Day Sixteen - Sidekick

The dreary weather continues on. A grey drizzling sky with no sign of sun in sight. At least with less rain there is less need for all the pots and pans scattered about.

I’m catching up on a bit of paperwork at my desk, when I hear a shriek come from the other room. It sounded like Mary, but also like Calvin too at the same time. I know that realistically, neither of them can be hurt, but I still run over fearing that something else has happened that caused them to both yelp at the same time.

I come into the room to find both Mary and Calvin, perched up on a sofa, arms wrapped around each other, both with a look of terror in their eyes.

Before I can ask them what’s wrong, they both point at the floor beneath my feet.

“There was a m-mouse!” Calvin says while Mary nods along. “And a cat was chasing it!”

Mary pouts, “They both ran through my painting, they left footprints.”

I look down and see small cat tracks in mismatch of rainbow colours leading out the room. The little hint of colour brings a smile to my face.

“I’ll clean it up!” Mary says, but I wave her off.

“No, don’t worry about. I’ll go find the cat and our tiny intruder.” I say and head out of the room to begin my search.

I take a look in all the bedrooms and don’t see the cat or mouse anywhere. It doesn’t appear to be on the second floor.

As I descend the staircase, I spot the cat perched by the front door. The cat looks like a white puffball decorated with grey along its edges. Snow white paws, and an enormous fluffy grey striped tail. The most striking thing about it as I get closer are its blue, slightly crossed, eyes. And to top it all off, the thing has the mouse dangling in its mouse.

I slowly approach it.

I can tell the mouse is still alive as I see it try to wiggle in the cat’s mouth. Now all I need to do it make sure that it stays alive and gets out of the house. The last thing I need is a tiny little ghost mouse terrorizing my guests.

“Hello, cat.” I say and continue to put one foot in front of the other. “I’m not going to hurt you or anything, I just want to make sure that the mouse you’ve got gets out of here alive.”

The cat slowly blinks at me and I swear it must be able to understand me.

“I know you may not believe it, but there are a bunch of ghosts here. I don’t need to add a mouse ghost to the guest list.”

With me saying that, the cat turns around and paws at the front door.

I continue to approach slowly, but finally get to the door and open it for the cat. It dashes out the door, to the end of the driveway. I can see it release the mouse from its mouth and the mouse scampers away.

The cat promptly then turns around and starts running back towards me. It runs between my feet and behind me into the house.

I can’t be upset at it if it’s done exactly as I asked it too.

I follow it into the sitting room to see a strange sight. The cat is twirling itself around Calvin’s legs. He can’t stop giggling as if the cat might be tickling him.

I blink a couple of times; not sure I’m believing what I’m seeing. Then Mary crouches down and the cat nudges against her hand. This is… new.

“Are you two really interacting with that cat?” I ask.

Normally ghosts can’t interact with the living, and I’m very sure the cat is alive. I’m even more surprised that the cat can seemingly sense Mary and Calvin.

Mary smiles widely, “Yes! It’s so soft and fluffy.”

“And what a brave cat to have caught a mouse!” Calvin says proudly.

“Can the cat stay here?” Mary asks, “It did help get rid of the mouse, I’m sure that could earn it a place to stay.”

I don’t see any reason why the cat couldn’t stay with us if that’s what it wants to do.

“It’s up to the cat.” I say, and step out of the door to go back to my work.

Back at my desk, I bring my focus back to my work.

A short while later, I’m interrupted by a sharp meow. I stand up and look down past my desk and at the source of the meow.

The cat stares up at me and meows again.

“Are you checking in?” I ask it.

It meows again as if saying a “yes!” and makes a big leap up onto my desk. It purrs and makes quick work of making my discarded shawl into a bed. It curls up into a perfectly fluffy cinnamon roll and happily purrs as it closes its eyes to sleep.

“I guess I could use a front desk sidekick.” I say with a smile and give the cat a pet before going back to my work.