I got a call from Big Cheese. Go to his place for a meeting tonight. The others would be there: Will the Pit, Bloodbath Henry, the three Corgi brothers. Cheese sounded serious. I got there in time but was the last to arrive. Bloodbath was lying on the sofa. He looked really chilled like he was about to nod off. But then he always looked like that. People thought the nickname Bloodbath was a joke. I’m a coiled spring Harry he used to say and I don’t have this nickname for nuthin’. Will the Pit was lying on a fancy-looking rug and was looking admiringly at Big Cheese. In his little dog-like mind Cheese was like the leader of the pack. Cheese always said that dogs were ok but they needed to be guided by a higher intelligence. I hopped on to a cushion and said, “What’s up, Cheese?” Cheese didn’t waste time with small talk.
“Thanks for coming guys. This isn’t a good time for X-Pets. Things are moving against us and it will only get worse. I won’t bore you with the details. You’ve all seen the headlines. Soon the GMA Act will start to make its way through parliament and when that happens public opinion will turn against us. We have a choice. We can either act now or sit and wait for the worst to happen. We can take our own destiny in our hands or we can be victims.”
The corgi brothers looked at Cheese with their mouths hanging open. Bloodbath still looked like he was about to doze off. His paws slowly squeezed and unsqueezed. His eyes shut and slowly opened again. His eyes focused on something in the distance. Will the Pit lay silent, his beady eyes glued on Cheese. I piped up.
“Come on Cheese. The public love me. I’m an A-list celeb. Everybody loves Harry. Have you seen Animals in Bel Air? People are going crazy about it.”
“The public does love you Harry. But the public is fickle. In a few years others will take your place and you will be forgotten. That’s how the industry works. What you do is great and there has never been and never will be another hamster like you. You are a role model for all X-Pets that yes we can be a success. But there is a bigger picture. I can’t speak for all X-Pets or save them all from their destiny. But maybe we can save ourselves, this small band. A band bound together by shared experiences, comradeship and loyalty. Together we stand, united we fall. The strength of the wolf is the pack and the strength of the pack is the wolf.”
“So whaddja gonna do boss?” said Will the Pit.
“Yeah, whaddja gonna do?” said the Corgi brothers.
I thought maybe Big Cheese is talking mousecrap but then again maybe not. Cheese was an ideas cat and his ideas were usually right. Big Cheese replied, “Here’s what I propose. It will need planning, courage, teamwork and Lady Luck will need to smile on us. What do we need in this situation? We need to get a stash together to be able to leave the country and never come back.”
Bloodbath opened his eyes.
“I haven’t got a pet passport.”
“You won’t need a pet passport if you follow my plan.”
Cheese padded into the middle of the room.
“The plan is, we go into Porky’s Palace one night and we come out with a million newros. A million newros at least. Maybe more.”
Big Cheese must have lost it completely. This was just crazy.
“One million four hundred thousand would be the optimum figure because that would give us two hundred grand each. Not a fortune these days but enough. Enough for all of us to get out and make a fresh start. A new start away from prejudice and persecution, away to a place where we can build new lives based on dignity and freedom. What do you say guys, who’s in?”
Will said ok boss. The corgis were in too. Bloodbath Henry said why not. And Harry, Harry said go for it.
Cheese said, “That’s great, now we can start to plan the details.”
In other words, Cheese would plan the details. I was off to Club Magik. If the Porky’s thing came off it would make me even bigger. I could maybe break into Hollywood, proper Hollywood not just reality TV stuff.
Cheese said we should meet here again tomorrow at 8 o’clock. Then he jumped onto his computer chair. So tomorrow night it was. That’s how the gang started to meet regularly. We met up the next evening and Cheese went through the plan. I always said Cheese had a good head on him. It was crazy stuff but if it worked…..
House of Glass 