ALL NOVEL Chapter Forty-Six
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “Just thinking about my family for a sec there.”
The cat stared at me as the bells on the front door rang and someone pushed it open. Like he had something to say, but didn’t have the chance.
My heart froze as John carefully walked in, carrying one large box and two smaller ones. He flashed me a smile as he moved across the shop toward the counter.
My nails dug into the palm of my hand. A quick glance at the cat reminded me he was right there, and this was the actual John. Not some monster that looked like him.
“Hey Sable, I’ve got some packages for you,” he said as he approached. He set them on the counter then leaned against it with a large smile. “It’s good to see you, you won’t believe what happened last time I delivered here. He shook his head and then shrugged. “I stumbled out on the sidewalk on the way back to my truck, totally hit my head and I was down for the count.” He literally fluttered his eyelashes at me. “Today’s my first day back on the job.”
“Oh, that sucks.” I swallowed. “Are you okay?”
His bright blue eyes stayed on me. “Yeah, I’m all good now. I just had a minor concussion, but there were some boxes that had been stolen from the truck.”
I shook my head, trying hard to keep my panic tightened down. “Glad to know you're okay.”
“It’s a dangerous job being a delivery driver,” he said.
I couldn’t keep standing there like nothing was wrong, and I turned toward Betty and quickly started grinding beans. “Let me make you a coffee…”
“Oh, I’d love a coffee.” He smiled even brighter. “So, how are you liking this job? It doesn’t seem like the shop is ever super busy.”
“I love working here,” I said, pulling the shot, then adding some hot water. A simple Americano that I could make with my eyes closed. “I wouldn’t decide to do anything else.”
“You sure? There’s a position that opened up at dispatch. Great benefits, and time-off.” He leaned forward again when he said ‘time-off’.
I set the to-go cup on the counter next to him. “No thanks, I get great benefits here.” I leaned forward as if to tell a secret. “They’re even repaying my student loans.”
“Woah, no wonder you’re not interested…” He grabbed the cup with a frown, running his fingers through his hair. “I wonder how the owner can afford it…”
I shrugged. “Not my problem, though I think this is a sentimental shop for them. They must have money.” The cat bumped into my hand and I scratched his ears. “Plus, who can resist a shop cat. He’s the best.”
John nodded. “I get that.” He took a sip of his coffee and then smiled. “I appreciate the coffee. Good luck with the inventory.” He motioned to the boxes and then turned toward the door.
I let out a sigh as soon as it shut behind him. It locked automatically.
“Are you okay?” asked the cat. He nudged my hand when I stopped petting him.
“I am. It’s just, seeing him made me anxious, though I know it wasn’t his fault.” I eyed the boxes. “What did you order?” I pulled the two smaller ones toward me. They both were in my name. “Though these look like they’re mine.”
The cat sniffed them. “They must be, mine is just odds and ends for some projects I need to finish up. What did you order?”
I leaned close to the cat. “A surprise for Indigo, but let’s get the work out of the way first.” The bigger box was sent to the store, so I opened it first. I didn’t have a chance to pull anything out before the cat jumped inside.
“Yes, this is what I ordered,” said the cat from inside the box. “We have the roll of leather, the larger crystals we’ll need, and… why did I order this again?”
I pulled out the larger crystals, and I felt a hum when I made contact with them. I shook my fingers after I set them on the counter. The leather was a light brown color, wrapped in a roll about a foot long. I added that to the crystals. Besides the cat, all the box contained was a small container of seeds. Warmth radiated from the plastic container and I picked it up to read the label.
“Sunflowers - Rising Sun?” I asked.
The cat stayed in the box for a moment before jumping out. “I don’t think I ordered them.” He moved closer to me and I set them on the counter before breaking down the cardboard box. “I wonder why they added them to the order.”
“Where did you even get this stuff from?” The box didn’t have any labels besides the shipping label, and there wasn’t an invoice or anything inside.
The cat flicked his tail. “A source of mine.” His nose touched the container of seeds, and he jerked back. “That’s strange.” His head snapped to me. “They're not for me, they’re for you.”
“Me?” I picked the container back up. “I don’t really have a green thumb. My brother does, but not me.” My thoughts went to the garden beds on the roof. Some pretty sunflowers would brighten the place up. “Maybe I’ll plant some in the rooftop garden.” I shrugged. “Not sure what else to do with them.”
The cat stared at the container, his tail flicking all over the place.
“I’ll put everything else in the storeroom.”
He nodded and didn’t say anything else about them.
I tossed the leather and crystals into the storeroom, then grabbed my two much smaller boxes. One was a set of earbuds with a short cord. The other was the smallest MP3 player I could find with a touch screen. I snagged out the charger and got it charging while I dashed upstairs to get my laptop. When I came back down, the cat was looking at the device carefully.
“It’s a music player, so she can listen to audiobooks and music when she wants.”
The cat slowly nodded. “I’ve heard of such things.”
I began the slow process of getting the player hooked up to the network and the program on my laptop to be able to send stuff to the device. I added a few books on dinosaurs and some classical music. “It has headphones, or it can be used without them.”
His head cocked to the side. “How is she going to use headphones?”
“I’ll figure something out,” I mumbled.
Indigo came to investigate several minutes later. I showed her the device, but she didn’t understand until it started playing some music. Then she wouldn’t stop dancing. She poked at it, but couldn’t get it to work.
“You should show the instructions to her,” said the cat.
“No one reads the instructions for tech.” The cat glared at me, and I pulled out the small booklet and set it on the counter.
Indigo raced to it and carefully peered at each page.
“Wait, can she read English?” I asked.
“She’s learning.”
My lips parted but I just shook my head instead of saying anything. She was smart if she could understand the instructions for the device already. Maybe the kid's books were becoming too low-level for her? I’d leave it for now, and maybe put a few books for older audiences on the device and see which ones she listened to more.
“Hey Indigo, I got these headphones for you as well.” I held up the earbuds that I had twined together like a small set of headphones with some wire. “I need to see if they fit.”
She sat down in front of me as I adjusted the wire so they could sit on top of her head, near her ears but not inside. Then I plugged them into the device and turned it down. Her eyes grew so wide.
“This way when you can’t sleep you can listen to things without me. I know I can’t always keep up with reading you new things.”
Indigo started chirping rapidly, and the cat nodded.
“What was that?” I asked, not following. I needed to get better at her language.
“She thinks you are amazing,” said the cat.
Indigo jumped up onto my shoulder, knocking the headphones off. She looked at it in panic for a moment, but snuggled the side of my neck.
“You’ll have to figure out how to carry it around. I got the smallest I could find.,” I whispered to the small dragon.
And with that, Indigo had a new mission, one she accomplished in less than a day. The next morning, she was flying through the air with headphones on and the player clutched in her tiny claws.