Cat Friendly

Cat Friendly

Anna’s cat had been missing for five days now. She phoned in sick at the floristry where she worked in order to have extra time to look for him, and walked the whole neighbourhood: every single road, alley, garden or backyard she had access to. She contacted every rescue centre in the area. She posted pictures on Internet and talked to her neighbours. That particular morning of a hot summer day, she woke up early, printed one hundred copies of a poster she had designed the night before and walked the streets around her house. She posted ninety-nine posters on every pole, phone box, bus stop, and wall she was allowed to. It said, “Missing cat, please help” and she offered a substantial reward. As she taped the last poster on an old gate she thought that, ironically, she had never, in the past, paid attention to other people’s posters of a lost cat. She wondered who would ever call. She went home, tired and exhausted, and lay on the sofa.
Her cat’s name was Thebes and was the only other soul that shared the house with her. She picked him up from the streets the day of her fortieth birthday, when he was still a baby. For the last six years, Thebes was the only living thing she cared for, apart from her flowers. She had no close family, friends or anyone to cook a dinner for every now and then. When she was a teenager, she was diagnosed Asperger’s syndrome and, as a consequence, she found it very difficult to relate with other human beings. She never really cared about it since she adopted Thebes. He was her best friend and closest family. The cat was like a memory recorder to her. She could see her life through her cat’s eyes, the day she found him, the day she moved out to the new house, the day she felt ill and didn’t leave the bed for a week, the day her father died and the days she cried. He was always there. She could even remember specific ordinary days when the cat would watch her doing the laundry, preparing food, opening the windows or watching a TV show. He was like a camera that recorded every second of her life at home. Losing Thebes was like losing a part of her memory. It was impossible to recall her own life without the figure of her cat, looking from a corner of the room, with his black and white coat, like a judge of her own consciousness. He was an observer, who kept her away from oblivion.
Anna sat down on the sofa, grabbed the last cigarette from the box, lit it up and took a deep puff. Slowly she expelled the smoke from her lungs and blew it towards the only light she had in the living room, which pointed down towards the desk illuminating its glossy black surface, where she had a bunch of rotten orchids in a plastic wrap, and a box of unopened tins of cat food that she bought the day Thebes disappeared. The ringing of the old phone broke through the curtain of smoke that was dancing on the stage and the only spectator answered the phone call. “Hello?”
“Hi, my name is Adam and… I think just found your cat in my garage.”
“Oh! I was beginning to lose hope. Where is he? Where are you? Is he ok? I can pick him up right now.”
“It must have jumped inside my van when I was doing a delivery last week in your area. Today I passed by there and saw one of your posters. The cat has been in my garage for a few days and it matches your description. I haven’t been able to get him out because he seems very stressed and won’t let me pick him up so I’ve just been feeding him hoping he would get friendlier.”
“I need to see him. Where do you live?”
“I own a farm just outside the city. I think the best thing to do is that you come and get him. As I told you, he is quite scared and I can’t get close to him. If you can meet me at the north exit with the M-32, I could drive you home.”
“I have my own car. Lets just meet there and I will follow you to your farm and take the cat. Just to make sure, does he have three of his paws black and one is white?”
“Yes, the front left one, and the end of his tail is white as well.”
“Right, that’s Thebes. I will meet you there in half an hour and thank you very, very much.” She hung up the phone and stubbed out the cigarette in a metallic ashtray she had on the floor and grabbed the keys of the car from the table. She went downstairs and took the cage she used to take Thebes to the vet and ran out of the house.

Her anguish was getting to and end. Soon, she was going to be reunited with Thebes. For days, she had been feeling like a ladybug sinking in the water of a half-empty, flowerless vase but, now, stems of fresh new roses provided the chance for a way out, as well as the precious essence of a missing home.
Anna drove for twenty-five minutes and when she got to the exit with the highway he had mentioned, she saw a white van with no logos or signs and a robust man, of about thirty years old, smiling inside. She stared at him emotionlessly. Adam pointed the direction to go waving his hand through the window. It was odd to follow a stranger to his house but she had no option. She thought of texting the car registration number to somebody to let them know what was she doing, who was she with, but with no numbers of friends in her phonebook, she left a message on her own voicemail at home. She drove for another fifteen minutes behind the farmer’s van. They took a road to the north towards the mountains and into the countryside. After a few minutes he turned right and went over a bridge. The stream was dried and there was no running water. At the end of the dusty road there was an old farmhouse made of wood, a barn and a big extension of fields planted with a range of tulips, daises and sunflowers as far as she could see. Flowers made her always feel better. He got out of the van and she got out the car. He was wearing a baseball cap and a dirty, green overall.
“Hi! Nice to meet you. Sorry I didn’t jumped out of the van to introduce myself earlier, but I couldn’t stop on the side of the runway for much longer, it’s not safe.”
His awareness of what was safe or not, made her feel slightly more comfortable. “ Its fine. Where is the cat then?”
“You can’t wait to see him, can you,” he smiled. “He is in the garage next to the house, I’ll take you there.” He walked towards the buildings.
Anna took the cage and walked behind him. When they arrived at the door of the garage he opened it, went in first and invited her to follow. The room was very gloomy and she couldn’t see anything. She waited at the entrance while Adam, somewhere in the dark, was trying to open a window. A weak beam of light came in from the late afternoon outside. She saw a very spacious garage full of boxes, buckets, farmer’s tools, old furniture and a rusty harvesting machine covered in dust. The ceiling was very high and about halfway, there was a mezzanine, with a set of ladders leading to it from one of the far ends of the room.
“Last time I was here, your cat was hiding behind there,” he said pointing out a pile of sacks full of fertilizer for plants.
She looked at the man, who sat down on a barrel, and moved towards the place where he said her pet was. She whispered the cat’s name while getting closer to the spot. There was a bowl of water and another one with left over food next to a shelf, she looked underneath and she saw her cat. Finally the reunion was possible and all her fears seemed to dissipate in the air, like the early morning fog. She picked up the cat with her hands only to realise she couldn’t lift him up. He had a lead attached to his collar and tied up to one of the legs of the shelf. She turned around quickly towards Adam, but he was already behind her with a shovel in his hands. She felt the iron knocking her head.

Anna woke up in pain in the middle of a kitchen. Her hands and feet were tied to the chair where she was sitting. Her sight was damaged but vaguely she saw what looked like a table in front of her. She felt very dizzy and she could feel dried blood on her face as she tried to move her jaw. Her clothes were splashed with dark, red stains mixed with dust. She remembered what happened and, anxiously, searched the room looking for Adam.
“I am sorry I had to hit you on the head, Anna,” he said from the other end of the table, “I couldn’t let you run away.” He smiled compassionately and continued. “From now on things are going to change for us. I have been watching you for the last eight months, since I started supplying flowers to your shop. You don’t know me because I always drop the delivery before you arrive but I wait outside and, from inside my van, I wait for hours looking at you, attending the customers and watering the plants. You rarely smile.”
“What? Why? Why are you doing this? Let me go!” She screamed at him trying to untie herself.
“Don’t try to force it. I have tied you up with several knots, but if you calm down and listen to me I will remove them. I promise.”
She never understood what people meant when they made promises. Her father once told her that she should never trust a promise from a stranger. “What is it that you want from me? I just want to go home!”
“I tried to approach you in the shop but I was afraid you would reject me. I am a very shy man and I don’t usually talk to anybody, just like you… I started following you everywhere, observing you at home, through your windows, everyday until you went to bed. I know you don’t like to watch movies and that you read a lot of books. I’ve seen you sleeping on the sofa, arranging flowers and stroking your cat. Sometimes I wished I were he, because those were the only moments when you seemed happy. You are very lonely but he makes you feel better. I want to make you happy.”
“I will be very happy if you let me go,” she said wanting to cry.
“You still don’t understand. I love you, I loved you since the first day I saw you. I can’t stop thinking about you. I wanted you to come and live with me. I had an idea but I didn’t know how to make it possible. I waited for many days outside your house thinking how to proceed but finally you helped me. You left a window opened, I guess by mistake; you never forgot to lock it before. I felt as if you were inviting me inside. I prowled in and I checked every room, your drawers, the clothes in the wardrobe, I smelled your perfumes just to feel your essence. I went to the living room and I saw your cat. I cuddled him. He became friendly with me and I took him home hoping that you would look for him. This morning you put up the posters and it was the moment to phone you.”
“All these days, you had him. You kidnapped him! She shouted, “Where is he? What have you done with my cat?”
He stood up and walked to a corner of the room and took the cage she had brought, and put it on the table. Thebes was inside lying quietly. He opened the small gate, took the cat and stroked him. Then he moved toward her and left the cat on her lap.
“He likes me. I think the three of us could be very happy in here. I am also a very lonely man. I have never lived with any other woman besides my mother.” He stared, analyzing her face, “you look so much like her, you know? She disappeared when I was fifteen years old. I’ve been living alone here since then. But now I have found you and I know we are meant to be together. You love flowers and I have millions of them and you can have them all. I can provide for you. Here, on the farm, you have everything you will ever need. I still conserve my mum’s dresses and you can wear them all as well.” He stopped and looked at her in the eyes, as if waiting for an answer.
Anna let go a quiet, painful sob. She looked around moving her head in circles, losing her sight on the corners of the rusty old kitchen. Her tears wiped out dried blood from her face, leaving trails behind, as they ran down her cheek. She looked at her cat and then at the kitchen door that was opened and, with a desperate scream, she called for help as loud as she could.
The cat jumped off her lap and Adam moved quickly behind her covering her mouth with his big hands.
“Don’t shout at me, please, don’t shout at me!”

To be continued