Sunday, December 14, 2008

Among the Kittens

When I found my mother, she was wearing two coats and slippers she had knitted herself. She knits slippers and gives them out as gifts to friends. They are fairly useless, and the best you can say is that, when down, she likes to help people however she can. Still, they are sad looking, and not warm -- they are oddly shaped and remind me of the slip-on paper shoes you put on when you're going through a germ-free area. I suspect she was wearing multiple pairs.

*

I drove the backroads through Groton back to Townsend.

When I got home, the cats erupted in joy at seeing me. I am not exagerrating. They continually jumped on my legs and tried to get me to pick them up, and I would take turns holding them in front of the window for warmth.

I began doing dishes. At first, being in the house was shockingly cold. It stung a little to breath. The pipes were okay and the water was warm, and this brought me comfort. Not so bad, this doing dishes nonsense!

At one point, I took a break. I was hand drying the knives because I know that the kittens would jump on them and I didn't want any lacerations. I left the water running over the dish soap because it had frozen over and I was thawing it out, drop by drop.

I looked in the freezer, out of curiosity, to see if it was cold enough for the burgers to still be frozen. They weren't, but I felt circulating air. How odd, I thought for a moment, before realizing what had happened. I turned around. Sure enough, the microwave was on, and the heat was starting to kick up. A single light burned in the bathroom.

*

My mother's neighborhood was hit hard. Worse than mine. Trees I remember from childhood lay broken across driveways. I saw smashed cars and downed lines. Fences broken. And everywhere, the ice along the side of the road that glittered like broken glass.

*

I'm back home now. Of course, the power could go out again. It seems that the downed line only affects the houses after ours.

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In the process of all this Big D has discovered a new favorite toy: filthy Brillo pads. Add this to shoelaces and toothbrushes and fake mice in the Kitten Paradise.

*

The cats continue to clamor around me, and I think of my warm reception and how, soon after I arrived, the heat came back on. In the same way that Slappy thinks of Jess as some sort of Superchihuahua, I suspect I've confirmed in their minds that I'm a God of Felines.

I read an informal interview with a Zen master. "I used to be a tiger. But now I am a cat." And the master smiled, looking quite pleased.

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