okay, right? You don’t really need me, do you?”

I eyed the box of kittens. Having a second person in the house would make all the difference in the world. Still, something in her tone had my senses on high alert. “Everything okay?”

“Of course.” Said too quickly.

Still, who was I to push? She was nineteen and really mature. I needed to give her space. “Another week or two won’t make ahuge difference. Just—” I held in the sigh. “You remember that Mandy went into early labor? She’s on maternity leave. I thought you’d overlap, and now I’m down a person.”

“You’ve got Desiree, right?”

“Sure, but she’s only part-time.”

Silence.