Prologue (As if This Story Needs One)

 It was morning, and I had just poured myself a cup of hot tea when my cell phone rang. Recognizing it as the number for one of my patients, I answered it.

“Hello,” I greeted cheerfully.

“My baby is coming!” my patient, Setsuko, shouted.

“Now?” I asked. “I’ll be right there.” I hung up my phone, gabbed my coat and car keys, and rushed out the door. I didn’t even fix myself a piece of toast. (I was driving not running away.) I got in my car and hurried out. I needed to get to Setsuko’s quickly!

On my way there, a policeman stopped me for speeding and running a red light. “Can I see your driver’s license?” he asked, and I obediently handed it to him.

I should’ve shaped-shifted into a bird or something. That probably would’ve gotten me there faster anyway. It wasn’t too late to turn into a bird. Ditch the policeman and my car; I’d deal with the consciences later, or maybe I could simply remain a bird for a while. Of course, I also had the option of just being honest. “Listen,” I told the officer. “I’m a midwife, and one of my patients is having a baby right now. Which is why I’d really like to get to her as soon as possible.”

The officer looked over my license and then examined me for a moment as if trying to decide if he believed me or not. “Your patient is having her baby right now?” he asked.

I nodded.

He handed me back my license. “You can go.” Before I could drive away, he turned back as if changing his mind. “Actually,” He said. “If you want, you can go park your car over there, and I can give you a ride to your patient’s house.”

“Huh?”

“You don’t have to take up my offer. I was just wor—”

“Thanks,” I interrupted. “My car moves just fine, but if it makes you feel better you can follow me and make sure nothing happens.”

The truth was I didn’t like to leave my car unattended especially in public. My younger sister, Hina, stole it from me once, and I’m still amazed I got it back. Fortunately, everything necessary to drive still functions; I had to replace the driver’s side window, and the radio doesn’t work. I don’t know what Hina did to the radio, but joke’s on her! After I got my car back, I dug out my childhood cassette player and placed it on the passenger seat. (Why did I still have that old thing? Who cares!) It was just sitting there now, for I didn’t turn it on being in a hurry and all.

I got to Setsuko’s in time to help deliver her baby. The officer (as promised) followed me there, but he left as soon as I went inside. Setsuko’s husband, Sasuke, greeted me at the door and lead me to his wife’s room. Even Miya (their daughter) and Samu (their cat) gave me space as I entered. Usually those two are all over me.

After Setsuko’s baby was born, I put my hand over him, and muttered a protection spell. I handed him Setsuko.

Miya slowly approached me, “You pull Thing out Mama.”

“Yes,” I said. I hoped she would eventually stop referring to her little brother as “Thing,” but I suppose that was between her, her parents, and their cat.

“You brave,” Miya said. “Thing scary. Mama cry, so Thing scary.”

“Miya!!” said Setsuko. She turned to me. “Sorry, Dr. Takei. I just don’t know what to do with her sometimes.”

It flatters me that she calls me Dr. Takei. First of all, I’m a midwife, not a doctor. I’ve corrected her about this before, but Setsuko still insists on referring to me as “doctor” simply because she views it as polite.

“No need to apologize,” I told Setsuko. I then turned to Miya. “You’re right. My job can be scary, but it’s also very satisfying. Your mom is happy now.”

“What satisfy mean?”

“Merrrow,” Samu cried, and rubbed against Miya. Both the girl and the cat started purring.

“Samu know word ‘satisfy,’” said Miya. “Samu tell me.”

I’m not sure what the cat told the girl, but it was true she could talk to him. Miya was a neko musame, which means one of her biological parents was a bakeneko. Although I couldn’t say which one, for both Setsuko and Sasuke Mishima were human. Maybe one of them had a relationship with a bakeneko in the past, or maybe Miya was their adopted daughter. It’s not something I ever asked them, and if either Setsuko or Sasuke wanted me to know, they would’ve told me by now.

“Samu,” Setsuko looked at the cat. “I’m glad I have you around to teach my daughter anything a human can’t teach her, but you could at least give her parents the satisfaction of teaching her something a mere human can know?”

“Meow. Ssss.”

“He say, ‘no,’” Miya interpreted. “He grown up cat. He do what he want.”

“You’re younger than Miya!”

“Meow.”

“No matter, he still grown up cat.”

“I swear that cat’s going to be the one walking her to school,” Setsuko muttered.

“That might not be a bad idea,” I said. “As long as he actually takes her there.”

Setsuko glared at me. “You were on Samu’s side all along, weren’t you?”

“I don’t take sides in family arguments,” I said.

“Merrrow.”

“He say you lie,” Miya interpreted.

How dare he!! “Ok,” I said. “I don’t take sides in family arguments unless it is a life or death situation, which this is not or if it involves my own family, which this particular argument does not.”

“Merrrow.”

“He say you still lie.”

“And why does he say that?”

“Meow. Merrr-oww. Merow merow.”

“Last time you here, you say Samu normal cat, not bakeneko. Normal cat can no ride bike.”

Seeing no other way to escape this conversation, I decided to change the subject. (Or at least steer it back.) “Have you thought of a name for your son?”

“Handa,” Sasuke said.

Setsuko nodded. She looked directly at Sasuke. “I told my husband that if we had a boy, I would name him Handa. I intend to keep that promise.”

I found it amusing that she said “I promised my husband” to her husband as if he wouldn’t know. Then again, Sasuke wasn’t usually the type to interject himself into conversations, so maybe he needed that reminding.