The Lucky Guy
#6 of Human Enough
Author's Note: I wanted to get this one up before I had to go back to Law school and seeing how I go back in tomorrow, I think mission accomplished! I wanted to tie up a few plot points and I hope I did, but I'll let you all be the judge. Remember FFC (Favorite, Follow, and Comment, I love to know what you think) Please Enjoy!
It was about 1 in the morning when I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. I had set the alarm to wake me up so Michelle and I wouldn't be caught together. She was still asleep in my arms. I brushed her "human hair" (which is hair on an anthro's head that isn't fur) and she woke up.
"Is it time for me to go?" she asked.
I nodded.
"I wish you could stay, but we can't risk getting caught."
"I know. This sucks."
I pulled her in and kissed her.
"I'll see you in the morning."
She smiled and quietly walked out of my room. Try as I might, I couldn't get comfortable enough to go back to sleep. I tried everything, including using one of my pillows as a fake Michelle to hold, but nothing worked. At about five o' clock I had given up on the idea of sleep and decided to go on my laptop.
I don't have a Facebook or a Twitter; I never had enough friends to invest in one. But I did enjoy getting an early jump on the news. I went to one of the news sites I thought lied the least and checked out the headlines. Much to my chagrin the angry face of Joshua Black met me. The headline read:
"'It's time for us to rise up!'"- Furry Militant calls for revolution."
"Perfect." I thought; "just want I wanted to see."
The article itself was boring. The same message Black had been giving for a while now. What was somewhat disturbing were the numbers of followers he was getting. The article said about 2000 free anthros were cheering and applauding him. One even said "Joshua Black is the Messiah for anthros."
In response, our friendly neighborhood politician...actually just Mr. Harding, had said that efforts were being made to silence the demonstrations. In addition, he claimed that a new "furry control device" was being 'tested and developed' and should be ready in a couple of months. My stomach turned at the thought that I was responsible for this.
I closed my laptop. I didn't want to read anymore. It seemed like everything was heading towards a breaking point and that pretty soon, something big was going to happen, and it wasn't going to be pretty.
I spent the rest of the early morning trying to calm myself down by playing a few online games and reading. It worked somewhat, but there was still a knot in the pit of my stomach. At about 8 o' clock my dad came into my room.
"I just wanted to remind you," he said, "that if you want to transfer, you need to call the school and let them know you will be transferring. I'll call the Dean of Smithtown once I get to work to help...grease the wheel s."
"Ok. Hey Dad," I said.
"Yes?"
"Thanks."
He smiled at me.
"Anytime."
He turned to walk out the door.
"Oh, before I forget, please tell Lisa or Michelle that your mother and I won't be having dinner tonight. Your mother is going to some gathering or another, and Mr. Cunningham called me for a business meeting over dinner."
I broke out in a cold sweat.
"Oh. Uh, what about?"
"I'm not sure. Something about buying something for me. I have no idea what he'd want. Well, have a good day, Son. Take care of your mother, and stay out of trouble."
I buried my face in my hands when he walked out. Sam had probably made his "request" for Michelle known to Mr. Cunningham. Combine that with my father' s desire to get Michelle pregnant in order to raise the next generation of pets and it did not look good for Michele. What was I going to do? Maybe it wouldn't work. After all, my dad hated Sam more than anything thanks to a minor incident involving my mother and a hole in the wall. Maybe he'd spite Sam.
"Earth to Andy! Are you ok?"
I looked up to see Michelle holding a tray of breakfast before me.
"Sorry. A lot on my mind." I said.
She put the tray on the floor at the foot of my bed and sat next to me. She kissed me on the cheek.
"Well, I've got nothing to do for a bit. Your mom is still asleep so I can't start the kitchen. So tell me all about it."
I told her everything I knew. She almost screamed with joy when I told her I was going to be transferring, but that was the only good news I had. She listened intently. I lost myself in her beautiful eyes a few times, but I told her about Black and Harding's Cold War and more importantly, about my dad's meeting.
"But your dad hates Sam." She said. "He wouldn't sell me for Cunningham."
"I'm afraid Sam did something like told Cunningham to give my dad the world for you. If Cunningham is under Sam's control, it's a pretty safe bet."
"So what are we going to do?"
"Well, if he sells you, I'm taking you back. I'll kidnap you. We'll run away somewhere together and start a new life. I swear to God I'll do it."
"Why don't we run away now? We could get really far and we'll be able to be together."
She had a point. Why didn't we go now? It was perfect. After all, she was all I'd ever wanted in life and if we ran, we could be together. Why didn't I think of this before!? My eyes lit up.
"Because," Michelle said, reading my expression, "it's a crazy idea that won't work. After all, you have no money; your father does. We'd be caught quickly. You'd be disowned; I'd probably be beaten half to death and sold so I was far away from you. I wish we could run away. But we just can't yet."
Why did she have to be right?
"We have to wait and see what happens then." I said. "Either way it won't be good"
"What do you mean?"
"Well suppose my dad says no. I think Sam will try something."
Michelle nodded.
"Yeah, you're probably right."
I looked at her. How could she be so calm about all of this? I was flipping out and she was collected. And it was about her?
"Aren't you afraid?" I asked. "You don't seem it."
"I'm not afraid. Wanna know why?"
"Why?"
She giggled and kissed me on the cheek.
"Because I have you. And as long as I have you, I'll be ok."
She gave me one last kiss before she walked out of my room to do her work. I straightened up my room. It wasn't much, but I didn't want Michelle or Lisa to do it for me. If I could, I'd help them with the rest of the house. But I remembered the tongue lashing I got when I asked to help when I was a kid. That was when I learned some of the less favorable words for anthros that I choose not to repeat here. I called my school and told them about my plans to transfer. They said they were sorry to see me go and spent an hour trying to convince me to stay, but I wasn't having it. Overall, everything went smoothly, which was a nice change of pace for me.
About fifteen minutes after I got off the phone, it rang. It was Riley.
"Hey Ry. What's up?"
"Turn on the TV now." He said in a very serious tone. "Life feed of a Joshua Black Press conference. It's not good."
"Alright. Stay on the line, would ya?"
"No problem."
I turned on my TV and sure enough there was Black with a crowd of Anthros the size of which I'd never seen before. He was a few miles away in another rich city. He had his megaphone, but I didn't think he'd need it. The crowd was silent.
"We must defend ourselves from any person who would oppress us with chains, either actual or political!"
Cue a huge roar from the crowd.
"We must not stand by as we are abused and treated like inferiors. We must rise up; I repeat, rise up and let everyone know that we will no longer be pushed around. I invite all of you anthros who are tired of the oppression, to join me here on a future day and let your voices be heard!"
It took the crowd a good three minutes to die down.
"And for those of you who are unable to attend due to being enslaved by cruel masters, I implore you, seek out my website, www.Freetheanthros.com and contact us and I promise you, we will make sure you are able to attend. It is time for anthros, free and slave to both unite and say no more! Our oppression is coming to an end and we will be liberated come Hell or high water."
I turned off the TV. I couldn't take listening to it anymore. Overall, I agreed with Black. I want anthros to be free, with equal rights. It made no sense not to. But he wasn't just stepping on people's toes, he was steamrolling feet. He wasn't asking for the laws to be changed, he wanted a revolution. Sadly, he was the loudest voice in the free anthro movement. From what I knew, there wasn't any anthro saying "we should work within the system" or "humans aren't all bad."
"I can't watch anymore." I said to Riley over the phone. "Is it still going on?"
"No. They cut to the news desk. Harding said that Black is asking for a war, but to him any conflict would just be pest control."
While I admired Mr. Harding's taste in television as demonstrated by his response, I hated his ideas almost as much as I hated him for what he did to that poor fox anthro. I prayed he was alright.
"Listen Ry, I'm gonna go rest my head for a bit. All this crap has given me a headache. I'll talk to you later. "
"Alright man. Peace."
I disconnected my call and threw my phone on the bed. I was about to join it, when I realized I forgot to tell Michelle about the lack of dinner. I ran downstairs into the kitchen. Lisa was there loading the dishwasher. Her gray fur was showing signs of age and her clothes were dirty and probably older than her. I was doing so much for Michelle I'd forgotten about her. God, I was a terrible person.
"Excuse me, Lisa?" I said.
"Yes Master Andrew?" she responded.
"My parents are going out tonight so they said not to cook dinner."
"And what about you sir?"
"Oh you don't have to worry about me. I'll just order out."
That's when it struck me. Maybe I could do something small for Lisa to make her a little happier.
"You know what," I said. "I'll make you a deal. When my parents are gone I'll order from wherever you and Michelle decide. I have some excess cash. We'll all have dinner together."
"That is very kind of you, Master Andrew, but we couldn't."
"Of course you could. I insist. I'm buying you and Michelle dinner tonight. If you don't tell me where to go, I'll just pick a place and order you something I think you'll like."
"Thank you, Master Andrew."
"No, thank you. For everything. Just two small requests, don't tell my parents what I'm doing and when their gone, please don't call me 'master.'"
I left the kitchen before Lisa could say anything. Why I hadn't thought of this before, I couldn't tell you. I mean, I know it wasn't much but I wanted to thank Lisa for all she had done for me. She pretty much raised me when my mom was away and she was always kind to me. I loved her like an aunt, and it was about time I did something nice for her.
I didn't do too much before my mom left for her...whatever it was. I did check the news site and, as expected, Black and Harding were the talk of cyberspace. I clicked one of the newer articles to see what the public was saying via comments. The responses were biased to say the least. The only people taking the middle road were the spammers.
The second my mom's car pulled out of the driveway, my door opened. Michelle walked in clutching what I could see was a menu to our local Chinese food place.
"So my mom told me that you were treating for dinner." She said.
"Yup. What are you getting?"
Michelle laughed.
"You can be a real idiot sometimes. We have no idea what we're getting. We've never had takeout."
"Ok so I'll get a bunch of stuff and we'll all share. Problem solved."
"You know," Michelle said as I punched in the phone number, "you don't have to do this."
"I want to though."
I ordered a bunch of stuff I knew was good. I hoped that Michelle and Lisa liked it.
"Should be here in about a half hour." I said when I got off the phone.
"Ok. So is this the night we come clean to my mom?"
"You mean, about us?"
"Yeah. I haven't told her yet. Maybe it's time."
"If you think it's time, then go for it. It's your mom. I don't mind if you tell her."
"I know. It's just...I'm kind of nervous."
"Nervous? About what?"
Michelle sat down on me bed and I sat behind her to rub her shoulders a little.
"What if she doesn't approve? I mean, I can tell you that she never says a bad thing about you, but she does say some things about your parents. I mean technically, you own us. I'm afraid she'll think you're just using me or something."
"Do you think I'm using you?" I asked.
"No. I know you love me. I'm just afraid that she won't see how much we love each other."
"Whatever you decide to do, I'll support. If you want to say something, go ahead. If not, it's ok too. And I'll be right beside you the whole way."
I put my head on her shoulder. Her fur was soft and warm. She played with my hair a little bit.
"Go rest up for dinner." I said. "I'll set the table."
"Sure you can manage by yourself?" Michelle asked playfully.
"I think so."
I gave Michelle a quick peck on the lips and went down to the kitchen. It took me a little bit of time to find where everything was, but once I did, it was smooth sailing. It was kind of embarrassing not knowing where dishes were. If I wanted a midnight snack I just had to wake up Lisa or Michelle to get it for me. Mind you, Michelle would usually sneak in my room to much anyway, but that's beside the point.
The food came soon after I was done with the table. I served Lisa and Michelle their food and we dug in. I was happy they both seemed to enjoy it. For small talk, I asked Lisa about her childhood.
"It was pleasant enough. I was Mr. Armstrong's pet until I became pregnant with Michelle."
"Did he treat you well?"
"Yes. It was me and my mother. We were both taken care of. His son on the other hand, wasn't the nicest boy."
"She called him a pompous little ass." Michelle said.
Lisa gave Michelle a stern look and I burst out laughing. Now I could see where Michelle got her edge from.
"He would go out of his way to harass me and my mother. His father tried to control him, but his mother encouraged him. "
"I'm sorry to hear that." I said.
"It's quite alright Mas...Andrew."
A large grin was plastered on my face.
"Thank you for not saying it."
Lisa nodded.
"Can I ask about Michelle's father?"
I wanted to ask because I didn't know how Michelle was conceived. For all I know, Lisa was one of the many victims of the pet breeders. Thankfully, Lisa seemed happy to talk about him.
"His name was Jason. He was a rabbit who worked for Mr. Armstrong. I loved him with all my heart and he loved me. When we got married, I couldn't stop crying I was so happy."
"Dad was a real looker apparently." Michelle added. "Funny too. Mom says it was love at first sight."
I was afraid to ask the next question, but I felt I had to.
"What happened to him?" I asked.
It was possible that the answer was nothing. That he was still working for the Armstrong family, away from his daughter and his beloved wife. After all, Lisa was a gift to my father. The breakup of anthro families was a sin, pure and simple.
"He passed away before I was born." Michelle said. "There was an accident one day when my dad was trying to cut down a tall tree limb. A rope broke and he fell."
I could see Lisa starting to tear up so I handed her a napkin.
"Thank you." Lisa said. "I miss him still. And I want to see Michelle experience the same feeling I did. I want to see her find someone she loves and to be happy with them."
I smiled. I wanted to say something but I was cut off.
"I found someone who makes me happy Mom." Michelle said. "Someone I am deeply and truly in love with."
Lisa's eyes lit up. I had to shut mine. After hearing Michelle's concerns I was now terrified at Lisa's potential reaction too.
"Who?" Lisa asked. "Who's the lucky guy?"
I felt Michelle's hand on my shoulder.
"Mom, the lucky guy is sitting right here."