“Have you found Jeremy?”
I slumped deeper in my seat as I played with my food. “Nope.”
“You’ll find him.”
“No, I won’t, Mae. You know it. I know it.”
Mae has always been an optimist. I honestly don’t get how people fool themselves into thinking that positive thoughts get you positive results. What a load of crap. There are about 12,000 men who die everyday while having sex. See? That’s what happens when you think positive way too much.
I lost Jeremy three days ago. And everytime I thought of him, I remembered how piercing his eyes were. He would stare at me while I worked, always waiting patiently whenever I was busy. I would find him staring at me sometimes in the morning when I woke up. Yes, that’s how I’ll forever remember Jeremy: his staring eyes.
But before you jump to conclusions, let me tell you this straightaway: Jeremy is the name of my cat. And if you’re a dog lover, go to hell. Your dog probably chased Jeremy and killed him in a dirty alley.
My friend Mae fished for change from her rather short skirt. “So I get that we don’t look for Jeremy today.”
“I’ve wasted enough time trying to look for him. If I spent that much time looking for a date, I’d probably have a husband by now.”
Mae snickered and winced at the same time. “You’re so grumpy, you know that? And you look sleepy, too.”
“Can you stop calling me names of Snow White’s dwarves?” I looked at Mae and shook my head. “I just don’t get it. The door was locked. The windows weren’t open. There was no way out of my room. How could Jeremy have escaped? I just couldn’t figure it out.”
Mae shook her head. “You and your closure issues.”
Yes, closure is very very important. People actually commit suicide just because they don’t get the closure they need, you know.
Maybe that was why the thought of Jeremy made me want to bang my head on the wall. I couldn’t quite get over the fact that my cat was gone because I didn’t have any idea how he did it.
I knew it, I should never have played hero in the first place. Two months ago, I was buying a can of soda from the convenience store when I saw someone hurl a plastic bag out of the car. I did a double take when I saw the bag move on the pavement. As I moved closer, I saw a little white cat with blue eyes trying to paw his way out. It stopped as it saw me. “Miw,” it said, faith and hope mirrored in his staring eyes.
I stepped back gingerly. I hated cats! I went back inside the convenience store.
Minutes after, I was walking out with a bag of cat food in my hand. I didn’t know what had gotten into me that day but one thing was certain: that kitten was going to have a better day than I was. Cat food plus cat in hand, I went home that day knowing I was the chosen guardian of the wretched creature.
I named him Jeremy. But then, you already know that by now.
That same afternoon that I took Jeremy under my wing, I found out that I was dying.
