Chapter 26

<Too competent>

‘Seven, that’s just mean,’ I thought.

<Well, you are>. Seven appeared and discombobulated. It’s still mildly disgusting. Seven in her seven personifications is a fairly nice person. Seven as Seven is pedantic and bossy. The rest of them as singles are pretty nice. I really like Two ... she can be my age. She has 18 down pat. We hugged.

Junior timed it and hugged me too. Junior, the perennial teen, is somewhere north of fifty but looks 18. For nearly all the years I have known her she looked 15 but duty as the princess has aged her. The three of us hugged and I liked it.

I wonder ... have I been looking for friends in the wrong moiety?

That gave her ‘furiously to think’ as she had heard it said. Turmoil of the mind ... palpitations of the body.

Am I more interested in female?

When we took the boat to Freeport, I spent a lot of my tricks at the wheel watching the antics of my crew ... five guys and five girls ... a mix. And sometimes it was ... a mix. In five days I think the dynamics of the group changed five times.

College ... time to find what fits. There had been a lot of ‘fitting.’

Am I androgynous? I don’t seem to be all that interested in anybody ... in general ... and no one in particular. Well ... Snap! I need to work on my plane.

“Nope,” Seven said. “We have things to do.”

“What?” I asked.

“You’ll see, come on.” She grinned, “Get your watch. We,” they constructed, “won’t be coming back.”

Ooo ... Mystery!

“Since you’ll be coming back home alone, we’ll use your watch,” The Seven said.

I really like the harmonies the seven can produce ... like a barbershop quartet with three more barbers. Barbers music might be dated to when barbershops served as community centers, where men would gather for social and musical activities with barbers traditionally being musicians. Daddy mentioned, once ... several years ago ... that the Seven ought to sing in church.

You can imagine their reaction to that!

Seven spoke to the Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Celestia Astronomical Grand Complication watch ... mom’s watch ... and we were in a laerge carpeted room surrounded by open cages.

“This her?” asked a woman in a white lab coat.

Seven nodded.

“We’ll leave you now.”

Gone.

The lady said. “Sit.”

No chair ... I sat on the floor. The Lab Coat handed me a box of animal treats. “Shake the box,” she said and left.

I shook. It rattled.

Almost immediately I was inundated with cats. All kinds sizes and shapes. Every one was an exotic. For the next two hours I fed and played with cats. Each cat sniffed me ... some took a snack and wandered back to their bed ... couldn’t be bothered. Others climbed on my lap and lounged for a bit. The ones who weren’t comfortable took a tidbit and meandered back to their nest. Soon ... there were four kittens left. I skirtched backs and they liked that ... then I played paws ... I laid a finger on top of a paw ... immediately the kitten pulled out and laid its paw on top of my finger. I did it again and got an irritated growel from the Maine Coon. He got up and left. One down ... three to go.

The Mau stretched up and bumped foreheads ... nope ... no spark of recognition. It jumped down and nested. Two down.

The serval has really cool ears and I had hopes ... but no.

The silver and black ocelot kit had been sleeping on my lap almost the entire time I was seated.

‘Are they gone?’

I heard it in my head ... I’m used to answering ... the Seven do it all the time ... so... ‘Yes.’

‘Can we go home now?’

‘You sneak ... you haven’t been sleeping.’

‘Nope ... I knew you were mine when you sat down.’