Thursday, December 25, 2008

The Art of Seduction-Chp6

The cat was a white Persian cat, and it was in the middle of a busy road where big and small vehicles were coming to and fro. It looked pretty terrified and didn’t know whether to go forward or turn back and the vehicles didn’t seem to notice it either. Wherever they’re heading, they sure were going pretty fast.

As the compassionate, emotional person he was, Joned immediately rushed towards the middle of the road to catch the cat into his arms. Yet he was so bent on saving the poor cat that he didn’t realize that a huge truck was coming his way. Its presence was so sudden that Joned didn’t know how to react. Lucky for him, Jinggo has jumped forward, grabbed both Joned and the cat in his arms and rolled safely down onto the opposite side of the road, much to the surprised and awed passers-by.

When Joned opened his eyes, he found himself in Jinggo’s arms. This was the second time Jinggo has saved his life but he never expected to be in his embrace. He wouldn’t mind dying right there right now; he felt like dying in blissfulness anyway. Likewise, Jinggo has also realized that he had Joned close to his chest. He blushed. What was he doing? Throughout their private detective life, he had never had this close contact with Joned before. All he ever did was take his hand, that’s all. He knew he had to let go of him right now but somehow his arms just wouldn’t respond to his wishes.

“Jinggo! Joned! Are you guys alright?”

Ryo’s voice finally made the both of them tear away from each other. They were blushing like mad but Jinggo was trying to control his. Not much luck though. Dee came running ahead of Ryo and tried to see if anyone was alright.

“You guys OK? Anything broken?” Dee asked.

“No, we’re OK,” Jinggo replied, patting the dust off himself as cool as he possibly could.

“We’re cool,” Joned agreed. “And we saved a life in the process.”

The cat in Joned’s arms mewed and nuzzled his chin in a sort of gratitude way. As Joned patted the cat and reassured it that it was alright, he noticed a name tag hanging from a collar on its neck.

“Hey, look. This cat’s name is Cloud, and it has an address engraved on the name tag,” Joned said as he took a closer look at the tag. “41 Street, Edison Road, Phase II. Where’s that, Dee?”

“I know where that is,” Ryo suddenly voiced out. “That’s where we investigated the robbery crime last year. Remember that housing estate named Wendigo?”

Dee tapped his chin before saying, “Oh yeah! That one! That crook wasn’t too hard to catch for the likes of us now, was he?”

“What are you thinking of doing, Joned?” Jinggo asked.

“I’m gonna return this cat to its owner, duh! What does it look like?” Joned replied in an as-a-matter-of-fact way.

“We are no SPCA members, Joned. We do detective work, not open a pet care centre or run a pets’ lost and found agency,” Jinggo said coldly.

“Well, then you’re no nice man either,” Joned replied briefly. If he had looked at Jinggo when he said it, he would’ve noticed that slightly hurt look on his face for a second there. Only Ryo noticed.

“Are you sure about this?” Dee asked. “I mean this cat looks pretty OK although it might have been in the street for quite some time.”

“Yes, I am,” Joned replied determinedly. “I know how it feels like to be out in the streets with no one who cares and no one by your side, and I hate to see that happen to this cat.”

“Alright,” Dee let out a sigh of defeat. “It’s your call. Makes up for what we blew off today. Let’s go.”

Soon the foursome was walking towards Dee’s car and was on their way to Edison Road, Phase II. They had to beat the traffic like usual using highways and shortcuts, but finally they’ve reached the quiet housing estate, Wendigo, at Edison Road, Phase II. Joned got off the car in a thrice and started looking for the house at 41 Street, with Jinggo and the rest following behind him. He looked closely at the tag again and saw that this cat belonged to a girl named Pearl Benedict. He went to one of the houses and knocked on the door. He was answered by a middle-aged woman with silver-blonde hair and a pair of really thick glasses.

“Yes, can I help you, young man?”

“Err, sorry to bother you, ma’am,” Joned greeted. “Do you know anyone by the name Pearl Benedict?”

“Yes, of course!” the woman replied. “They live just next door, or so they used to be.”

“Used to be?” Jinggo asked.

“They’ve just moved. A huge truck just stopped by and carried a whole lot of their furniture and stuff. You just missed them,” the woman replied. She looked down and saw Cloud in Joned’s arms and exclaimed, “Oh my! Isn’t that Cloud? They forgot about you? Oh, poor Cloud! And your little mistress Pearl said they’ve went through all the trouble to vaccinate you and all just to bring you along to India.”

“India? Did you say India?” Dee asked, surprised.

“Yes. The Benedict family has all moved to India together with their little girl Pearl, and they’re leaving today on the 4 p.m. flight later,” the woman replied as she took Cloud into her arms. The cat mewed, looking disappointed. Ryo took a look at his watch.

“It’s about 2 and half hours away before 4,” Ryo replied. Cloud mewed again, trying to see if his mistress was going to come and get him.

“No one’s home, Cloud. They’ve all gone,” the woman tried to coax Cloud. “We’re gonna have to find someone else to take care of you now.”

Joned stared at the cat for a moment. The whole family has left. Cloud was left all alone here without anyone to take care and he was sure that no one is going to adopt him. He was sure of that; he was an unwanted child once. Even if someone else wanted to adopt him, he was sure he would end up in a reckless family who would never show as much love as Pearl had shown him. Quite suddenly, he took the cat into his arms, thanked the woman and walked towards Dee’s car.

“Hey, hey, Joned, where are you going?” Dee asked as he followed close behind Joned. The others thanked the woman and followed suite.

“I’m going to return this cat to Pearl,” Joned replied determinedly.

“Are you kidding me?” Dee asked in disbelief. “You can’t make it there! It’s miles and miles away from here to the nearest airport! You’ll never make it there in time!”

“If we don’t try, we’ll never know!” Joned said. “I’m not going to let this cat be adopted by some people who don’t even have money to feed themselves, let alone feed a cat! And I don’t want it to be adopted by a family who has some mangy children who would abuse him or stick a piece of firework onto his tail! And I’m definitely not going to stand here and watch him live off scraps and rubbish in the streets where he could die at any second! I don’t want him to end up like me!”

“OK, OK, calm down, Joned. You’re making this personal. You gotta think straight here. You cannot just go barging around doing whatever you want and think that you’re gonna make it…”

Joned, who was opening the door of Dee’s car, slammed it shut and scowled at him. He glared deep into Dee’s eyes and said, “Fine! If you’re not going to take me to the airport, I’ll go on foot out of here and take the bus.”

With that, he walked off with Cloud and ignored the frantic calls of Ryo and Dee. Jinggo just stood there without a word. When he was about a few feet away, Jinggo said, “I know him very well; he’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants. I’ve seen him like this before when we did the case on the missing ambassador’s daughter.”

As the Dynamic Duo turned to Jinggo, they saw a slight smile on his face and said, “So, are you going to go with his silly fantasies or not?”

Ryo and Dee looked at each other for a second or two before finally driving the car and honking at Joned to stop running away from them so that they can get to the airport.

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