It was not awkward between us.

Kalki knew me and I knew her. Sure enough, something’s had changed, but were we not still the same persons? Did we not love the same person?

The world had suddenly become horrible, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t live in it. However, that also didn’t mean that I was going to let her bathe me. There was no way she was getting me wet.

Come on! She moaned. Don’t run inside the house! Just listen to me, Spring. You reek worse than a squirrel!

Don’t compare me to those god forgiving pests! I barked as I ran circles around the dining table ahead of her. The house was arduously huge, at least for her. I was enjoying running around inside quite a lot!

I did reek. I had managed to get the pieces of flesh and blood from my fur by rubbing on the grass, but the stench had remained, and it was bad. Still, to think she would try to bathe me the first thing after our heartfelt reunion… she picked the wrong time to become fearless of me. Should I have changed to scare her?

Well, I didn’t want to be alone after the night out, and I preferred her company.

Eventually, she got tired of running around and faltered on the stair steps, reeking of sweat herself.

Go take a bath you stink. I told her and she acknowledged it

I know—I know. She said, scaring me a little. I’ll make you the roti’s but first you— She sniffed her underarms and frowned. I guess we both need to take a bath.

The house might be a foreign one, but it was not much different from the one she or Kanti used to live in, other than in size. Yes, I had been to both of their homes.

While Kanti's house was plain and dull, her house smelled of flowers. She had pots and pots of flowers growing both outside and inside the house, on the roof, and even in the rooms. Maybe she chose this home because it also had flowers growing outside? I would never know.

She dabbed the towel on her forehead and wiped the sweat. Kanti would have simply swiped it off his forehead with his finger, scattering it everywhere on the floor. He didn’t clean his home very often either. She, on the other hand, was a cleaning freak, as I could see from the mop and the water bucket near the door.

I loved Kanti, but I was not happy with the way he treated his house. A house needed to be kept clean. It was just one more reason for me to want them to get together soon and have babies together. I knew hu-mans with babies lived together forever. Cob had told me so. At least the house would be clean if they did.

Kalki was taking labored breaths. She had her head down, eyes fixed on the floor and the towel clenched between her hands. She looked so lonely sitting on the steps. My tail wagged behind me, telling me to go to her. I called her with a whimper, but that couldn’t get her to raise her head. So I went to her side. I approached her slowly as my hips shook with my tail. First, my feet had betrayed my control, and now my hips were following the same treacherous route; I was just happy to be with her.

I sniffed her face. There were tears hanging at the edge of her eyes. I stood with my forelegs at her knees and barked at her. She dropped the towel in return and then hugged me. There, there, she rubbed her face on my chest and I liked her neck in return. It made her giggle. Well, that was good —another heart lifted by a good boy. That deserved a treat.

My heart pounded as I thought about that small chewy biscuit, but I was in for a surprise. Kalki burst out in laughter as she tightened her arms around my chest and lifted me up from the ground.

She looked up from my chest, holding a smirk on her face. Got ya, you little bugger. She said and I knew I was done for.

I held my breath as she sprinted toward the bathroom. That place smelled unlike any other. No matter the home, the smell never changed. It was my least favorite place, right behind the pooper that smelled like a place I wouldn’t want to visit twice.

She lowered to the wet floor inside the one bathroom and locked the door behind her before I could escape. The creamy tiles on the walls made space look brighter than even the outside, but I was not one to get duped by such a small thing. I tried to hide, but there was no place to hide. I couldn’t even get any grip on the floor, and then she dropped that bloody cold and wet water on my body and I froze right there.

I huddled on the floor as she gently rubbed the bubbly lather into my hair, washing all the dirt, blood, and grime from my body. She didn’t talk until we were done, which to me felt like a whole day and night.

I smelled like the flower that she loved so much, like her. I was still dripping wet though. So I shook my body to dry my hair and got her wet. She almost screamed but managed to get her hands over her cherry pink lips before it could escape. She was not amused.

YOU— Come here, you four-legged rascal!

She held my neck and climbed over my back, held me firmly between her legs, and started furiously rubbing the towel on my back. It was like getting a massage; getting dried with a towel was the only thing I liked about bathing. I couldn’t help shake my left leg. She was hitting my spot.

Yeah, right there. I told her.

Stay still, now, and don’t be a bad boy. She called, but how could I? She was asking me for the impossible. I slipped out of her hold causing her to slip and fall to the floor. I stood in front of her motionless, causing her to burst out in laughter, and before I knew it we were both on the wet floor. She rubbed my face and neck and I enjoyed the touch of her fingers.

We could have started with that, seriously, and I would have kept her company for the better part of the day. The only problem was that she got tired way before I was done, and then I had to run around the house rubbing my body with everything in sight to dry my hair.

Kanti would have gotten angry if I had run around his house, rubbing my wet body with his things and leaving broken hair all around. But Kalki didn’t mind as I rubbed against the bed, the table, the sofa, and even the floor. She simply watched me run around the house carrying a smile on her face. I had so much fun running around, but when I looked back she was gone.

I followed her scent and found her in the dreaded bathroom. Did someone take her inside? Obviously not. However, I could not determine why she would be voluntarily getting wet. Hu-mans were weird in surprising ways. I rushed to rescue her from the cold, wet water, but she had the door locked from inside. I barked and scratched at it until she shouted from inside.

Stay quiet, okay. Be a good boy and I’ll make you something to eat.

How could I do anything after that? I had some hesitations but my growling stomach took care of them. First, I sat outside the door waiting for her to come out. Then I stretched my feet in front of me and lay down on my side when I got tired of sitting. I jumped up to my feet when I heard something outside, but learned that the front door was also locked. Finally, after what felt like a whole day the bathroom door open with a loud click and I rushed to confront Kalki.

She smelled like flowers, the same as me.

I jumped around her as she came out with a long white towel wrapped around her body.

Alright, alright, she said rubbing my head. Calm down, will you? Just give me a moment and I’ll have your roti’s ready, okay?

She talked as if I could understand her. I did, though only objectively. I followed her as entered a different room with a bed.

She changed into a new set of fur over her skin and placed the towel out on a wire to dry. I remembered the first time I had seen Kanti remove his dead fur. It was the most shocking experience of my life. I thought he was skinning himself.

That is when Cob told me the biggest secret concerning hu-mans: They can change their fur. I didn’t believe him at first, but comparing what he had told me to what I had seen… I could not ignore him either. It took me a long time to get used to the idea of Kanti changing fur every day.

I followed her to the kitchen next, but she shooed me out.

Wait outside. She ordered and I waited, for a very long time. Many thoughts passed through my head as I lay on my belly on the cold marble floor.

Kalki cooked for both of us, and she wasn’t very good at it. The rotis were overcooked, burnt, crisp, and small, but they were still way better than the dried rice that I had to scrap from the top of a dusty table. There was no curd to help it down my throat; however, she was an intelligent female. She dabbed some water on the roti’s to soften them. At least she was considerate. As for herself, she ate one and with a frown on her face, chewing it thoroughly as if she was eating grass. And she kept staring me, blushing and looking away whenever our eyes met.

Most of our morning passed away like that.

We didn’t play much afterward because Kalki got busy on the thing called phone, and it frustrated her.

It was another thing I never understood, and neither could Cob make head or tail of it. The thing reminded me of a mouse; it was small, black, and squeaked every time she pressed its belly —just like a mouse. I have had my share of fun with one, but even I never dared to take my face close to them. They can get very aggressive when provoked.

Every mouse I had ever met had a very distinct and sharp odor, but the one she talked to smelled nothing like one. It didn’t smell alive to me, but it could speak like a hu-man and I was envious of that. From what I understand she wanted the mouse thing to do something, but it kept repeating the same thing —The dialed number is out of reach. Please, try again later— and that frustrated her. She tried to talk to it one last time before giving up.

She leaned against the wall and let out a sigh, then deflated down to the floor and started talking to me.

We are going to die, aren’t we? She asked. Kanti would know what to do next; he always does, doesn’t he?

I woofed to her in reply and she rubbed my head.

I know, right? He’s too smart for his own good. But he’s not here. What a time his father chose to have a heart attack. Do you think… No, he’ll survive. And we need to do everything to survive, too. If only the bloody phone worked.

She raised the mouse named phone to her face one more time before putting it on the ground for good. She sighed. Her eyes looked so distant. I crawled over her lap and she rubbed my neck, right underneath my ear.

She didn’t touch me as Kanti did.

She fingers didn’t dig deep into my fur coat to scratch my skin; and no matter how I tried to get her to scratch behind my ears, she refrained from it. She kept her hands near my throat, softly rubbing it. It felt good, however.

My tongue rolled out of my lips and I stretched my legs, peddling them up and down when she pulled on my fur. If only we could stay like that forever. However, that’s when I accidentally saw her face.

A shudder went through my heart when our eyes met. Her eyes were red and wide open. She faced straight ahead but started daggers at me from the corner of her eyes.

At that moment she looked far scarier than any screamer I had ever seen.

I struggled my head out of her grip and ran away from her. I only stopped when I didn’t hear her chasing me. She was still sitting at the same place with her legs sprawled in front of her; the only change was her tilted head, the hair covering her face, and the strange chant she was reading.

She didn’t react when I barked and I ran further away from her. I was on the stairs when I heard her laughing like there was no tomorrow. She had made a fool out of me again. I stopped at the top of the stairs and saw her waving a hand at me, holding a maniacal grin on her face. I barked and whined in annoyance and decided that I needed to be away from her for some time.

She was acting too stranger for some reason.