My Feline Connection And How I Got Into It!

MEOW!

My mom cuts in into my haphazard thoughts and into the silence of my room. I keep my eyes shut and just tilt my head a little, towards the door, still lying on my back, on my bed. I could see through my mind's eye that mom was peeping in partially from behind the door and her lips were in motion.


"Your sis is sitting upstairs on the terrace, studying for the last couple of hours, why don't you go and join her?Instead of lazying around in here, you could at least breath in a little fresh air for the sake of good health. I know you're not in the mood to study, as I can see you've shut all your books, sitting idle and day-dreaming! Switch off the A.C. and climb out of that bed, right now! Let's see you go and ask in the whole neighbourhood, which idiot is sleeping at 5:30 in the evening when such a lovely breeze is blowing outside.....Oi...are you listening to me at all?"


"Hmmhmmmm", was all I could manage.


"Come out, then," yelled mom,"Lock the front door. I'm leaving it to you to..."


Rest of her instruction, drowned in thin air. She had shut the door back before completing her sentence. I heave a sigh of relief. I could sleep just a little...a little longer. Suddenly, I hear a hustle-bustle in the living room. I open my eyes, unwillingly, and stare at the door where my mom had just stood. I hear the front door bang in the living room and with a final call for me, mom leaves for the terrace. I'm sure she didn't bolt the door. Which means... I've to get up anyhow, whether I want to go to the terrace or not. I have become such a couch potato these days. I've to start exercising soon, to lose a bit of extra fat I've put on. Sigh...now, where's the doggone remote?


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Inspite of me, within the next few minutes, I had bolted the door, took my book(on physics) plus a spare copy and now I was heading for the stairway that leads to the terrace. I put the headphones into my ears and tune in to the first song in my favourites' playlist..."When you're looking like that.." by Westlife fill my ears and almost waltzing, I climb the steps slowly. As I was half still-in-my-sleepy-torpor and half awake, I strode up the two flight of steps leaning on the banisters. I reach the top of the stairs and look around from behind the low-walled parapet.

  My sister was half-hidden beneath the pages of her 40 pounds book. I could have easily mistaken of the fact that she is not reading but sniffing the leafs of her book. Laugh out loud!.

  I turned towards my mom. She was browsing the news-paper...actually, literally sitting on it, covering half of it with her hands and legs, as the" lovely breeze" was blowing it away. Laugh out louder! 

My hilarious family...never fails to humour me. An impish grin crosses my face as I heartily laugh inside, at the scene in front of me...I shake my head in laughter, shrug my shoulders and jump the last step and turn sharp towards my right.

EEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRYYYIIIIIAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!


Was that me? That's not me shrieking...no way! I don't recognize that voice at all...it was so unearthly...unhuman...like a witch howling!

 My book and note-book shoot into the air and fall miles away...and I trip, fall and land, head first, face down, onto the rock-solid, uneven terrace floor.Thump!

 It seems my shriek also disheveled my mom's and sister's tympanum membranes. My sister was now leaning towards the floor to pick up a pen she dropped. I braced up myself, to be attacked by  the acknowledgement of my dramatic arrival from the two mouths present, embodied by my mom and my sister.


  "GEEZ..you scared the hell out of me. Can't you watch where you put your feet, you clumsy Blind Bee?" , bellowed my sister.

  I spat back, still lying on the floor,"Aw..I'm so sorry, you had to get up from your seat to pick up your pen...? And I'm thankful that you're not concerned about picking me up instead, either.As for talking about me being clumsy and placing my feet at wrong places, who trips over at every nook and corner of the house, and has a record-breaking count of 56 times in a day?"


  My sister pretended as if she didn't hear anything that I just yelled at her, at the top of my lungs. I could feel my ankle burning, I must've hurt myself a wee bit. Before I could compose myself back, my sister muttered out again,"Hey, was that you?"

 "What was me?", I spat back at her again, this time I had no idea what on earth she was getting at.


 "Somebody screeched. It was weird. It didn't seem like you at all...I mean,not very human. Well, I always knew you were out-of-this-world freak but you shriek worse than an alien...and I didn't know that about you!"

  "Shut up, you phlegm-wad!"

  "Why don't you do it first?"

  "Then don't be an ass!"

  "You are already one!"

   "Shut up both of you, will ye?", my mom shouted cutting in, ending  the as-usual-would-have-been-never-ending squabble. My mom had lost a few papers to the wind...oops, sorry...i mean, "lovely breeze", when I tripped over.

 Hang on,in the first place, I've got to figure out WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DID I TRIP OVER? BRING ON THE SHACKLES...I WILL IMPRISON THAT INGLORIOUS BASTARD, RIGHT THIS MOMENT, FOR CAUSING ME THIS HUMILIATING DISGRACE! ( Oh no...not inglorious bastard. Leave Brad Pitt alone. Nothing doing insulting him. As if he needs more of that!)

 I sat onto my haunches and looked around, and my gaze... met another. We stared at each other for three and a quarter seconds, probably...and then the moggie went back to purring...followed by licking its hands, feet, belly and what not?

 I do remember tripping over something furry and living, but look at this spiteful, catty cat. Doesn't a cat purr only when it is pleased with itself? What seems to be pleasing it right now?

  "Aw boy, look at that good-for-nothing human lying on the floor.The way she screeched when she tripped over me, LOL. Well,it serves her right for disgracing me. Is she blind or something? These worthless, unintelligent, and clumsy humans, I tell you. Let me clean myself up....omigosh, she touched me.right? Bloody untouchable!" 

  A knee-jerk reflex ran down my spine and I squirmed back to my feet. I picked the book and reached out for the note-book lying near the moggie's feet. The cat retreated a few steps as I approached. Taking advantage of the opportunity, I vamoosed the cat to flee down the stairs along with it's dirty fleas, a bit of which now reeked on my bare skin It jumped over the fence and into our next-door neighbour's garden patch. I returned back, limping and making an irate face.

 I ran to my mom and complained about the phantom pain that was now stinging the lower half of my body. And I promised myself, I'll always focus my eyes on the ground I walk on. Clumsiness is borne on me...and that is only because I stay so absent-minded and dreamy all the time! I promised myself, that if that cat ever happens to block my way again, in the future, I'll just crush it under my feet and wouldn't bother... because of the lumps on my face, scars on the back of my arms, blemishes on my legs and last, but definitely not the least, the sprained ankle, she gave me.

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What? Oh... did I just address the cat as she? Well, yes, it was a she-cat, alright. I know it. I came to know a lot about that feline connection later and, surprisingly, in the next few months, we had many more encounters. This was just... the first!

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..And that was how I met Crookie, my ex-pet cat.That day, I never thought, we could ever be involved with each other to share a 'master-and-pet' camaraderie.Really!

MEOW OUT!