Chapter Five

I drove down the long driveway of my parents' estate. The perfectly level cut grass and shrubs lined the road in a symmetrical pattern. I parked the car in font of the double glass doors. My mother promptly jumped out of the car, slammed the door, and ran into the house without so much as a good-bye to me. I sighed and shook my head. Sure the P.E.T. was startling to look at, but not to this extent. At least, I didn't think so. I drove the car back out of the gated house that I had grown up in and headed back for the city. I looked back at my passenger. It seemed to be sleeping as comfortable as one can in a car.

It was an hour long drive between my apartment and my parents' estate. I turned the radio on. I heard my father's voice speaking and quickly shut it off. I didn't like how he sounded when he was in front of the public. It was like he was a different person. I hear a yawn and looked in the mirror. Somehow they'd managed, without waking up, to roll onto the floor, but from the state of its room anything else would be beyond comfortable.

I didn't want to scare any of my neighbors with it like it'd scared mother so we climbed up the stairs from the parking lot basement to the tenth floor. I peaked around the door both ways to see if the coast was clear. I felt a small tug on the corner of my sleeve. I looked down at my P.E.T.

"Wh--at are y-ou do-ing?" It asked in its raspy voice.

"I don't want to give the old ladies on this floor a scare so I'm making sure that the corridor is empty." I felt like I could feel it smirking a little.

"Wh--at ab-ou-t c-ov-er-ing m-ee w-ith y-our j-ack-et?" It said trying to speak as clearly as possible. I nodded.

"Yeah, that would work." We slunk into the corridor as quietly as possible and made sure that the door didn't slam shut. We'd made it more than a third of the way to my apartment when the elevator dinged. I turned quickly to see Mrs. Carrol step out with her P.E.T., Niro. When she saw me her whole face lit up.

"Mr. Iven! Nice to see you." She was smaller than my P.E.T. and older than the elevator that she'd just come from. Niro followed behind her with her groceries. His arms and face were covered by the black hair of a cat. He froze when he caught sight of my covered P.E.T. and began to growl. Mrs. Carol looked behind me. "Oh, Mr. Iven! I didn't know that you had a sweet lady friend!" She reached her hand out to shake its hand. "My name is Addiva Carol and this Niro. Don't mind him. He's cautious around new people.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Carol, but we've really got to go." She grinned at me.

"Alright, but keep it down. These old ears hear everything you know." She gave us a wink before she and Niro walked on.

I looked down at my P.E.T. it was shaking. Was it frightened by Niro? I took out my key and opened my door.