My Little Neko Boy

Chapter IV

Wow. Just...wow. Castor had finished his story. Partway through, I pulled the truck over and shut off the engine, so I could focus on his gripping and emotional story. Castor had gotten emotional during the telling, and I held him as he cried. He missed his mother. He missed his litter-mates. But there was no going back to Eldred for him.

"Wow, Castor. That's some pretty heavy duty shit." I didn't swear much. When I did, it meant something hardcore was going on. "I can't believe you were beaten by your father, sold to the government, then kept as a science project and tortured and raped for most of your life. I'm so glad you escaped and got free." I held him tighter and Castor shuddered in my arms.

After a while, once he'd had a good cry, Castor sat up. I handed him some Kleenex and he wiped his eyes. He spent some time straightening the hoody he had on. I knew he was buying time to make sure he could trust his voice not to crack with emotion.

"Thank you, Sir. I feel better now. It doesn't undo what happened to me, but I feel lighter now, having told someone."

"It's good to talk about things. Helps to sort things out." Staring the truck up, I made sure our seatbelts were fastened before signaling and checking my blind spot before pulling back onto the road.

We were silent for a few minutes. I was digesting his story. I don't know what he was thinking of. Soon, something he'd said came to mind.

"So, you were fifth born in your litter?"

"Yes. I had seven litter-mates."

"Oh. I only have two...litter-mates of my own." I said as we kept going down the mountain. Beethoven's Ninth played softly in the background. As I drove, a thought came into my head. I chuckled a bit. I seriously watched too many movies.

"What are you laughing for?" Castor was obviously perplexed.

"Sorry. I'm not laughing at your story. It's much too sad and tragic. But there's a movie that you reminded me of. Short Circuit. A machine gets sentience. Johnny Five. You being fifth made me think of a line. 'Johnny Five alive!'"

"Is...Johnny a name?" He said this with a pause as if he were testing it out.

"Yeah. It's short for Jonathan. People with that name also go by John, or Johnny." We rode in silence for a moment. "Would you like to try out Johnny as a name? When humans are expecting offspring, the parents can try out various names to find which one fits the best."

"Hmm...I think I'd like that. To see which one I like best. Are there many human names?"

"Johnny, there are many, many, possibly countless human names."

"Wow."

Johnny felt asleep soon after, no doubt not having had a decent night of rest for years. He did say he slept well last night, and that he snuggled close to me because it reminded him of the last time he had a good night when he was with his litter-mates.

A few hours later, we were back in my city. We'd long since entered cell service, and I'd flicked my phone to silent so it wouldn't go bananas and interrupt the music with emails, texts, voicemails, and social media notifications. Normally, I'd go straight home, but we had one stop to make. I pulled into a strip mall, and parked in front of the shoe store. Gently, I shook Johnny awake.

"Cas- I mean Johnny, we're here. We're going to get you some shoes."

Sleepily, the young Neko yawned and stretched. It was the cutest thing. My mind flashed to when I'd had him stripped down and admired his body. I felt a pang of guilt for thinking lusty thoughts about someone who'd been raped for many years. I hoped taking care of him would score me some good points with fate.  Half of everything is fate.