Thursday, March 4, 2010

void by failure final chapter

after a long gap, here's the final chapter of jack's "petventures".

      Jack is now 15 studying 10th standard which is a critical stage in school life cos you gotta compete in a state level annual exam. everything was going busy until one fine sunday while they were having their breakfast, jack heard some animal sound coming out of the spare bedroom. he went inside the room. there was nothing strange visible. but then again a scratching sound from under the bed. there were many packages stacked under the bed which is usual if you're a family moving from time to time. when he moved some stuff to the side, he found two cute kittens! just hours old! haven even opened their eyes! both had white fur! one had black patches and the other kitten had red patches.
       jack thought the mother cat will come n take the kittens away havin realized that its hideaway was exposed. but the mother cart never came. next day, the kittens started "mewing" out of  hunger n jack couldnt stand it any more. he took out the plywood box which he made for the school science exhibition spread some news paper over and kept the kittens in it. then  he kept a bowl of milk inside. but the kittens were too young to understand they've to drink out of the bowl. so he taught them how to. they were very clumsy. so jack made a feeding bottle out of an old lubricant oil can and fed the kittens.
        
            he was very happy and enthusiastic in taking care of the kittens. days passed by. the mother never returned. as soon as jack returns from school he would go play with the kittens. the red kitten was very active and adventurous and the black one was a little introvert type;) jack's mom would tease jack saying that the red one was his sister and the black one was jack. to some extent it was true. there was some amount of sluggishness associated with jack but not out of laziness but out of patience and serenity. everything was going well n good until his mom raised the question as to how long is jack going to keep the kittens. he wanted to keep them forever but he knew that he was already distracted by the kittens from his studies n also that it was difficult to take care of them cos they urinate every hour and the entire room smells of urine and milk. 
      
            he made a difficult decision. to "let the cat out of the bag" uhmm out of the plywood box in this case. he took them out to the backyard and released them. he very well knew about the wilderness and instincts of  cats and was sure that they will survive on their own. two days passed by. the kittens had strayed to the nearby colony houses and the kids living there had made the kittens their pet. jack could see the kids playing with the kittens from his window. he felt rather happy for the kittens to have found a home, than feeling bad
      
           after about a month, jack's mom told him that one of the kittens died! the red kitten. a stray dog killed it! jack cant remember how he felt on hearing the news cos its been so long, almost 7 years. the black kitten was safe. jack had some small happiness in the corner of his heart that the black kitten was safe cos of its characteristics similar to himself, which his mom used to tease about.
      
            later, one evening jack was alone in his home, watching tv. his mom had gone out for some chore, his sister had not returned from college yet. he saw that a cat jumped into the bedroom through the open window. jack made loud noise to scare away the cat but it didnt budge. he went slowly near the cat.To his surprise it was the black kitten he took care of!!! the cat seemed to have recognised him and so did not run away like the other cats which sneak into the house for milk. but as he went closer he observed that the kitten's fur has withered in many areas and he was bald in many spots. it looked like he had some skin disorder. he looked very ugly, not like the small cute kitten jack had been with. jack just stood by the window and stared at the kitten. the kitten also looked at jack. jack felt that the kitten was trying to talk to him. few seconds passed with no one moving. jack then tried to make the kitten go out the window. the kitten was now actually almost a cat now, he had grown. the kitten found it difficult to climb to the window. jack helped him out the window. the kitten stood outside the window looking at jack for a while and then it walked away. jack also returned to the tv room.
      
           the next day when jack came home from school, his mom informed him that the neighbors told her that  the other kitten also died. it was sick for about a week and finally died today, she said. Alas, the kitten had paid one last visit to the place which was its home and to the person who was its parent. Jack now understood what the kitten was trying to tell him the day before!


              and that brings us to the end of jack's journey to find a pet.