I woke up this morning an hour before my alarm was supposed to go off. Normally this isn't a big deal, as I'm lazy, go to bed early, and get more sleep than I really need, or can even use, but I'd had a hard time getting to sleep last night, and didn't sleep well at all. I spent all afternoon yesterday looking for - and not finding - the cat that was suffocating me when I woke up that morning. I searched every nook and cranny and, aside from some short black hairs on the bedding, found no sign of the animal, let alone an explanation of how it got in and out of my apartment. By the time I went to bed, I was beginning to doubt the cat had even existed, and wanted nothing more than to forget about the whole thing.
Alas, it's quite hard to forget or ignore something that's curled up against your stomach and purring, and that's what I discovered when I woke up. It wasn't on my face today, so I guess there's a bright side, but there was still no explanation of how it had gotten in my apartment.
"You don't exist," I told it, "you're nothing but a figment of my imagination."
She - it looked female, anyway - stood, stretched, and, still purring, began rubbing her face up against my nose until I hesitantly reached out and petted her. I didn't want to, you understand, but it tickled, and I felt it would be bad manners to sneeze at her, even if she was a hallucination.
When I emerged from the bathroom fifteen minutes later, freshly showered, there was no sign of her anywhere.
I spent most of the day using a computer, retouching high-resolution film scans. The power went out just before ten in the evening, so instead of staying up late to watch the news I had a couple pieces of string cheese for a bedtime snack and went to bed, wishing I had insurance or could afford to see a shrink.
Modify Entry |
Ethics