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Newt had never met a cat before. She had seen pictures of them, and even wrote about them for school once. But she’d never met one before, until now.
“I guess Jones hasn’t met any little kids either, has he?” Newt asked as the last trace of Jonesy’s orange fur vanished behind the couch.
“No, I’m afraid he hasn’t.” Sighing, Ripley crouched down and tried to look behind the couch. She was real tall, and definitely couldn’t fit. “Jones, you silly cat. Get out here. This is our new home, and Newt is part of our family now.”
Jones didn’t come out, but that was okay. Ripley had said he grew up on a ship after she got him as a kitten. The only other place he’d known was Gateway Station, and that was a lot more like a ship than a planet.
Newt kind of felt like hiding too, even though she was happy to be here on Earth with Ripley now. It wasn’t anything like her old home. Earth had plants all over the place, and the weather was nice enough to spend all day playing.
But there weren’t any vents to hide in if a monster came.
The monsters still came every night, at least in Newt’s dreams. Sometimes, afterwards, she crawled into Ripley’s bed to sleep. Other times, she just hid under her own bed.
One night when she woke up from a dream about being chased through the vents, she opened her eyes to find something small and light colored in bed with her. Heart pounding, she opened her mouth to scream. Then, she closed it.
“You’re not one of the little monsters that goes inside people.” Newt’s hand shook as she reached out, but she wasn’t scared anymore. “You’re a cat. I read about how cats like to curl up in beds. Or did you come in because I was having a scary dream?”
Jones blinked slowly at her, then rubbed his face against her hand. When she petted his soft orange fur, he didn’t run away. Not this time. Maybe he was getting used to her.
“You saw a lot of bad stuff too, huh?” Newt asked him, running her fingers down his striped side. His front paws started to move up and down on the blanket, kneading it. “Ripley told me. She says we’re all survivors.”
After rubbing his head against her hand again, Jonesy jumped off the bed. He didn’t run away from Newt now, either. He stopped and looked back at her, the tip of his tail curled like a question mark.
“You want me to follow you?” Newt slid out of bed. “Or do you want to see my hiding spot first? It’s just the space under my bed, but I like to go there when I have scary dreams.”
Jones seemed like he wanted to see, so Newt crawled under the bed. He followed her, rubbing against her shoulder.
She turned on the cool flashlight that Hicks gave her last week, then showed Jonesy the things she kept under here. Some pictures of her family that Ripley made the company give them, pretty strings of beads, a few books.
Then Jones started to make a weird rumbling sound, and Newt jerked back. But it wasn’t anything scary, and she relaxed.
“That must be purring. I read about purring. It means a cat is happy.” Newt petted him. He was sort of vibrating now, and it felt cool. “I guess you decided we’re friends now.”
Jones led her from under the bed and took her to his hiding spot behind the couch next. Newt only just fit, but she squeezed in anyway. Jonesy laid down next to a jingly ball, a purple mouse toy, and a pink hair tie that Newt was pretty sure he’d stolen from her.
“You like keeping your things in your hiding place too, huh? Well, mostly yours.” Newt giggled a little and petted Jones while he purred. “I didn’t know cats and kids had so many things in common.”
It gave her an idea. She and Jonesy both felt safer when they had somewhere to hide, and they liked crawling around in small spaces. And there were still a lot of boxes left over from moving in, some of them pretty big.
They could make cool places to hide, and maybe the boxes could even be connected to each other to make cardboard tunnels. She would ask Ripley about it in the morning. For now, Newt put her head on Jonesy’s side, and just listened to his happy purring.