Cinnamon sticks and cats |
"You forgot the cinnamon sticks", a very mellow, sleepy voice said. A slow blink of the jeweled orange eyes and faint whisker twitch accompanied the words. I've gone mad, I thought before the blackness overtook my senses and I collapsed in a heap with the cat statue and backpack under me in a puddle that smelled suspiciously like cheap beer. I hoped it was beer and not piss, neither were out of the ordinary in parking lots in the Vieux Carre area close to the edge bordering the Warehouse District. My backpack squirming under me brought me back almost as fast as the smelly wetness seeping into my skirt. I felt a sting of skinned knee setting in and saw a thin rivulet of blood begin to flow. "Dammit, of all the days." "Get off of me!", came a muffled hiss from my bag. I opened the bag as I stood up and beheld a small kitten size cat with a front paw that was white. In the same spot the statue had had a white paw. "Nope, not today, I'm not doing this today!" "Doing what?",the small cat asked. Another slow blink and some grooming motions started upon the displaced fur. "I'm not talking to you. I'm not going back to the hospital for believing that you are real. Once was enough as a kid for telling the priest I saw fairies." I declared all this while shoving the pack into the car and digging out my first aid Ziplock bag of first aid supplies out of the console. Accident prone people stay supplied with things after enough stitches and sprains. I'd given up on medical care long ago and preferred to DIY myself for all I could. The blood was now welling up around the rock that had embedded itself into my knee. "You did see them. I am real and you were picked out for me. I waited a long time. You were supposed to have come for me twenty odd years ago." I was dabbing at my knee and staring anywhere but at the small black ears twitching at me over the open edge of my pack. I scooted it over the front seat and climbed in the dirty black Nissan Altima. "Fine, I'll wait until you're ready to acknowledge me. I've waited this long, just understand the longer I wait, the harder this is for both of us. Call my name out when you're ready to talk." The soft static shock rippled over me as I looked over to see the cat was once again a statue tumbled on its side in the crevice of the seat. I've gone mad again, I thought as I hit the start button and backed out of the parking space. |