Catgirls Can Do It! (Build-A-Catgirl Book 2)

by Simon Archer

  Samuel pulled the tiny pipe out of the glory hole and gently touched it to one of the glass sticks, then he had Kennedi do the same. He pulled the thimble over to sit between them and proceeded to show her how to apply the glass to the bottom rim in order to create a decorative edge. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go since the twisted glass stick was still straight and not melted like the other glass they’d used. Then I watched as he touched the end of the stick to the thimble, and the stick bent easily as he guided it around the rim. What was even more shocking is that when the stick touched the thimble, it glowed a bright blue for just a moment before turning clear again.

  After Samuel was done with the first one, he had Kennedi do the same thing directly above where he’d placed his strip of glass. Again, the glass stick shone blue as she twisted it around the thimble. He showed her how to disconnect the pipe from the glass without breaking it while tucking the edge into the thimble so that it looked seamless. The end product was a one-of-a-kind, antique-looking, decorative glass thimble. It was absolutely beautiful, and I couldn’t wait to get a closer look.

  Samuel scooted his stool back and looked at Kennedi. “You have all the makings of a professional gaffer!” Sam told Kennedi. She was leaning close to the thimble, examining her handiwork.

  “That was magnificent!” she gushed. “I can’t wait to do more! When can I touch it?”

  “It should be set by now,” Samuel replied.

  “It doesn’t have to go back in the annealer?” Kennedi double-checked with caution in her voice.

  “Nope. The detail glass cools almost instantly,” he informed her. Kennedi tentatively touched the top of the thimble with her thumb and forefinger. When she felt it was no longer warm, she slowly turned it to look it over more thoroughly. She looked up at me with all the pride of an artist who’d just created her first masterpiece.

  “Want to see?” She waved me over to get a closer look. I stood, walked to her, and bent over her shoulder. She slowly picked the thimble up, placed it in the palm of her hand, and held it up to me. I took it from her, stood up, and held it up to the sunlight. The glass sparkled and refracted off every curve in the design. I turned it to see the detail of the rim decoration. It was flawless, at least to my untrained eye. Just then, the sun hit the twisted glass, and a purple hue shone through. It was so slight that I don’t believe I would have seen it if I hadn’t been inspecting the piece so closely. I looked over at Samuel, who had finished cleaning up and was watching Kennedi and me.

  “What kind of glass is the rim decoration made out of?” I asked him. There was obviously something different about it, but I was not an expert in the making of glass.

  “It’s nano-glass,” Samuel said, as though I should’ve known. My mouth dropped open in surprise.

  “What?” It was the question that pops out whenever something seems unbelievable.

  “Nano-glass,” Samuel repeated. “As far as I know, I’m the only one who uses it.”

  “How is it that you have nano-glass?” I asked too quickly. It came out sounding almost accusatory, so I followed up. “What I mean is that I was under the impression that nano-glass wasn’t sold to the public.”

  “Oh, it’s not,” Samuel said easily. “I get it from one of the local cat girl recycling centers. It does some crazy things, but it has been really interesting to learn to work with.” He looked at Kennedi, who was nodding her head. She didn’t look surprised at all.

  “Did you know that it was nano-glass?” I asked Kennedi.

  “Yeah, I recognized it right away,” she answered. “You look a bit shocked.”

  “I am,” I said. “I’ve never seen the stuff outside of CG creation and repair. When you add it, the way that it glows and bends without direct heat and… well, all the things I just watched it do, I am most certainly shocked.” I looked back at the thimble, focusing on the nano-glass. “How many strands are in each rod?”

  Samuel stepped closer and looked at the thimble himself. “I’m not positive, but I’d guess around twenty.” Kennedi started nodding again.

  “Pretty close. There are twenty-four in each,” she informed us. I was suddenly obsessed with knowing more about it.

  “How did they get twisted like that?” I looked from Kennedi to Samuel. Samuel shrugged his shoulders, obviously not knowing the answer. Kennedi stood up and moved to my side.

  “When a nano-chord is removed from a recycled cat girl, if there is damage anywhere on the chord, then the nano-wires are stripped apart and twisted around each other like this to avoid reuse,” she said. “They used to be just stripped apart until it just so happened that a recycled set of wires ended up being accidentally used for a batch of new CGs, all of which ended up being defective. They needed to come up with a way to tell the old glass from the new.” She reached up and took the thimble from my hand and slipped it on her middle finger, just like I’d seen in so many vintage pictures of grandmothers throughout my life. Kennedi looked at it on her finger like she’d just been given an engagement ring. Her joy helped me get past my shock and focus on the present.

  “That is absolutely fascinating,” I told Samuel. “What made you give nano-glass a try?”

  “To be honest, it was when I saw a batch of it catch fire,” he started. “Well, let me clarify. A batch was set on fire by a bunch of dumb kids who had stolen it from the recycling center. They didn’t realize that the alley they’d posted up in was right outside my garage. I was working on a couple of pieces and smelled the fire, so I went out. The kids took off, and that is when I saw it. I was able to put the fire out before all the glass was scorched, so I salvaged the good pieces and started experimenting.” Samuel smiled mischievously. “Then I struck a deal with one of the workers at the center to drop some glass out back occasionally. No one uses it like I do, so no one recognizes it.”

  “And there’s nothing in the law stating that it can’t be used by the public, so you can’t really get in trouble for it,” Kennedi added.

  “Right.” Samuel nodded emphatically. He looked at me and said, “I like to experiment!”

  “Well, I’d say it was a wildly successful experiment!” I said. I was rather impressed with Samuel’s story while, at the same time, feeling like a little bit of fate may have been involved in our meeting each other.

  “I’ve really enjoyed it,” Samuel said, right as an older couple strolled up to the booth. Samuel slapped me on the back and winked at Kennedi. “I’ll need to be seeing to these fine people now.” He grabbed a card from his back pocket and quickly handed it to Kennedi. “Give me a call to set up our next lesson.”

  “I will,” Kennedi replied. “Thank you so much!”

  “You’re welcome,” Samuel smiled at her and then looked over at me. “It has been great meeting the two of you.” I nodded and smiled.

  “You as well, Samuel,” I said. I turned to Kennedi and helped her get her drape off, and the shirt around her waist untied. When she’d returned the drape to the peg, and the shirt to Samuel’s chair, we slipped out of the side of the booth and back onto the blue path, just as Samuel was asking the couple which figurines made them the happiest.

  12

  As Kennedi and I made our way around the rest of the booths, I was preoccupied with studying the thimble. By the time we were all the way to the other side of the courtyard, walking up to the area where Belavi was set up, I had examined the glass in every angle of lighting and shadow that I could find or create. I was overly fascinated with it and couldn’t put my finger on why, exactly. I finally had to break away from looking at it when Ellie came out from behind the serving station she was standing at to greet us. I pulled the tissue paper out of the bag that held Kennedi’s star figurine. I wrapped the thimble tightly and put it in the bag just as Ellie reached us and hugged Kennedi.

  “There you two are!” Ellie was excited. She turned and motioned at the line of people waiting to get through the buffet line she’d just come from. “Isn’t this just great? All the money fo
r the food goes to the foundation, and people are adding donations to their tabs on top of that!” I laughed at her enthusiasm.

  “Well, I’d donate a kidney right now if it would get me fed.” Smelling the tangy scent of barbeque had sent my stomach on a battle cry for food.

  “No need!” Ellie said. “We have the VIP table set up. It's for us, the Cavanaughs, and the Lindys.” She promptly turned and started walking towards one of the tables on the far side of the dining area, closest to the stage. Leah had been smart with the setup. Even though the stage area had its own seating, the VIP tables were close enough to watch if there was a show, but far enough away to be able to have a conversation without it being too loud. When we reached the table, Theo and Leah were already seated. Kennedi and I took our seats across from them.

  “This is an absolute success, Leah,” I said once we were seated. She shot me a humble smile.

  “Thank you, Clark. I’m happy you are enjoying it.” Leah was in what I liked to refer to as business-mode. Her eyes were darting around constantly, surveying every detail that nobody but her would pay attention to. I was laughing quietly at the amount of tension behind her smile when she looked at me.

  “What?” She straightened up in her chair.

  “Nothing, nothing,” I chuckled. “I do believe you are going to need an in-home massage professional for the next week with the way you are locked up right now! Any chance you’ll be able to relax today? You deserve to with as great as this is going.”

  Leah’s face relaxed a little, and she took a deep breath.

  “If you ever meet a young person who wants to be an event planner but has a massive, self-diagnosed, predisposition for having a major case of OCD, advise them to change career paths!” Leah said very seriously. She looked at me straight-faced, but she couldn’t hold her laughter in for long.

  Kennedi and I joined her. Leah was good-humored but didn’t actually joke much, so it was refreshing to see her relax enough to do so. Theo leaned forward dramatically and put his elbows on the table.

  “Thank the stars. You got her laughing!” Theo said. “I was worried that Charlie would get her back and think I’d silently tortured her all day!” He started laughing as well, but Kennedi stopped.

  “Why would he think that?” Kennedi’s face had a look of horror on it. Theo, Leah, and I started laughing even harder. I took hold of Kennedi’s hand and kissed it.

  “He wasn’t being literal,” I told her through my laughter. “He was exaggerating how tense Leah has been all day.” Kennedi stared at me for a moment before a smile crept back onto her face.

  “Oh! That makes so much more sense!” she said and started giggling.

  When the laughter died down, I turned to Theo and asked, “What has your day been like so far?” He leaned back in his chair and put his hands on his stomach.

  Theo cleared his throat. Which, in a situation like this, usually meant he was pulling out his fake English accent, and said, “I’ve been the official Belavi food-taster. I was commissioned to ensure that the peasant’s food was satisfactory!” He tipped his chin in the air with faux-arrogance for a moment before giving up the act and laughing at himself, along with the rest of us. It was good to see him having a good time. I felt myself relaxing right along with him.

  “Hey Clark,” Leah said. “What’s in the bag?” I hadn’t realized I was still holding the bag with Kennedi’s glass in it. I set it on the table, scooted it over in front of Kennedi, and nodded from her to Leah. Kennedi’s face lit up with pride. She reached in the bag, pulled out the bubble-wrapped dome, and turned to Leah while she started unwrapping it.

  “We met a glassblower!” Kennedi squealed. “Look what I found!” Kennedi carefully pulled out the dome with the tiny, delicate stars on it to show to Leah. Leah leaned over to see it more clearly.

  “That is absolutely beautiful!” Leah said, looking up at Kennedi. “You must’ve met Samuel.”

  “Yes!” Kennedi shouted excitedly. “And he’s giving me glass-blowing lessons!” Kennedi watched Leah’s face for her reaction.

  Leah sat back and gave Kennedi a big smile before saying, “I am so happy to hear that. Samuel and his wife used to do glass together, but she passed away a couple of years ago. We weren’t sure if he would keep doing it, so I was pleasantly surprised when I got a call from him about joining in on this event.”

  “Speaking of this event,” I said to Leah, “I will be paying for Samuel’s booth rental.” I looked at Leah and waited. She raised an eyebrow at me and tilted her head slightly.

  “Why is that?” Leah asked me.

  “He was going to charge seventy-dollars for that dome, and you and I both know he could make triple that, so I struck a deal with him.” I put my hand on Kennedi’s shoulder. “He’s giving Kennedi the lessons in exchange for his booth.” Leah squinted her eyes at me briefly and tipped her head in the other direction.

  “Why do I get the feeling you were trying to comp his booth, and he talked you into letting him work for it?” Leah said slyly. “I’ve known Samuel for a long time. First, he doesn’t give lessons, and second, you are always trying new and creative ways to help people out the less fortunate with their finances.” She smiled at me. I just shrugged my shoulders and put on my best ‘I don’t know what you mean’ faces.

  “He was underselling himself!” I retorted innocently.

  “And he always will,” Leah said with a smile. She obviously cared for Samuel. She shook her head a little. “Just wire the money to my registrar before Monday, Crazy Clark!”

  “You’ve got it!” I said to Leah and then turned to Kennedi. “Are you going to show Leah what you’ve made?” Leah perked up in her chair again.

  “You already made something?” she sounded surprised. Kennedi started wiggling in her chair.

  “Yes! Here!” she said as she pulled the tissue-paper-wrapped thimble out of the bag and handed it to Leah. Leah carefully unwrapped it and held it in her hand. She looked at it for a long minute before looking back to Kennedi.

  “That is absolutely stunning,” Leah said. “What an accomplishment for a first piece!”

  “Thank you!” Kennedi said as Leah passed the thimble to Theo. He took it and held it up to catch the light.

  “Leah is right, Kennedi!” Theo said. “You’d better get a shadow box or something for that!” He handed it to me to give back to Kennedi. At the same time, Ellie showed up with four plates of food. Kennedi took the thimble and started to wrap it, and the dome, but Ellie stopped her.

  “What is that?” Ellie set the plates down in front of us and leaned over to see the tiny thimble Kennedi was holding up for her. “Oh, wow! That is gorgeous! And so old-fashioned! Where did you get it? I’d love to get one for Bev. She loves things like that!”

  “I made it!” Kennedi blurted out, looking up at Ellie. Ellie’s purple-blue eyes got wide, and she smiled.

  “Really? It’s beautiful,” she said, her voice rising to match her excitement. “What a fantastic piece! You’ll have to tell me all about it after this!” Ellie raised her arm and motioned across the entire courtyard.

  “Of course, I will!” Kennedi replied. It was fun to watch Kennedi openly proud of herself. I’d noticed she only did so when she had created something. She could heal the world and not show as much enthusiasm as she was showing for that thimble.

  “I can’t wait,” Ellie told Kennedi before taking a step back away from the table and looking up to the rest of us. “You each have one of every type of barbeque we’ve made on your plates. Enjoy!” She quickly turned and headed back to the buffet before we could even thank her.

  Kennedi finished wrapping up her glass items and returning them to the bag. She set the bag on an empty chair beside her and turned to the meal in front of her. Theo had already started eating, and Leah was pulling her chair up when I put my first fork-full of pulled-pork brisket in my mouth. It was the things dreams are made up of when it comes to food. The sauce wasn’t too sweet and had a spicy a
fter-kick, and the meat was melt-in-your-mouth-tender. Next, I tried the smoked shoulder ribs and moved on to the basted chicken bites. Each meat was so good that by the time I’d convince myself it couldn’t get any better, I’d try the next dish, and be wrong. The four of us sat in silence while we ate, it was that good.

  As I was swallowing my last bite, I heard someone pick up the microphone on the stage. I looked over to see a little boy, no more than eight years old, standing on the stage with a row of other eight-year-olds behind him.

  “Hello, everybody,” the boy said more confidently than I expected someone his size to be. “My name is Calvin, and we are Calvin and the Jams!”

  It was after that when I noticed that the entire seating area was filled. The people in the show seats started clapping and cheering. A stagehand ran out to take the microphone from Calvin just as he stepped back into the line of boys. A loud bass drum sounded out through the speakers surrounding the performance area. It was followed by another long base drop, and then the music started. It was some type of dubstep mix, and when it started, Calvin and the Jams started dancing.

  I looked over at Leah. “It’s sweet of you to have them perform.”

  “I didn’t let them do anything,” Leah leaned forward across the table a bit as she laughed. “They are a nationally ranked dance troop. They are donating this performance.” I looked back over at the stage. The boys were doing flips, and rolls, and all sorts of acrobatics in tempo with the music.

  “I can see why,” I said to Leah without looking at her. The four of us relaxed back in our chairs and watched the performance. Calvin and the Jams danced to three songs. When the third one ended, the stagehand brought the mic back to Calvin. Leah stood up.

  “That’s my cue,” she said and started walking towards the stage. Calvin stepped to the front of the stage, put the mic to his mouth with one hand, and raised the other in the air.

  “Who here knows WHY we are here?” Calvin shouted into the microphone. The crowd cheered with yells of ‘me’ and ‘I do.’ When they calmed, Calvin shouted again. “I know why we are here!” Again, cheers. Calvin took a step forward after a sideways glance to confirm that Leah was off to stage left. “We are here because of one woman’s infinite capacity for compassion! She gives herself to serve and help others without agenda, without complaint, and in doing so, has saved more lives than I think she even knows.”