a kink in his tail

I pile two sugars into my latte and add one more to help keep me awake.  As I lift the cup to my lips I feel a slight tingling on my skin from the light but warm breeze that sweeps the esplanade so early in the morning.  Its only 5am, but already I can tell it’s going to be a scorcher.  It’s a good morning to meet him here. I have no air conditioning and it’s not likely that I will sleep anyway.  The breeze finds an empty bottle and I listen in an almost meditative manner to the sound of it rolling along the concrete until, clink, it finds a gutter to rest in. The breeze grows a little stronger as if in contest with the gutter, but its not enough to push the bottle out and keep it rolling. I feel it lift the hair from my back and as the breeze dies down my hair returns to delicately tickle my neck and shoulders. My eyelids droop a little and I look out to the sea and contemplate spending the day lying on the sand and ageing my skin just a little.

‘You owe me breakfast!’ My body jolts in response to the loud voice; my arm hits the underside of the table knocking my sugar-laden coffee across the glass top. I grab a bunch of serviettes from the silver holder and begin mopping up the spilled liquid.

‘Are you going to give me a hand?’  Still mopping I flash him an impatient look. He stands there for a moment grabs another handful of serviettes and passes them to me.

‘Thanks’ I mumble

‘Hey, haven’t I done enough in the last 24 hours for you? I mean where did you disappear to between 1 and 3 last night?’  I watch him take a seat, place his hands on his head and raise his eyebrows in expectation of a good response.

‘Oh you noticed?’ I look down to hide my embarrassment and realise I have hold of the drenched serviettes. I quickly squish them into an unused ashtray and place it on another table. Sure it is work for the wait staff, but nothing compared to the work I have to do all night every night.

‘How could I not notice? There were three of us on and with you gone we were run off our feet’

‘Sorry, something came up. I tell you what...’ I pause, ‘I’ll buy you breakfast’ I flash him a hopeful smile that this will suffice.

‘You already owe me breakfast, you’ll have to do better than that’ he laughs ‘this time I want an explanation. I mean where do you go when you disappear like that? What you keeping secret? Or do you think I wouldn’t understand?’ His tone is slightly deeper than normal. He lowers his chin and narrows his eyes, looking at me slightly sideways indicating mock suspicion. We both know that given the events of the past few weeks, it is unlikely he will believe anything I have to say. Still, he’s a good listener, and even if he doesn’t believe last night’s events, I’m pretty sure he has grown accustomed to or even fond of my recollections.

‘Strange things just happen to me’ stating the obvious seems as good a way as any to explain my absence. But before he has a chance to mock my introduction the waiter appears at our table. I’d already scanned the menu and decided on blueberry pancakes, which to my surprise he orders too. ‘I thought you didn’t like blueberries?’

‘I don’t, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t steal any of my food’

I wink and smile. It’s true, I’m the kind of person who always wants what someone else has. I like to think it just that am bad at ordering,

‘So spill, where’d you go last night and what’s got you all so shaken up?’ looking impatient

‘Well, at about 1am I heard a strange clinking noise coming from the back stairs, so I went to look what it was.’  He slid back in his chair and leaned forward across the table to listen more intently.

‘You mean like someone was trying to break in?’

‘No no, it was like spurs, as if someone was walking around out back wearing spurs’

‘Spurs?’ he screws up his face ‘like in the wild west?’

‘Yeah, just like that.’

And you went out back to check it out!?! You’re crazy!, there are all kinds of weirdo’s in this city late at night. Next time you get one of us!’ he was a little insincere with this comment. Both of us know that if I had’ve asked him to check it out he would’ve decided it better for us all if we ignored it. Or called the police. It’s not that he would think it too dangerous, just that we get paid so little, it would be hard to justify taking any risks at all. Still I appreciate the gesture.  It’s reassurance that if I wanted to be romantically involved with him again, he would probably be interested.

‘Ok ok, but it turned out to be nothing, well at least I thought it was nothing. Well, it was a cat.’

‘Of course it was a cat’ he slumps back into his chair and folds the rim of his cap over his eyes as indicating disinterest in hearing anymore.

‘Fine, you don’t have to listen if you are not interested, I’ll just head home’ I grabbed my handbag, slid the chair back and went to stand up. He quickly grabbed my arm, I turned to him in anger and saw him looking intently at me intently.

‘’You said you wanted to talk, so I’m here to listen ok?’

‘Ok, sorry, I’m just a tired’ I said sitting back down and placing my handbag on my lap.

‘I am too, but that’s no excuse to loose it, I’m here to help, or listen or whatever it is you think I can do’ he leans back in his chair and motions with his hand to continue. I smile.

‘Well, when I went out back I saw this cat and he was wearing a bell that made a sound like spurs clinking when he walked. I went out and sat on the back steps and he came straight up to me and rubbed his body along my legs, and began purring. I began stroking him. He had soft fur. But a strange kink in his tail’

‘Maybe his tail got run over’ he chimes in

‘Yeah maybe, but it looked more like someone had deliberately bent it. Anyway that’s not important, he kept placing his head on my lap, over and over again. At first I thought he wanted me to pat him on the head. But then he would meow like he was in pain when I tried to. Then I realised he wanted me to free him from the bell. I thought for a moment that perhaps his owner would be upset if took it off, but the bell looked very heavy and it must have been causing him pain. So I took it off. No sooner had I done that did he scurry off into the shadows across the ally.’

‘So you’re all upset that the cat used you to escape?’ he let out a chuckle and gave me an endearing smile.

I raised my eyebrows at him.

‘Ok ok, I’ll just listen’ he said

‘ Anyway, I put the bell into my pocket and open the door to come back inside and I hear begin wailing. Kinda like the sound cats make at night before they have a big fight. I spin back around and look around the alleyway for him. I can’t see him, but then I see a shadow of the end of his tail, the part after the kink, on the wall right at the end of the alleyway. The shadow makes it look like an arrow. I watch it disappear around the corner. I then ran to see where it went,’

‘let me get this right, you left work to follow a cat with a kink in its tail?’ he says screwing up his face a little to demonstrate a little annoyance. Another insincere gesture. I know he is fond of me, but it’s important that he shows he’s not easily walked over. I ignore his comment.

‘So I run out onto the street and he is nowhere to be seen. In fact the street is completely empty, not a single car or person in sight’.

{/left}