Twinkie the Cat

Lost in his own fantasy world, Geo knelt on a soft, deep blue, mossy rock.  “What a great place to lie down!” he said.  The pink cat let out a loud trill and brushed against him hard.  “What is it, Twinkie?” said Geo.  “Are you tryin’ to tell me somethin’?”  And he laughed, thinking of all the Lassie shows he had watched as a kid.  Then he sighed.  He did not want to follow the cat any more.  He put his hands down to feel the lush indigo moss.  “It is a tad chilly here for sleep, is all.” He said.  The cat hissed, and bared her teeth at him.  Instantly he jumped up to defend himself.  Now the cat seemed calm again.  “How strange,” he said. 

The cat moved towards the next rock, and suddenly lay down flat beside it.  So Geo went to the next rock, too, and he touched the black moss that covered it.  The rock was warm!  “Oh!  Thank you, Twinkie!” he said.  “This is definitely a better rock to lie down on.  Look at it!  It almost seems made for it!”  He knelt on the rock and found that it was soft as well.  “How perfect!” he said.  “I am going to lie here, and lie here, and sleep until I never need to sleep again!  Hell!  Maybe I’ll even take the long Dirtnap on this thing.  I am a worn-out, middle-aged man!  What do you think of that, Twinkie?”  But the cat just looked at him blankly.

On the Gray Planet, Geo stood up and felt the Couch with his hand, and talked animatedly with the Pink Cat.  He gave the cat a scruffly scratching all around her neck and chin. “Ohhh!” he said,   “You just want to lie here too, dontcha?  And take a little kitty nap?  Well, Twinkers, that is just fine with me.”  And then Geo sat down on the Black Couch, curled up on his side, and went to sleep.

The cat touched her nose to his, then jumped down off the couch.  She turned back into her human shape.  As Shiara, she let out a deep sigh of relief.  She went to the foot of the couch, and untied Geo’s tennis shoes.  She then went to his shirt pocket and pulled out a pencil protector he had there.  She took the glasses off his face, folded them and tucked them inside the plastic case.  She put the case under the couch, with just the tip of it peeking out.  Then she leaned down toward Geo, and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

“Goodnight, Sweet Prince.” She said.

Then she turned away, shed her human-self, and rose up into the sky.

***

3:17:36 PM