The Two

The first day of a year in itself sticks out! It ushers the remaining three sixty four and is slightly colder than most of them. Just the weather. It is also a day when most of the resolutions manage to breathe. The only.

Mine was warmed by the little gathering but then all cold. Well, the cold is not always depressing. Vodka is cold !

Smoothly the day melted away in night and came the old and adorable, white and immortal moon but all it could muster today was a slice. It was all clear. No pall of white let loose in sky.

At 11.35 pm, almost into the second day of the year, one would hardly anticipate a guest. Though my good old neighbors have never believed much in time and could always crash in, the cold seems to have pushed them in the wool this time around, today! Good for all, nay?

I made a cup of coffee for myself, switched off the lights in the kitchen, moved out. A black little soul caught the corner of my eyes, just then. It must have come in the last few seconds, enough for it to find space to squat on the window, the earth between the oleaginous iron mesh and the protective iron grill.

It was all dark in the kitchen save the light which could barely find its way through that mesh and around that innocuous, petty cat. A yowl ensued! Loud and clear enough to almost scare me to death. But then, it was innocuous, I realized.

Innocuous.

I summoned almost sufficient courage, enough for me to assert that not all cats have ‘glowing’ eyes. But then I realized that it was all dark, around. Nothing that it could reflect.

It squirmed, then growled.

I switched a little light on. Now it could see me. I could feel it shivering. It was now mutual. How bad a host you turned out ? It must have thought. It couldn’t speak. A card board, equally oleaginous as the mesh, I put it in front of that furry feline. It moved to its left, so that it could see me again. I was playing now. And it too. I put it in front of it’s eyes. It moved to the opposite side. I felt something on my leg, I shuddered. I refused to run. Then I opened the board to make it twice and again tried to block its sight. It rose, and rested it’s fore paws on the mesh. The two. I withdrew the board, it rested back on earth. The eyes met for the last time. Nothing like fear, this time though.

I took the cup , switched off the light and left kitchen. It must have growled then, I think. I kept on. The clock ticked 11.50.

I was in the room, now, on my double bed, the other half empty. I went on with the remaining A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Three pages later and add to that a minute may be, I peeked at the window. There was no shadow behind the mesh. The light could freely sit in the warmth of the kitchen, now!