Cold Hands Ch. 01

"Uh huh!" I commented to my buddy as he dined. "That will teach you for staying out for a day and a half! So, Rocky! What's her name, bud? Well, guess what, I have a new girlfriend too! Her name is Hannah and you're going to get to meet her tonight when she comes over for chow! So you had better be on your best behaviour with her and her sister or I will spray you with the water bottle!" As I scratched Rocky on his neck and the top of his head, I knew it was a hollow threat. He had hissed at some of the male friends who had visited me at home, but he had never shown a bad temper around their girlfriends. He was a ladies man just like me. I chuckled at the random thought.

I left Rocky in the kitchen and made for my master bedroom and my shower. Even though I was already missing Hannah terribly, it felt good to be home in my own place. I sometimes rubbed one out when I was in the shower. But Hannah had taken such good care of me last night, that I had no urges that needed my immediate attention. I was sporting a semi thinking of her to be sure, but I felt none of the urgency associated with carnal lust. I knew that I could easily await for the next time that we were alone together and we shared our intimacy. I washed my hair along with the rest of my body, then I shaved away my stubble. After exiting the tub I dried off with my used towel and blow dried my hair. I usually dried off with the same towel about three or four times before changing it out for a fresh one. After I was done, I dressed in clean clothes then headed to the living room.

I settled into my recliner after selecting a Blu-ray and popping it into the player. I was in a Browncoat mood at the moment and episode 7 "Jaynestown" was the next up in the current rotation. I was very pleased about that because it happened to be one of my favorites from the whole series. Most men who watched the show always fawned over Summer Glau, probably because of her sexy nude scenes. But as for me personally, I was totally crushing on Jewel Staite. Then I realized that even as beautiful as Jewel was, she couldn't hold a candle to my own Hannah. Yup! I had it really bad. I was totally off of the market as of yesterday. A woman had claimed me for her own and I was happy about it. I also reminisced about Season 5, Episode 6 of Castle, "The Final Frontier". Watching Nathan Fillion spoof Firefly was absolutely hilarious. I would have to get onto Hulu sometime soon and stream that episode too.

After "Jaynestown" finished playing, I got up and stirred my stew. Rocky had come into the living room and settled into his kitty bed for a nap. His adventures over the past two days had surely been arduous. I was just returning to my living room when a gentle knock came to my front door. I opened it to find Haley standing there without Hannah. Looking over towards my driveway, I saw a Blue Dodge Charger 4 door sedan with my new girlfriend leaning against the front left fender. She was dressed casually in a button up blouse and blue jeans. Sandals covered her feet.

At least I assumed that person was my new girlfriend. The size and shape of her body fit the description. But I could not see her face because of the rest of her outfit. She was wearing a knitted ski mask, the kind that covers the entire head with three tiny holes for the eyes and mouth. And then over the eye holes, she also wore a sleeping mask ensuring that there was no possibility of peaking out to cheat without using her hands to physically move some part of the costume out of the way and allow her some visibility.

Turning back to Haley I asked, "What is up with the crazy get up?"

"She has been to your house a thousand times or more in her dreams," Haley explained. "But never once does she recall that I came with her on her first time here. When she recalls me associated with this house, oops. I almost fucked up. I can't divulge anything about that. Let's just say for now that I wasn't here on her first visit. So over the years whenever we discussed her dreams, we decided that we needed some form of independent test. She has your home totally memorized, that is if you are the guy she marries and she comes to live with you. She literally knows it like the back of her own hand."

"But all three of us know for a fact that she has never been here before because I never met her until just yesterday. So if she can find her way around without bumping into anything while blindfolded then she passes the blindfold test you mentioned earlier, right? I get it now. I don't know that I like it. But I guess I have to suck it up and let you two do your thing. But I swear to God Almighty above that if she so much as scratches herself, I am going to be extremely pissed off at you two and your shenanigans over all of this who-ha."

Raising her voice slightly Haley said, "We're ready sis." Then to me, "Move aside and close the door." Then she hopped off of the porch to stand silently in the grass and watch the events unfold for herself.

"I'm going to go through the living room and into the master bedroom first," Hannah said as she pushed off of their car and headed towards the front door. "I know that I can find the kitchen easily enough. But if I can already smell his cooking out here, you'll surely try and claim that I just followed my nose to get there."

After I closed the door, I went over to one of my windows facing the driveway and pulled a curtain aside to get a view of what was happening. I watched with curiosity as Hannah approached the steps leading up to the front porch. She walked straight to them and lifted her foot up to the first stair without missing a step. She then ascended to the porch and crossed it reaching out her hand correctly for the doorknob. She stepped into the living room and Haley followed. She stopped midway to the hallway, raised her arm and pointed. It was evident by her motions, even though I could not see her facial expressions, that she was putting in serious concentration for her efforts.

"There is a TV over there. There is a stand lamp in that corner with a worn shade that really needs to be replaced. There is a love seat against that wall and the matching sofa is about two feet away from me right here. The wall paper has geometric designs and just like the lamp shade has probably seen more years that I have been on this earth. The ceiling has had a fresh coat of paint recently and there are faux wood beams supporting it."

With that pronouncement she turned and entered the hallway flawlessly, Haley and I trailing in her wake. She reached out for where the doorknob to the master bedroom should have been, but flailed in open air. "Damn it! It has ALWAYS been closed in all of my dreams."

"It usually is," I quickly spoke up. "No harm, no foul. I have to keep it closed or my cat will sneak in here to sharpen his claws on the box springs. He is a good boy about the rest of the furniture. And he uses the scratch pad that I bought for him. But he just has this thing about the bed and I can't seem to be able to break him of it."

"The cat! I forgot about the cat! Haley, he has the most adorable and affectionate Orange and White cat. You're going to fall totally in love with him! His name is 'Rocky'!"

I didn't see that one coming and was momentarily stunned, but quickly recovered.

"I didn't see any cat." Haley replied.

"Oh! You probably missed him because you're so focused on Hannah. He was napping in his kitty bed in the living room." I informed the ladies.

"Honey, you can move his kitty bed into the bedroom now. I promise that he will not sharpen claws on the box springs anymore after today. You'll see him put his front paws on the bed rail, but he is just stretching. The next time he stretches, you're going to yell "aught, aught, awe" at him and he will finally understand. I dreamed that he immediately trots out to his scratch pad to let you know he got the message, then he comes back to his bed when it is in here."

Rocky chose that moment to make his appearance making a beeline straight to Hannah and purring while rubbing himself up against her legs. Hannah immediately melted. She knelt to the floor sitting on her heels and began petting Rocky. He responded by putting both front paws on her upper thighs and stretching his nose up towards her covered face to give her a nose to nose 'kitty kiss'. Something that he had previously reserved for just me. I was stunned for a second time. Rocky NEVER approached a stranger like this. Never!

"Who's my good boy? Hmm? Who is he?" Hannah toned in her best baby voice as she scratched his neck and shoulders.

"Meowp!"

"Okay, so four post queen sized bed there. Early American style end tables on both sides. Candlestick touch lamps on each. An empty chest of drawers against that wall and a dresser with a hutch mirror against this wall over here. The bed and the furniture is a complete matching set. The walls used to be papered. But less than a year ago, all of that was stripped off and sanded. Then several fresh coats of a medium forest green finished the project. You told me all about how you did it yourself in my dreams."

"Either that, or you have a spy over at Lowe's that knows how much I hang out in their store!" I quipped. Both girls chuckled at that.

By now, Hannah had changed positions to sit cross-legged on the floor having been forcefully wallowed by Rocky into that position. He was now curled up in her lap and bathing his paws. He seemed quite pleased with himself having claimed ownership of a second human for his slave harem.

"Well, before I was told to do something I had not planned on, I was going to demonstrate reaching the kitchen by going back to the living room, then dodging around the table with 6 chairs in the dining room to enter it." Hannah explained removing the two masks off of her face. The back door and the fridge are to the left and the stove is straight ahead. The double sink is the original ceramic sink that the house was built with. It has a chip in the coating near the drain on the left side. The sink is centered in the counter that runs down the right side of the kitchen. But the counter and all of the cabinets are not original. Those were replaced with 'Corian' when it was first released to the public in 1971. The previous owners selected a plain blue because it went well with their china set and the cornflower pattern on the wife's Corning cookware."

Haley looked over at me for confirmation. I nodded my head and replied, "She nailed it. You're welcome to go and check for yourself, but she nailed it perfectly."

"Nah, I'm good. She and Rocky both have me convinced. Look at him, he acts like he has known her since he was a kitten!"

Hearing his name, Rocky stood back up and made his way over to Haley. He raised up on his hind legs putting his front paws on her knee with another short "Meow". Haley leaned over and scooped him up into her arms. Rocky was purring so loudly that my neighbors three blocks away could probably hear him.

"My, my, my. You are absolutely adorable, aren't you? What an angel! So your daddy must be a Sylvester Stallone fan since he named you Rocky, huh?"

"Eh, not really." I replied. "About the only two movies of his that I like are the original 'First Blood' from 1982 and 'Oscar' from 1991. His full name is Skyrocket because he was born on the 4^th of July and his fur is orange colored like fire. I thought about some patriotic names, but in the end I didn't like any of them. Skyrocket fit him really good as a kitten. You should have seen him suddenly burst into a run across my mom's hardwood floors. Fastest kitten that I ever saw."

Now that Hannah had her head coverings removed, she inhaled deeply breathing in the aromas emanating from the kitchen. "Mmm! That smells absolutely delicious! How much longer until supper is ready?"

"It should be ready by now, I just have to cook up a pot of white rice and that should only take about 10 minutes once the water boils. I hope that you like my recipe for beef stew."

"Beef Stew? So what is the rice for?"

"Good answer," I replied as I turned towards the hallway. "We can skip the rice then. My stew is really too thick for serving on rice anyways. I'll serve the cornbread that I made with soft butter on the side then."

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After dinner, Haley was the first one back to the living room since Hannah and I were working together as a team again. This time we did a well orchestrated dance gathering up the dirty dishes and storing the leftovers in repurposed margarine containers. Haley picked up the remote, turning on the television. The menu screen for my Blu-ray disk appeared as the screen flickered to life.

"Holy shit!" she yelled. "Hannah! Honey, if you don't marry this asshole, I damn sure will!"

"What...," Hannah trailed off as she rounded the corner and spotted the display on the TV. Then looking back at me, "Baby! If you have a copy of Serenity, I'll marry you and give you six babies to boot! The first boy is absolutely going to be named Malcolm! And don't argue with me about it!"

"Well, hell. I see that my whole future is already planned out for me and there is absolutely nothing that I can do about it, is there?"

"Honey," Haley chimed in. "If my sister ever gets dumb enough to dump you, I will marry you just because of your fantastic cooking." Then she finished with a middle eastern accent that may have been Lebanese, "I'll be doin' the deeshes for the rest of my lie-eef!"

That elicited a giggle from Hannah who replied with, "It's an inside joke in our family. But seriously! When we were eating pizza and chatting the other night, you never said anything about being a Browncoat!"

"So, you're telling me that you didn't dream about your mystery man being a Browncoat? I thought that this miracle dream of yours told you everything about me. You certainly remembered Rocket from it and his name."

"No, babe. The dream isn't perfect. There are already two or three minor things that should have happened by now, but we skipped right over them. But as I was having the dream, there were certain things that absolutely had to happen at a certain time. Somehow or another, as the dream was unfolding, I just instinctively knew that those were key things and for lack of a better name for them I started calling them milestones."

I started walking towards my cabinet where I stored all of my video collection. "Hannah, sweetheart? I hope that you are really happy with your OB/GYN. Whoever it is, you're going to be visiting with them a whole lot!" I reached into the cabinet easily locating Serenity. "I'll be expecting you to give me six healthy babies sometime in the near future." I grinned as I turned and displayed my treasure.

"Babe, I was already going to make as many babies with you as you wanted. Whether you had that disk or not actually wouldn't have made any difference." Hannah giggled.

I changed out the disk and made my way over to the sofa. Hannah had already positioned herself opposite of her sister forcing me to sit in between them. After I sat down, Haley grabbed my arm and pulled me off center so that I was leaning against her, sort of snuggled. Once she had me comfortably positioned, Hannah grabbed the throw cover and lay herself onto my side and snuggled in tight purring like a kitten. This effectively made me a 'Skip Sandwich'. I would be lying like Pinocchio if I didn't say that I was thoroughly enjoying myself.

I started getting sleepy towards the end of the movie. The last thing I remember is watching River Tam defeat a whole horde of Reavers in solo combat while Malcolm Reynolds succeeds in getting the truth about the origin of Reavers broadcast broadband to all of the colonies. The last thing I remember was watching the Airlock open revealing River standing alone among all of the Reaver corpses.

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...to be continued!