All that waiting and anxiety with nothing to show for it. Talk about a kick in the teeth.
“So what now? My girls and I just go home?”
“Well there isn’t much of a reason to stay. The renovations to your house have been completed and we’ll continue to offer financial support for you and the girls, as well as study your behaviors. There is nothing else we can do. Humanity simply isn’t advanced enough to understand this insanity.”
—————————————-
The next day, we all packed up our things and prepared to leave. Now that we had Jenny with us, my Subaru was overflowing with bodies and luggage, so I had to tie a few suitcases to the roof.
“Are we really going home?” Chloe asked.
I rubbed her head. “Yep. I know you had reservations about coming here, but aren’t you glad you did?”
She smiled and nodded. “Yeah! It was a lot of fun!”
“Ugh, it’s going to suck going back to living as a farmer,” said Elise.
“I think it’s time for you to get over this fear of touching the ground. I know for a fact that you get caked in cow shit on a daily basis,” said Betty.
“I don’t get “caked!” And by the way, a fair amount of that shit was yours!”
“All I know is that everyone in the barn wants to see you and I’ll drag you out of that house if I have to.”
“What are you two complaining about?” asked Lorraine. “You’ve got me and my four pillar men helping you. It’ll be smooth sailing!”
Betty then strode over to me. “Master, I expect you to make frequent visits. I can only go so long before I need a rough ride.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be around plenty, mainly to help Lorraine annoy you and Elise.”
Betty smiled and kissed me, and when she walked away, I slapped her on the rear, giving her a happy little spring in her step. I then walked over to Dr. Lawrence, standing by the door.
“I’ll be in town for a few more days, then I’ll fly to Atlanta to give a full briefing of everything that has gone on.”
I shook his hand. “Thanks for everything. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the help you’ve given us.”
“It was certainly for a good cause. Take care.”
I nodded and walked back to my car.
“I finally get to see Master’s home!” Jenny said with a smile.
“Just remember to keep your expectations low. After all, you’ve spent all this time living in a mansion.”
—————————————-
“Yay! We’re finally home!”
Sonja cheered as we pulled up the familiar driveway. Ah, it was good to return to our old cabin. Actually, it was no longer just a cabin. It had been extensively remodeled, now almost four times its original size and with all the room we’d need. I had seen the blueprints and been involved in the planning, but I hadn’t bothered checking out the progress or the end result until the now. The work crew had done a great job, both in building it and cleaning up the mess afterward, though it would probably be a good idea to get a magnet and search the lawn for screws and nails. Speaking of which, the lawn was badly overgrown, as well as our garden.
We unloaded our luggage from the car and stepped inside. The kitchen had been extensively redone, with a huge freezer and food pantry installed. It had cannibalized the space we used as a living room, but that wasn’t a problem. It led off to several rooms, all of which could be easily converted into a den, guest bedrooms, a home office, or whatever I wanted. It would certainly be nice to not have the washer and dryer ten feet from the TV. We even had a second bathroom. Going upstairs, we found an expanded bedroom, along with plenty other multipurpose rooms. Oh Lawrence, I owe you big time. We had a huge bed, just like at the mansion, and rubber-lined tank for Leah to sleep in next to us.
“So, Jenny, what do you think of this house? I know it’s smaller.”
She smiled and gave me a big hug. “It’s perfect. It’s nice and cozy.”
—————————————-
After we unpacked our things, we started arranging the furniture. Since I didn’t have a lot of possessions, the building crew didn’t need to worry much about things getting destroyed during the renovation, but there were still plenty of things that needed to be moved around while they worked, like the couch and TV, both wrapped in plastic to protect them from dust. Before we left, I had done all I could to get things out of the way for them, but it’s not like I had a lot of space to work with in the first place.
We picked a new living room, moving the couch and TV inside, and then all collapsed on it. Well, me, Momo, Sonja, Chloe, and Jenny collapsed on it. Leah had a beanbag chair made of a special laminated material that didn’t bother her skin or get dirty due to her slime.
“It’s good to be home.”
—————————————-
That night, I cooked dinner in our new kitchen and we ate in our brand-new dining room. Well, I was sitting at the table. The girls were finally able to revert to their original habit of eating out of food bowls. I now had five animal vixens eating side by side on the floor, their faces buried in food with their tails wagging. I could live to be a hundred and still never get tired of the sight. Then, after dinner, we spent some more time watching TV, and it was up to bed.
“It’s so nice being back home. Momo missed it,” my cat said we climbed onto the bed.
“But I still miss living at the mansion with everyone,” Sonja whined.
“I know you do,” I replied, “I sure as hell miss everyone. But we’ll see them all again.”
“But on the plus side, now we’re back to the five of us getting all of Master’s time!” said Jenny with a mischievous grin.
I laughed and rubbed her head. “That’s definitely true. Now, how about we break in this new bed?”
“Yay!” they all cheered before jumping on me.
—————————————-
“Master, where are we going?” Jenny asked.
“It’s a surprise, you’ll see,” I replied.
It was a bright sunny day and I was leading the girls into the woods. Sonja and I were carrying a cooler full of food, while in Momo’s hands was a large picnic blanket.
“That reminds me. Leah, I don’t know if you ever saw this spot.”
I looked back at Momo, Sonja, and Chloe. I could tell they knew where I was taking them, but they weren’t sad about it. If anything, I think they looked relieved. We hiked through the woods for the good while, finding the underbrush flourishing and growing rampant, but not enough for us to lose our way. We finally arrived, finding a cross made of two sticks stuck in the ground. Moss and small flowers had claimed the soil around it. I stood in front of the spot, my heart lighter than it was the last time I was here.
“Master, what is this?” Jenny asked.
“I never told you or Leah about her. This last winter, a deer appeared out here in the woods. We didn’t get to her in time and she froze to death.” Jenny and Leah stiffened and a mournful look appeared on Momo, Sonja, and Chloe’s faces. “Her name is Penelope. When spring came, I came back here and gave her a proper burial.” I looked back at the girls and smiled. “But alive or dead, she is a member of our family, and we can still enjoy a nice picnic here with her.”
My smile appeared on their faces, and working together, they unraveled the blanket and laid it out next to the grave. Sonja and I opened the cooler and we handed out the food. On a day like this, with warm sunlight and a sweet breeze, there was nowhere I’d rather be than having a picnic with my girls. We ate our lunch and chatted, I even pulled out a frisbee and threw it for Sonja and Jenny while Momo laid out in a sunbeam and Chloe and Leah played in the creak just down the hill. It truly was a beautiful day,
—————————————-
“Master, what happens when we die?” Chloe asked as she watched me bury some carrots from our garden in the soil of Penelope’s grave. All the girls looked at me, waiting for my answer.
I kept my eyes on the ground, trying to choose my words. “No one really knows for sure. Some people believe you live on as a soul without a body, either roaming the universe or being reborn into something else, possibly going on to reach a place called Heaven. Others believe that you simply cease existing, that it’s like falling into a dreamless sleep.”
“But what do you believe?” Sonja asked.
“I’m not sure. I’ve always left it as… I’ll find out when that day comes. For me, it’s not really that I believe in anything, just a matter of hoping for the best. I don’t know what happens when we die, but I like to think that Penelope is right here with us, and I don’t mean because she’s buried here.”
I then looked back at the girls and they all pounced on me, hugging me tightly.
“Whoa, girls!”
“We’ll always be with you, Master,” they each said.
—————————————-
The ringing of my phone jerked me awake. The room was pitch-black, minus the glowing numbers on my alarm clock. It was just after 3 AM.
“Hmmmm, Master, I don’t want to get up…” Momo groaned.
“Chloe, can you hand me my phone?” I asked.
Chloe did what I asked and hid under the blankets to escape the noise. The caller ID said Dr. Lawrence. It had been two weeks since I had last seen him.
“Doc, what’s up?”
“We have a situation.”
I sat up. “Bad or good?”
“It’s a game-changer. We just got a report that a Chinese news anchor transformed into a goat hybrid on live TV.”
“You’re fucking with me. You mean like Elise?”
“Yeah. The Chinese government has suppressed the footage but shared it with the WHO and the WHO shared it with the CDC. I just emailed it to you.”
I got out of bed and went downstairs to my laptop. Unfortunately, this isn’t a movie, so it took a few minutes for me to turn it on and just get to my homepage. Then there was the problem of bringing up a browser window, with my computer apparently aware that I was in a rush, because it was taking forever.
“How many people know about this? Unofficially?” I asked.
“At least half of China has heard about it by now. No one can find the actual footage, but a lot of people saw it happen.”
Finally, I got my email up and opened the video attachment. It showed two news anchors, a man and woman, talking behind a desk about stocks. Without warning, a pair of horns grew out of the man’s head. He bolted up and screamed, grabbing his butt as a tail appeared in his pants. He then fell to the floor, I’m guessing because his feet had turned into hooves.
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