FanStory.com - Some Call It Luck - Chapter 33by Jim Wile

Abby St. Claire

Summer, 1987

For the past few weeks, Kenny and I continued to see each other almost every day. We both worked during the day, but we got together for dinner every night except for Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Thursday nights I would have dinner with E.J., and then we would play duplicate bridge at the temple. On Fridays and Saturdays, I had to wait tables in the clubhouse, but Kenny and Eddie would have dinner at the club those nights, and I would see them there and often wait on them.

So far, Kenny’s relationship with Lester remained relatively unchanged. Though they’d gotten beyond the hissing stage, Lester would largely ignore him, despite Kenny’s attempts to befriend him. He would toss a ball across the rug for him to chase, but Lester just sat there and looked at Kenny or started washing himself. When we sat together on the couch holding hands, Lester would be right there on my lap, purring away, but if Kenny tried to pet him, he’d let out a soft growl. “Lester, be nice,” I implored him.

“It’s okay, Lester. In your own time,” Kenny told him.

It went on like this for another couple of weeks until one night when it finally got resolved. It was usually when Kenny arrived and mounted the stairs to my apartment over the garage that Lester made his appearance, bounding up the stairs behind him. He sometimes had a dead bird or a small rodent in his mouth, which he would deposit on the stoop before going in through his cat door.

This particular evening, I heard Kenny from down below shouting, “Abby! Come down here quickly! Lester’s in trouble!”

I flew down the stairs in a panic and saw Lester writhing on the ground, sort of choking. “Kenny, he can’t breathe!” I started to try to pry his mouth open, but he fought me, and I couldn’t get a good hold on him. “What do we do?” I cried.

Kenny quickly grabbed Lester and pulled him to his chest. He placed his hands under his ribcage and gave a few quick upward thrusts. Out came whatever it was he’d been trying to swallow. Kenny put him down gently, but Lester turned and quickly bit him on the hand, then ran off.
“Jeez!” he said as he grabbed his stricken hand with the other one. It was starting to bleed a lot. “You’re welcome, Lester!” he shouted.

I told him to raise his arm up, and led him upstairs to wash his hand off and put on some peroxide and a bandage. “I’m sorry he did that to you. He was scared.”

“I know. It’s okay. I’ll live.”

“Thank you for saving him. I didn’t know what to do,” I said as tears welled up in my eyes. He put his arms around me, and I buried my face in his chest and just started sobbing. He tried comforting me, but I was inconsolable. His shirt was getting pretty drenched from my tears.

Eventually, I stopped sobbing and started pulling myself together.

“You really love that guy, don’t you?” he asked me.

“Yes, I do. I was eight when we got him. He was just a kitten. He was a lot friendlier then, but over the years he just wanted to be my cat. Sometimes he was my only friend. That choking really scared me!”

I sniffled a few more times. “How did you know what to do to save him like that?”

“My brother is a doctor, and he told me once about a technique discovered a few years back called the ‘Heimlich Maneuver.’ I didn’t know if it would work on cats, but apparently it does. Let’s try to forget about it and go have some dinner. He’s going to be alright.”

Later, after we returned from dinner, I decided to change into some warmer clothes. The evenings were getting cooler now as summer was waning, and I had worn shorts and a sleeveless shirt to dinner. After changing in the bedroom, I came out and saw Lester sitting on the rug looking up at Kenny sitting on the couch. He then jumped up onto Kenny’s legs, turned a few circles and arranged himself on his lap. He then started licking his front paws as if this were just another typical evening. Kenny started slowly stroking his back, and Lester actually began purring.

“Well, look at you two! I guess he’s forgiven you.”

“He’s forgiven me? What do you think goes on in those pea-brains of theirs?”

“We’ll never know. But it looks like you two have come to an understanding.” I sat down with them, and, amazingly, Lester stayed on Kenny’s lap, purring.

“My two favorite guys are friends at last.”