7/17/17
This morning a black cat I’d never seen before came strolling into my office. I wondered briefly about how it got in, but it looked at me and mewed sweetly so I got out of my chair and bent down to pet it. If it was friendly, I reasoned, I might be able to cary it around the block to look for missing cat pictures. It was a beautiful cat, sleek and shiny with deep green eyes. As I scratched behind its ears its mouth opened to a gaping yawn. I pulled my hand back out of caution and the cat began to laugh, a low rumbling chuckle issuing from somewhere deep inside its gullet. It laughed so hard it fell over and was rolling around on the floor, its mouth opened wide and the laugh still issuing from within.
“August? You figured out how to possess something?” The cat stopped laughing and jumped to its feet. Its mouth opened wide again.
“Damn! How did you know it was me?”
“Really?” I looked down at him, the cat was beautiful, but to my surprise I hoped the form wasn’t permanent. I pictured August’s lean figure and haunting eyes. I could see the weird quirk to his smile and how rakish he looked when his hair got messy. Then, I took a deep breath and erased the vision from my mind. I’ve been with him too much. I resolved to push him to find Evelyn, I need to get a normal life back.
The cat opened it’s mouth again.
“What’s my card, Writer, I feel a nap coming on.”
“Oh, here,” I held it up to him, “reversed Seven of Wands. I think it means you have to get out of your own way. Come to terms with the fact that Evelyn is in Hell and that being with her means you’ll end up there, too.”
“I don’t want to do that.”
“You have to.” I waved the card at him, he swiped at it with a velvet paw, “by order of the Universe.”
“Ballocks,” the cat muttered with a wide gape before it sauntered off, tail high in the air.