“Oh, it’s you again.”
“Yes, it’s me,” said Sally.
“Did you bring the goods?”
“You mean the toys?”
“Yeah, the toys. Did you get the right colors?”
“I thought cats couldn’t see colors.”
“Who told you that?”
“Scientists.”
“You men the men in white coats who torture and slaughter animals for fun and profit?”
“Yes, them.”
“They lied.”
“I got the right colors,” she said, placing the fuzzies next to him.
“You did good.”
“Thanks,” she said. “What have you been up to?”
“I broke a vase this morning. It was so ugly I just couldn’t stand it any longer, so I pushed it off the shelf. I think she was glad I did, at least once she stopped crying and picked up the pieces. I guess her aunt gave it to her. Her aunt doesn’t have any taste at all. I think she was just afraid to throw it away, so I helped her.”
“It sounds as if she felt bad about having it broken.”
“Yeah, well, she has other vases that look better and I was just helping her out, like I said.”
“Did she say anything to you?”
“About?”
“About breaking the vase.”
“She said, ‘Why?’ and I said, “Because it was ugly and I couldn’t stand looking at it.” Then she picked me up and kissed me a few thousand times. I think she was grateful.
“What are you going to do today?”
“Stretch, sleep, fly, throw these toys around and eat.”
“No bookstore?”
“Oh, yeah. I guess I’m going to work in awhile, but I can do all those things when I get there, plus I’ll get petted a lot.”
“What kind of books do you like?”
“I like books on birds and fish.”
“I get that.”
“I can tell what kind of books people need to read, when they walk in, so I lead them to the right shelves.”
“How do you know?”
“You humans have a lot of tells and cats are good at reading you, but then cats are good at everything.”
“I see.”
“Like this one time, a woman walked in and she was really sad. So, I knew right away what she needed and I went over to her and made her follow me. I do that by letting someone pet me and then moving forward a little at a time. Once they start petting me they don’t want to stop and if they do, I just purr and then I have them…they’re mine. Anyway, I brought her over to where the books on kittens were and she started looking at the pictures and I could see her lips turn up a little. Her eyes kind of cleared up and she picked up two or three books and took them to the counter. She felt better when she left.”
“That’s wonderful,” said Sally. “You helped her.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Why kind of books do you think I would like?”
Raisin smiled. “Something with vampires, monsters, strong women and revenge.”
“Oh,” laughed Sally. “You really are good, aren’t you.”
“The best,” said the cat. “Now go away, so I can nap before she gets me and we go to work. I want to play with the fuzzy things for awhile too. You can bring something else, next time you stop by.”
“Oh, thank you so much for that,” she snickered.
“I’m generous that way.”
Sally turned scratched his ears and said, “Yes, Raisin, you are very generous that way.”
