Teacup Rebel

Chapter 2

Eighteen years ago, Tatsuo’s father was held in the backroom as a breeding stud, while the child and his siblings were showcased inside the store. The distance was even farther between the father and the mother, Julia; her beauty had earned her a spot behind the glass of the store’s window.

They had bore twelve beautiful baby Chibis over the years, all pre-booked, and shipped the day they completed their second year. To the shop owner’s displeasure, even with best sellers, a two years wait was obligatory before selling; otherwise the babies were at risk of being squashed by a hand of an unqualified Chibi-owner.

On the day of Tatsuo’s shipping, he was moved to the back room allowing his mother to meet him for the second time ever. She had been neglected and stored in the backroom as a punishment for turning thirty-five, for age mattered for women, even in Chibis.

Seeing that it was her first time to see one of her children sent away first-hand, she tossed gravel at his cage, with a tilt of a head and a smile. He chuckled at each action. “Tatsuo, you’ll remember your mommy, right?” She squeezed her face in between the bars of her cage, like a child waiting eagerly on the stair steps on Christmas eve. A few meters of distance between of cages must have felt like kilos for something as miniature as a Chibi.

The child puffed his cheeks in a cute smile, sliding his thumb between his lips, and sucking. He took a few steps, picked up gravel, which proved heavy for him, in an attempt to copy her.

 “No, don’t do that. Don’t suck your finger. They might punish you for it,” she furrowed her eyebrows, sinking her teeth into her lip.

His memory usually failed him when recollecting the next few seconds, probably because he of his young age at the time of the accident. What he remembered vividly the events that followed.

Something had happened to compel his mother to jolt out of the cage. It wasn’t clear how she escaped the tiny prison, or why; his memory was hazy. He could remember shaky but violet hands rattling with the padlock on his cage, when a cat’s paw swept her off her feet, nails slashing through her flesh.

The corpse was knocked down to the ground, before the cat moved in twisting the head in its mouth, and pulling it off as the crimson juices gashed out. The puddle grew bigger until the child, who had wet himself, cage’s doorstep.

The owner’s wife walked in later. She gagged at the scene. “The damn cat has done it again!”

As she threw a fit, she grabbed a near-by rag, swept the blood and his mother’s remains, and chunked them into the trash bin. 

“Calm down,” the husband walked in, coughing as usual. “It’s not good for your heart to get all worked up.”

“Mr. Tibbs dragged the damn thing all over the place. Can’t you see my rug?” she stomped. “It’s soaked in blood!”

“We’ll buy a new one.” He sighed, “Which one was it?”

Still scowling she answered, “I don’t know. Its face was all messed up. We’ll know-” She paused when she noticed the puddle underneath the shaking child.

“Another mess,” she slammed her palm against the metal, jolt forcing the kid to fly back crashing into the floor.

Chapter 2          

He held the bars tightly as the cage swung from left to right, and she struggled to lock the door with two full hands. The little one could only see the back of her head, but it was obvious that she was blushing and grinning from ear to ear.

She turned around and began stammering into the house, his eyes still fixed on her, as he inwardly carped about his recent misfortune that left him stuck inside of a teenage chick-flick.