The Lost Cat – Flash Fiction

The Lost Cat

 

“Hello James..I’m looking for Mitzy, you haven’t seen her have you?” Jessica asked her next door neighbor.  Mitzy was her 3-year-old black Persian mixed cat.  She hadn’t come home in the evening and Jessica was becoming anxious.

“Nope!” James replied laconically.  He hated cats and in particular he detested Mitzy, who seemed to favor his rose bushes as her out-house.

That afternoon, Mitzy had still not shown up.  Jessica started looking through her photos and picked one of Mizty in a regal pose.  She made a poster with a word processing program, then grabbed her jacket and started going to all her neighbors and the near-by shops in her area.

Three days passed without any news.  Then one evening, as Jessica was sitting out on the lawn with James enjoying the first warm evening of the season, the heard a tired meow.

Jessica jumped up. Trying to identify from where the sound was coming.  James too was curious.  It seemed to come from the sky at large…somewhere near the old abandoned house across from where they had their homes.

Meow…

A man, driving by,  almost ran Jessica over as she began to dash across the street too distracted for natural caution.  He jumped out of his car after screeching to a halt and began to shout!

“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?  You could get killed that way!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry…my cat went missing a few days ago and now I though I heard her call from that old house.”

“Well to quote Kafka: ‘you should give up looking for lost cats and start searching for your shadow.’ but most of all look both ways before you cross a street!”

Again there it was…the feeble meow.

All three of them now went over to the old abandoned house.  A window was open on the third floor and from the window:: meow!

The man offered to go call the fire department or police.  James felt however that there was no time, so he ran over to his house and got a ladder.

The ladder was just high enough to take him to the second floor balcony that went all across the front of the house.  He pulled up the ladder and continued his climb without the benefit of someone holding it for him.  He got into the window.  The meowing continued plaintively.

Once in the house he couldn’t see much, but followed the sound.  There she was, trapped under a fallen crate!

James was aware that the cat was afraid and probably would bolt once he tried to free her and so would be lost again.  So he trudged down the stairs and tried to find a way to open a door to the outside.

“Is she ok?” asked Jessica when she heard James behind the door.

“She seems fine, she’s trapped and I think it’s better you try to free her rather than me.  She’ll probably run away.”

He couldn’t find anyway to open the door, but there was a window just on the porch near the door.  He unlatched it and let Jessica and the man who’d nearly run her over into the house.

Up the stairs Jessica ran behind James.  When she saw the crate and Mitzy trapped she ran to it and whispered Mitzy’s name.  The cat’s cry became a howl!  The men picked up the heavy crate whilst Jessica pulled Mitzy to her.

James pulled his ladder into the house and they all trudge down the stairs, through the window and back over the road to Jessica’s house.  Where she prepared a large meal for Mitzie and cocktails for James and Michael their new friend.

Funny, Mitzy never dug at James’ rose bushes after her adventure.

 

This was written for “Quotespiration Challenge” Week 1 The quote to be used is:

“What I think is this:

 

you should give up looking for lost cats and start

 

searching for your shadow.” –

 

from Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami