Harry
Julie and I sat perched on our adjacent front doorsteps. It was a hot day. Our cats lay in the shade.
I told Julie about my favourite ever cat, X – not my current cat, Lodger, for whom I provide food and shelter.
She described a white cat called Harry, whose ears had to be smeared with sun protector. “He loved to bask, unfortunately. We thought of putting a hat on him, fixed under his chin with elastic. But he’d never have stood for it.”
Harry was vocal. “My mother-in-law, I’ll swear she talked to him in cat language. He’d sit on her lap and they’d chat away.”
After his cancer spread, the vet told Julie it would be cruel to take Harry home again. Her mother-in-law was grateful to have spent a last afternoon with him.
Julie didn’t cry, but her eyes looked sore. “I miss them both.”
The cats gazed at us with contempt.
Frances Gapper lives in the UK’s Black Country. Her micros ‘Plum Jam’ (FlashBack Fiction) and ‘She’s Gone’ (Wigleaf) appeared in Best Microfiction 2019 and 2021 and ‘For a Widow’ (Twin Pies) is included in Best Microfiction 2022. Silver Apples published her surprisingly popular flash ‘Married to a Carrot.’