Page 13 of Thalen

His tail gave a few thumps.

“You wanna come home with me and Jason and Benny?”

Thump. Thump. Thump.

I reached over slowly to let him sniff my hand. He gave it a lick, his eyes beseeching. I slowly lifted my hand to scratch him behind his ears.

“You’re such a good boy. We are going to have so much fun.”

I looked over at the worker. “Mark him and Benny as adopted, please.”

“Great!”

“We have some paperwork to do, and once you’ve paid your fees, I’ll book everything with the vet!”

“Yay!” Jason jumped, one hand in the air. “We’re getting two dogs! And lotsa cats!”

I spent a few more minutes with Vinnie while Jason got to hold Benny. Poor kid was so smitten that he didn’t want to leave him even for the short time that was required, though he cheered up when after all the paperwork was sorted, we got to hold Tim, Tam, and Eloise and have our picture taken together before they went inside cardboard carriers. I ended up only taking one bag of food for now, seeing as it was already going to be a struggle to get them all in the Uber and take them into the center. One bag of cat food fit neatly into the backpack I’d brought for the pet supplies I knew we’d be getting - food, bowls, toys, and sure enough, they fit okay. But I hadn’t reckoned on having a large cat that weighed twenty pounds and maybe a bit more in one hand and another cat in the other. Jason was holding onto Tam’s carrier with both arms too.

“Set her on the chair, and we’ll wait inside for our ride,” I told him, doing the same, ordering a pet friendly Uber.

Fifteen minutes later, we were on our way to the testing center, and this time, while I could see the questions written large on our driver’s face seeing the three animal carriers we were bringing, unlike last night, this one didn’t ask us a thing. In fact, she didn’t say anything at all except to verify our destination and tell us how much the fare was when we got there several minutes later.

After paying her, I stared at the testing center’s entrance. They must have been watching for arrivals, as a Mylos officer came out and quickly took Tam from Jason, ushering us inside.

“I’m Frothir, the Mylos officer in charge here,” he introduced himself as we walked inside.

“And I’m Jahr-el,” a red tinted, brown haired Dragonii behind the desk added, “the Dragonii officer. You must be Evan Morales, here with Jason.”

“You know who we are?” Jason asked, awed.

Jahr-el chuckled. “Xeranos moved the other appointments at eleven to later this afternoon, so it’s just you.” He peered at our backpacks and pet carriers.

“No suitcases? What if you’re matched?’

“I don’t have a car, and I promised him we’d adopt a cat and a dog today. It ended up being several cats and two dogs, most of which are at the shelter still. The barn cats are boarding, and one of the dogs needed neutering, and they both needed shots.” I suddenly realized how stupid that sounded and shut up.

“Oh! Well, that’s not a problem. If you do get matched, the usual process is that you go up to the Fleet straight away, but we can arrange for your animals and any belongings you’ll need right away to be packed and brought up to you so you’ll have them before your flight out to your new home.”

I smiled gratefully. “Thanks. I did pack us some clothes and toys. They’re in the suitcases and duffle bag by the front door.”

“Great.” Jahr-el gestured to a seating area that held a comfy looking sofa and a couple of armchairs arranged around a coffee table. “If you’ll just take a seat, I’ll get you a datapad so you can answer the questions.”

Jason was already sitting on the floor, taking his Lego, box of crayons, a coloring book, and a few Hot Wheels cars out of his backpack, placing them on top of the coffee table.”

“Would you like some juice and coffee? Or perhaps tea?” Frothir inquired. “We also have doughnuts.”

“I love doughnuts!” Jason replied excitedly, turning a pleading look I was beginning to know all too well. The kid had me wrapped around his little finger, and he knew it. I found I didn’t mind that a bit. He was a great kid, and I knew he was unlikely to ask me for anything he shouldn’t have. If he did, I would be able to say no, because along with the strings on my heart he’d put there, I felt the weight of responsibility of making sure he had the best start to his life possible, and sometimes, that would mean saying no. This was not one of those times.

“Coffee, please, milk, two sugars, and yes to doughnuts and juice.”

“What kind of juice would you like?”

“You got grape?”

“We do.”

“Then grape, please.”