1I Love My Vet, Chapter Two

by Jive Maxwell

I woke up at 5 am to see dawn breaking through the branches of the apple tree outside my window, dappled green and gold. The dancing shadows on my bed were pale and lucid, like water on the ocean floor. Shards of dust glittered in the square of yellow light streaming through the window. From the lake outback I could hear a loon crying cold and short as a note drawn hard on a violin. The smell of apple blossoms was on the morning breeze, crisp, and sweet.

What had woken me so early was Dad’s small white cat crawling into bed with me. Or rather, it was laying on my chest in the best patch of sunlight, rumbling away with a contented grin on it’s little cat face.

“Good morning to you too, asshole,” I groaned. I’m the sort of person that, once I’m awake, I can’t go back to sleep for hours. I lay on my back for a few minutes, trying to appreciate the animal’s warmth, but it was too difficult. All I could think about was cat hairs. Finally I shoved Runa off the bed. She hit the floor with her tail swishing violently, and trotted out of the room with nose upturned. I suppose she was offended by the lack of hospitality. Seeing as the night before I’d had to clean up more of her cat barf only hours after taking her to the vet, I wasn’t feeling too hospitable.

My mother came downstairs as I was making coffee.

“Mmm, Vonne, that smells great,” she mused, wrapped in her black silk kimono. It was a man’s kimono, with a sprawling dragon pattern on it. Well, it suited my mom. My father would never wear anything but pure, uninterrupted black.

“What are you doing up so early?” I asked, pouring her a cup. She took it, brushing a sliver of hair from her face. It’s brown with red dye in it that glows up through from below. Mom has a lot of tattoos, but she’s always been sort of pretty, in a could-have-been-blonde sort of way.

“Same as you I guess,” she replied with a smile.

“The cat wake you up too?”

“No, not really. Speaking of which, how is the cat doing?”

“No better yet I guess. Did you give her the medication?”

“As soon as you got home with it.” Monday took a long sip of her coffee.

“But she was sick only hours after that,” I explained.

“That’s odd. I suppose we can’t expect immediate results.”

“No, but Lucco’s not going to like it. He panics if the cat so much as coughs.”

“He panics if anyone he cares about so much as coughs,” mom said with a smile. “He’s very sensitive.”

“A little too sensitive if you ask me. Isn’t there like, cat Gravol or some such thing we can get?” I couldn’t drink coffee so black as my mom. I poured about a quarter of a cup of milk in my mug, but it stayed a reluctant muddy black. I set the mug down.

“You can check,” Monday suggested, grabbing the mug and heaping spoonfuls of sugar into it, stirring. She has such beautiful hands; the way she gripped the gleaming spoon so lightly impressed me, the rich scent of brewed coffee, the rhythmic tinking noise of a silver spoon swirling around in a ceramic mug. She handed it back to me. This time it was bearable.

“Why me? Can’t you go today?”

“I have work baby,” Monday pointed out. “But I’ll take Adonis with me today.”

“Thanks,” I said gratefully.

“He really looks up to you, you know that.”

I wrapped my hands around the hot mug and said nothing, caught by my reflection staring up at me from the dark muddy circle. It reminded me of Samara from that dumb horror movie. My parents made me watch it with them when I was still in high school, and it scared the shit out of me. They made me watch all their favorite scary movies, hoping that I would gain some sort of Gothic sense of aesthetics. All I got were bad dreams. My family cared about my opinion too much. I didn’t understand why for a long time, but in a way I’m sort of the man of the house. If my brother looked up to me as his male role model, it was only because Lucco wasn’t a good one. But if he heard me say something like that, he’d probably catch a fever and blame it on me for not caring enough about him. So I couldn’t reply.

“I know we’re hard on you baby,” Monday said after a moment. “This family is completely dysfunctional. That’s why you’re so special to us. Somehow you managed to turn out okay.”

I laughed.

“Is that what you think? Seriously? A college drop-out soon-to-be-lead-singer of a band is a good role model for a twelve-year-old?”

“I like to kid myself that you dropped out of college to be with your family,” Monday replied with a smile. “As for your band, if it’s fun for you, then it isn’t a problem. You also work part-time at the bakery, don’t you? You’re not so bad.”

To be with my family? I thought about the first few months of college, and the anxiety I felt leaving my parents and my brother at the mercy of each other. In the end I knew it would never work out if I wasn’t there. Mom can’t take care of Adonis by herself, and Dad nearly broke down in my absence, he was no help. She was probably right.

“Why, mother,” I exclaimed, “you make me sound almost noble. At this rate you’ll damage my bad guy image.”

Monday smirked, set down her mug, kissed my cheek.

“You’re not a bad guy,” she told me and went back upstairs. I could hear her crawl back into bed with dad.

I imagined what Lydia would say when she learned I was replacing her as lead singer of the band. I wasn’t sure if I could trust my mother’s judgement.

“Gravol isn’t prescription medication,” I snapped at the woman behind the counter. “I just need to know how much I should give a cat.”

“We have the proper medication for cats sir, but you need a prescription for it.” The woman was older, probably in her forties. I couldn’t really believe you needed a prescription for stomach medicine. I think she was just being disagreeable.

“I’m not going through the whole process of making an appointment and getting a prescription just to pick up a little pack of cat pills. That might take days. I want these pills right now,” I argued. People in the animal drug store were listening to this. They were all looking at me with mild dread, like I was going to shoot the place up for a few dollars and some X-Lax or something.

“Sir I’m sorry but if you don’t have-”

“Vonne, is that you?” A familiar warm voice sounded behind me. Oddly it reminded me of church bells, the way they strike you on a warm Sunday, joyously, as if it were a surprise.

“Evan? I mean, Dr. Whiteway,” I said, turning around. He was standing there, those gorgeous brown corkscrews cascading down around the collar of his jacket, which was long and rather expensive looking. It was a cool morning, and he was wearing a long red scarf and gloves, looking very metro holding a bag of some kind of bird food.

“Just Evan is fine. Well, it’s good to see you again, Vonne. What seems to be the problem.”

“This woman...um...” I glanced at her name tag. “Cathy, she won’t let me pick up medicine without a prescription.”

Evan glanced at her, and she looked away, turning red.

“Runa still not feeling any better then?” he asked, taking a piece of paper from the notepad on the desk and scribbling on it.

“Not really. I’m surprised you remembered her name.”

Evan laughed and handed Cathy the sheet of paper. I watched, mildly amused as she then turned and went to get the meds I’d asked her for. The people watching lost interest in the drama and went back to their shopping.

“How could I forget such cuties?” Evan replied with a laugh. I don’t know if he meant his patients in general or if he just meant me and Runa.

I paid for the medicine and waited for Evan to pay for what he had so I could walk him to his car.

“Sometimes people use the drugs in the pet store in a bad way, Vonne. They sell them as something else or take painkillers as a high if they can’t get these things from another store. That’s why she was being so hard on you, I’m sorry about that.”

“All’s well that ends well and such.”

He had very nice car, slender, and green.

“I didn’t know veterinarians made so much,” I admitted, as he leaned his butt against the hood. His arms were wrapped around the paper shopping bag. He looked cute, the sun on his lashes, the contented grin, so much like Runa’s.

“You’d be surprised,” he told me. “A lot of people are willing to pay lots of money for surgery or advanced medical procedures on their pets.”

“Not me. I’d just get another pet.”

“Oh?” Evan looked shocked.

“It’s cheaper.”

He looked away, seeming disappointed.

“You know, Vonne,” he said, “I bought a sixty year-old parrot last year. He’s been through many homes and hasn’t always received the best care. But he cheers me up, and even though he’s not much to look at now, I know he used to be a beautiful bird. Just thinking about the fact that he’s more than twice my age amazes me. The things he might have seen, the people he’s known. I know he’s just a bird, but he has meaning to me, you know?” His brown eyes gazed up at me. I was the creature from The Ring again, a monster caught in a deep circle.

“I’m sorry, Evan,” I replied laughing. “That must be some thing to say to a veterinarian. I didn’t mean to imply that your work isn’t meaningful. I have no doubt that it is. I guess, I have too many worries as it is trying to take care of my real family, I can’t be bothered with pets, unless it’s to make someone else feel better.”

“You live at home?” Evan asked.

I nodded.

“It sucks I guess, but I’m okay with it. I mean, I’m needed there.”

“You live with your family, Vonne. I’m jealous.”

“You don’t hear from home much?” I said in surprise.

Evan shook his head.

“My father died last year,” he said quietly. “Heart failure.”

“Uh, I, I’m so sorry,” I stammered. I let a moment of silence pass between us. It would be unkind to speak before he had recovered.

“Dad... never really approved of my being a vet. He always said, ‘you could have become a real doctor.’ Heh, I know I could have. But I have always loved animals. Mom just hasn’t been the same since he passed away either.”

“I guess not,” I sighed. “I know how that feels. My dad wouldn’t go on if anything happened to me or mom or my brother. Some people are just... more dependant than others, I guess.”

“Do I seem that way to you?” Evan asked me.

“How should I know?” I demanded. “You’re probably older than I am, you tell me.”

Evan laughed.

“But you seem so strong, Vonne,” he explained. “Like you could take care of anybody.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“Is it bothersome?”

I watched a wild song bird hopping around on the parking lot, gathering seeds that had been dropped from somebody’s bag. It seemed fat; probably it was building a nest somewhere.

“Nah, not at all,” I replied, grinning. “I guess honestly I can’t imagine what I would be doing if I wasn’t here.”

“That’s exactly how I feel,” Evan exclaimed. “Like this is the only role for me.”

“Oh I’m sure there must be other roles you can play,” I said gently.

He grinned at me.

“I’m sure that they might be very intriguing,” he admitted, straightening up. “But I have to get back to work.”

I got the door for him.

“Um, Evan... ?”

“Yes?”

“I’m not sure how to ask this, but do you want to hang out sometime?”

“Uh,” Evan looked a bit speechless, and brushed his hair back from his face. “You mean as friends?”

“Well I don’t mind starting as friends,” I replied with a grin.

“You know that I’m interested in guys?”

“I sort of figured that out right away.”

“Just trying to avoid a scene,” Evan laughed. “A guy offered to hang out before, and I spent a lot of time with him. Well, I was interested in him, I thought maybe he was too shy to make a move. And then it turned out he was straight. What a fiasco that was.”

“Have you seen him since then?” I wondered.

“Not really. He won’t look at me or speak to me if he sees me now. But I think you might.”

“I’m not straight, Evan.”

“Well, that’s encouraging.” He practically leaned over me as he fell gracefully into the car. The way he pulled in his jacket reminded me of a woman pulling in her skirt. Evan had that feminine grace about him. Not to say that he seemed umanly, but he was beautiful in the way my mom was beautiful, the way graceful people might do things like stir a spoon or the way they sit down. You can’t help but be drawn to them.

“You have my number,” Evan said to me before I closed the door. “Don’t be chicken.”

“I won’t,” I promised. He seemed to be in a very good mood as he pulled out of the parking lot.

I became aware of the cat medicine in a little brown bag clutched in my hand.

“Better get this home before Miss Muff decides to toss her kibble again.” I noticed a few people still giving me suspicious looks in the parking lot.

I stopped off at mom’s work to pick up Adonis anyway. Mom gave me a huge thank you and handed me a few twenties, but there are really beefy tattooed guys that hang out there and they wear spikes and bandanas even at their age. I don’t like that my mom has to work around them but she’s comfortable with it, I just don’t want Adonis spending too much time there.

“Where are we going?” Adonis demanded, his feet on the dashboard. Twelve years old and he has dark green eyeshadow going on, and I suspect some eyeliner as well.

“Home,” I retorted, rolling down the window and lighting a cigarette.

“Aww, can’t we go to McDonald’s again? We did that yesterday.”

“No,” I snapped. “You broke my heart yesterday, Adonis. You were supposed to be able to keep a secret.”

“What’s in this bag?” my brother wondered, looking through the cat’s meds. “Oh, pills... Did you see that curly little brunet again, by any chance?”

“Why would I tell you? You can’t keep a secret,” I scolded.

“I can keep one now,” Adonis argued. “Besides, his signature is on this piece of paper.”

“You’re very observant,” I said in surprise.

“I’m smarter than you give me credit for,” he replied haughtily.

“Maybe,” I laughed. “Well, I did see him again.”

“And...?”

“And I may be seeing him again sometime soon,” I told him.

“Like, seeing him seeing him or just visiting as a patient again?”

“The first one.”

Adonis put his feet down and leaned back in his seat. He was unusually quiet for a whole minute.

“What? You have a problem with me seeing other guys?” I demanded.

“I was wondering who would be on top,” Adonis replied.

My eyes went wide and I hauled the car off the road, going right over the sidewalk and parking on someone’s lawn.

“Are you nuts? You could get in trouble for that!” Adonis yelled at me.

“How much do you know about that?” I demanded.

“About what? Sex?”

“Ah, you’re not old enough to know what that is yet!” I snapped.

“I’m in Grade Six, dumbass. They teach it to all the kids.”

“I’m going to have a talk with your teacher.”

“Don’t bother, dad, already did it.”

“Lucco did that?”

“While you were in college. It was the only real interest he showed in me while you were gone.”

I sat in complete silence for a few seconds.

“I’m sorry, Addie, dad doesn’t feel badly toward you. He’s just somewhat selfish.”

“I know,” Adonis said uncomfortably. “And don’t call me that.”

“Why not? You’re my little Addie, aren’t you? You’re the baby of the family.” I put the car back on the road.

“I’m not your little anything,” Adonis said crossly, but I could tell he was a bit pleased.

“I’ll tell you what: let’s stop at a playground before we go home.”

Adonis groaned and drummed his fingers on the dashboard. His nails were painted black, with little silver sparkly skull stickers on each one.

“What’s the matter? You don’t like playgrounds?”

“I’m too old for that, Vonne.”

“Really?”

“I’m twelve.” As if I hadn’t seen him playing on his swing set last night.

“Too old for me to give you an overhead push?”

“We haven’t done that in ages.”

“Well do you want to?”

“Yes,” Adonis said quietly, somewhat defeated by his own longing.

I drove to a playground that I used to play in a lot when I was a kid. Usually I was by myself unless it was dark out, because my parents would never have taken me during the day. Normally my brother tries to stay out of the sun but he’s just a kid; the prospect of playing with his older brother mattered more to him.

“Come on, Vonne, hurry!” he urged me, tugging my hand before running inside the chainlink fence. I wish Monday would have thought to dress him more adequately. It was chilly out but the sun on his black clothes made him look overheated. Still he jumped on a swing and I held him over my head, before I run in under the swing and sent him hurtling back and forth through the air like a violent pendulum.

He arced through the stretch of sky, his little Chuck Taylor’s dangling in the open air. Patched blue and purple clouds drifted slowly by as his silhouette passed over them. The swing squeaked merrily, long, high-pitched notes like a kind of chant.

“I’m going to catch my breath,” I said after a few minutes. “You’re alright there, aren’t you?”

“You’re not going to catch your breath if you’re going to have a cigarette,” Adonis told me, swinging nearly level with the top bar. His shadow raced over the gravel looking small and swift as a bird. Every few seconds he was partially interrupted by the swish of moving air.

I waved my hand and headed back to the car for a smoke. A group of teenaged boys walked past me as I lit up. I didn’t think much of it until I heard my brother yell in protest.

“Vonne!”

I glanced up to see my brother on his hands and knees in the gravel near the swing, and one of the boys kicking him in the side.

“Emo bitch!” they were saying to him. “Wrist slitter.”

I crossed the playground like a shadow of a bird. One of them looked up just as I ploughed into him. We hit the dirt hard and he yelled in surprise. I had to fight with myself not to overdo it, or I would have pounded him in the jaw. I jumped up and grabbed one of the others while they were still dumbfounded and threw him on the ground. The other two had the sense to run away, but not before I chased them out of the park and tackled one in the parking lot. There was no one around that I could see, so I rolled him over and sat on his chest. Somehow I still had a cigarette in my fingers.

I took a draw and stared down at my captive.

“Please mister, I won’t do it again, I swear,” the kid stammered. He really was ugly, with funny teeth and acne and long greasy hair. He probably listened to the darker Metallica albums and Iron Maiden and some such shit. “Please don’t hurt me,” he begged.

Yep. Real hardcore.

“Before you or anyone you know ever moves to lay a hand on that kid again, you tell ‘em,” I demanded. “You tell him his brother is Vonne Blackarr, and I’ll kill you.”

“Y-y-y-y-you c-can’t kill me,” the boy argued. I promptly stepped on his hand.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

“You’re a pussy. Say it.”

“Uh, uh, wha?”

“Uh, uh, wha?” I sneered. “Say it! What are you?”

“A pussy...”

“Can’t hear you.”

“I’m a pussy!”

“Damn right you are. You tell anyone about this, and I’ll tell them how you were beating up a twelve-year-old kid in the playground. Get the fuck out of here.” I let the kid up and he ran after his buddies.

Adonis was walking towards me with his hand on his side.

“Are you okay?” I asked him. “Move your hand.”

“It’s just a bruise. You’re bleeding.”

“Am I?”

“There’s a cut on your lip.”

I wiped my mouth and got a sliver of blood smeared across the back of my palm.

“Must have been where I tackled that kid.”

“Vonne?”

“Yeah baby? What is it?” I smoothed my brother’s hair back, checking for any bumps or cuts. His eyes were downcast.

“Is that why you never went Goth?”

“What? No,” I said in surprise. “Why do you say that all of a sudden?”

“I don’t want to get beat up,” Adonis cried, and there were actual tears forming in his eyes. “I want to be like you, Vonne.”

“You think I never got beat up at all?” I said in surprise. “I always got in fights.”

“What would people fight you for?” Adonis wondered. “You’re so normal.”

“Hey now,” I argued, ruffling his hair. “Just because my hair is blond doesn’t mean I’m normal, kid. People used to fight with me because of who my parents were, or they wanted my lunch money, or they were just insecure bullying shits. You just need to get up the nerve to fight back, Adonis. Then it won’t matter how strong you are. James was always a weakling in school, but he was real ballsy, nobody picked on him.”

Adonis sniffed.

“Dad never got picked on growing up.”

“Probably not,” I admitted. “He seems more the popular type. Let’s get you something to drink. You’re sweating bullets, babe.”

“Don’t call me that!” Adonis snapped.

“I’m sorry, Addie. I should have been watching more closely. Those guys are trouble. Do you know them?”

“They’re going to tenth grade in the fall,” Adonis told me, getting in the passenger seat of the car.

“They must think they’re really special, going to high school. But everyone learns it: if you’re going to pick fights with people, there is always someone stronger than you are.”

“Thanks for saving me, Vonne.”

I laughed as we pulled out of the parking lot.

“Just don’t mention anything to Lucco about it, for the love of God.”

Dad was still at work when I got home. Because he works as a model an actor his gigs are often irregular. He might go away for a few weeks or be home for two or three months. Sometimes, as with now, he posed nude for art classes or did commercials. Once he did the voice of a cartoon character on a Japanese show.

Adonis got in the shower and I worked on making us some hamburgers. It’s not difficult, taking care of my brother, but it does take up a lot of my time when I’m not working. Friends like James have learned that it’s easier to hang out at my house then to try and get me to take Adonis anywhere. I like being at home with him, because everything is there if he needs it; bed, snacks, clean clothes, his books and toys, although he doesn’t play with most of them anymore.

James came over for a bit and the three of us played Gran Turismo 3 and some Halo. Adonis always wins at every video game, he plays them too much.

I woke up when someone brushed their finger along my bottom lip.

“Uh.. Evan,” I murmured.

“Shh,” it was Lucco . I had been napping on the couch with Adonis against me. His arm dangled over the edge, his jaw slightly open, the make-up washed off. Dad gently pulled his hair back from his mouth. “Where’d you get that cut?”

“Accident,” I whispered. “There’s cat medicine for Runa in the cupboard.”

“Thanks baby.” Dad kissed me where I’d busted my lip and pulled a blanket over us. I glanced at the clock. It was only four. Mom wasn’t even home yet.

“I’ll make supper tonight,” Lucco offered.

“You sure? I can get up.”

“It’s okay. I want to take care of my family.”

It didn’t even matter that he burned chicken nuggets and fries. My dad isn’t the best dad in the world, and my mom isn’t extremely respectable as far as moms go. But my parents loved my brother and me more than I could say. That’s why I never felt very Goth.

A/N: Wow, basically the only thing that happened was that Vonne asked Evan out. I wrote this chapter during my night shifts at the park. This is what happens when I don’t have Internet access. Gomen nasai! D:)