[Askoga]: 89.Short Stories.The House

I watch the cars pass me by, the road stretching out forever in either direction. Across the road from me there is wild expanses, and I know that there are more at my back. The wind caresses my old skin, my tattered dress, and whispers lovingly in my ear. I face the street before me, never once turning away, awed, always awed, by the beautiful expanse before me.

Sometimes I get visitors. My favorite visitor—and here she comes now, as the sun begins to set—is the pretty little tabby cat. I took her under my wing when she was just an abandoned kitten, along with her five siblings, but she is the only one that stayed. She has no name, though she has been with me for three years now. She wanders up, bringing a gift, and the wind ruffles her fur, as he is wont to do. He murmurs softly in her ear, and she responds with a delighted purr.

As my friend curls up at my feet to enjoy her rat (for she knows I’d not partake of it myself), I hear the soft roar of an engine. Peering down the road, I can just barely make out a car. The wind whispers excitedly to me, and I too feel that I could dance with joy when I see the car turn into our drive. Visitors!

The car is not a lovely thing, but I suppose neither am I these days. Its blue paint is peeling off, and it has some scratches and dings. It’s been through some hard times, I suppose. The car parks nearby, and a young couple emerges, the woman exclaiming over me. She kisses him on the cheek, then rushes over to me, to embrace me, as it were. She trails her fingers over my faded coat, smiling to herself, and paces a circle around me.

My friend, the cat, hides before the woman can see her. The wind murmurs to me softly, singing a happy tune. I am distracted from the girl by the sight of her young husband pulling suitcases from the trunk of their car. They’ve come to live here! Delighted, I welcome them with loving arms. It will be most wonderful to have young people about once more. And perhaps they will start a family here.

The greatest surprise of all, though, is when the woman returns to the car and lovingly lifts out a handsome grey and white cat. She sets two bowls on the ground nearby, and puts him ever so lovingly next to them. Once he has eaten and drank his fill (for now, of course), he commences to looking around his new home. He and my friend have a bit of a tiff when they first meet, but soon enough they are fast friends. I know, then, that my story will have a happy ending now.