Daddy loves you, Blue

I sat in our favourite rocking chair, softly stroking her blue fur with my big, calloused hands in a mechanical manner as we rocked back and forth on the front porch of our house. A blank stare the only thing that greeted a stranger should they walk by, not that anyone did out here, all the same really.

Time seemed irrelevant as our past played back in my head like motion pictures, the heat in the air adding to the drowsy deliriousness creeping inside. Suddenly I’m a little boy again, eagerly watching the news channel on our big widescreen tv. The talk of the century the anchor’d called it, everyone felt excitement as the corporation’s promises to the world had been fulfilled.

The ultimate pet! Fuzzy, playful, smart! A pet with all the cuteness of a puppy or a kitten, but with higher learning capabilities and the cognition of a small child, bringing the happiness to your family. Well? What are you waiting for?!

The slogan clear as day in my mind is only interrupted by the flick of the remote and the gruff sound of my father’s voice, killing the elation in me. ‘And darn expensive to boot’, he added. ‘Son, don’t you get no ideas, you hear? Those multi-coloured freaks looks like they come from a different universe altogether, and I bet they are nothing but money dump for rich, gullible people. Ultimate pet my ass, a big middle finger towards our Lord more like it. Well, they ain’t getting a penny from the Simmons at least, pfhah!’ He slammed down the remote and turned to get his jacket, most likely to spend his ‘well-earned’ money on the things he thought more important. Beer.

I’d like to say that my father was a good man, that he provided for me and himself ever since mother felt the need to depart this world. I’d like to say that my dad truly cared for me at the end of the day when he came home from another sketchy deal from those he treated as his business partners. There’s a lot I’d like to say about my old man, but the fact of the matter was, I couldn’t, because mother taught me that lying your way through life turned into an easy ticket to him down under when your time came along. Also, I never came close to any of those adorable pets they showcased on television, that is, not until several years later.

You see, there are many organisations in the world that share a different opinion than the one you see in multinational corporations. That animals, brought here by the lord, evolution or whatever theory one chooses to believe in, should be able to roam the wilderness as animals tend to do, and the pets made by man? No different. So it didn’t come as a shock when P.E.T.A and other organisations - and I say ‘other’ organisations, because I darn well can’t separate them all, and their beliefs coincide with each other anyway, so who cares - demonstrated against the corporations. The shocker however, was how hardcore they went.

Apparently they managed to get people on the inside, heh, could you believe it? I certainly didn’t, but hey at that point in life I busied myself with trying to get into the pants of the girl I liked. Anyway, members of P.E.T.A and co. simply set a majority of the little creatures free in the wild. Obviously they got caught and darn, I’m not sure if some of them still doing the time, but hey, they fulfilled their utmost goal in life, am I right? Heh, don’t know if you should congratulate them or call them idiots. Definitely call them idiots in fact, and I’m not the only one, at least not after what consequences occurred with letting a new species into the ecosystem.

The company explained to the public after the incident, that the creatures were never meant to ever live in the wild, because of their excessively high copulation periods. In layman's terms, the fuzzy, adorable little pets that many of the richer household gotten used to, fucked and bred like rabbits. And since they were capable of learning, even when faced against their now natural predators like a wolf, they adapted and learned from others mishaps.

Two years and they’d already overpopulated the surrounding forests and parks, even going as far as appearing on the countryside and inside cities. A lot of effort went into capturing them, spaying and neutering many of the adults, but it wasn’t enough. Also, it became increasingly hard when they begged not to be hurt. Yes, that’s correct. They could communicate, something picked up from the originals and carried over through generations, told you they were smart. It never got past a sentence constructed by up to five words, but they got their meaning across.

Now, imagine how the populace reacted to a sudden inflation of adorable pets? Yeah, it became a riot alright. Now everyone could get the ultimate playmate! The company along with the government in the beginning issued that they were off limits and still considered the property of the corporation, however they soon budged, half because of what the people wanted, and the increase in the critters population made it impossible to control anyhow. Some people just didn’t care and a lot of offspring were ‘secured’ into the regular John Doe’s household.

The government adopted a different policy, one that every one of these creatures living within city walls and with their human host were to be either spayed or neutered for population control. Boy, that approach lasted no longer than my next paycheck I tell you, which went by awful quick since I had to pay for college tuition at that point.

Try balancing a part-time job along with becoming a teacher at the end of four years, while also supporting your newly unemployed father. Yeah, old man finally got the boot from whatever he occupied himself with during the days, I never dared ask in my younger years, a severe head trauma along with some cuts for show would do that to a boy. Surprisingly he still got the keep custody, funnily enough. I bet because I was as unnoticeable as the dirty beggars in the damp alleyways that no one batted an eyelid to look up at from their brand new smartphones. Hey, come on, you know it’s true.

Well, here I am talking like I was the odd one out, I possessed no smartphone though, but my mind and my body worried about the future instead, which is why, as many others chose to look away from the horrors that followed.

So people didn’t quite agree with the government’s so called PCP, population control policy - heh ain’t that a laugh for you druggies out there - and of course went out of their way to disobey it, because they wanted their adorable little fluffykins to produce litters, who doesn’t like even littler fuzzballs, right? And maybe they could make some money and become breeders, or trainers? The economy strikes you hard, bro. Let’s just say that mistakes were made.

The population once more spiraled out of control, and even worse the beginning of offspring abandonment. Like kittens, place the little ones in box somewhere and some kind soul will pick them up, simple. Free pets! Aside from that the creatures were sapient it felt like a great idea to easily get rid of a foal too many. Only the start, my friends, only the start.

On the government’s board lied a very heavy problem. The creatures literally infested cities at this point, infested as in they were a health hazard. No matter how adorable they got, they still ate, drank, shit and pissed. Everywhere, and it didn’t smell like roses and rainbows, I tell you that much.

Faced with this situations, the leaders on the board made a grim decision, they advanced their population control, but now labeled as pest control. The ‘fluffys’ like vermin, now on the extermination list. Obviously people protested at this horrendous announcement at first, but in due time many opened up their eyes to the situation at hand.

To throw an extra carrot to the populace, the leaders even encouraged civilians to ‘purge’ the vermins themselves as long as they took them to a pest control facility for further handling, for a small monetary exchange of course. And who jumped on that train first you think? Yeah, the dirty beggars in the alleyways of course, they’d practically lived with the little stinkers, cleaning up the streets seemed like a perfect way to earn that extra pancake over at Jenny’s on sundays, and they did the town a favour too. Seemed like with enough desperation, one could ignore the muffled cries of the mother and her babies when they bagged them and proceeded to slam their tiny bodies into the grey sidewalls.

This went on for an undeclared amount of years, it sort of just blended into itself, became a part of what had to be done to ensure favourable living standards for the people.

I finally graduated by the way, and looked forward to a life of teaching Little Rock’s future generations, it was a decision made after working as chaperone to a boy with autism. I don’t know somewhere along the way of him and I together as I helped him with his studies and observed his little quirks, I realized that I wanted to become a special ed. teacher, it just felt right I suppose. I got fascinated by how he viewed the world and they way he could focus like any other when we reached topics that interested him. Kid was really smart, I tell you, could have been a goddamn professor in english, and heh, airplanes. Yeah, he sure enjoyed airplanes.

Finally, the flat that dad and I lived in belonged solely to me now. My old man’s disgusting drinking habits finally caught up with him, and he now lives in a specialized home for people with alcohol induced dementia, never mind that his ‘worthless’ son pays for him to stay there, frankly it felt good to have the place for myself. The place never looked cleaner after he left, smelled better too.

The hardships never stopped coming though, however much one likes to glorify that working as a teacher for students with special needs is one of the best occupations out there, it’s really not, money-wise of course. Old debts my father kept laying around without telling me crept up on me, and since he technically weren’t deceased it fell on my lot to pay them off. Scummy guys started showing up demanding their money back, legally AND illegally I stood no real chance, so what’s a recently graduated teacher supposed to do? Bend over, mostly.

I think around this point I actually started opening my eyes to my surroundings, I had a period where I couldn’t sleep and would just walk outside to clear my head. Around the corner an autumn wind greeted me, but I shrugged it off. The place and distance mattered not, neither the potential mugging. My wallet reflected the streets anyway, empty with a chance of a quarter here and there if I looked close enough.

The light still on in a building drew my attention as I looked up from my wallet with a sigh, curios, I mosied over and read the sign. Peter’s Pet Store.

Huh, that’s quite straightforward, I thought to myself. Looking in I could see a man closing up shop for the evening. I tried the door handle, to my surprise it swung open with ease. Not late enough to be closed then I suppose. But why even go inside?

The brown-haired clerk at the counter turned to face me when the bell at the door alarmed him to my presence.

“Hey, bud. Sorry, but I’m just finishing up shop, I don’t think I can help you before I have to leave, think you can come back tomorrow instead?” He inquired.

I looked around the shop, scanning over the different shelves that contained various pet toys, cages and fodder, further in the back a couple of occupied cages stood, given away by faint scratching sounds.

“D-do you mind if I just take a quick look around?” I said hesitantly. What am I doing here?

The clerk furrowed his eyebrows for a second, which then turned into much too common eyeroll. “You got ten minutes, bud, and I don’t want any funny business from you. This store may look old, but we got a very nifty camera and alarm system, capiche?”

Not caring for his tone, I just nodded towards him as I made my way to the cages. They were as one would expect full with different assortments of animals, mostly birds and rats though. God were they noisy as I approached, I could feel a headache coming on, something I’d rather spare myself. I turned to leave to excuse myself and go back to my shitty little apartment to get an early night, but before I set my foot down, I heard a different kind of ‘chirping’ sound than what the birds made. Intrigued I listened carefully for the same cry, and my senses located me to a smaller box-like cage sticking out from the bottom of the shelf. I trembled a little as I dragged it out from there. A blue, fluffy little cloud of adorableness greeted my vision as it chirped louder, trying to reach for an artificial teat.

Now, it’s important to notice that the old corporation washed their hands of the “fluffly” project as it infamously became called, which inevitably opened up the doors for others who still believed in making the little critters good housepets. However, with much mixed result, not everyone held the now dubbed vermins in high regard anymore and less people wanted to be associated with pests. Causing their living standards to be dropped and handled horribly by many stores keeping them. This little cloud, most certainly a product of an offspring taken too soon from its mother.

I blinked, then I blinked again. My hands started visibly tremble and I had to let go off the box unless harming the little one. My breath came out in barely controlled fits, and I clenched my fists in before I tried to calm down as its weak chirps increased in volume. Which also became the point where the clerk opened his fat, ugly mouth.

“Hey, keep it down will you? You’re scaring the animals.”

I tell you, it took all my willpower not to cave in that sorry excuse of a puss he called face, instead I counted to ten before my breath returned to normal. Which led me to the next step.

“This blue fluffy over here,” I said without turning around. “What’s it doing here?”

“That little runt? Leftover from a sale we had earlier today, should have been here, had all kinds of colours, heh, one thing I tell you, they still sell okay if they are small and cute enough. Probably end up on the street later when they’re older though, but then again, that’s not my problem. Yeah no one wanted that little shitstain over there so I figured I’d keep it for another day before I got rid off it.”

I turned around just enough to see the look of greed in his eyes. “Why, you interested in buying it?”

For a moment, I wasn’t in the pet store. No, instead I became the boy from my past, looking at the widescreen tv in excitement. My dad, he wasn’t there, telling me no, to beat me for going against him. I mean I virtually possessed nothing but the flat, my clothes and ongoing debts left for me, but a pet? That shouldn’t be too impossible, right?

Back at the store, Peter Parker or whatever spider he had crawled out from awaited an answer.

“A-actually, you know what? I believe I do.” He smirked. Of course the bastard smirked. Judging by my face he could get a good deal out of me.

“Great!” he responded. “Bring that thing over to the counter, will you?”

I’d rather take it and run, ways and ways away from you, pig, I thought in my head, almost voiced it actually, however I judged that I wouldn’t look very good in orange. I complied and brought the box over with a surprisingly steady grip and placed it on the desk.

“Now, I’m going to be generous here, my friend. The box, along with the feeding teat are all included in the price, I’ll throw in the little blue darling as well,” he said as he let out a ‘professional’ fake laughter.

Gee, thanks. Easy to be charitable now, huh? My face never betrayed my thoughts though. “How much are we talking about, sir?” I added. God knows I’d rather hang myself than suck up to guy like that, but my inner child demanded that fluffball, and so I made an exception.

It seemed like it worked because his expression shifted a bit, to a more smug side.

“Hey now,” he said and laughed again. “No need for honorifics, just call me Peter!”

“Certainly, now, how much?” I asked again. He seemed a little thrown off balance but recovered shortly.

“Well, the store supporting the little one’s housing and teat, and this,” he said and pulled out a broschyr from under the counter, “little pamphlet where you can read up on the little critters.”

Various Facts and how to enforce a good behaviour in your fluffy. It read. Hmm, well, I guess that’s useful.

“Yeah, this thing will tell you all you need about keeping them little vermin in check, be sure to get it spayed or neutered whenever it reaches adulthood though, as you know it can quickly get out of head so to speak.”

It almost stunned me how he could elude the discussion of the price by just adding up more things, better stop him in his tracks.

“That’s fine, sir, Now the price of the transaction, would you kindly?” I could feel my patience wearing thin as my voice strained to pronounce the honorific.

“Twenty dollars,” he straightforwardly spewed out. I blinked a couple of times, gazed into his pig-like, little eyes, not daring to ask if he joked around, as I searched my pockets, finding a Jackson and handed it to him. He nodded in agreement and pulled out some papers. I quickly read them through and signed wherever I had to, took my copy and then the box with the little cloud inside.

“Just as heads up, the milk in the teat will run out due tomorrow probably, better go buy some more as soon as you can, these little freaks gets hungry often. Now, have a good evening and enjoy your new-!” he said, however I left the shop before he could finish his sentence.

I walked at a brisk pace, reaching my apartment in five minutes, I had tucked the box in between my jacket to protect the little one from the autumn cold. I heard it chirping loudly with every step I took, but I never stopped to look at it before I entered my flat.

Locking the door behind me I turned on the hall lamp, dim light soon filled the room. I didn’t take off my shoes, neither my jacket. I went straight to my bedroom, placed the box on the beige bed and peered into it.

For what felt like the longest time, I just peered into that box, not believing what my eyes saw. In there, a little, blue cloud squirmed around on some sloppily placed hay and paper, giving off a soft peep. I recognized it as a cry for help, a cry of needing. This little one figuratively reached out to me through my heart.

‘Help me', It said. ‘Protect me', It beckoned. I leaned in closer and gently put a finger on its back, stroking its soft and delicate blue fur. Responding to my touch it tried raising its head, blind to its surrounding, and gave out another little chirp.

‘Love me' , it pleaded feebly.

I gasped as its request vibrated through me, I tasted the salt on my lips as tears streamed down my face for the first time in forever.

“Yes, yes my little cloud,” I whispered softly, choking a bit in between sobs as I reached out to gently grab unto it. My old man wasn’t here to beat his so called ‘sense’ into me, there was no one, no one but the two of us. I caressed the little feller and felt its soft fur on my face. “I promise.” I sobbed. “I promise I will love you and care for you from here on out.”