Chapter 3
On the living room carpet, Sirocco, who was usually so bursting with energy, lay like a marathon runner who had just crossed the finish line.
“You know, Aeolus, my stomach thinks someone slit my throat and it’s screaming for help, but I don’t even have the strength to eat.”
“How come, shorty? Where have you guys been putting up flyers?” Mistral asked.
“Eveeeerywhere! Miss Remi is on every single pole... double-time.”
“What do you mean? How am I double-time?” Remi whispered, as if terrified the humans might hear her.
“On one side, the missing successful writer, and on the other, the found purebred Angora cat...”
“Mon Dieu! Somebody pinch me!” Mistral felt utterly drained himself, even though he hadn’t left the house.
After the humans left to post the flyers, the fur-balls left at home tried to take advantage of the writer’s cell phone, but... it was dead. Now, another “Mission Impossible” was needed to charge the phone’s battery without the grownups noticing, and without it being detected... Who would have thought life could be so exhausting?
“I suggest we sleep now and take action tonight!” Aeolus wheezed, after making sure the phone was safe, plugged into an outlet right behind the couch.
“It would be best to strategically occupy the couch so no one gets near the phone. Remi, since you’re so fluffy, stay on the backrest, and we’ll take the armrests.”
“Do you really think they care about sitting on the couch, Mistral? Look how worried they are... they aren’t even sipping from those cups. Poor mom, I can’t even comfort her... On the other hand, think about it—I’m a found cat, the next step is taking me to check for a microchip. What chip? We know it doesn’t exist. They are looking for my owners. Mine! As if I ever had or will ever need an owner.”
“M-Miss Remi, don’t be mad, we him Anemo have... uh, we have Anemo, I mean, and he’s the best owner. O-once we stole his liver and ate it all up, every last bit...”
Mistral, ever mannerly and upright, suddenly felt betrayed by the ginger, but also deeply ashamed of their banditry, now exposed in front of the new feline.
“Don’t think we attacked Anemo, heaven forbid! We just kidnapped his dinner, which happened to be beef liver.”
“Yes, Miss Remi, I mean Bise, Anemo didn’t give us away to Lady Mother Durga, he loves us!”
Remi-Bise smiled with a motherly air.
“Who is Durga?”
But before she could get an answer, Aeolus signaled them to be quiet.
“Shh, Anemo is talking to someone on the phone. Sirocco, you can spy all you want, pussyfoot your way down the hallway!”
The redhead immediately began his march, as if rehearsing for a fashion runway, stopping regularly to report back.
“Anemo is glitched again! He’s talking to Mister Father of Anemo and keeps saying ‘yes, father, I was’ or ‘yes, father, I checked’ and I heard him say something about ‘porters’.”
“Porters?” Mistral asked, bewildered. “What porters, shorty?... Maybe reporters.”
But before he could finish his thought, noises, commotion, honking horns, deep voices, and high-pitched squeals started blaring from outside. Apparently, a battle had just broke out inside Sirocco between his love for runway modeling and his curiosity—and naturally, curiosity won. The little one took a leap and, with praiseworthy agility, landed on the windowsill, ready to watch the street spectacle.
“I think the ‘porters’ are here, Miss Bise... Remi. Is that bad or good?”
“Ce n’est pas possible! Remi, we must do something, absolutely! You have to send a message to someone, somehow, to get us out of this whole mess! It’s like we're under siege!”
Mistral began pacing frantically from one end of the living room to the other, as if infected by his barefoot owner.
“Aeolus, check the battery! We don’t need a hundred percent, just enough to send the message, then we turn it off.”
“We have fifty...” the little mouse answered from behind the couch. “Remi, be ready! Sirocco, watch our six, we need to act flawlessly, like a team from one of those ‘Mission Impossible’ movies!”
“Me, watch our six? I-I’m smaller, I can only watch our three max! Look at me, Aeolus... I’m learning more and more each day, but I haven’t reached six yet.”
“Shorty, don’t be... Aeolus is telling you to keep your eyes on the humans so they don’t jeopardize our mission!”
“Oh, I get it! Nobody leopardizes the mission.”
“Calm down, let’s think!” Mistral said, though his sleek, black fur was trembling as if blown by the wind.
“We can’t leave this for tonight. I’ll stand at the doorway, ready to faint in case Anemo walks this way; the kid can pose for the reporters if he wants, we don’t mind that; you guys start, unlock the phone, send the message, and shut it down. We don’t want Shakira and her bicycle riding through the living room... understood? Good thing that top-knotted Fleur went home, who knows what else she would have uncovered.”
A tough mission for the fur-ball team, but not quite impossible. Once squeezed behind the couch next to Aeolus, Remi immediately attacked her own phone. Facial recognition was completely out of the question, so our cat tried to type the six-digit passcode. Total failure! Paws equipped with soft pads and claws are simply not made for glass screens, typing, or other fine motor skills.
“What luck that I didn’t eat you, Aeolus, only you can tame this phone! Get to the device!”
“Ready, Bise, Agent 003.5 on duty! What’s the code?”
“Two, zero, two, six, two, one!”
“That’s yesterday’s date, Bise! The date of the solstice! How on earth is your passcode the exact date you turned into a cat?” the mouse grumbled, putting all his effort into unlocking the phone screen.
“I don’t know, little mouse, it just came to me three years ago when I bought the phone.”
“Done, device activated! What should I write and to whom?”
“Let me think, let me think... we’ll send an email, since I’m supposed to not have my phone on me. Write to Anemo: ‘Dear Anemo, forgive me for leaving in a hurry, I realized too late that I forgot my purse with my phone and couldn’t turn back. I have research to do for my new book and an unexpected opportunity came up. I beg you to take care of my white cat, I can’t leave her with my mother because she is allergic. The little Angora kitty is named Bise, I hope she gets along with your fur-balls. I’ll take you out on a date when I return, and I promise to make it up to you. Remi Storm’. Send!”
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