Life can be (a) dream

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Sammy, meet Vanny

When Agatha got home, her eyes were filled with tears. Her body moved as slowly as lead, and she couldn't tell if it was from moving so little all day or from her despair. She felt the need to move around just a little, and wandered over to the patio door, to the kitchen, and back to the patio. She teared up more, and ran away from the patio before someone saw her crying through it. She ached so much that the pain of violently pulling and tugging her boots off so aggressively didn't bother her. If anything, her face twisted into a bitter smile during her most aggressive tug.

Agatha set the lights as low as they could go, and laid in bed while she scooted off her work clothes awkwardly. She felt the chill of the cold autumn air through her window. She never bothered to close it, even if she spent the night away. She'd crack it as much as the weather allowed her to, then pray that no one cared enough to crawl up to her third floor apartment.

Just as she pulled on a pair of pajama shorts, she heard a desperate knocking at the door. A pile of brown fur that she took for a pillow jumped off the bed and went running in a random direction.

"Oh, curse you! You just had to scare the cat! Nothing is so important this late at night," she yelled. She didn't seem bothered by the fact that her visitor could certainly hear her screaming. The visitor knocked again even more loudly, yelling something back in a voice that she couldn't make out through the door. Agatha stayed silent for a few moments and waited their yelling out while standing guard at the door. The visitor finally gave up, slipped a piece of paper under the door, and stomped down the stairs so furiously that the whole apartment vibrated.

The paper was an advertisement for a nearby church. She rolled it up into a ball, threw it in the general direction of the trash can with a pout, and headed back to bed. There, she found her cat taking up the entire middle section of the bed as if nothing had ever happened. She twisted herself around him as she finally fully laid into the bed. If she squeezed him right now, he'd surely run away, so she made do with surrounding him and only petting his head.

Earlier that day, when she hid in the corner of her office, she wondered how she could best present her sadness once she was home. She came up with a stupid rhyme, which she held in her head for the next four hours. She whispered as she sung it out at last:

"Kitty-cat, kitty-cat, why am I so sad today? Sammy-cat, Sammy-cat, what do you have to say?"

Sammy, of course, could only purr his reply as he was pet even more. Agatha buried her face in her pillow for some time from sheer embarrassment. Had she fallen so low that she was rhyming to her cat?

"Kitty-cat, kitty-cat, why am I so sad? Sammy-cat, Sammy-cat, why is work so bad?"

"You really don't know? It's that stupid puppy that you have," Sammy said.

Agatha sat up in shock. "What puppy? I don't have a puppy. I just have you!"

Sammy sighed. "He always stays out of your sight. He's behind the door ledge right now. I see his stupid nose peek in every time you put your face in the pillow."

"Well, I suppose that explains a lot of things," Agatha said. It certainly explained the leaves and mud that seemed to always make their way into the apartment lately.

"Did you see him when you were talking with Elaine? Hew ran right in front of you as you were crying that she didn't visit you after your accident. I thought you would have realized then."

"Of course I saw him there, but I thought I must have finally lost it."

"Are you still hurt by Elaine? Has she tried to talk to you since?"

"She got into a crash of her own two days after our argument. I stopped by just to say hi and give her chocolates. But after that, no! Not a word."

"She's a bad friend anyway. I don't know why you talk to her. She disappears every time you need something. Look at how you run to her when you're the one in need! You can still barely use your arm!"

"That doesn't matter now. I want to meet this puppy. I wonder if I can catch him if I run fast enough."

"You should let him hide. Don't run after him."

"He must be okay with me by now if he's always watching over us."

Sammy's tail fluffed up as Agatha tried to scout for the puppy. She peeked behind the door ledge first, but he had already found a new spot.

"Sammy, where do you think he's gone? Can you smell him?"

Her question was answered with a very loud hiss. "Stupid dog! I don't want you near me!"

Agatha sprinted back into the bedroom and shut the door behind her. A pile of golden fur jumped down from the bed and skittered under it, hiding as best as he could. She saw him instantly. The bed was not a good place to hide. Sammy tried to hide under it when he was scared too, but he never succeeded.

"Hey, hey! Silly puppy! It's all alright," she whispered. "Come out here and we can finally become proper friends!" He whimpered some reply back. Agatha put her hand out to let him sniff.

"Aren't you scared he'll bite you?" Sammy asked.

"He's not bitten me after all this time. Surely he won't now."

Agatha felt the uncomfortable ticklish trace of his cold nose on her arm. She stopped herself from pulling it back for a few moments, but found it too much to bear and pulled away anyway. She came back with a few of Sammy's treats. Shaking the open bag made him finally sprint out towards Agatha with wide and happy eyes, and he accepted a treat straight from her hand without a hint of fear.

Seeing him in the harsh light of her apartment brought out his ribs and and shadowy eyes. Agatha wondered what he must have been eating the past few days. Was he eating some of Sammy's food? Was he digging through the trash can? Maybe that's why there was a wad of paper on the floor next to it. "We'll get more food into you," she said. She set aside a bowl of cat food, and laughed as he sprinted towards it with joy. "I think Vanny might be a good name for you! Sammy, would you like a bit of chicken? I'm going to make some for him."

Sammy narrowed his eyes at Agatha and whisked his tail.

"Oh, just don't complain when you want it twenty minutes later. Tell me now if you'll eat it," she said. Sammy turned away entirely instead. "You moody little thing," she muttered.

As Agatha ignited the heat, Vanny jumped onto the counter and stood at the very edge of the stove top. "Vanny, don't be silly! You'll get hurt," she said, gently setting him back on the floor. "Vanny, Vanny, Vanny," she chanted. "You need to learn your name, at the very least. Then I can tell you a few basic things."

Vanny instantly jumped back onto the counter and pawed at the chicken package. "Sam-my, Sam-my, Sa-amy," he said, with a stressed tone in his voice.

She sighed and set him down again. "The chicken will be ready for you in a few minutes. And my name is Agatha. A-ga-tha," she said, sounding out her name.

"No! Sam-my chicken!"

"Sammy what with chicken?"

"Sam-my wants chicken!"

"Oh, how'd you know? I'll get you both chicken, then. Just relax for a little bit more."

A few moments later, Agatha set out two bowls next to each other - One for Sammy, and one for Vanny. She packed chicken into Vanny's, and set aside a few extra pieces in Vanny's bowl. She called out to the two of them, but only Vanny came. While he ate with all the enthusiasm in the world, Sammy hid behind the sofa.

Agatha found him by his overly fluffed up tail, and crouched down to his hiding spot to put the bowl down. "Sammy, don't be scared. I know he's too energetic, but I'm glad you told me about him. This is why I was sad! I had this poor thing hobbling around my apartment this whole time, and I just needed to care for him! Oh, really, thank you for telling me that he was here." Sammy's face became more and more bitter during her speech, and pranced off to the bedroom after it ended. Agatha watched with dismay, but Vanny came to her side and explained:

"Sammy is the same as me! You took him in and fed him until he didn't feel hungry too! But Sammy told me he was happy to get away from others. So maybe Sammy is not the same as me. I am happy because I wanted to be by someone!"

"You are observant, aren't you? I'll keep your things apart for a while. He'll warm up to you in time then, won't he?"

"Yes, yes! I want you and Sammy to be happy!"

"You're lovely, Vanny. Stay here for a second. I'll make sure he's alright, and come back to you." She came up from her crouch as slowly as she could, trying her best to ignore the burning feeling in her legs, and stepped lightly to not scare Sammy. He wasn't on the bed, and he wasn't under the bed either, and he wasn't behind the sofa, and he wasn't in her bookshelf. He didn't seem to be anywhere at all.

"Actually, Vanny, come here for a second," she said, trying to keep her voice calm. Vanny sprinted over as fast as he could. Silly Agatha, thinking she could hide her distress from him! "Can you smell where Sammy might have gone?"

Vanny sniffed all the same places that Agatha had checked without any luck. He headed back to the bedroom door, and traced Sammy's steps from there to the window. Suddenly, they both seemed to realize how cold the bedroom was. The window crack was now as tall as Sammy's head, and the floor beneath the window was littered with his fur.