How did this happen?
This morning, Lucy called me because Oreo got a cold and said she would like me to cover for her. Since I didn't have school today, I accepted, but I didn't think things would turn into this catastrophic drama.
After traveling to the café from the pethouse, everything was normal. I walked into the Cakes and pets and greeted Lucy before heading to the costume room, where she helped me suit up for the day. Oreo and I were the same size, so I didn't have any problem squeezing my small butt inside the stretchy black and white cat skin, and it felt great to know that I could wear something my girlfriend loved so much. Usually, I was not that interested in being a pet because I preferred just to hang around them, make them drink and eat, and cuddle with them, here in the lounge or the capsule rooms upstairs. But the latex cat costume even smelled like Oreo, so it made my experience a very enticing one.
This happy mood of mine yielded dividends. All morning, Lucy said, "Good Job, Clara. The client was very pleased!" so it made me happy. With all the pet coaching I have received from my friends, I finally saw myself becoming freer as a pet, particularly when it came the time to communicate with new people without my voice. I even managed to incite a client to pick food from the new menu that Asha had put together a couple of weeks ago.
But then, as the day progressed, my good experience came to an abrupt halt, and things took a grim turn. There was a TERRIBLE accident at the café, and I was the main victim of it.
Here I was, lying on my back in the middle of the lounge, unable to move my limbs, and on top of that, I couldn't see anything anymore. I could hear the client's voices rumbling throughout my sudden darkness, but it was too confusing to make anything out of it. On my inert body, I could feel cushy paws compassionately patting and rubbing my latex encased body, but they couldn't do anything to help me. My situation was too dire for them to help. Even Accalia, our future nurse, wouldn't have known how to react.
Why?
Why me?
I came from so far and faced so many hurdles, worked so hard, just to build something precious, something I called a life. All those friends I made, all those experiences, bad and good, that forged who I was today. I even started school recently and curiously enjoyed it. Finance wasn't something I knew anything about, but I discovered that I was pretty good with numbers. Before this horrible accident, I had dared to allow myself to dream and believe that I could have had a bright future surrounded by my friends.
So why? Why now of all time?
Why did this accident happen to me? Why did I have to lose my sight when I was so young and full of potential? Being unable to see would change everything. How would I be able to study if I couldn't see? And if, on top of that, I got paralyzed, then what? I would spend my days in a wheelchair at the pethouse, facing the big window wall in the living room, only being able to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin without the possibility to admire its magnificence. My friends would occasionally sing songs in my ears to keep me company, telling me how much they loved me.
But in the background, I would still hear my girlfriend Oreo having wild sex with everybody else because I would be unable to satisfy her anymore.
Yes, why?
Life for me was over. And here, on the floor, immobile, I couldn't even moan my sadness because of this squishy gag in my mouth. I needed help but couldn't call for it.
HELP! HELP!
My mind screamed, but no noise came out of my mouth. And it was also difficult to breathe. Not enough air reached my lungs, and they started to burn badly.
Fortunately for me, the lounge door slammed open, and Lucy's familiar voice, comforting voice, reached my ears, piercing through my aura of distress.
"What is going on here!? What is this mess!?"
HELP! LUCY! LUCY! HELP ME! I'M SUFFERING! I'M BLIND! I CAN'T MOVE ANYMORE!
How can one ask for help while being paralyzed and mute?
"All of you! Get off Oreo right now!"
Of course, I was acting Oreo today.
"Get off her right now! Can't you see she can't move? Let me take care of her, quick. Aaah! Oreo. What happened to you? Poor cat."
Suddenly, brightness.
As Lucy rubbed her thumbs over the big black eyes of my mask, I regained my sense of vision.
"Aaah! You probably can't see anything with all that cake smeared over your eyes. Come with me. We will go upstairs and clean you up."
She pulled on my arms, and magically, I was standing, not paralyzed at all, and I could see again even if everything was blurry.
Okay, maybe I overdramatized what happened a bit earlier.
I couldn't move because the other pets were pinning me down to the ground, and I couldn't see because I had some cake all over my eyes. Oh, and about the burning lungs, it was probably just some icing clogging one of the vents in my ears. When I blew really hard, it seemed to have resolved the problem.
Simply put, I was just fine and uninjured.
So, about this terrible accident. Lucy had asked Vix to carry this big vanilla cake to table number four because it was a client's birthday, but after she let her in the lounge with the cake in her small arms, I didn't see her and bumped into her. I got the whole cake in the face and fell over on my back. And then it was so embarrassing that I began making up stories in my head as if it was going to help. Maybe I went a bit too deep in my delusion.
Lucy led me out of the lounge and then upstairs to the costume room. I wondered if she would be angry at me. It was a bit my fault for not having paid enough attention to where I was going, but I really wanted to sit with Accalia, who seemed lonely, and carelessly crossed the lounge resulting in this unfortunate collision.
Lucy made me sit on the stool.
"Alright, Clara. Stay here for a moment. I'll come back in a few minutes. I just have to clean this mess in the lounge first before the pets walk in it and spread crushed cake everywhere."
Oh, I had a very good memory of something similar that happened when Lucy had asked me to take care of the café on the day Trixie broke her arm. While trying to fix my mistake, I had spread cake everywhere in the café, and Elizabeth had to rescue me. So I nodded and obediently placed my cushy cat paws on my lap.
While I waited for her to come back, I looked around. On the shelf was the Misti costume next to the Apricot one. Misti was probably taking care of Oreo at the moment, which was reassuring. But that dog costume, nobody had worn it since Kitty. Kitty was now our cute cheetah, and nobody really requested Apricot after that. The animals that Lucy chose to put to work on any given day had a lot to do with their popularity. Like Trixie and Vix, Oreo was a costume that people absolutely wanted to see when they visited the café. This was why Lucy asked me to impersonate Oreo today and not the dog.
From afar, I looked at myself in the mirror located in the corner of the room, and it was a bit odd. Not only was I covered in an impressive amount of cake, but I was also a legit pet. Personally, and I thought about it lengthily, I didn't want to be a full-time café animal. I was just happy to be Clara and mostly came here to get some comfort from my friends. On that aspect, I was very much a typical client. It didn't mean that I hated wearing this tight latex suit and helping around occasionally. It felt safe.
Since Lucy told us about the origin of the café and where our costumes really came from, things were a bit different around here. Not in a bad way, though. It was all because we discovered that Lucy, despite the tragedy she went through when she was younger, had developed this kinky side that she had never told us about. Even to this day, I doubted she would admit it.
Seriously, the costumes she designed and commissioned from Elizabeth were quite something. At first, I thought all the animals were just very cute, but now that we knew that Lucy had intentionally made them this restrictive and kinky, it made us all a bit hotter. Sexual hormones were running high at the café; except for Trixie because hers had always been high.