Embie
October 1999
Washington, D.C.
Abbey jiggled the key in just that certain way to get the front door to open, pulling the vacuum and duster rags in behind her. It left her plum taken aback that these high-priced condos all along the Potomac River had such sticky locks. Must be the humidity.
“Oh, there you are. You’re not usually this friendly.”
Reaching down, Abbey scratched the brown ears presenting themselves for attention. She walked into the spacious top floor penthouse suite as the little cat followed along behind her.
“Close the door behind ya’ Sally, don’t want the kitty gettin’ out.” The small cat arched her back against Abbey’s legs, so happy to see someone that her front legs kept hopping off the floor. “Ah, poor little thing’s lonely.”
“Do you think she knows he won’t be back?” Sally asked from behind her as she closed the door carefully.
“Dunno. He always was flying off all around the world taking care of important space stuff. Sometimes gone for weeks on end. The neighbor and me would just take care of her. Never seemed to bother her none. No way for her to know he was a real important man, being British and all.”
Thoughtfully, Abbey looked down at the little animal. “Cats are strange things, you know.” Kneeling down she rubbed the cat’s back to the echo of resounding purrs. “Take this little lady. This ‘un showed up the day Moonbase Alpha was opened for business, or so he said. Said she was thin and scrawny but moved right on in like cats do sometimes. That was back when he lived down in Florida.” Abbey chuckled to herself. “Imagine that stuffy, tight-shirted foreigner living down there with all those tourists. No sense of humor in that man, no sir, none at all. Not the kind of man you’d think go get all sweet on a little old alley cat.”
Abbey stood and walked around making sure all was as it should be, the cat trailing close behind. This would be their last visit here. The lawyer was going to be putting the place on the market right soon.
“You know, when he moved here to D.C., he brought her with him. And you know how expensive it is to keep a cat in these places? Couple hundred dollars just to get one through the front door, and then extra each month in case she gets out and makes a mess. And all that for a plain old alley cat. Even told me he was gonna take her back with him all the way to London, England. Yes sir, he must’ve liked her just fine.”
After almost tripping over the cat yet again, Abbey picked up the purring animal and tucked her under an arm as she finished walking around the fancy two bedrooms-and-a-loft suite. She looked at all the shiny, new, high-tech kitchen appliances, the expensive leather covered furniture, and the strange modern ‘art’ on the bookshelves. And the really fancy view of the Capitol. She shook her head. No, sure wasn’t doing him no good right about now.
There really wasn’t nothing left for them to do. They’d cleaned up the place real good after the moon, well… left, and no one else had been here since. Except the next door neighbor to feed the cat and look after the box. And he wasn’t going to do that no more after today.
Abbey continued chatting as they cleaned up the little bit of scattered kitty litter, closed the drapes and made sure the water to the toilet was turned off. Just in case.
“He said Embie here was his good luck charm. That one day she’d help get him up there and visit Moonbase Alpha. You know he named her after that place, don’t you, Sally?” Abbey turned to face the other woman, holding the little brown cat out some for a formal introduction. “Meet little Miss Moonbase Alpha, or M.B. he used to call her. Said she was more reliable then any station report.” Abbey thought for a moment about the man, peculiar as the truly powerful tend to get. And Abbey knew all about that. She cleaned house for some really odd men.
Sally dutifully scratched behind Embie’s ears and silently moved on, letting Abbey do all the talking like usual.
“Yeah, he always was the mistrustful sort, that one. Always worried somethin’ would go wrong up there and he’d get the blame. But he said he always knew when something funny was happening up there. That Embie would pace all around the place here and cry. And that whenever the problem was fixed, she’d settle right on down and purr at him. I never believed such nonsense, but I certainly wasn’t gonna disagree with the likes of him, now was I?”
Sally snorted as she coiled the power cord back in place on the vacuum. “Plain daft, that is. Cat certainly don’t seem bothered none, and those Alphans aren’t so good off now, are they?”
Abbey shushed her, glancing at the calm cat in her arms and then back at Sally. “Now, don’t you go speaking ill of the dead. No reason for Miss Embie here to be upset. Not so long as she’s got a full food bowl and an empty litterbox, now is there?”
Sally walked past carrying the vacuum, but then stopped and squinted at
the cat. “She’s got
somethin’ wrong
with her eyes, you know.”
Abbey blinked, surprised. She knew he took Embie to the animal doctor right regular and that the cat was all up to date on her shots and everything. Why, he even had a vet make a house call last month when Embie took deathly sick, just about the same time those reports came out that the astronauts were dying from that moon virus. She looked the cat right in her eyes. Why, sure enough, there was something funny going on there. Sorta a white scale, kinda like what old folks got. Cataracts they called them. Doctors could fix old peoples’ cataracts, but Abbey doubted if any of those fancy doctors would mess with a little brown tabby cat. No bother, she’d make sure the old girl was looked after.
“I called his ex-wife, and she said I could take her to the animal shelter for all she cared. But I can’t do that to the old thing. She’s used to being looked after. For all he yelled on the phone something awful, he was always right gentle with Embie here.
“Oh well, I’ll just take her home with me. We’re comfortable together, now aren’t we, girl?” Abbey smiled as the cat bumped her small head against the woman’s chin. “She can’t have but a few years left. She can doze on the window ledge and watch the birds and squirrels out back, as long as that scale in her eye lets her.”
Abbey looked around the condo and found a collapsed cardboard box just about the right size in the recycle area. She put it back together and cut a few holes in it so Embie would get enough air, then gently placed the cat inside. A roll of masking tape made quick work of sealing it tight for the trip back home.
“I just don’t know, Sally. Those TV people are making Commissioner Simmonds out to be a real stinker. I mean, I know he had a temper, that one. And wasn’t always very polite. But, anyone who likes cats can’t be all that bad, can they?
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28 January 2007
Cricket
~~ inspired by the above series of pictures from Eagle Transporter.com. Used with permission