Chapter 4 The end of the debate
Steaming mad, Nozomi set me on her chair, stood up and walked to the footbaths next to where we were. Across, on the other side were stone pathways leading to various Japanese inns and hot springs for which Beppu is famous.
The path below mushi koubou led into the maze-like alleyways of Kannawa. The shadow of a cloud moved across the paving stones.
“We could have all this,” she said. “We could have everything and kittens, and now you are making it impossible.”
“What did you say?”
“I said we could have kittens and everything.”
“We can have everything if we go to the vet today,” he countered.
“No, we can’t. And once they take them away, we’ll never get them back.”
“But at least we’ll still have Tama,” said Jiji.
“We’ll wait and see.”
“Come on back to the table,” he said. “You mustn’t feel that way.”
“I don’t feel any way,” she said. “But I know you are a bad Dad.”
“I don’t want you to do anything that you don’t want to do,” he said.
“Or that Tama doesn’t want to do, right?”
“All right, but you’ve got to understand.”
“I understand,” Nozomi said. “Are you serious, Dad? You are seriously going to make Tama have an abortion?”
The man sat down at the table, and just then Nozomi’s eyes met mine, and I meowed again. I glanced furtively at Nozomi, and then at the pathways between the buildings. I am so grateful that she and I can communicate with just paws, meows, and eye contact.
“You’ve got to realize,” he said, “that I am only doing this for our own good, and for Tama’s good. If we don’t take her in, before you know it, we will have 30 cats in our house.”
“Doesn’t it mean anything to you? Doesn’t she mean anything to you? We could get along.”
“Of course she does. But I want to keep our life simple, and this is perfectly simple.”
“Right, it’s perfectly simple!” Nozomi said sarcastically.
“I understand you are feeling frustrated, but Tama will be fine.”
“Would you do something for me, Dad?”
“I’d do anything for you.”
“CHANGE YOUR MIND!”
He looked briefly at me sitting on the chair. “Fine, we will become crazy cat people.”
It seems that sarcasm runs in the family.
“Really?” Nozomi said.
“No, of course not.”
The server came out through the door with another glass of tea and put it down on the table. She smiled at Nozomi and offered some leftover crab for Tama.
“She can’t eat right now,” said Jiji.
“What did you say?” asked Nozomi.
“She can’t eat now, and the bus is coming in five minutes,” Jiji said. Nozomi smiled a fake smile, more of a snarl. “I’d better go and pay our bill,” he said, and went inside.
Nozomi looked at the steam vents and the pathways again. All of a sudden, she picked me up and carried me down to the alleyway by the footbath. As she held me close, I could feel her heart beating faster than usual. She walked down the narrow path, kissed me one last time, and set me free. That’s my girl.
“Run, Tama, run!” she shouted. So, I did. I ran for my life, my kittens’ lives, down the stone pathway. After darting down the steaming alleyway, I looked back one last time. Nozomi was crying and waving goodbye. Then, I slipped into the shadows, wondering if I would ever see her again.
- THE END -
© 2023 Pachi Inkblots
Illustrations for this story were partly funded by JSPS Grant (20K13154)