The Cheshire Cat

Soft. Luminous.

I smiled with content as the pleasant scent floated in the air. A whirring sound caught my ear and I pulled back to watch a bumblebee settle on the white daisy, crawling over the flower’s delicate petals to gently extract the pollen.

“Busy still, little bee? The sun’s disappearing,” I said to it and raised a hand to shield my eyes from the sun even as Helios pulled it down behind the silhouetted houses. The light had dulled to a beautiful red, stretching across the sky like a blanket of roses.

I lingered on the edge of the garden’s wooden box, leaning over the fence railing as the last vestiges of light slipped from the sky.

A whistle and a chirp overhead drew my attention as a robin swooped through the air to alight on a nearby branch of a tree.

“Rehrehrehrow!”

The foliage stirred close to my feet and a mottle brown cat slunk out, her gaze locked onto the bird.

“Hey, cat, been sleeping there all day? I didn’t even see you.” I was hardly surprised. When the days were this nice, I could hardly drag her back inside. Domestic she may have been, but once the days warmed, nature seemed to call her wild spirit to slip temporarily back into its fold. She continued to watch the bird and her tail twitched in excitement, even as it squawked mockingly at her.

“Oh, quit dreaming, cat. You’re never going to catch that thing. Maybe when you were younger—“ Her wild blood finally settled and she sat down on a nearby rock, sweeping her gaze across the lawn and ignoring me.

I shook my head at the familiar superior attitude and slowly made my way back to the edge of the box, to avoid crushing the bushes. As I stepped down, movement caught my eye and I found myself looking at a rabbit across the yard; it hopped over, apparently blind to the feline standing not five feet from where I was.

That’s a brave one, hopping right toward us, I mused. I turned back to the cat and saw she had tensed.

“You’re not going to catch that one either.” Almost immediately she relaxed and I wondered briefly if she had caught the meaning of my words. We both watched the rabbit dart through the trees toward a stream, stumbling over the edge and jumping ungracefully to the other side. I could imagine the cat’s ear swivel in amusement.

I glanced back up at the sky to see the dark blue of night encroach upon the red and I sighed to myself. “C’mon, cat, inside. I know you want to eat since you couldn’t scrounge up dinner out here,” I called to her. She turned and began strolling to the door as leisurely as possible.

As I approached the back door I saw something leap out of my way and I felt my lips quirk to see a frog sitting at the edge of a bush next to the stoop. I heard the grass rustle and suddenly the cat pounced. The amphibian dodged the attack, and then she hopped in similar fashion to follow, but it crawled out of her reach and she flicked her tail in frustration.

“Cat, it’s so nice to see you so active. Summer: it must bring the kitten out in you.”

“Brrrrow.”

She darted between my legs and I gave a noise of disgust when I had to catch the doorframe. I looked back out into the darkening night at the daisies. The flowers swayed in the gentle breeze and the one I had watched earlier carried the very last rays of light on its petals. The birds settled down to rest, the insects came out to sing their own chorus. In less than a minute I had seen nearly a dozen flashes of light from the lightning bugs lazily flying through the air.

Tzzt.

A buzz in my ear made me frown in annoyance and I slapped at a brown dot on my arm. “Oh, the joys of nature. I’m going to be scratching my legs in the morning.”

Even in the dim light, I could see an insufferable smirk on the cat’s face.