Chapter 3 Points and counterpoints
“Are you going to eat that last lotus root?” Jiji asked.
“No. go ahead.” Just then an unusually warm wind blew against the building.
“The shochu’s really smooth,” Jiji said.
“I think I need a shot too, Dad, if it helps the pain go away,” Nozomi replied. Her father looked at her unamused.
“It's really an awfully simple operation, Nozomi,” Jiji said. “It's not really an operation at all.”
The girl glanced at me in the pet carrier under the table. I waved with my paw.
“I know Tama wouldn't mind it, Nozomi. It's really not anything. Kannawa already has so many cats, and kittens are a lot of work to clean up after and find homes for. Would you give up our travels over school breaks? We are never here.”
“Mom would never agree to this.”
“If your mom was here, yes, everything would be different. But she’s not.”
Sometimes when I am sitting alone with Nozomi, she tells me about her mother, and how badly she misses her. She said that her mother worked hard that morning to prepare bentos for Nozomi and Ojiji, and then went to work herself. After work, she liked to walk on the beach and collect shells before coming home. It was her mom’s self-care. That was the afternoon that the earth shook and the waves came in Tohoku. They never did find Saki. Ojiji and Nozomi evacuated to Beppu for a fresh start. I was part of that new start. Poor Nozomi, if she could only express her sorrow completely.
“I miss mom.”
“I know you do. So do I. Listen. They’ll just shave some of Tama’s fur and sew her up and then it's all perfectly safe. We’ll go with her and stay with her the whole time.”
“A cat-abortion? Really, Dad? That isn’t even a thing!” snapped Nozomi.
“It is a thing. And we'll be fine afterwards. Just like we were before.”
“I don’t think so, Dad! That will make us so unhappy.” Nozomi reached down and opened the cage. I was laying sideways to stay comfortable, as I was already starting to feel heavy from the kittens growing inside of me. She pulled me out and said, “I think Tama would like to see her kittens, Daddy.”
“It’s not an option, Nozomi. Most cats like being alone.”
“Most mama cats like to play with their own kittens, Dad,” she said. Seriously, where did he get the idea that cats like being alone? I wake him up literally every night, pawing his face, knocking the remote control onto the floor. All so that he will open the front door and let me out, so I can hang out with my friends.
“Well,” Jiji said, “are you ready to clean litter boxes every day and pay hundreds of thousands of yen on veterinary bills and cat food? Before Tama was pregnant, everything was so simple. She is a sweet cat, and I just like things the way they were.”
“You want to rob me of watching Tama giving birth to kittens and nursing them, even though you know how much joy it would bring to our hearts?” asked Nozomi.
“Come on, Nozomi. Look at all the stray cats in Kannawa. We need to do what’s right.”
“You should have thought of that and gotten her fixed a long time ago, Dad.”
“Yes, we should have. But we didn’t, so here we are.”
“If you loved me, you wouldn’t take Tama’s kittens away from her—away from me.”
“I love you. I love Tama, too, but I just can't handle the stress. You know how I get when I worry. I worry about the house. Our landlord doesn’t allow cats, Nozomi, and we already have Tama.”
You of little faith, I thought. Why are you so afraid?
“So if we take Tama to the vet, you won’t worry?”
“I won't worry because it's perfectly simple,” said Jiji.
“Then we’ll go. Because I don't care about Tama.”
I knew she didn’t mean it, but OUCH, I’m sitting right here!
“What do you mean?” said Jiji.
“I don't care about Tama anyways.”
I wished she would quit saying that.
“Well, I care about Tama,” he said.
“Oh, yes. But I don't care about her. And I'll let you take Tama and kill her kittens, and then everything will be fine,” Nozomi blurted.
I was horrified to hear such hopeless words coming out of Nozomi’s mouth.
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be, Nozomi.”
[Continued in Chapter 4]
© 2023 Pachi Inkblots
Illustrations for this story were partly funded by JSPS Grant (20K13154)