Kitten
"Wow, you really do like this place, huh?"
Auntie Kathleen's visit came as a surprise. Between the loud music, my thoughts and my spreading thick enamel paint over the tower's interior walls with a roller, I never even knew she'd entered until she spoke. I wasn't really startled, probably more freaked out that it was her. I'd been wondering over the last two days why she followed Gina to the gatehouse and if that was some indication that she was responsible for Gina having slipped her leash but, in the end, I couldn't believe that she'd ever turn on me like that. Further, the look on her face as she stood there casting her impressed eyes around herself and her surroundings convinced me.
Besides that, I was feeling pretty low after what I'd done to my poor Gina in the corridor, and vulnerable for thinking that Auntie probably knew all about it. I don't remember her being there, but she must have showed up at some point in order to follow Gina down to the gatehouse, and I imagine she and Stevie must have spoken of it since I knew he was definitely there.
"Um, I... I like a different kind of place for my room," I stammered, barely making sense in my effort to sound casual.
"I'm sorry I haven't been by, but I thought you might want to be alone for a little while. I know how close you and Gina were, and I'm so sorry for what happened."
"It's okay, Auntie."
"I hate to ask the stupid, obvious question of how you've been..."
Her smile, along with her words, was meant to cheer me. They didn't really, but they did make me feel a bit more comfortable with her. I gave her a little smile in return and went back to running the super fluffy roller over the wall.
"Sooo..." Auntie tentatively went on from behind, "you mean you're moving in... here?"
"My apartment is nice, and I'm going to keep it for the sake of convenience, but yeah, I'm going to live here."
"So, you've decided to stay?"
"Yes," I answered simply, thinking of how it was really Gina who'd finally decided that for me.
"Forgive me, sweetie pie, but you don't sound quite convinced."
"I'm convinced," I reinforced with a flat tone. "Auntie, can we...? Can we please talk about something else?"
"Yes, I'm sorry," she quickly and sincerely expressed. "I didn't mean... You know. So, uh... what's your vision here?"
"Secret laboratory."
"Ahhh. And what will be happening in this secret laboratory?" she asked while her heels began moving across the concrete floor.
"Stuff."
"Anything that could get me off?"
I couldn't help a sincere smile as a couple of mental images passed through my perverted imagination, but answered, "Well... once I get up and running, maybe I'll look into that, Auntie."
"I'll hold you to it. So, you're actually going to make a house out of an old garage?"
"Sure," I defended, feeling yet a little more comfortable. "Near as I can tell, it was built in the twenties, but it's got nice design, character... It's solid and its been maintained really well."
"Yeah, but it's still a garage."
"It won't be once I'm finished. Well, the other part, yeah, but this will be home. This paint is only to create a cold barrier on these cement blocks; I'm gonna put up proper two by four frames and insulate before the drywall, but first our electrician has to change out the fuse box to handle the new demands I'll be putting on it. Plus, I gotta get a couple of bathrooms in here, so that'll mean digging up one of those big flower beds to the right of the building for a septic field, which Auntie Ashleigh may or may not have realized..."
"Uh, did you tell her about
any
of this?"
"She gave me the garage and the old car in there. It was like you said, she's pretty cool about the money and stuff, but she's really into her flowers and she told me that as long as the grounds weren't disturbed, she didn't care what I did here, so..."
"Heh! Well, a lady has to have at
least
two bathrooms. The best way is to wait until you're sure her back is turned for a while and then just start digging those posies up."
"(Giggle)"
"Are you at this all by yourself?"
"No, there's a bunch of staff helping, but I sent them all on break for two hours to eat and get each other off."
A short pause preceded her soft laughter, to which I explained with a short laugh of my own, "Well, they're all really cool and they're working hard and doing such a great job, so I thought they deserved it."
"You're unbelievable."
"Superkitten."
"Excuse me?" she asked with a wide smile in her tone.
"Superkitten. That's me, but I'm more a supervillain than a superhero," I joked in explanation. "That's why I need the secret laboratory."
"Oh, I see. Like Steven."
"How's that?"
"I've referred to him as a supervillain."
"How come?"
"Because of all his crazy stunts and schemes in school. My god, the faculty hated him. Just...
hated
him, and I gnawed my fingers to the bone almost every day, worried he was going to get himself expelled before he could even graduate."
"Why, what was he doing?"
"I'm thinking you've heard of construction glue?"
"Oh yeah," I replied, feeling much more comfortable now as I ran my roller in the paint tray again. "That's stuff is something else, believe me. They don't call it 'liquid nails' for nothing, Auntie."
"Yeah, well your cousin calls it 'havoc in a tube'. The little brat got loose during class and glued every bathroom door in the building shut with the stuff. It was the beginning of the longest period and, by the time it was over, the glue had set. Some students actually wet themselves while standing in line for the faculty washrooms, and- Kitten, it's really not funny."
Auntie was laughing a little when she said it, but probably more because I was doubled over, fearing I'd be the next one wetting herself over Stevie's genius.
"They had to rip the doorframes out of the wall along with the doors, and
I
had to pay for every one of them straight out of his father's pocket!"
That was the real funny bit and she herself lost control as I dropped my roller in the tray to grab miffy before I peed myself laughing.
We finally stopped, regarding one another in the dusty, reddish twilight coming in through the old windows with a love that made us partners, sisters, mother/daughter, best friends and lovers all at once.
"Hey, Kitten..."
"Yes, Auntie?"
She didn't answer right away and I watched her take her time swaggering sexily up to me, placing light hands on my waist. I liked this and closed my eyes while I smelled the scent she lent to her perfume and listened to the whispery, secretive voice that loved me.