Stray Cat Sidestory: Canta Clause

Stray Cat Sidestory: Canta Clause

One Year Ago

I slammed my open palm against the entrance a dozen times in a row, each hit making the heavy metal door rattle and clang.

My breath was leaving a trail of thin white fog in the air and I couldnt help but shiver under the buzzing neon light above.

The street the orphanage was on wasnt actually much of a street. More an alleyway on the third floor of a pair of mega buildings. A fucking great name for what was basically two dozen tennaments all linked together and added onto by architects and engineers that were high off their asses.

Some of the kids had videos on their media feeds of buildings just like this one collapsing under their own weight. They tended to have a hard time sleeping, but they couldnt help watching them over and over again. Weird little shits. I usually got past my problems by pretending they didnt exist.

Open up, for fucks sake! I called out as I banged a fist against the door again.

My shoulder was killing me from the sack hanging off it, and my stump was all itchy from the coarse simu-wool sweater I had on.

I couldnt complain though. Lucy had forced me to wear it before leaving, and I didnt regret it. The weather had turned cold. Colder than my media feeds had said it would go. But then, those were always calibrated for the people living near the top of all the nicer buildings around. Closer to the ground, shit got a lot colder.

I shifted, trying to find a way to get the bag hanging off my side to be more comfortable. Come on, I muttered before stepping back.

My shoes--a set of runners we stole from a bin in front of a used clothing store before they set up some cameras in front of the place. I was pretty proud of them--slid a bit across something wet and oily and I scrunched my nose against the smell.

I looked at the panel next to the door and blinked a few times to get my augs to connect to it. The interface sputtered to life in the middle of my vision, then froze up.

I force quit, then tried again. Then again. The third time I was actually able to connect.

WELCOME TO THE FUCKING SHITTIEST PLCE EVR!!

Our hours of operation a

The rest of the screen was entirely empty, but I knew better. I twitched my eye to activate my cursor and aimed it down a ways to where the button used to be to accept. A few hundred bored kids with nothing to do, half of them with five generation old-gear, wasnt great for the local software infrastructure. I blinked over where the button used to be.

The screen shifted.

Please enter your login information:

NAME:

PASS:

Complete the following puzzle:

I sighed and hugged my arm across my chest and started rubbing my hand up and down over my jacket for warmth as I manually entered everything. The damned puzzle was some damned Voight Kampff rip-off with intuitive questions based on poorly rendered images. It hadnt worked to stop any decent bot in a decade, but it did work at slowing me down.

One of the older guys, one that had left a few months back actually, had explained it all to me. The kittens, the cripples, we were only so sellable. Damaged goods, basically. So trying to sell us was tough. The normal kids on the other hand? Yeah, clean them up, give them some last-gen augs, maybe let them take some online classes to catch up with the normies outside, and a prospective parent wouldnt hesitate as much to pick them up.

We got used to the idea, after a bit.

Still hard to explain it to the new kids.

I knocked twice on the door to our communal area. Yo, I said.

The door swung open and I was tugged in by a grinning Lucy. Cat!

A few of the others cheered too, but they were shushed by the wiser kids. Didnt need the staff pulling the breaker on our rooms lights. I got presents for you little shits, I said as I swung the bag around with my hip.

The door shut, and I grinned at the kittens as they got up and rushed over.

Lucy pecked my cheek before stealing the bag. She puppy-dog-eyed everyone into line, then started handing things out while leaning on one crutch.

The gifts were a bit lame. A toy car here, some three generation -old handheld console with an emulator there. But the kittens were laughing and whispering and looked happy for it.

Nose, dont ruin your shit so soon, I warned as I noticed the brat shoving a hand in his nose. And Smog, cough on your own stuff, not others.

Lucy finished handing out the last thing, then made a show of turning the bag upside down. I grinned when she clacked her way back to me. Ive got a present for you too, you know, she whispered.

Oh? I asked.

She tucked her head into my neck. Youll need to unwrap me first though.

That sounds like my kind of gift, I said.

She snorted then leaned off of me to look at the kids. Thanks for getting everything.

I shrugged. Lucy was the one that planned it all. Shed made a big fuss of shopping for stuff for everyone on our non-existent budget. I was just the one that went around fetching things. No problem, I said.

She smiled up at me, then grabbed my hand. Admit it, you like being all soft and caring.

Fuck no, I said.

She laughed and tugged me after her. Liar!

Im not! I said with a laugh of my own.

For that night, at least, our little corner of the world, as much as it smelled like mold and had too many of us cramped in together, was a happy place.