PART III

Here is Alhambra, a city near Los Anglos in California, USA. The time
is 4:47 on November 17, 2002. There is a coffee shop at the corner of
Main St. and Garfield St. The name is “Carboniferous.”

It is a three-story house. The outside is covered with layered dark
wood siding. The eaves and the roofs are wine red. The whole building
looks like a villa from Switzerland. Otto is wearing a T-shirt and
boxers, standing on the third floor, and leaning forward on the railing.
He is a catman, which has a human body but a cat’s fur, face, eyes,
ears, tail, etc. His fur is mixed from orange, yellow, and black, like an
Abyssinian cat. Now, he is looking at the sky. The sky is very
wide, clean, and colorful. The eastern half of sky is purple. As it moves
closer to the west, the color changes to blue, green, yellow, orange, and
red. Otto keeps watching the gradient sky. His tail waves slowly and
naturally.

Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong. The sound comes from the iron stairs on
Otto’s right hand side. Pong! Asta, who is the waitress with pink
hair, opens the door behind him. “Wanna doughnut?” She holds a
white box with green and red slash lines. When she sees
Otto, “Don’t you feel cold that you are just wearing these?” Otto
turns his whole body around, and points to her left rear side. She looks
backwards. There are a white shirt, black trousers, a brown vest, and a
red bow tie drying in the air. “Oh,” She says. In the early
afternoon, a costumer splattered Otto with coffee. She walks to Otto, and
a white cat follows her. “Nm, doughnut. “

“ Krispy Kreme’s. You bought them?” Otto looks inside of the
box. Seven doughnuts are disorderly arranged.

Asta says, “No, Henry.” Henry is a regular customer here, and he
is very enthusiastic to help this shop. However, he made a lot of
trouble in helping. For example, he brought the customer who
splattered Otto.

Otto picks a chocolate iced doughnut. “Have the kids had them?”
he asks.

“Yap.”

He has a bite. The rich chocolate icing breaks in the pressure from
his teeth, and melts in his mouth with the soft, sweet doughnut. The
crme splashes out of the doughnut and mixes them together. Otto
keeps chewing, closes his eyes, and smiles.

“Hehheh.”

Otto opens his left eye to look Asta, “What are you laughing for?”
He has the other bite and finishes the doughnut.

“I am enjoying watching you eat.”

“Oh, yah?” He turns his head to the other side to prevent her from
watching.

“Want more?” She pushes the box to him again.

He turns back, “Leave them to the others. Karna likes this key lime
one, doesn’t she?”

Asta smiles, “But she said, keep the chocolate and key lime ones
for YOU. You like them, don’t you?”

“Ah? Oh…” Karna is the girl that Otto brought to “Carboniferous”
on a cold rainy day about one year ago. In the rear of the coffee
shop, there are rooms for lease. The owner of “Carboniferous”
helped Otto when he just left the laboratory. The owner gave Otto a
room, a job, and taught him everything useful in this world. One day
the owner left a letter and requested Otto to take care of
“Carboniferous,” Asta, and her white cat. Then he disappeared. Otto
decided to help people like what the owner did. That’s why he helped
Karna, a genius scientist who escaped from the same laboratory as
Otto, and let her live in “Carboniferous.”

“ ‘She said’… So, is Karna back?” Otto asks Asta.

“Yap, she’s in the restaurant.”

“Mmm… Did she say anything… about…uhmm…” Otto touches
his nose and says.

“Doughnuts?” Asta shakes the box a little.

“No…” Otto thinks for a second. “You know what happened to
us in the morning, right?” She nods. “I’m afraid she’s still angry
with me.” Otto says, “Did she say anything about it?”

“Hmm… Nope.”

“Oh…” Otto puts down his ears, whiskers, and tail. He picks an
original glazed one, takes his clothes, and walks to the stairs.

“Are you going to Elsa’s place?” Asta asks. Elsa is a genetic
engineered creature like Otto. She is half human and half plant. Elsa
looks almost like a human, but she has green hair, and green skin.
Some humans broke the banner of her flower store one afternoon in
broad daylight. Otto offered to rebuild a new one for her.

“No… I am going to close the shop, and help you guys have dinner
. I don’t want Karna to scold me again.” Otto stops, and turns his
head to look at Asta, “Why did you ask?”

“Hmm…” she gives Otto a smile, “Nothing.”

“…” Otto says, “Sometimes I really don’t understand you and
Karna.” Then he leaves. Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong.

Asta just keeps smiling.

“Carby, here.” She calls the cat and leans on the railing.

A star is twinkling on the east of the sky.