MESSI MESSI MESSI

[EllisWilson]

Raymond Eric Sullivan: Fifth grade: 10 years old

The sun was setting but Ray was not going back home. Not until his parents got back.

He knew the routine at this stage: When he's not at school, he's with Emily until Mom and Dad come home from work, and she's the boss of him until that point.

Fucking Emily.

Fuck her.

The only thing she was good for was teaching him better cussing, otherwise she could fucking crawl in a hole and die for all he cared. Fucking bitch. Where was he?

The neighborhood was quiet, the sun turning everything an eye splitting orange and casting long shadows across the street. Ray could see no one else except-

A metallic crash banged out behind him, and he whirled around on his heel. There was a trash can on its side and something skittering up to its feet beside it.

"Oh, kitty!"

The orange cat was clearly a stray, its fur matted in the spots that mange hadn't claimed, and its ears baring jig sawed marks of another animals' teeth. It stared at Ray, assessing. The boy started grinning.

"Hey, there, how're you?"

He moved in its direction. He'd never had a pet before, but he didn't figure Emily (The fucking bitch) would be willing to let him bring the cat inside. Ray was mulling over his options in the short span of seconds it took him to get to the cat, devising plans to keep the cat hidden until Mom and Dad got back, so he could pitch the idea directly to them. The thought of having this cat, ragged and ugly it may have been, in his house was enticing enough to put a little hop in his step as he reached it, stooping down to pet-

Ears back. Back arched. Fur standing on end.

HIIIIIIIISSSSSSSS!

At ten years old, Ray had been instructed time and time again about being cautious around strange animals with sharp teeth. His Dad especially drilled it into his head one night that, if an animal looks like it has white foam around its mouth, then that thing is rabid, and you need to get right the hell away from it. The cat didn't look rabid, but an image of himself in the hospital anyway shot its way through his mind anyway. That's why he reared himself back from his bent over position and swung his foot into the orange cat.

Ray felt his body freeze up as the cat tumbled end over end through the air, landing in the middle of the road. He saw it scramble up to its feet again and bound off between two houses. Ray didn't breathe until the thing was out of sight.

He looked around to see who saw it. Someone had to have seen that, right? Someone looking out of their window at the sudden noise outside? He couldn't see into any of the houses.

He ran back in the direction he came from. The sun was going down anyway, he told himself. He needed to get home.