While going through my google drive folder of short stories the other day, I found this delightful gem. It was intended to be a longer piece as a gift to a friend (Kelly, the main character) for her birthday a few years ago. It never got finished, but I’m pleased enough with this uncompleted snippet to share it here.
Cat to the Future
It started like any other day. Wake up, breakfast, hurry to work. Kelly went through the motions, not noticing the orange tabby cat following her on the street.
The cat, however, noticed Kelly. He was fascinated by her youth, and her ignorance of things to come. Later, when the the cat was much younger, she would be almost unrecognizable as the same person.
He followed her all day, knowing that he would recognize the moment to reveal himself when it came. He watched through her window while she worked, noting with interest all of the things that she had never told him. The jokes she told, the objects she surrounded herself with. Some of it was the normal, period appropriate things he expected. Other things puzzled him, like the drawer full of potatoes. Who potatoes? Why so many? He might never know the answer.
As the sky grew dark and Kelly remained at the office, he knew the time to show himself was coming. The lights went out in the building, one by one, and then he saw her crossing the parking lot. He posed in the streetlight, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to resist stopping to pet him.
“Hello there, where do you belong?” She leaned down to see if he had a collar (he did not. He would never have succombed to that indignity.) “Aren’t you a handsome one?”
“While I do adore listening to allocutions on my physical beauty, there are much more important issues at hand.” Kelly jumped back, into the darkness. He chucked a little to himself. He had never seen her speechless before. He gathered all of his feline dignity and arched is furry neck. “Kelly Crowe, I am Benedict CumberCat, and I am from the future.”
“Wait, what?” Her laughter echoed over the empty parking lot. “A talking cat from the future and your name is Benedict CumberCat? Oh my God, yes.”
“You are the one that graced me with the name, lady.” His tail was starting to puff up. He should have expected this, knowing her. She would laugh at him, in this, the most important moment of his life. “Usually you just call me Cat.”
Her laughed died down and he felt her confusion return. “What do you mean I named you? How does that work?”
“Far into your future you’ll adopt me, raise me, and teach me the ways of the time travelers. I, in turn, am here to teach you.”
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