15 October 2012
"Do you want to go for a ride?", I asked him. It was late at night, so he was light awake. He didn't answer me though. Not knowing his state of mind, one might have found his lack of communication rude. But I knew however, that he meant nothing with it. He just couldn't answer.
His eyes slendered, and saddened. 7 years old, he could still barely talk. Not his fault though, nobody had taught him. His previous family didn't speak to him, they loved him, but they didn't see him for what he could be. He couldn't say a word when we got him. A soul of art, grown up in silence.
Left by his family at only 3 years old, he was found by us in a pure strike of luck. We, being my girlfriend and I, both wanted to fill the hours, and have someone to bond over, ending up in the adoption of him.
"Do you want to have a ride in the car, and look around the area?" Usually, slight modifications would be easier for him. Though often more complex, it was easier. It was mostly the ideoms and widely accepted slang he didn't follow, not the grammar.
He answered yes. Short answers were still easiest. But he got better every day. And I like the taught of it. We alone had taught him to speak, to communicate verbally. When we first got him, it had became clear that he already had all the emotions and thoughts of any other human being, and by the age of 5, after one year in our home, we could speak to him.
Questions like "do you want water?", or "do you enjoy this food?", he could answer by nodding. He had learned the importance of body language by himself.
Yet he had so much to say, and we kept on teaching. He was so eager, he had been silent so long, you could see his eager. The sounds took longest, they were difficult to manage.
We went out to the car, I opened the front door for him. He jumped up to the seat, and lay down on the armrest between the drivers seat and passenger seat. I started the car, he purred. He always did that when I turned the engine on. He placed his tail under his head for a bit, and closed his eyes. When I pulled out of our driveway, he stood up and looked at me.
"Are we driving now?", He asked me. His accent was implacable. "Yes" I answered, as we drove of. You my cat and I.
The Drive • Opuss № I