• Prologue: I Get An Unexpected Dinner Guest
    I woke up that morning to a sound so incredulous I had to sit up to hear better and held my breath; listening to the rasping sound just outside my window in our backyard.
    I listened to it and described it sort of like a strange snake like hiss, but more along the lines of a lion’s rasping, long scratchy and intense. I glanced over at my sister, stiffly, fearing the slightest movement could anger whatever lay beyond the obstructing walls.
    Riley was fast asleep as usual, carefree and lethargic.
    I shivered and rolled onto the floor from my mattress, which was harmless considering that the frame had been broken and that my mattress now lay on the floor. I slowly crawled back to the edge of my bed, the window above it, and grabbed the edge, holding tightly in case I saw what I dreaded most; a creature I had seen in many dreams before, and in the dark corners of my room.
    I breathed heavily and closed my eyes, listening to the churning moaning of the strange organism. I popped my head above the sill and looked down into a minute backyard and sighed with both relief and disappointment as I saw there was nothing in the yard but an oddly misshapen cat.
    I stood up and rubbed my sore knees, still dressed in my nightclothes (normal everyday clothes from the day before) I walked past Riley’s bed with one long last glance then trotted down the twisting stairs and into the kitchen as my bare feet padded against the hardwood floor, making loud blunt sounds. I walked up to the fridge and stretched, reaching up high with my arms and listening as my back and neck popped with each twist and turn of my neck and back. I opened the fridge and felt the freezing air blast against my skin without second notice, colder now in the winter than it was more a blessing in the hot sweaty summer.
    I rummaged through the cartons of milk and behind the low fat yogurt and cheese and meats with my eyes as my mind wandered to the strange cat still sitting watching me from the backyard. I shut the fridge and tensed, looking outside. The cat was still there and had climbed up the step in front of our back door and was staring at me with blind blue eyes. I walked over and smiled slightly, squealing with delight as the mangy cat rubbing up against the glass and mewed. I touched the glass as if to pet him and sighed, “Cute kitty…” I whispered, and stood up.
    Too bad I could never have a cat, because my mom’s side of the family or my dad’s, no matter which, I had inherited allergies to every animal but fish, and you couldn’t coddle fish. Although I did admire koi fish I didn’t really feel like taking care of such beautiful fish, and neither did my mother. I had had some dogs before, about five, but not all at the same time, but it had never worked out. I’d ended up in the hospital in the emergency room with Jetson and Chloe; the hypo allergenic dogs, and my mother had given them away while I was in the hospital.
    I blinked away a tear, I hadn’t even said goodbye, and trudged into the kitchen. Our third dog, Ripley, had been given away due to the fact I couldn’t properly take care of him. I sighed and jumped onto the couch, sliding my blanket onto my lap and turned on the TV.
    The news instantly came on and I grimaced, looking down, I pushed o-7-4 and watched as Spongebob Squarepants came on. I turned up the volume and watched the episode where Spongebob and Patrick adopted a baby clam and helped to raise it, only to have Patrick abandon his duties.
    I felt that way as well, I wanted something so badly, but when I got it, I never knew or made the effort to actually use or take care of it properly.
    The episode ended twenty minutes later and I walked into the kitchen once again, the cat was still there so I closed the blinds to the sliding doors and went over to the fridge, selected a few meats, cheese, and milk, then came over to the cabinet to grab bread for a sandwich. I heard a soft annoyed mew and I looked over to the window that lacked blinds, the smaller one just above the sink, and jumped when I saw the cat perched there on the outside window sill. “What do you want?” I asked it, knowing it couldn’t reply, but wanting a little company. “I guess I should call mom, or the animal police, but you’re pretty cute…” I sighed and pushed away from the counter, and made my sandwich then sat down to eat it, without a plate, as the social feline watched hungrily.