Selene
Copyright© 2022 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 28
Junior dropped us off at the shipping container home. The ocelot jumped down ... stretched...
‘I’ll be back.’
He took off ... last I saw he was heading down towards the river.
I went to the workshop and resumed work on the Dr1. I was at the picky part ... covering. The rudder is the simple part ... it’s flat, not at all aerodynamic. Last week ... when I started the sewing ... the tediousness of it got to me.
I quit.
Decided I needed a cat. Went looking ... found one. That’s my story ... when dad asked.
Daddy said Mom’s cat wasn’t home after the funeral.
No matter ... he was kmown to take to the riverbottom. Dad said Mom said he was often gone.
Her cat ... not his.
He never came back ... I was twelve before dad began to be concerned.
We advertised, LOST CAT. BIG ... REALLY BIG. REWARD.
That was crazy. We’re dealing with city people ... the only contact they’ve had with animals was the illustrated second grade reading books ... the ones where ALL the animals are drawn the same size.
The whole town came with cats ... lost cats ... kidnapped cats ... raccoons ... skunks. Some one brought a fox. Some wanted to know how big a really big reward was.
Daddy laughed and said, “You missed a period.”
A teen girl a little older than me wanted to know how daddy knew.
Her cat wasn’t our cat.
Raul was gone.
Then we gave away ... to a No Kill shelter ... all the catty apparatus mom had accumulated for Raul. And his kibble.
The silver and black ocelot wasn’t back when I finally went to bed.
‘Ya don’t come home at a decent hour ... ya get locked out.’
When I got up ... the kit was curled up in my Oh So Expensive aircraft fabric ... he had kneeded it up in a fluffy pile of shredded clear Irish linen ... FORTY FOUR DOLLARS a yard. $44 a yard not doped. $44 a yard on the bolt ... never mind what it cost installed.
He had the NERVE to complain that he couldn’t get in doors.
‘Mommy,’ he thought, ‘I couldn’t get in so I made do ... aren’t you proud of me?’
“Where were you, young man?” I said.
‘In the basement, but I couldn’t find the stairs,’ said the ocelot.
“We don’t have a basement,” I said.
‘That explains it.’
“What?”
‘Why I couldn’t find the stairs.’
I had to give that a think ... what I thought was...”Show me.”
So ... after breakfast ... I put on hard soled boots, a hard hat and my canvas onesie and the two of us walked over to the edge.
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