Mikey and the Chickadee

Chapter 8 - Part 2

I followed and watched him tempt a siamese house cat out from where it crouched in the tall grass. It approached him with a casual, friendly demeanor, speaking in soft, quick mews. I knelt down next to Mikey and held out my hand. The cat sniffed inquisitively at my fingers, brilliant blue eyes wide and alert. Much of its body was covered in creamy fur, long and light, but the face, spine and tail dissolved into a rich coffee-brown.

"You're such a sweetie," Mikey said, running his hand over its back and up its tail. He looked over at me. "Do you like cats much?"

"I think so," I said. "We had two dogs growing up, but never any cats."

"We didn't have any pets," Mikey said. "Maybe I'll get one someday."

I stood and the creature became cautious, circling back into the limits of its grassy resting place. Before long it had disappeared completely into the taller reeds.

"Goodbye," said Mikey. "Goodbye, my friend."

We climbed back up the rocky slope and started together down the path.

"Did you write anything when I was away?" he asked.

I threw him a playful smirk. "What do you think?"

"You should seriously get back into it."

"Actually, this morning I did find my stuff from when I was in school. If you want I'll send you some of it."

"I would like that very much," he said.

We ran in silence for a while. I was satisfied with the pace, but suspected that Mikey was going easy on me. However, he showed no will to increase his speed. He displayed admirable form, feet dragging minimally across the gravel, arms pumping efficiently at his sides, under apparently little tension.

"Did you ever run cross country?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said, slotting his response between quick, easy breaths. "In high school. Did you?"

"Yeah. I wonder if we were ever at the same meets."

"Probably. I'm sure you guys cleaned house, too. Chickadees had a strong team, right?"

"Yeah, at least when I was there. I wasn't on varsity, though."

Mikey nodded.

After a few seconds I glanced at him. "You were, weren't you? Of course you fucking ran varsity."

He laughed. "Can I help it that I was fast?"

"You're a pretty intimidating guy, you know that?"

"Hah." He gathered together his saliva and spat down toward the water. "That's all just perception."

"What do you mean?"

He looked over at me. "You think I don't find you intimidating?"

"I don't know," I said between breaths. "I hadn't thought about it."

He didn't say anything in response and we were silent again for a while. Mikey carried his phone in his right hand. He eventually checked the time and suggested we turn around. "That'll make it about forty-five minutes. Are you good with that?"

"Sounds great," I said.

As we neared what I estimated to be about halfway back I started to feel significantly winded, though I was confident that I would finish in fine form. I distracted myself by making conversation. "You don't usually work on Saturdays, do you?" I asked.

"No, never. Today was just an exception because Sophie and I didn't want to wait until Monday to regroup. It was just us and our next-in-command guy."