Fred and Catseye

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

Catseye runs into Fred in the garage and talks to him about his missing Callie, and about truck maintenance.


 Fred sighed around his cigarette, blowing quickly dead embers into the undercarriage of his old, tired Chevy. Since Callie had left, he'd managed to replace and rotate the tires, clean the axel, replace all the fluids, check the tubing for leaks and replace where necessary, get a new air filter...


The melancholy sounds of Tracy Chapman poured out of the worn boombox Fred had brought into the garage some days ago, after he'd all but taken up residence in the garage. As the song 'Fast Car' began to play through the withered tape of the cassette, Fred thought about all the things he had left to do on the truck. All the things he had to turn into professors. Everything, pretty much everything in the world except what it was he should have been thinking of...

MiniSquid took a sharp corner to enter the garage through the open bay door, and the purple cat was not far behind. The toy skittered underneath Fred's truck and Catseye pursued it eagerly, following it around and around the garage and then back under Fred's truck and then under the other cars and then it shot towards Fred. The robotic squid hit him in the shin, and the cat, who hadn't even noticed he was there, hit him a split second later.

The exchange near his legs jolted Fred, and he tried to sit up...right into the undercarraige of the truck. With a cacophony of clanging, Fred's upper body collided with the old metal of the Chevy, dinging the metal in some places. Groaning, Fred held the bridge of his nose and tried to keep himself from cursing, forgetting for the moment to check and see what it was that had started the ruckus in the first place.

Realizing she'd ran into Fred, Catseye shifted into girlform to apologize, and found that when she sat up she hit her head on the undercarriage as well. "Owowowow!" she cried, lying flat on her back under the car. "I hurt Fred and now I hurt myself! Fred are you okay? I am sorry I did not mean to hit you," she exclaimed vehemently, staring up at the undercarriage of the car and too afraid to move to check on him herself.

"I'm...uh, I'm fine, Cats." Fred said, his words muffled by his cupped hands. Fred scuttled slowly out from under the truck, both to asses damage to himself and to escape his proximity to Catseye, who was squished close to him under the Chevy. Once he surmised he wasn't bleeding, he crouched and offered a hand to the similarly injured girl, "How bout you? Okay?"

Taking the offered hand, Catseye crawled out from under the truck. Aside from being dirty from the ground and an oil smudge, and a welt on her forehead, she was unharmed. "I am okay yesyesyes." MiniSquid zoomed past and she scooped it up, then transferred it to her tail where it was out of the way. "What are you doing to your car Fred? Is it broken?"

Fred shrugged slowly, turning away from Catseye to grab a cigarette. Rather than turning back as he spoke, Fred busied himself pulling more equipment out of the large toolbox, "Just doing some stuff I, uh, haven't really been able to get around to recently. Uh, y'know: maintenance stuff..."

"Maintenance? That is to make sure the car does not get sick or broken yes?" She took in his posture and movements, head tilting as she pondered the meaning behind them.

Fred lit a cigarette to replace the one he'd lost during the undercarriage debacle, and turned back, rubbing the back of his neck, "Got it in one, Cats. I, uh, better get back to it, y'know? Don't wanna, uh, start and then just not finish..."

Catseye's head tilted the other way. "Are you okay Fred? You seem like you are sad about something."

Fred froze for a moment, straining for some words that would allow him to pass the moment without having to talk about his feelings. Lying was never his forte, "I'm...uh...yeah, Cats. I'm not doing too good. It's, uh, alright though...I promise..."

"Why are you sad Fred? Because Callie moved away and you were a couple with her?" she inquired curiously.

Fred almost dropped the wrench he was holding. He managed a short, humorless snort, "Y'know, Cats: have I ever told you how much I love your ability to just cut through the crap and get to the problem?"


"I do not think so," Catseye answered, thinking this over. "Did I cut through the crap and get to the problem?" she asked hopefully.



"And yah caught me trying tah change the subject," this time, the laughter was genuine, "I, uh...yeah, Cats. I miss Callie. I miss her a lot." Fred turned back to his tools, which thankfully reminded him nothing at all of Callie Betto. "It's, uh...I don't know..."


"Like something is broken in your heart and you cannot fix it like you can fix the truck?" she suggested.



Fred blinked a few times, and then slowly nodded. When did Catseye get so intuitive? Had she always been like this and Fred just hadn't noticed? "...yeah. Something like that, Cats. Or, that exactly, I guess..."


Catseye nodded in understanding. "It makes a heart hurt when someone we care about goes away from us or dies," she said sadly. "It is veryverysad." She paused for a moment, then brightened. "It is good you are doing maintenance on the truck though! You are still living not acting like you are gone away from us or dead too. Even if you are listening to sad music," she added wryly. "It is okay to be sad as long as you keep living yes?"

"I..." Fred sighed and managed a small smile and a shrug, "I'll be, uh...I'll be okay, Cats. I promise. I...just need a good bit to myself, y'know? I'm...not the best at talking. Uh, not usually, at least..."


"Being by yourself is good," she nodded again. "So is talking if you want to talk you can talk to me but if you are not the best at talking then being by yourself is good too. Or sometimes people feel better if they have a cat to pet!" she suggested with a smile, "because cats do not talk back they only purr."


Fred laughed, his normal bellow coming through crisper at Cats words, "You know, Cats? Talking to you is much better than, uh, cat purring. You wanna help me re-attach some of these fluid lines?"

Catseye's eyes lit up. "Really? Reallyreally? I can help do maintenance on the car? And you can show me how to do it?"

Fred grinned and nodded, and he tossed Catseye the tattered Hayes Manual off the top of the toolbox, "Here. 's on page 13. Read up an' I'll grab the tubing real quick."