Jeremy had just finished his calc homework and was leaning back on his desk chair in his room, tasting victory. He’d done well on the latest test, he still had endorphins from rooting on his little sister’s marching band performance at the high school game earlier, and his parents had even gotten them both ice cream to celebrate. The ice cream part was cringe, because they weren’t little kids, but also, it was ice cream, so it was cool too.
“Heh. Cool.”
Jeremy smiled to himself, and then abruptly thunked the chair back down to a stable position as he noticed Victor wasn’t on the windowsill anymore, and might be behind him on the bed. He didn’t want to be tipping precariously if Victor was in range.
He looked around and found Victor sitting on his pillow, ready to chill in bed and wind down from a busy day. He could hear his parents watching a documentary in the lounge, and his sister was still at the official marching band afterparty. He had no obligations and no interruptions for at least an hour before bedtime.
“Come on buddy, it’s time. Time for us to get to the important stuff. Official party business. Right here, right now.”
Jeremy scooted onto his bed on top of the covers and cozied up next to Victor without disturbing him. The cat flicked an ear and then lazily flopped over, exposing his belly for petting, as if he’d just casually decided that was how he’d like to relax even if Jeremy weren’t there.
“Okay Victor, we’ve got to think of the best present. Something to remind Alden that us normies still got it.”
Victor purred, and Jeremy noticed he’d subconsciously started giving belly rubs. He was really getting used to the cat.
“From the way Alden talks about it, the Anesidoran kids are so out of touch that something super normal might even impress them the most,” he said out loud.
“Heh. Super normal.”
Jeremy leaned back against the wooden headboard and let his eyes wander around the room for inspiration. He was tasked with coming up with an activity that party guests could enjoy. The first thing he thought of when he’d gotten the invite message was something related to the radish meme, but by the time he got out of school and messaged back his idea he was informed that radishes were already covered.
It was probably just as well. His superpower, in this situation, was being a normal guy in the normal world. He was the kind of guy who had encountered racoons and lived to tell the tale. That alone would amaze Alden’s Anesidoran friends in a way that Alden would find hilarious.
“What do you think, Victor? Should we dress you up as a racoon and send you back? I bet that racoon-obsessed girl wouldn’t know the difference.”
Victor was still enjoying his belly rubs while lazily swiping at a hanging thread from Jeremy’s sweater. Jeremy enjoyed the moment, and then realized he should probably save his sweater from the cat. He jerked the string away, which of course only further interested the cat, and the brief struggle ended with the cat victoriously trapping a length of string between its claws. He had managed to claim about three feet before the string had come completely free of the sweater.
“You’re a good cat, Victor. You deserve that string.”
When Alden was missing, taking care of Victor felt mandatory. And when Alden was presumed dead, Victor felt like a lifeline, tangible proof that something Alden-y still existed in the world. Sometimes when Jeremy looked at Victor, he still automatically thought “At least I still have you and we can be sad together.” And then he remembered Alden was back. And he looked forward to taking that for granted someday, that Alden was alive.
Sometimes he still thought things like, I can’t wait to tell Alden about the weird thing that happened in chemistry class… only to automatically correct himself No, Alden’s dead. Why haven’t you moved on yet. Followed immediately by Wait, he’s alive again now, and I was right the first time! What gives, brain!
“We are going to party you so much party that everyone forgets what bad times feel like,” Jeremy muttered to his mental image of an under-partied Alden.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
He distracted himself by looking up raccoon costumes for cats. Victor was calm enough these days that maybe he would let him use a temporary pet-safe dye to add a raccoon-like mask to his face and rings to his tail.
“They’d probably see through the ruse, but it would be hilarious, and that’s what counts.”
Victor was still playing with the string, and it brought to mind the string game Cat’s Cradle that he learned as a kid. He had a sudden memory of trying to learn the Jacob’s Ladder figure, and having it always come out looking wrong, and calling it Jeremy’s Ladder and claiming that’s what he meant it to look like.
“I wonder if I still remember it?”
He stole the 3-foot length of string from Victor and tied it into a loop. He still had the muscle memory to loop it around his hands and pick the string up with his index fingers into what he thought was the starting position.
“I feel like I almost remember… it was something like… hmm.”
******
A half hour later, Jeremy was on to learning his third string figure, with the help of video tutorials from the internet. It was so much easier, now that he was an adult.
Untangling the string, he went through the motions of Jacob’s Ladder again to prove he’d memorized it. He turned his hands outward to complete the figure, and this time the pattern of diamond shapes was symmetrical and clear.
“Pow! Take that!” He said with quiet force.
Then he looked at the time, and remembered he was supposed to be brainstorming party activities.
“Do you think Anesidorans would get a kick out of Cat’s Cradle? Or is that too mundane?” he asked Victor as he teased the cat with the string. “I want Alden’s friends to think I’m cool. String figures might not be cool enough.”
Jeremy tried to imagine serious avowed like Alden sitting around and learning string figures, and he couldn’t quite do it. It really was quite fun, but it was Alden’s party, and string figures didn’t seem very thematic. His friends would want to be doing things that felt celebratory of Alden, like running around with plates of radishes. And what did string figures have to do with Alden’s life?
Victor flopped around adorably with the string, and Jeremy pulled up his phone to take a video.
“Hey Alden,” Jeremy began after he hit record. “Victor is having one of his cute moments, and so it is absolutely necessary to share it with you. Thank you for sending your latest gym footage, I knew you’d win! You look so cool. So to celebrate your VICTOR-y, get it, Victor is here to…”
Jeremy had an idea, and stopped the recording. He gathered the string and held it behind the camera, so that only Victor’s intense tracking stare was visible. He started a new recording, speaking in the voice he used when he was pretending to voice Victor’s thoughts.
“Greetings, human. This is your boss, Victor.
“In honor of your special party day I have deigned to respond to your request for activities suited for good times, and I have but a humble suggestion wrought of feline wisdom. Have you considered: string?”
Jeremy let the string spool out, and the cat immediately pounced for it. Jeremy continued in his cat voice:
“String is an excellent activity for humans. I will be sending string, so that you can enjoy the joys of string. I think you will find that it is of utmost importance to enjoy string.”
Jeremy finally let the cat have the string and Victor played his role perfectly, pawing and biting at it while rolling around adorably for the camera.
“String is good and string is fun. You’re welcome.
“P.S. I will require extra snacks and belly rubs.”
Jeremy ended the recording and smiled.
When the present came from Victor, instead of himself, it was easy to imagine Alden’s friends gushing over the adorable cat and wanting to learn a string figure or two in Victor’s honor. Jeremy put in an order for a set of Cat’s Cradle-sized string loops that came with an instruction booklet, now confident that if anyone thought it was childish he could blame it on the cat.
“But wait, if that’s from Victor, now I’m still on the hook. What would Alden want?”
Jeremy thought for two seconds and then answered himself:
“Floor chicken. Alden needs floor chicken.”
As entertaining as it was to imagine bountiful fried chicken, suitable for a party of mostly teenagers, being served on the floor, that wasn’t going to work for Alden. Jeremy supposed that Alden would still get a kick out of it if it were a vegan fried chicken substitute that he could eat. Maybe it could be served on a shiny new clean floor tile, which was basically the same thing as a plate. But Jeremy continued to search his brain for something more special.
“Didn’t Alden mention something about a chicken cafe?”
One phone call later, Jeremy had hired an employee of the chicken cafe to bring a few special guests to Alden’s party. They would take care of managing the chickens, and allow the chickens to roam free on the floor among the normal party guests. Operation Floor Chicken was a go.
“This party is gonna be awesome!” Jeremy said, imagining a bunch of teenagers surrounded by chickens while they gushed over Victor’s cuteness.
Jeremy pet Victor, thinking of his friends.
“If only Boe were here.”