#kyarorain

Sissel sat high on a crane, watching the moon rise slowly over the ocean. Seagulls screamed and wheeled below, looking for food and pestering late walkers on the docks. The stars were coming out, one by one. Kamila, as had become her habit, had earnestly explained to him while studying them in school that “shooting stars” weren’t really stars, but rocks from space. Of course, he knew that, having been in the front row seat for one, but it had long been a mystery how those still, twinkling lights from so far away and the brilliant blue-white shard from the sky had been linked.

That shard inside him connected him to the world and to his friends so firmly now, quite an irony for something that had once driven a human to disconnect from everything and everyone. Star-stuff or not, his was the path that walked the earth below. Yomiel hadn’t belonged high and far apart, and neither did Sissel…at least, not always. Not now. Now was for connection.

He launched himself in a graceful arc, landing and leaping from point to point in ways that even for a normal cat would have made a bystander gasp and cry out that it must have killed him. He could have leapt straight from the crane itself, and landed on the ground unhurt, but where was the fun in that? It was the dance that made it worth it. He knew a few who would agree.

Back to Jowd’s warm, bright, orderly home he went, watching the night rise about him. The birds and the bugs flying, humans walking or bicycling or driving the streets to go their mysterious ways, the plants growing, recovering from the chill of winter to become new. Kamila would be getting ready for bed, her parents and Cabanela likely downstairs for their nightly time together. He strolled through the door Jowd had installed for him, over Alma’s amused protests, back when she hadn’t known what sort of being lived with them and had worried for his safety. Alma sat curled on the couch, Cabanela sprawled with his head in her lap, and Jowd just setting a platter of snacks on the coffee table for a movie night. Sissel stropped on his bare ankles and jumped up on top of Cabanela’s chest, eliciting a quiet oof as he offered a cheek to be scratched. Alma he allowed to scratch his ears as he settled into a comfortable loaf.

“How are things out in the world, Sissel?” Jowd asked, smiling, as he sat down on the far end of the sofa, drew Cabanela’s feet into his lap, and took Alma’s hand. “Anything to hop back four minutes for?”

“No, it’s a quiet night,” Sissel said, watching Cabanela’s face as Jowd massaged one foot, then another, with one hand and Alma played with his hair. Even his face couldn’t keep still when the other two were involved! Fascinating, another piece of the dance between the three of them, and always a joy to watch them twirl together through the days. “You should be able to watch your movie in peace.”

Jowd relayed the message to the other two, and they all three relaxed even more, melting into the couch and each other. “You joooining us for this ridiculous farce Jowd calls a movie, baby?” Cabanela asked. Sissel shook his head, letting the human body language he’d learned do the job of communicating for him, and flicked his tail toward the stairs.

Alma said mildly, “Stop complaining that you drew the short straw on the movie-picking and just enjoy it…as much as is possible for this ridiculous farce Jowd calls a movie.” She ignored Cabanela’s protests of Neeever said I wouldn’t enjoy it, baby, terrible movies, nothing like ‘em, and turned her attention to Sissel. She’d learned a lot about him in ten years and knew what he meant most of the time even without core speech. “Yes, Kamila’s just getting to bed; she’s got an early morning tomorrow at school. She was just wondering before she went up where you’d gotten to.”

Sissel nodded, and leapt off Cabanela’s skinny chest, prompting a slightly louder oof this time. He reared up, tapping his paws on Alma’s knees, and let her scratch his ears and chin one more time, before sauntering off to check in with Kamila.

He found her carefully packing the last pieces of a tiny controller into a padded box. “Oh, Sissy, there you are!” she said happily. “It’s the science fair tomorrow, did you know?” He did. She’d talked of nothing else for weeks as she ate, breathed, and slept her project. He’d even gone with her a few times to watch her and her mentor the Pigeon Man build it in the field next to her school, enormous and complicated as it was. Sissel squeezed his eyes at her and went to lie on the heater grille, watching her as she finished and slid into bed. “It’s warm over here too, Sissy,” she called, patting the sheets next to her invitingly.

She didn’t yet know his peculiarities except in the way a child knows her best friend from babyhood. She was aware her cat was sometimes cold to the touch and never grew larger than a kitten. He tried hard to seem like a normal cat around her, though, on Alma and Jowd’s request, until she was a little older, so he waited a minute or two more. At last, he leapt down, strolled across the floor, and snuggled into her side, knowing the warmth he’d absorbed from the heater would last a little while longer and be comforting as she fell into sleep. She stroked him gently, murmuring to him as she drifted into a doze about her devices, and the things she’d learned that day, the plans she had for tomorrow, of looking forward to seeing her new friend Lynne again, of… of…

Her hand stilled and her voice dropped to mumbles, then silence. Sissel laid under her hand for another while, watching the quiet stars from her bedroom window and listening to the babble of voices from the television below, then slid out from her touch and sauntered back downstairs.  Alma had fallen asleep, and the men had shifted so she lay comfortably across them as they sat shoulder to shoulder with her cradled in their laps. They talked softly of their respective cases, ignoring the movie that still played on, their rivalry and their love shining between them like a star or like kismet. Their thoughts weren’t on Sissel at the moment, and that was just right. This was a pattern fulfilled, satisfying as always to see.

He slid through the dimmed room softly as a shadow and climbed into his accustomed spot in Jowd’s coat pocket, then left his body and slid through the Ghost World equally as easily to the phone. Jowd had spent ten years working with him so he could get to the phone in seconds from any place in the house. It was one of the ways he made sure they were all safe. Sissel had made it his habit to be there, silently, every time the phone rang, just in case.

The phone was silent, but Sissel had at least one more stop to make tonight before he settled into the contemplation that often passed for sleep. Sliding into the lines, he took the turnings that would take him to Lynne’s apartment, where she too was just getting to bed. Missile noticed him coming through the phone—he always knew, somehow, even without the mental connection. How did he do that? Was it some kind of smell?—and began barking and dancing, an uproar joyous to Sissel’s ears but not, he knew, to anyone else living in these apartments.

“Missile! Hush, boy, come on. It’s bedtime.” Lynne looked up from brushing her hair, still slightly damp from her shower. “We’re not barking right now.” He pranced up to her, his ball in his mouth, and begged.

“OK, OK, just once. You know we don’t throw the ball in the house…but you’re so cute, how can I resist? Go get it!” She tossed it lightly across the apartment, Sissel taking advantage of the frozen second as it flew by to hop into it, and Missile caught it, wriggling all over. He pranced over to his toys, dropping the ball and letting Sissel hop into the tiny stuffed black kitten Lynne had bought on a whim after meeting Sissel the week before and seeing how much Missile had loved him. Lucky it had a core, Sissel thought. More things seemed to have cores nowadays though. Perhaps it was only that he needed them more, and so they appeared for him.

“OK, now calm down. Come on, let’s go to bed.” Lynne said, and Missile jumped up to her waiting arms, kitten in his mouth. He allowed himself to be cuddled for a moment, then slid out and pranced in a circle before curling around the toy and dropping his head onto his paws.

“Silly dog…” Lynne yawned. “Good night, buddy.” She patted him for a moment, then dropped off quickly.

“She won’t wake up for a long time!” Missile said happily. “Sometimes that round brrrzzzzzt rings and rings in the morning and she hits it across the room!” His ears flattened. “She gets real mad on those mornings though. She always stomps around and leaves me without giving me a proper goodbye.”

“How long is a proper goodbye?” Sissel asked, bemused. His morning routine, if he stayed home, consisted of blinking slowly at each member of the family on their way out the door and sometimes a quick scratch on the ears from Alma or a brief tussle with Cabanela’s clothes if he didn’t dodge quickly enough.

“Well, as long as it takes until I won’t miss her!” Missile said indignantly.

“So…you never get a proper goodbye, then?”

Missile whimpered. “No…”

“Sorry. Seems rough.”

Missile squirmed and wriggled until he was lying on his back, all four paws up in the air. Sissel’s vessel lay on his chest. “But tonight, you’re here! And you can stay until I fall asleep!”

“Yeah, is that OK?”

A brief, sleepy bark. Lynne stirred and grumbled, turning over. “Of course!” Missile whispered, forgetting that the Ghost World was silent and barks were not. “I wish you could stay all the time! In your real body, even!”

“But then who would watch over your Miss Kamila?” Sissel teased him.

“Um!” Missile blinked. “I guess you’re right…but it’s always good when you come over…” He whimpered. “I miss Miss Kamila so much sometimes it hurts. Right here in my tail! I can’t even wag it as fast when I think about that. I want to see her all the time too.”

“Don’t worry,” Sissel said, taking pity on him. “Jowd and I talked and he’s going to tell Lynne almost everything now that she decided to be a detective even in this new timeline. Lynne and I can still “use” each other…and I think she’ll get close to Kamila again quickly. She’s already going to see her science fair project tomorrow.”

“Oh!” Missile’s tail began to thump. “Will she take me? She has to take me!”

“Mi…Missile…” mumbled Lynne, yawning. “Get still… go to sleep…we’ve got an early morning tomorrow…” 

“Sorry, Miss Lynne,” Missile whispered again, Sissel shaking his ghostly head. “Sissel! Do you think I can go tomorrow?”

“It’s outdoors in the big grassy area outside of her school,” Sissel said, “just to accommodate her project. It’s really big…her biggest and most complicated thing yet. Something about reclaiming junk? I bet she can bring you. I’ll ask Jowd to ask her…in the morning.”

“Yeah, that sounds good…” Missile yawned, and rolled over on his side, clutching the toy in which Sissel’s soul currently resided closer to his chest. Sissel could hear his heart thudding in there as Missile’s little black eyes shone like twin stars in the dark. “I can’t wait to see Miss Kamila and Miss Alma and Mister Cabanela and Mister Jowd!”

“They can’t wait to see you either,” Sissel said. “And I… Missile?”

No response. Missile had fallen asleep, clutching the toy. Sissel shook his ghostly head. The dog was still young after all. He looked around. No ghost cores nearby. Looked like he was trapped for a while. He didn’t have to worry anymore about disappearing at dawn, but he’d gotten used to roaming at night, since he didn’t have to sleep, and he’d meant to go check in on Yomiel and the other Sissel. But oh well…he could stay and watch over Lynne’s and Missile’s slumber for a while, he supposed.

He hoped that perhaps after Jowd and Lynne had their talk, they could set up cores in Lynne’s home like they had in Jowd’s. It would certainly make visits easier. And it would be nice to visit Lynne openly sometimes, in his own body. They’d been friends for a night, ten years ago. It would be nice, he thought, to be her friend again.

He couldn’t see the stars from Lynne’s window, only a flickering streetlight, but a light mist began to settle on the window, blurring the light and making it sparkle and twinkle. As Lynne and Missile lightly snored in unison, Sissel watched the patterns of those earthly stars and dreamed his waking dreams about what the years ahead would hold.