1.2 - The flat and the cat

This friday noon Kerry was invited by the house owner to take a look at the apartment the social worker in the womens' shelter had found for her. Kerry feels a little nervous. If it turns out that she can't imagine living there for whatever reason then she'll be at the beginning of her search again.

Luckily all her worries are blown away the moment the owner opens the door to her new home. It is simple and cheap but to a pregnant teen coming from the streets it is paradise.

"Ooh, it's nice", she whispers.
It has a kitchen, one bathroom, and two bed/living rooms that are unfurnished aside from a cat tower.

Wait. A cat tower?

"Uhh...", Kerry points at the fat fluffy cat and shoots a questioning look over to the house owner.
"Oh, that's just Richie", he says as if that explained everything. "He believes he is the landlord here."

Richie puffs up to appear bigger. Believes? He IS the landlord!

"He has lived here with the woman who just moved out and with the couple before that and he refuses to leave. I'm afraid you'll have to adopt him for as long as you live here, he's basically part of the interior at this point."
"Oh. Okay.", Kerry answers dumbfounded. Then, a second later, she shrugs and says: "Fine, I'll take the flat and the cat. Please reserve them for me."

***
After that everything goes very quickly. And why wouldn't it? Kerry doesn't have an old home to move out of after all. All that needs to be done is to apply for funds to buy some basic furniture and let the moving helpers do the rest. Hey, she's pregnant, can't expect her to lift heavy things!
And so it is soon time to say good-bye to her new friends.

"Take care, Kerry!"
"You too! And don't forget to come by for a visit when I'm done with the move!"
"So am I invited to the house party?"
"Mhhh... I'll consider it", Kerry says with a wink.
Ramona grabs a soft pillow from her bed and playfully smacks Kerry in her face. "You better not forget about me!"

"Whoa, how dare you physically assault a pregnant girl?", Kerry laughs, grabbing a pillow for herself. "Prepare for a counter attack!"

It's good to have a friend who never fails to make you laugh when life is getting tough.

***
Luckily most of the furniture was paid for by the government, except for a computer; apparently it is not considered essential, so she had to borrow money for it that she will pay back by installments.

Of course it's not the best PC out there but if she can manually overclock the CPU it should be able to run all of  her favourite games smoothly.
Tinkering with all kinds of mechanical or electrical objects has always come natural to her; a skill that will undoubtedly prove very useful when living alone and without the money to call a technician for help.

While Kerry is busy with her computer, Richie finally wakes up from his beauty sleep. All the noise from moving in heavy boxes and putting furniture together scared him a little so he curled up in the cave of his cat tower during these hours. But now that everything has calmed down again he is curious to explore the changes to his territory and get to know his new human.

"Hey, you're awake!", Kerry says and stretches out her hand towards Richie, "So you are my new roommate, hm? I'm sure we will get along well!"
Richie sniffs her hand, then her feet, her legs, and the rest of her, intrigued by the unique scent of pregnancy hormones. He rubs his head against her leg. You know, human, I have children too! Never met them of course, but I think I must have a few dozen in the neighbourhood.

The move has improved her mood considerably and taken away some of her fears for the future. Sleeping in a place she can call home has given her a sense of stability despite her chaotic life.

And Richie always sleeps next to her. He likes his new human, and Kerry likes his company.
Tonight there is no place for nightmares.

Unfortunately waking up is much less pleasant than falling asleep. The back pains and morning sickness make her feel miserable despite her excitement - her feelings have shifted from fear to excitement in the last weeks - for the baby.

But there was also a change in her body that she was quite happy about: a baby bump had practically appeared overnight! It had barely been showing until she was already halfways through her pregnancy and even though the doctors assured her that she and her baby were healthy it had still worried her.

Kerry knew nothing about pregnancy or babies when she got the news, and to make up for that and feel prepared she has been reading a lot about these topics recently. She spends a lot of her time in Bridgeport's library or at her computer to answer all the questions she has from 'When will I be able to feel my baby kicking?' to  'Is it safe to use a microwave during pregnancy or will it make my baby come out radioactive?'

One of the things she learns about is toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease many people carry inside them without any symptoms, but gets dangerous for pregnant women. It is usually spread by eating or preparing raw meat, gardening, or... cat feces. Too bad she had just adopted a cat.

"Hey Richie, how about you go outside to pee for the next few weeks so I don't have to clean up after you?"

Richie doesn't think so.

Well, Kerry is either going to have to buy some gloves or someone has to come over to help her.

This someone is of course Ramona, who comes by as often as she finds time to. Ramona is a few years older and has a little toddler herself so she can give Kerry lots of helpful advice; a support that Kerry is very grateful about since she knows nothing about pregnancy or babies and has no one else to talk about it outside of her weekly appointment in The Helping Hand.

***
A few weeks later Kerry is finally done with everything moving related, has grown closer to her new friend Richie, and her belly is as big as it will get. Not much longer and she will hold her own baby in her arms.

Richie, who can smell Kerry's hormonal changes and sense her growing excitement, is fascinated too. That's a huge belly, there must be at least, like, 5 or 6 human kittens in there!
"Do you think the baby can hear your purring, Richie?", Kerry asks as Richie snuggles up to her. Thinking about it, she was quite lucky that her new home came with a new cat as well. Being able to grow up with pets is a blessing for every child, not to mention the benefits on their health!

When Richie loses interest Kerry stands up from the couch to admire herself in the mirror. She just can't stop inspecting her baby belly at every given opportunity.
Is it odd to be proud of stretch marks? Kerry is a little vain and cares a lot about her appearance, but she has to admit she's quite fond of these new battle scars. They make her stomach look like tiger's skin, which she thinks is pretty badass.

Kerry hopes the due date will be around soon. She's so ready to have this baby.

***
Wednesday, 1:53 AM.
She's SO not ready to have this baby!

Her entire midsection hardens on every contraction as she moans in pain.

And when her pants suddenly feel wet the panic kicks in. That must mean she's in labor now, isn't she?!

So do you call a taxi or ambulance in that situation? Isn't a taxi too expensive? Can she wake one of her neighbours and ask them for help? And, most importantly, why has she not prepared for this moment in the months before?!