Chapter 3

After a long discussion that had left Jake confused once more, he and Zack made their way back to the house. Nancy and Ed appeared surprised to see Jake without Sarah, but said nothing to him as he walked upstairs, with Zack in his arms, to the room he was staying in.

"So, you're saying you know all this information, but you don't know how?" Jake asked Zack, who was now perched on his bed, slowly and deliberately licking his front paws.

"That's about the size of it. I figure it must be some latent ability you possesed that tranformed me into some genius cat. Like I said back in the woods, although you have been one confused fellow for awhile, you are now one smart fellow."

"Ok. Supposing this is a result of some hidden talent I possess, why didn't this ever happen before? I been around cats and other animals before," Jake said.

"I don't know, but I could guess. Why don't you guess instead? If I'm right, my intelligence is in some way derived from your intelligence, therefore despite past experiences, you are actually capable of logical thought, you just need to gow accustomed to thinking." Zack had stopped licking his paws long enough, to 'say' his last thoughts while looking intently into Jake's green eyes.

"Something must have changed recently. Let's see. I've been able to think more clearly now, but why? Well, in the last few months, I've gone through some physical changes: height increase, facial hair growth, and uhhh that's it."

Zack noticed that Jake had seemed a little embarrased towards the end of his last thought.

"Nothing else? I can read your mind, if I want to, you know." Zack stated.

"Well, there's been some, uh, changes in the reproductive region. Hair growth and just some growth in general," Zack said a little squeamishly.

"And sooo... ?"

"So that means I've been growing through some stages of puberty, and since I've been changing physically, perhaps puberty explains some of my mental changes as well. Additionally, before I came here, I had never stayed in place with so few people for so long. Living in the city, there had always been a large number of people nearby, but now, except for the Hoyles, there's nobody around for a few miles at least, and my thoughts seem to clear up a little when there are few pople nearby."

"Actually, there are some people, within half of mile of here, which you would realize if yo ever went somplace else besides those woods. But, it is fairly sparsely populated for some ways around here.

I smell dinner. You better go downstairs. Nancy's chicken is one of my favorites. Sometimes she gives me some leftovers. Of course, there hasn't been any lately, probably because of you," Zack said with an accusing look in his eyes.

"Well, I'll try to sneak some up for you. We'll finish our talk after dinner." Jake thought as he walked down the stairs.

"Jake! Jake! Where are you?" Sarah shouted out into the woods. She had just spent the last half-hour looking for Jake with no sign of him.

Great, where did that little dumb-ass go? He never even moves from the spot where I leave him and today he decides to go on a nature walk. Shit. What if he got hurt? What if he got kidnapped by some pervert? Why did I leave him alone? He's probably too stupid to realize you can't just trust everybody.

Sarah ran home to tell her parents that she had lost Jake. He might be a retard, she figured, but that doesn't mean he deserves to be hurt or taken advantage of by some dirty old man.

Sarah burst through the back door into the kitchen, gasping for breath as she exclaimed,

"Mom! Dad! Jake..." Sarah was stopped in mid-sentence by the sight of Jake sitting at the kitchen table, pouring himself a glass of orange juice, all the while looking at Sarah with a mischievous grin on his face.