The Tale of Two Kitties
By G.W. Hogg
©2-8-16
I first met Kit late Saturday
night as I walked back to my company’s apartment in Cebu City.
It was almost midnight as I made
my way down the dim and quiet street. The end of my first week of training had
gone well and I had been out to dinner with eight of my coworkers from the
planning group. Despite being a thirty something single guy, I was careful how
I acted with the group. So despite the encouragement of my coworkers, especially
one rather cute one, I was careful not to drink too much.
I turned off the dim street, onto
the dark alley that led to the back of the apartment complex. The full moon had
just risen, but shed little light on the narrow alley. I hadn’t gone more than
a few steps in when I noticed something moving high up on a wall. I flattened
myself into a shadowy doorway and watched.
A guy was carefully pulling
himself onto the top of the high wall. He was being slow and careful, trying to
avoid the jagged pieces of glass set into the top of the wall. If it weren't
for the full moon, he would have been invisible in his black, head to toe, skin
tight outfit.
I was preparing to run when the
figure stood and silhouetted by the full moon, I could see the special curves
that told me it was a woman, and a rather nicely shaped one at that!
The bulge on her back told me that she was successful and had filled her
backpack with loot. I was curious, so I stayed in the shadows to watch.
Balancing herself on the edge, she
pivoted on one foot, turning so she faced back the way she came. In one smooth
motion, she crouched, grabbed the top of the wall, kicked off and hung for
moment, then dropped to the alley below.
And something went terribly wrong!
As she landed silently, I heard a nasty crack and she stifled a scream as she
fell over. I stood there for a moment, listening to her quiet moaning and
wondering what I should do. Does a gentleman help a damsel cat burglar in
distress?
Not sure of the karma, but
remembering the tantalizing silhouette I saw, I stepped out of the shadows.
Whistling a tune, I started down the alley. This way, I hoped she would not be
startled.
She was a darker shape amongst the
dark gray bins and boxes cluttering the alley and I could just make her out as
she froze against the wall. I continued, pretending I didn’t see her until I
was abreast of her, then I turned and stared at her.
"Are you in need of assistance my dear?"
She let out a little squeak, there was a flash and I was
facing two feet of naked Japanese steel.
Because of the black hood, I could
only see her eyes, but the pain and fear in them was unmistakable. I stood
there for a few moments, not wanting to test her skill with a blade. It never
wavered.
Finally, she spoke. "Go Away!"
"I thought you could use some
help, especially since I think you broke your ankle."
"I don’t need your help, you
stupid American! This doesn’t concern you. Go before trouble falls on your
head!" She shifted her leg and from the sharp intake of breath, I knew it
hurt.
Her voice sounded young and
judging by her stubborn attitude, she was very young. "Now darlin’, be
nice or I’ll get a long stick and hit your ankle."
Her eyes went wide. "You
wouldn’t!"
"Probably not. Still, I think
you need my help. Or do you want to crawl all the way home?"
"I told you I don’t need your
help!"
"Okay, I’ll leave if you show
me you can stand." I stepped back and waited.
She seemed to think it over and
sheathed her short sword. Then using it as a cane, she levered herself up onto
one leg and stood. "See! Now leave!"
"Okay." I turned and
walked away.
I was maybe four yards away when I
heard her cry out, followed by a thud. I knew what had happened, but I kept
walking.
"Help!" I heard in a
quiet, plaintive voice. I kept walking.
"Please help me!" A little
louder this time. I stopped, turned and sauntered back.
"Does the little girl now need help from
the stupid American?" I asked as I stood over her.
Her fierce dark eyes glared at me,
and then she let out a sigh. "Perhaps I was a bit hasty. If this kind
American would be so good as to help a poor damsel in distress…I…I might be in
his debt."
Her last few words were so forced;
I thought she might hurt herself. I reached down for her wrist and she grabbed
mine. "Nothing would please me more than to help this charming young
damsel."
I pulled her up, steadied her and
we took a hop-step. She almost lost her balance. She was rather short compared
to me, so I had to bend over to put an arm around her slender waist. We tried
again, but her sharp intake of breath told me that even this jarred her foot too
much. "I don’t think this will work."
As we stood there, we heard sirens
in the distance, then noise over the wall. "I think we need to hurry!"
She said.
I let go and hunkered down. "Get
on my back and I’ll carry you."
She put her arms around my neck
and as I stood, she hoped up and wrapped her legs around my waist. "Giddy
up!" She said and laughed.
I jogged to the end of the alley
and started across the street. "Hey!" She said. "My place is to
the right."
"My place is closer and I
promise I’ll be a gentleman."
"Ah…okay." Then she
whispered in my ear. "But I can’t promise to be a lady!" And she
laughed deliciously.
We made it across the street and
into the next alley unseen. I fumbled a bit getting the door to the apartments
unlocked, but made it through without dropping my cat burglar.
Despite her small size and light
weight, I was a little winded when I got us to my apartment on the third floor.
I let her slide off onto the small
couch and got her a chair to prop up her foot.
"Is there someone you can
call?"
"Yes, just a moment."
She shucked the backpack off and pulled it around to her front. As she unzipped
the front pouch and pulled out her phone, the pack fell over and bundles of
cash fell out of the unsecured top. She froze.
I casually picked up the bundles
of dollars and pesos, placed them on the dining table, then grabbed two Red
Horse beers from the fridge. I opened them, walked over and placed one before
her, then sat down next to her.
"Well, my little cat burglar,
I think you have some explaining to do."
She gave me a frightened look,
then grabbed the beer, lifted her mask just a bit and took a long drink.
"You probably think I'm a
common criminal?"
I looked her over and smiled. "Perhaps
not 'common', but a criminal none the less."
She smiled back, and it was a
really cute smile.
"I'm not really a criminal!
That house belongs to the mayor; it's where his mistress lives. He's well known
for taking bribes and other bad things. My cousin told me the police are going
to raid the house in the morning and all the bribe money might not make it to
the police station."
"So you thought you'd help
keep the police from getting their hands too dirty?"
Her smile turned impish and there
was a little sparkle in her eyes. "The police don't know how much there is
to seize, and if there is some missing, then the mayor will just assume the
police kept it. I wasn't going to keep all of it. Most was going to the
homeless children's fund that my church runs."
"And you were going to keep
just enough to cover expenses?" I could not tell if she was blushing, but
her smile turned uncertain and she looked away. When she turned back, the
impishness was back in her smile. "You could be one of my 'expenses'?"
She said hopefully.
"For a cat burglar, you're
not a bad kitty. Call your friend. Your broken foot needs to be looked at."
As she called, I went over to
inspect the loot. I picked up all but one bundle of hundred dollar bills. As
she was talking to her friend, I stuffed the rest of the cash back into her
pack and secured the top.
I wished I knew some Tagalog. She
would say something, then glance at me and look away. It was probably best I
did not know what she was saying.
She closed the phone. "My
cousin will be here in twenty minutes." Her eyes traveled to the table. "Hey!
You didn't give me everything back!"
I smiled wickedly, "Expenses."
She gave a small pout, then
smiled. "Not such a stupid American after all. I guess it's only fair."
"You know, we have not been
properly introduced. My name is Greg. And yours?" I held out my hand and
she shook it, strong and firm.
" I think it's best you don't know my name."
"Hmmm…perhaps you're right.
Well, I'll call you Kitty, since you're a cat burglar. The tale of Kitty the
cat burglar. It has a nice ring."
"Depends how you spell tale."
"Either way, it's a nice
tail."
She looked away, as if she was
blushing, but she was smiling too.
We had just finished our beers
when her phone chimed. "Oh, my ride is here."
"Then let's get you
downstairs."
I helped her stand, and put on the
backpack full of loot. "Ready for another ride?"
"Sure."
Despite our care, she hit her bad
foot when she wrapped her legs around me.
"Sorry."
"It's okay." She said
through clenched teeth. "You were being careful."
"You know, it's a good thing
you're light and petite. Makes it easier to carry you."
She gave me a bit of a squeeze. "Giddy
up!" Was all she said.
When we stepped out into the
alley, there was a beat up white Isuzu trooper waiting with the back door open.
I carefully set Kitty down, then helped her into the seat. As I went to pull
away, she tugged on my arm, stopping me.
"Thanks for your help."
Then she pulled me closer and kissed me, her tongue saying more than her words
did.
She released me. "Maybe I can
thank you improperly when my foot heals. Let's go cousin!"
She smiled impishly, pulled the
door shut and they drove off.
Monday, my driver picked me up
late, so by the time I got to the conference room, everyone was ready and
waiting. While I set up, the supervisor introduced the two new faces, Katrina
and Alfonso, who had been on vacation the previous week.
Training on the new software
package went well and I wrapped up the introduction just before lunch.
"It's almost lunchtime."
I said as I stood. "So let's break a little early. After lunch, I'll have
each of you run the software and we'll do some hands on work. After that, I am
sure I'll be flooded with questions."
They looked to their supervisor
and when she nodded, they all thanked me and left for lunch. All except one.
I walked over to the young lady. "Katrina
isn't it?"
"Yes, but you can call me
Kit, everyone else does."
"Well Kit, shouldn't you be heading off
to lunch? Or did you have some questions?"
"No questions, you covered
everything quite well. It's just that I was off last week and have a million
emails to catch up on."
"I see. I thought it might be
that you didn't want me to notice that your foot was in a cast."
She gasped.
"Not bad for a stupid
American, huh Kit? Or should I call you Kitty?"
"How did you know? You never
saw my face!"
"But I saw your cute smile."
She looked away and almost
blushed.
"So, leave your work and
let's go join the others for lunch."
"Okay."
I helped her up and retrieved her
crutches from under the table. "Maybe later, you will think of a nice
restaurant where you would like me to take you to dinner."
"Some place expensive?"
"If I can afford it."
"Oh You!" and she
playfully hit me on the arm.
