Flash Fiction Entries

Bella and Donna

Bella opened one eye, training it on the clicking high heels as they tapped across the parquet foyer. When the door slammed, she rose and stretched, mimicking an arch-backed Halloween cat, except Bella was white. She sauntered over to her food dish, sniffed, winced, and turned to look at Donna, sleek and black, stretched out on the kitchen table.

Bella’s tail twitched just before she jumped over Donna, knocking over the sugar bowl. She flopped down near the table’s end and closed her eyes as Donna jumped on all fours. Donna froze, her tail dragging. She looked at Bella, relaxed into a crouch, and tucked her paws underneath her.

You know I’ll be blamed for that. Donna jumped down and raced to her litter box to scratch in the sand. She shook herself off and padded into the mistresses’ bedroom. Nosing open the jewelry box on the vanity, the box slipped to the floor behind the chair, spilling its contents. Donna sank her teeth around a long opalescent strand of pearls. With a piece of the prey clenched in her mouth, she dragged it to the front door. She commenced to chewing silk thread then shook her head from side to side, scattering pearls until the numbers of them were uncountable. They rolled like miniature bowling balls.

Bella raced in to investigate the hullabaloo. Both cats’ ears pricked up at the slam of a car door, and, together, they skulked off to their favored napping spots.

“What in the world?” Seeing the scattered pearls, their mistress tiptoed through the minefield to her bedroom. “My god, my jewelry’s been stolen. Donna, Bella. Are you okay?"

Donna looked over at Bella, rolled on her side, stretched out all four paws, curled up into a little black ball, and resumed her nap