Chapter 6 Hawaii (6) Whose kitten are you? ...
The parrot struggled to lift one leg before noticing the handmade leather anklet on the other's ankle.
A light-colored thin rope chain was attached to the anklet, with the other end tied to a pillar of the veranda.
The distance isn't short, so it doesn't affect the parrot's normal activities, and it can fly a little, but it restricts its freedom to fly around aimlessly.
The budgie pecked at the chain with its sharp beak: "Untie this."
I hesitated for a moment.
No matter what, the parrot is Richie's pet. What if she helps it untie the rope and frees it, and then it goes off to somewhere they can't find it?
These birds are all mischievous; she can't guarantee the parrots will listen to her.
Chichi: "I can't untie it for you. You need to ask your master's permission first."
1221 echoed the kitten: "That's right, it ran away as soon as we untied the rope, it won't listen to us and help us find the ring."
The kitten, unable to help, jumped onto the fence and said to the parrot, "Goodbye, parrot master, we have things to do, we'll be going now."
"Wait a moment--"
The kitten was stopped by the budgie's loud calls.
The other party's eyes darted around, and it assured the kitten, "I won't fly around randomly, I'll just play."
The kitten hesitated for a moment, but 1221 steeled itself and asked, "Can we trust the promises made by the bird?"
“We’re not here to play with it; we have a glorious mission to save Mrs. Mailer.”
Chi Chi nodded: "You can fly and I can run, the two of us are enough."
"Let's go. Kara's about to get off work, let's go investigate her."
1221 urged her to get down to business: "Detective Cat on the move!"
"Sorry, parrot." The kitten jumped down from the fence. "I'll bring you fruit next time."
After returning from Richie's yard to Mrs. Mailer's house, I lingered under the bird of paradise, waiting for Carla to finish her day's nursing work.
As the sun set, she watched as the other person supervised Mrs. Mailer taking her medicine, helped her from the veranda into the house, settled her in, said goodbye, took her own things, and closed the gate to the courtyard.
“Let’s follow her.”
Chichi said to 1221, then jumped off the wall and quietly followed the other person.
The humans remained completely unaware until they left Elima Street, heading straight home.
Mrs. Mailer's small courtyard is not far from her apartment building; it's just a ten-minute walk away, no need to take a car.
I followed the other person slowly through the park that I mentioned last time, past the beach by the street, and towards the main road.
During this time, they made use of every available cover, low roadside green belts, parked cars, and old furniture piled up on the street...
They were even harassed by seagulls passing by halfway through the journey, and almost got into a fight.
A kitten's ability to detect and counter-detect is far superior to that of an unsuspecting human. Kara, on her way home from get off work as usual, had no idea that she was being followed by a cat.
She walked briskly, and her complexion was noticeably better on her way home from get off work than on her way to work. She occasionally nodded and greeted passersby.
The transparent orb of light helped her scare away the seagulls, and the kitten quickly followed the human who disappeared around the street corner, following him all the way into the apartment building.
There was no one guarding the downstairs area, only a security gate.
Just as Kara swiped her card and entered the access control system, the kitten was blocked outside and watched helplessly as the other person went in. While the kitten was thinking about how to get through this barrier, a middle school student with a backpack and headphones walked in humming a song.
He didn't even notice where he was standing, and with a "beep," he swiped his access card and opened the door.
After waiting for a while, he seized the opportunity and followed the other party inside.
Feeling something brush past his feet, the middle school student looked down in confusion, but found nothing. He muttered to himself as he walked toward the old-fashioned elevator.
The student and Kara stood side by side waiting for the elevator, while the kitten hid behind a huge potted plant as it entered.
I was quite nervous before entering the gate, but I didn't expect to get in so easily. However, once inside the apartment building, the real obstacles began.
The kitten said to the system, "Go and see which floor she lives on first. I'll wait for her to go up before I go up."
1221: "But by the time you go up there, she'll probably already be home. How are we going to get into her house?"
This is a problem that has been around for a century.
Unlike detached houses with courtyards, apartment buildings don't have walls for cats to climb over; instead, they have thick security doors.
For a while, I couldn't think of a solution. Being a real detective was too difficult for a kitten, so I could only take it one step at a time: "The elevator is here, you go in first."
The cat and the ball split up and went their separate ways. 1221 followed and remembered the floor that Kara pressed, using his mind to tell the kitten.
"Fourth floor."
Chichi wanted to avoid humans and take the emergency staircase, but just as the kitten was about to climb the stairs, a beautiful woman in her early twenties wearing a leather skirt called out to her.
"Whose kitten are you? Which floor do you live on?"
The other person held onto the elevator door and asked the kitten.
He followed the elevator into the lobby, remembered the floor the system had mentioned, spotted the number above, took two steps back to gather his strength, jumped up and pressed the button for the 4th floor with his claws.
The human's beautiful red lips were so shocked that they couldn't close them for a moment, regretting that she hadn't taken out her phone to capture the scene: "How did your master teach you? How can you be so amazing!"
She slowly and politely raised her chin; this was just one of the most basic skills she possessed.
The elevator ascended to the fourth floor at a moderate pace, and the kitten heard dozens of compliments during this time, maximizing its emotional value.
The elevator doors opened, and another human was about to continue upwards. The kitten went down first, and before leaving, it rubbed against the beautiful woman and meowed at her. The elevator doors closed as she waved goodbye.
The kitten turned into a cat detective and found Kara's address by answering 1221's call.
The corridor was dimly lit, covered with an old beige carpet with some stains, and had closed doors on both sides.
Kara's room is number 405.
1221: "I can't go in with her, I'm afraid if I go in, I won't be able to get out tonight."
Chichi pricked up his ears and pressed his ear against the crack in the door of 405, listening carefully to what was happening inside.
There were sounds of people moving around inside; it seemed like they turned on a tap and then a television, from which news broadcasts were coming on...
It sounds perfectly normal.
Unfortunately, she couldn't get in and couldn't check every room in the house like she could at Richie's.
She couldn't reach the peephole, and the little cat detective's search progress came to a standstill.
Kara waited in the human apartment building until dark, showing no intention of going out. 1221 tried to persuade the kitten, "Now that you know Kara's address, it's not like we've gained nothing..."
"There's no point in staying any longer. We might as well go back and discuss a plan before trying another operation."
He was pacing back and forth in the emergency exit when he heard 1221's words. Something came to mind, and suddenly a flash of inspiration struck him.
"I see!"
On the way back, 1221 asked curiously, "What do you know?"
“Our plan for the next operation,” the kitten said, quickly crossing the park and returning to Elima Street. “It just might require some more help.”
I climbed up the wall next to Mrs. Mailer and Uncle Richie's house again, and lingered watching the budgies tilting their heads to watch TV under the veranda.
Richie's fishing net, which he had used to go fishing today, was casually tossed aside. The sound of a television could be heard from inside the house, and a figure was moving around inside the door. The person had just finished dinner and was wandering between the kitchen and the living room.
The parrot watched TV and mimicked speech, imitating the intonation and sounds with great seriousness.
"...Maui firefighters are battling a bushfire in the Kaanapali area."
“I’ve come up with a plan,” Chichi said to 1221, “that requires the parrots to come with us.”
A note from the author:
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