The Day I Turned Into a Cat (Completed)

Story Time

I hopped up on the couch, deciding that I may as well make myself comfy for this "plan" of Charlie's. Ally followed my lead and curled up in a ball beside me. Although the whole cat-and-dog-snuggling-on-a-couch image probably looked picture perfect right now (other than the fact that I'm a fat cat with missing limbs), I could feel her tensed muscles pulsating beside me with every heartbeat.

"Wow," Charlie began, "this is actually kind of awkward for me, y'know, talking to animals and all, telling them my life story."

I blinked at him.

Get on with the point, you dobo.

To bad he couldn't read my thoughts.

He closed the palms of his hands together and rested his head against them while slightly leaning down. It kind of looked like he was crying. When he looked up, his eyes were a little bit puffy and I assumed I had been right.

"My son," he pointed to a picture on the fireplace mantle. I looked and saw a good looking boy with cropped hair in a military outfit posing nicely for the camera. He looked around his mid twenties.

"Was on his way back from his term in Afghanistan. I hadn't seen him for six whole months and I was so excited. In fact, I was so ecstatic that I kept forgetting things, making me late to the airport to pick him up. When I finally arrived, I was two hours behind and I found out that he had hopped a cab. So, I just decided to go back home. I was half way there when my phone rang."

He paused and tucked his head between his hands again. I was beginning to realize this was his nervous or afraid face. This time, when he started talking again, his voice was shaky and he was crying freely.

"A drunk guy driving a semi hit the cab. Jeff barely made it out alive and the driver perished. He was practically broken from head to toe, paralyzed from the neck down with a slim chance of recovery, and he needed plastic surgery in three different parts of his body."

"He was in a coma for two years. About five months ago, he woke up. That was before I got the job at the Jenkins. Although they pay me well, it never covered the cost of therapy, pills, surgery, and recovery programs. And on top of that, I had my own mortgage since I had just bought this house, bills, and visa statements. I was so behind in debt that it was the perfect time for a scammer to take advantage of me."

Whoa, I thought. I'm not so sure I'm liking where this story is going. Does that mean we're like a scammers experiment or something? OMG, WHAT IF THE MAFIA TURNED US INTO THE ANIMALS? Maybe we should've gone to Mexico. That's were the mafia live, right? This is bad. Very, very, very bad. I don't like the mafia. What if they murder me!

"And that, "Charlie continued, "is my story."

Whoa, did I miss something?

I looked at him blankly and I could feel Nikki's eyes boring a hole into him as well.

He laughed and shook his head. "That's my story, not the plan. I still have a lot more to say but I'm hungry."

He started to get up when Ally jumped up and cornered him against the couch, muscles tense and teeth barred.

Raising his hands, he sat down defeated. "Fine. Let me tell you how you guys got involved."