Runnaway

Oh he can smell it in the air! None’a that crap Janey’s dad sprayed on their lawn, that stuff that made your head hurt. And the stuff she sprayed on herself every morning before she left, god it was awful! If he could tell her how he felt, it made him sneeze and hurt in his skull!

When he comes back, oh it’ll be so degrading! He’ll be washed and the tangles cut out and she always has to do it cause he’s always out in the rain cause it always rains here and the fresh soaked grass smells so much better than Janey and her family and well…its just too bad.

But Caleb, well, he reeks of smoke, yeah, but the fish and the liver! Besides, his smokes not the bad smoke, the white sticks with the burning end and the orange end Janey’s parents always seem so intent on sucking. His smoke is the stuff that’s smoked in those deals that make the bubbling noises and those funny shaped white sticks Caleb and his friends passed around.

Sometimes Caleb blew it in his face. The first few times he’d ran away from it. It made him feel odd and the first time he thought something had gone seriously wrong. By the fourth or fifth time it was fun, Caleb would blow it at him and he’d breathe it in and then he’d get goofy and so would Caleb. He’d bat at Caleb and get bowled over and rubbed on the belly and he’d bite Caleb’s hand and push rhythmically with his back legs.

Eventually he’d get hungry and would go to that big white box with the cold air and food inside and he’d meow and Caleb would pull out some meat and…it was oh so much better than that crap they had at Janey’s!

No, he wouldn’t go back. He loved Janey, but no, he wouldn’t go back.