WooFDriver

Now, there are a great amount of Presidential Pets. In fact, it’s not an odd thing to not know all of the other animals that make up the group. They come from a vast array of years, and some of them aren’t able to enter the Room under normal conditions. As such, this is the first time that Ada and Tom Quartz are meeting.

But still, it seems like a strange way for the tiger to be acting. Tom Quartz looks around the room, but it doesn’t offer him any answers. “No? I’ve come to help you.”

“You’ve come to make yourself feel better,” responds Ada, closing her eyes. She looks exhausted. “Duty and interest aren’t the same thing. I don’t know you.”

“No,” says Tom Quartz, picking his words out carefully. He’s starting to regret not bringing Slippers along with him. “I suppose you don’t. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to help you, though.”

“Yes it does.”

“No, it really doesn’t. Ada – “

“I’m too tired to talk with you,” says Ada, with a put upon sigh. “Go away.”

Tom Quartz shakes his head. The fur on his tail is puffed up. “What? No, I’m not just going to leave! I worked very hard to find you, Ada! Your sister is worried about you!”

“Ebe is just lonely,” says Ada. “But she’ll get used to it. She’s going to have to get used to it.”

Unease washes over Tom Quartz. He asks, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Some pet you are, if you haven’t figured it out yet.”

“Do you have to speak in riddles? It’s been a very long day!”

“I’m not speaking in riddles,” huffs Ada. She still won’t open her eyes. Her whiskers twitch. “You just aren’t smart enough to figure it out.”

Tom Quartz paces in front of the cage. He demands, “are you sick?”

“No,” answers the tigress.

Tom Quartz asks, “than why are you in here? Why would Ebe have to get used to it?”

“Because they’re sending me away,” says Ada. “Or maybe they’re just going to get rid of me. They do that sometimes, you know.”

Tom Quartz is so startled that he trips over his own paws. He spins back around to face the cage. Aghast, he says, “what? No! Why would they do that?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“I do,” responds Tom Quartz. He sits down in front of the cage. “I really, really do.”

When Tom Quartz finally gets back outside, he’s very shaken up. Slippers is very shaken up too. She runs over to Tom Quartz and rubs her side against the tom cat. Purring, she says, “there you are! I was so worried about you!”

“I found Ada,” says Tom Quartz, words spat out quick and fast. “I know what happened.”

Slippers asks, “are you okay? Is she okay?”

“For now, but she won’t be if we aren’t quick about it.” Tom Quartz head butts Slippers. He says, “there was a child that didn’t listen to his parent. He pet one of the monkeys when she wasn’t looking, and it bit him! But the kid didn’t want to get in trouble. He said Ada did it!”

 

Katelynn E Koontz – Author

The little sugar glider is quick on his feet. Calla moves through the halls like they’re familiar. “Just up this way, magic cat. Almost there now.”

“That’s what you said two halls ago,” huffs Tom Quartz. His ears twitch with irritation. “Do you even know where Ada is?”

“I do, I do! Of course I do! Rude, that’s what you are. You’re just as rude as every other magic beast to have tried to get something out of me. I said that I know where they’ve locked up that tiger, so that means, well, it means that I know where they’ve locked up that tiger.”

And with that, the sugar glider hops, skips, and races up ahead – only to come to a skidding stop when a door pushes open. The human that steps out into the hall is wearing a white lab coat and looking at a clipboard.

“Hide,” hisses Tom Quartz, flinging himself into a partially open side door. He’s not sure what becomes of Calla but doesn’t hear yelling, so Tom Quartz assumes that the little sugar glider is alright.

The room that he’s just let himself into is very dark. It’s only Tom Quartz’s feline eyes that allow him to see through the shadows. And, much to his surprise, luck must truly be on his side for, there, in the cage tucked against the wall, is a tiger cub.

Now, the important thing to remember is that Tom Quartz is in a time long ago. Zoos were not nearly as well put together as what we are used to in the modern time, and they didn’t have the equipment that we would envision being included in their offices, computer rooms, and vet areas.

As such, the enclosure that Ada finds herself in is remedial at best. The tiger looks tired, worn, and rather ill. She doesn’t even lift her head when Tom Quartz walks up to her.

“Ada,” he says, surprised to see the tiger here. It seems that the sugar glider didn’t know where Ada was after all. “Are you alright?”

Ada cracks open her brilliant green eyes. She’s resting her muzzle on her paws. Ada says nothing.

Tom Quartz puts one front paw on the heavily barred cage that the tiger is in. “Ada, I’ve been looking for you. Are you alright? Why are you here? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know you.”

“I’m – I’m Tom Quartz. I’m part of the Presidential Pets.”

“Oh. I supposes that’s why you’re here.”

“I – yes?” Tom Quartz isn’t sure what that’s supposed to mean, but it doesn’t sound like Ada’s particularly happy to see him. He says, “I came here to help you.”

Ada closes her eyes. The tiger snorts. “No,” she says. “You came to help yourself. Go away, cat. I’m not interested.”

 

Katelynn E Koontz – Author

Tom Quartz isn’t sure that this is his best idea. There are usually reasons that animals get put into cages. They are mean, violent, destructive, or dogs. And this one here, it’s certainly not a dog.

Still, the building looks very large and Tom Quartz has no idea where to start looking for Ada. And so, in the end, the tom cat has no choice but to jump up onto a wooden stool. From there, he clambers up onto the counter and weaves past stacks of papers, loose pens, and little plastic containers. The counter butts up against the wall of cages.

It’s easy to jump up onto those, too. Tom Quartz is a tree dweller. He loves to climb! He loves to be up high! Where Slippers prefers to be in the bushes, he can’t stand being down on the ground for too long. It takes virtually no effort to climb, hop, and jump across the various cages and over to where the sugar glider is kept.

Tom Quartz pauses outside of the cage. He asks, “why are you in here?”

“You magic cats have it good,” says the sugar glider. “You can come and go whenever you want. Us normal animals, we’re stuck here. And sure, it’s a nice place but I was bored! Just because I wanted to go see Barlow for a little bit, they tossed me in here! Unfair, I say, it’s unfair!”

Tom Quartz isn’t sure what a Barlow is, but he can’t really blame the animal for sneaking out. That would be hypocritical, considering how often he slips out of the White House and into the Room; considering the fact that he’s stepped out of his own time stream and into a different one.

Instead, he decides to content himself with the fact that the creature is evidently not violent. The latch is a pretty simple one. Tom Quartz rears up onto his back legs and bats at the bobble of the lock with his front paw; it just needs to be flipped down and slid to the left.

The door opens with an ominous creak, and then the sugar glider is out. The little marsupial lands on the cage top next to Tom Quartz. “I guess you do have some use, magic cat. Not much, but some! Now, who did you say you were looking for?”

“The tiger.”

“Well, they’re usually kept in their exhibit. Locked up tight, those one’s. The humans take a lot of pride in how they keep their meat-eaters.”

“I’m looking for Ada. She’s been brought in here. You said that you could show me where she was,” says Tom Quartz, tail flicking impatiently.

The sugar glider nods. “Right, right, right. The one that’s in here. Yes, I can take you to her. I’m Calla, by the way. Do you have a name magic cat?” Tom Quartz opens his mouth to answer, but the sugar glider waves him off. “Never mind, don’t waste your breath. I’m awful with names, so I’ll just forget it later. Come on, now, it’s this way.”

 

Katelynn E Koontz – Author

Tom Quartz makes short work of jumping from the tree to the roof of the building. He is silent. His steps are quick and goes completely unnoticed by the sleeping employee. The little cat slips through the partially opened door and into a stairwell. It’s dark but his sharp eyes let him see easily; there’s nothing here but steps and shadows.

So down, down, down he goes. The stairs level out into a flat surface, leading into a door. There’s no way into that hall, though, so Tom Quartz keeps going down. He has to go down three flights before he finds himself at a door that’s easy to get through; he just has to step near it and the glass panels slide open!

Tom Quartz is quick to run into the next room. It’s large and white. The air reeks of disinfectant and fake orange spray. It smells like the vets office.

Is that what this is? A vets office?

That seems like a very strange place for the tiger cub to have been taken. But, the longer that he walks around, the more it all seems to click into place. This is a vet’s office. There are large cages scattered about for the various animals to go in, and counters that are piled full of papers and orange plastic bottles.

Tom Quartz peeks his head into a room where the door is sitting open. There’s a tall cage on the far wall. A sugar glider clings to the metal walls, small pink fingers curled around the thin silver bars.

Their eyes meet.

For a long moment, neither animal says anything.

Then, in a voice that’s whisper soft, the sugar glider says, “you aren’t supposed to be here.”

“I’m looking for someone,” answers Tom Quartz. He steps further into the room. “Can you help me find them, maybe? Do you know about – this place, do you know what it is?”

“A neutral place,” says the sugar glider. He is small and grey, with black stripes and white fur coating his stomach. “Are you one of us or one of them?”

“I…one of who?”

“The magic animals. They come and go, like the bars aren’t real. I think they might be ghosts.”

“Magic animals?” Tom Quartz flicks his ears. Realization dawns on him slowly. “Oh. You mean like the animals that come visit the tigers?”

The sugar glider nods.

“Yes,” says Tom Quartz. He puffs out his chest, suddenly feeling proud of his title. To think, the other animals here know about them! “I’m one of those animals! I’m looking for the tiger cub that the humans moved in here! Do you know where she’s at?”

The sugar glider nods. “If you can get me out of here, magic cat, then I’ll show you where the tiger is.”

 

Katelynn E Koontz – Author

Tom Quartz, like most cats, is very good at climbing. His nails dig deep into the wood. He scales the side of the tree and hauls himself up onto one particularly solid, sturdy branch. From there, the tom cat jumps up higher, and higher, and higher, until he’s able to see the flat surface of the big building’s roof.

There’s a door leading into a small room. The door is blocked open with a bright blue flip flop, wedged between the door and the wall, stopping it from closing all the way. A young man is stretched out on the ceiling, white lab coat folded under his head in place of a pillow.

“I can go through that door,” says Tom Quartz. He thinks about Slipper, way down below, and tries to figure out how he can get her up here quick enough. “There’s no telling when he’s going to get up and go back in there. If I go down to get her, and then have to come all the way back up here, we might miss our chance.”

Tom Quartz flicks his tail in irritation. He digs his claws into the branch, tail lashing behind him. This is an important part of their mission, of that there is no doubt. The thought of messing it up because he doesn’t want to go in there alone is scary.

“It’s okay,” he says, drawing in a deep breath. “You’ve got this. Slipper’s will understand. She wants this done more than anyone.”

“You found it, found it, found it!” The bird lands on the branch just above Tom Quartz. She clacks her beak together and ruffles her wing feathers. The quills click clack together. “What a smart cat, smart cat, smart cat.”

“You! You called us friends, right?”

“I’m your friend, your friend, your friend.”

Tom Quartz tilts his head back, nearly toppling over sideways in his attempt to look at the bird. He asks, “can you go down and tell my friend that I’ll be back soon? This won’t take me long at all, and I promise to be careful.”

The bird lets out a human sounding laugh. “You’ll be careful, you’ll be careful, you’ll be careful! I can tell her that, little cat, if you will do your friend a favor, do your friend a favor, do your friend a favor.”

“Anything,” says Tom Quartz.

The bird says, “get me a cracker from in there. The people are being very stingy, very stingy, very stingy. They don’t want the kids to feed me anymore and I need a snack, snack, snack!”

Tom Quartz laughs. He’s relieved that the favor sounds like a simple task. “Alright,” he says, turning and starting towards the end of his branch. The tom cat gives a neat hop, landing on the ceiling of the big building. “I’ll get you some crackers, and I’ll bring them back up here. You just make sure to tell Slippers that I’ll be back out as soon as I can. I have a tiger cub to save!”

 

Katelynn E Koontz – Author

Slippers and Tom Quartz have very little trouble getting out of the tiger’s enclosure. The bars are close enough together that there’s no chance for Ebe or Ada to slip through, but they’re far enough apart for the two house cats to push out.

The zoo is done up nice enough. The enclosures have good exhibits and terrain, and the animals are from a vast variety. Slippers finds herself in awe of the different animals; she’s never seen some of them, like the giraffe’s or the murky water with strange, golden eyes peeking out at them. Slippers walks extra fast around these enclosures, unsure if she wants to know more about the strange animals within or just pretend that they aren’t there.

Tom Quartz leads the way. His steps are sure and strong and quick. They make short work of getting to the large building at the center of the zoo. Unfortunately, once they’re there, their progress comes to a screeching stop.

The doors are closed.

There aren’t any windows.

Slippers asks, “how are we supposed to get in there?”

“Stay here,” says Tom Quartz. “I’m going to check the other side of the building.”

“Be careful,” warns Slippers. Her ears flick. Her tail does, too. “We don’t know what’s going on in there.”

“I’ll be fine,” promises Tom Quartz. “I’ll be quick, too. It won’t take me but a few minutes.”

And then he’s off, scampering along the edge of the building. The backside of the large building isn’t any different than the front. The doors are closed, and there are no windows. There is, however, a large sign on the back next to the door. It says employees only in large red letters.

“This is going to be the way in,” says Tom Quartz, firmly. “If we can just – “

“Doubt it,” chirps a loud, shrill voice. A large, green bird lands on the ground next to Tom Quartz. “Doubt it. Doubt it. Can’t get in that way, that way, that way.”

Tom Quartz reels backwards, surprised by the sudden appearance of the strange looking bird. “What – who – pardon me?”

“Humans are careful, are careful, are careful,” says the bird. It clacks his beak together. “Gotta go through the tree. Through the tree! Through the tree!”

Tom Quartz looks around. There is, in fact, a large, twisting tree next to the building. Several of the branches stretch out, over top of the building. “Is there a way in up there?”

The bird laughs. It’s a shrill sound, a poor mimicry of human laughter. “Maybe! Maybe! Maybe! Just try and look for yourself, for yourself, for yourself!”

“Who are you?”

“A friend,” chirrups the bird. “A friend! A friend!”

And, in a time like this, at a place like this, who is Tom Quartz to turn down the offer of friendship?

 

Katelynn E Koontz – Author