Friday 10 July 2009

Wednesday 15 April 2009

Saturday 4 April 2009

Bella

It was light when I woke up, but I did not rush to get
ready because I had the day off work. I got dressed
and decided to head into town to look in a few second
hand book shops. As I closed the gate and turned
round something jumped on my foot. It was a tiny cat.
It had big black eyes and pointy ears. I tipped my
foot at an angle and shuffled it off my shoe and then
walked quickly around it. I turned around and looked
at it. It stood on it’s hind legs and I thought it
looked like a little bear. It watched me as I walked
to the end of the street and out of view.
After I got into town I headed to my favourite book
shop. There were books all the way from the floor to
the ceiling. I had a couple of writers in mind, but I
couldn’t find anything by them. As I was browsing
through the numerous books in the shop I got to
thinking about things and all of a sudden I had an
epiphany. I finally knew what I wanted to do with my
life. I would be a photographer! I would take
pictures of the sea and the wildlife. My pictures would
encourage people to stop polluting the environment. I
would take pictures of sea lions covered in oil. My
pictures would inspire people and immediately I would be commissioned to travel the world with my
camera.
Testing my aptitude for my new found career I walked
to the cliff tops and watched the seagulls for a
little while. It was sunny and I liked the feel of it
on my face, but already I had started doubting my
abilities as a world-famous photographer and decided
to head home. As I traced my steps back down the
jutting cliff top I could feel the breeze coming off
the sea and my eyes began to water.

When I got back to the apartment block the little cat
was still outside, it was stretched out on its front,
yawning in the sunshine. It stared at me as I
approached it. It was very small and thin, it
couldn’t have been very old at all I thought. I
walked past it and went through the gate to my
apartment. Inside I looked at my windswept hair in
the mirror and fixed myself a glass of port. I sat
down and closed my eyes. I don’t know what it was,
either loneliness or compassion, but I got up and went
back outside to the cat. I scooped it up and held it
in the crook of my arm and then I brought it inside
with me. It wasn’t very heavy at all and it didn’t
mind me holding it. I put it down on the floor and it
started looking and sniffing round the place. While
it was exploring I fixed it a bowl of water and a
plate of tuna fish. I knew that cats ate fish and
this one wasn’t fussy because it ate it all in one go.
It mustn’t have eaten in a long time. It was a
pretty cat and it’s fur was lots of different colours,
but mainly white. It had grey and brown too. I
immediately decided to keep the cat so I thought it
best I go see Mrs Carlyle, my landlady. Mrs Carlyle
wasn’t really married. She used to be, but Mr Carlyle
had died about ten years ago. I liked Mrs Carlyle,
she was kind to me and never complained if the rent
was late. I told Mrs Carlyle all about the
cat and told her that it must have been starving
because it was so skinny. She said that it was okay
for me to keep the cat.
“I don’t see that it will be a problem” she said,
“just so long as it doesn’t scratch the furniture and
piss everywhere!”.
I gave her my word and headed back to my apartment.
“Oh and John” she said, making me walk all the way
back to her door, “Old Mr Wright’s place across the
courtyard was burgled the day before yesterday. You
should see the place, it looks like a bomb’s gone off.
The old guy is okay though. Just make sure you
listen out for anything strange okay!”. And with that
she disappeared back into her room, nearly trapping my fingers in the door.
Poor old Mr Wright. He must be about seventy-five by
now. I decided I should probably go and see if he
needed me to help with anything. I knocked on his
door but there was no answer so I headed back to my
place to check on the cat. When I got back it was
sound asleep in a chair. It must have been dreaming
about something because it’s little paws twitched from
time to time. Perhaps it was dreaming of fish. Soon
after, I went to sleep myself hoping that my dreams
would be as enjoyable.

*****

Besides knowing that cats liked fish, I didn’t really
know much else so I decided to take it to see my
friend Clara who had two of her own. When Clara
opened the door I kissed her on the cheek. She
smelled like being on holiday. She smelled of sun tan
lotion and of the sea and I told her so.
I showed her my cat and she looked it over, squeezing
it here and there especially it’s stomach. She
scratched it under it’s chin and lifted it’s tail.
“Congratulations daddy, it’s a girl!”.
I don’t know why, but it didn’t really occur to me
that the cat had a gender, but now I knew that it was
a girl I kind of shrugged as If I had known all along.

Clara told me all sorts of useful information about
cats, like what they could eat and what they couldn’t, about vaccinations and about flea collars. She
told me to feed her up really well because she was so
skinny.
Then she said “Well, what are you going to call her?”.

It threw me, I had no idea. I had just gotten used to
the fact that my cat was a girl and now I had to think
of a name as well!
“I’m…I’m not sure. I’ll have to think of something I
guess”.
After a while I kissed Clara goodbye and left, but
just as I reached the door I had to turn back because
I forgot to take the cat with me.
I got home and left the cat to it’s own devices while
I went to the shop for some cat food. While I was at
the shop I got to thinking about a name for the cat.
After a while I settled on one.
I would call her Bella.

*****

I did as Clara said and fed Bella up really well.
Everyday I went to the shop and bought her food or a
new toy to keep her occupied when I was out. She
followed me around everywhere. At night I would lay
on a chair and she would stretch out on my stomach and
rest her chin in my belly button and fall asleep. She
only did that when she was very young though,
eventually she grew out of it. Sometimes she would
sit and look out of the window at the courtyard
outside. For hours she would just sit and look. When
I saw her doing that I always opened the front door so
she could go out. She would step outside and sniff
around and after about an hour or so she would get
bored and come back in for something to eat or drink.
Sometimes she would sit on my shoulder as I sat at my
desk and look curiously at whatever it was that I was
writing. Other times when I came home from work she
would completely ignore me, but that was the nature of
us.


*****

A second burglary took place in our apartment block.
This time it was Mr and Mrs Johnson’s place that was
hit. I ran into Mrs Johnson the following day and she
started crying and told me that a necklace belonging
to her dead mother had been stolen, but Mr Johnson
wasn’t too sympathetic because he was too busy
worrying about his collection of old books that had
been thrown about during the ensuing mêlée. That evening I
kept Bella inside. I didn’t want her getting mixed up
in any kind of trouble.
The next day I decided it was safe to start letting
her out again and she went back to sniffing around
outside. A couple of days later I opened the door so
she could go for her usual walk outside. While she
was gone I fixed her a bowl of cat food and some water
like I usually did, but she didn’t come back. I
called her from the front door, but still she didn’t
come. After about two or three days I figured that
she must have gone back to her real owners and I
started to feel guilty that perhaps I had stolen a
child’s pet. For three weeks I kept her toys laying
around just in case she came back. But she never did.
So I forgot her.
I packed her food bowls and her toys into a cardboard
box along with some packets of cat food and I pushed
it to the back of a cupboard out of the way. I
started to get used to living on my own again. I
could walk around without her following me everywhere.
I could listen to vinyl without her trying to stand
on it as it span round. I could get a good nights
sleep without her jumping on my face and sticking her
stupid paw in my mouth and I could eat breakfast
without her licking my food. But the truth is I
missed her and I wanted her back.

*****

On Wednesday Clara rang me and asked if I wanted to go
for a drink. I met her at The Pipeline club and we
talked for hours and got drunk on beer and whiskey. I
told her all about Bella leaving me. She said that I
could come over to her place anytime to see her cats.
I said that it wouldn’t be the same but thanks anyway.
We paid the tab and walked home. I got into bed and
started reading this book about rainforests and it
made me sad to learn that over half of the tropical
forests that once covered the earth have now been
chopped down. It was too much for me so I turned on
the television set and stared at the screen. The news
wasn’t any cheerier. It was all murder, war,
starvation, cancer and genetically modified food. I
heard a loud crash over the sound of the television.
I froze for a few seconds then turned the volume down
and listened. There it was again, the noise.
Someone was moving around outside. I heard the latch
on the gate click shut. I got out of bed and quickly
put on some trousers. I couldn’t believe
it. I was being burgled! I was victim number three!
I went to the cupboard and grabbed my wooden baseball
bat. I snuck barefoot through the living room and
into the kitchen to the back door. I couldn’t believe
the audacity of this scum bag thief. I was going to
take out all of my frustration on this fucking
burglar. Sure, if I killed the guy I’d probably have
to do some jail time, but I’d be a national hero, the
jury would sympathise with me. The moon was coming
bright through the kitchen window as I slipped out of
the back door and made my way down the alley between
two apartments. I breathed deeply as I thought about
cancer and starvation, war and deforestation. This is
for Mrs Johnson’s dead mother I thought. This is for
old Mr Wright. But most of all this is for me. I’m
going to make the food manufacturers take all the
chemicals and colourings out of my food and pour them
in the faces of their children. I was going to put
the world bang to rights starting with this one insolent
burglar. I was going to swing a long, hard one. I
gripped the bat until my hands turned red. I gently
lifted the latch on the gate and stepped into the
courtyard.
I thought what the hell am I doing sneaking around in
the middle of the night like a vigilante. What was I
actually going to do when I came face to face with
this petty thug?
I jumped as Bella came darting out
from between two bins and stopped at my feet. I let
the bat come to rest against the wall. I stooped down
and drew her into my arms. I gripped her under her
front legs while her little back legs dangled in the
air.
And then I kissed her.