Free Chance by N.M. Lombardi

 
     
    Mary said, "You remind me of someone."
    Kai broke from his pensive stare out the train window, looking over the rows of drowsy, day-weary commuters before giving her his full attention.
    "Do I?"
    "Well, some- thing .  Or some- one .  I guess it depends on how you look at it."  Knowing he would only sit there, silently waiting for her to continue, she went on, "Did I ever tell you about Scrappy?"
    His eyes opened wider.
    "I remind you of someone named Scrappy ?"
    "No, no.   Scrappy was my grandmother's cat.  When her eyesight started to go, she moved in with my family, and took her cat with her.  One afternoon it got out. My grandmother was in a panic, but you know how cats are, and eventually Scrappy came home again, and everything was fine."
    Still he waited, guileless, so she continued.
    "So anyway, some three months later Scrappy has a litter of kittens.  Just two of them, little and perfect and sweet.  It was like she knew she'd only ever have two of them, because she loved those kittens half to death.  We'd always see her carrying them around here and there, taking them from one spot to another to suckle them.  And then one day she only had the one kitten."
    He blinked, his eyes warm as melted chocolate, silently affected.  Still he said nothing.
    Mary continued, "We couldn't figure out what happened to the other, but late that night my mother heard crying, and noticed Scrappy pacing back and forth in front of the dryer, absolutely beside herself."
    "Oh no," he frowned.
    "No, it's all right.  She must have dropped the kitten – a little boy, all gray -- back behind the machines.  We had a hard time getting him from back there.  He was okay, maybe a little hungry, but once we got to him everything seemed to be fine.  We got Scrappy fixed, and decided to keep both the kittens.  The little boy we called Chance."
    "Fitting.   I'm assuming something else happened to Chance, or this wouldn't be much of a story."
    "Oh, he was okay.   My parents had to put him down a few years ago, he was all of 23 years old.  But he never quite recovered from being back behind that dryer for all those hours, cold and alone and by himself.  The other kitten, she grew up just fine; sweet, lovable.  You couldn't ask for a nicer cat.  Chance, though… he never got over it.
    "He'd always slink out from under your hand.   If he was in a good mood he wouldn't run away when you came into a room, but that's the best you could hope for.  I always wondered why he was like that, what his little brain was thinking all those hours by himself.  He must have been afraid, lonely.  Maybe he thought someone dropped him back there on purpose, I don't know.  But like I say, he was just never the same.  He was damaged."
    Kai listened quietly to all this, never moving his eyes from her, though the train continued its tireless circuit from stop to stop.
    Sensing she'd reached the end of the narrative, he asked, "And who am I in this story?"
    "Chance," Mary said.   "You always remind of Chance."
    He wasn't offended, exactly, although she sensed a suspicious change about him.   Expectation of a slight.
    "Because I'm damaged? ", he asked bitterly.
    "No," she said, and looked out over the seats.   "Because I can't get you out."
    The train slowed again, coasting to the platform, and Mary gathered her purse and bag, readying her keys in one hand.  "My stop."
    Kai's eyes followed her as she stood, but he stayed where he was, cached by the window of their small two-person seat, bundled in a black wool coat and a deeply wrapped scarf.   Before he could say goodbye she turned to him.
    "You know, it's Valentine's Day on Thursday."
    "Mm," he nodded. "I know."
    "Are you and Crystal doing anything special?"
    "I hadn't really thought about it."
    "Kai," she withered, agonizing.  "It's your first Valentine's Day."
    "I'll think of something," he shrugged, one corner of his mouth puckering with the faintest of smiles.   "She's certainly given