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Die? One does not do that to a cat. Because what's a cat to do in an empty apartment? Climb the walls. Caress against the furniture. It seems that nothing has changed here, but yet things are different. Nothing appears to have been relocated, yet everything has been shuffled about. The lamp no longer burns in the evenings. Footsteps can be heard on the stairway, but they're not the ones. The hand which puts the fish on the platter is not the same one which used to do it. Something here does not begin at its usual time. Something does not happen quite as it should Here someone was and was, then suddenly disappeared and now is stubbornly absent. |
All the closets were peered into. The shelves were walked through. The rug was lifted and examined. Even the rule about not scattering papers was violated. What more is to be done? Sleep and wait. Let him return, at least make a token appearance. Then he'll learn that one shouldn't treat a cat like this. He will be approached as though unwillingly, slowly, on very offended paws. With no spontaneous leaps or squeals at first. |