The story of Three Irish Girls… a fairy tale. Chapter Seven.
Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 3:02PM Read the previous chapter here.
The girl -- now a married woman -- wished hiding in the bathroom was an option. She had reached the pinnacle of mortification, and she now sat red-faced in a middle airplane seat, wishing to be invisible. Her beautiful cat, Isabel, sat in a carrier at her feet, looking -- and acting-- like the spawn of Satan.
As soon as their blissful European honeymoon ended, the couple put all of their belongings in a moving truck and set off for their newly-rented apartment in the San Francisco Bay area. They decided not to drive together on their cross-country journey, and she knew her husband was relieved at this arrangement. Even though he loved her, without her presence he could sleep at rest stops, neglect his teeth, drink massive quantities of Pepsi, and not have to worry about catering to her needs. The girl gave her husband a small head start, and slept on the floor of her former apartment in a sleeping bag loaned to her by her Roommate. She boarded a plane two days later.
Isabel the cat was beautiful. She was the girl's only cat, a cat inherited from someone who abandoned her. A cross between calico and Siamese, she had the splotchy markings of a calico with the pale peach and grey coloring of a Siamese cat. She had blue eyes, and she had neuroses. When Isabel went to the vet, he would often admire her and say he had never seen a cat quite like her before. Then, Isabel would bite him ferociously. "I've never seen a cat quite like her before," the vet repeated, tending to his puncture wounds.
Isabel was guilty of the following behaviors:
1. Jumping up to the top of the refrigerator to knock down anything stored up there. Potatoes. Onions. Important papers. Crystal.
2. Obsessive licking of heating ducts and plastic bags. Presumably for their high nutritional content.
3. Biting and scratching. Everything.
4. Meowing an approximate 47,000 times per day.
5. Luring humans into her web of deceit by curling up on their laps and purring loudly. When the humans would scratch her ears or pet her back, she would bite and scratch them, and then laugh hysterically.
6. Awakening the girl by sitting on her head, chewing on her hair.
7. Clawing holes in the bottom webbing of her owner's box spring to make herself a hiding place. She would then disappear for long periods of time, causing her owner to worry that she somehow escaped and was laying dead in a ditch on the side of the freeway. Days later, Isabel would emerge with fur askew from excessive sleeping, and laugh hysterically.
Now on the airplane, Isabel scratched at the door of her carrier maniacally. She yowled like she had a nail stuck in her paw. She hurled herself back and forth, causing the carrier to move several inches in either direction with each hurl. She was making a scene. And there was nothing the girl could do but try to keep her feet on top of the carrier to prevent it from traveling down the aisle and speak in dulcet tones. Apparently, the sedative she forced down Isabel's gagging throat before the flight caused possession by evil spirits and not sleepiness. The entire plane could hear her wails.
When the wheels touched down after being in the air continuously for 92 hours and 37 minutes, the girl waited her turn in line to disembark while holding Evil Isabel's carrier. She had yowled, hissed, and clawed for 92 hours and 36 minutes. She had taken a one minute break to try and lure the girl into her web of deceit, but to no avail.
The girl saw her husband, scruffy from lack of sleep and lack of razorial contact with the facial area, waiting at the gate. He recounted his tale of travel woe, which involved a broken air conditioner in the moving van in August in Utah with the three cats he adopted prior to their marriage. He had stopped at a gas station to purchase a block of ice, which all three cats had sat contentedly upon for the remainder of the long drive. Add three wet cats to the list of items both delightsome and fragrant, thought the girl.
Their new apartment was smaller and more expensive than imagined. Add three cats and Evil Isabel to the mix, stir well, and voila, a recipe for happiness.
Their new jobs started in less than a week. The girl had secured a position teaching at a high school three miles from their apartment. She was excited at the prospect of working with students who were slightly more law abiding and slightly less dangerous than her previous charges. Her husband, once a college professor and now the assistant director of a non-profit organization, also had many changes to both look forward to and dread. His commute would be brutal, his travel schedule arduous, and his work hours long.
What would the girl, who knew no one in this unfamiliar place, do to fill her weekends and evenings? I wonder if there are any craft stores around here, she thought.
Continue reading here.
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Reader Comments (3)
Free evenings and creative talent- recipe for loveliness. Great choice, dying yarn. :-))
I had four cats at one time. Some have passed but they lived 18, 17, and 18 yrs. One 13.5 and almost 1 yr old now. They are easy to get and difficult to let go.
I am so enjoying your story. The trip on the plane with Isabel so brings back memories of my numerous trips with my first cat Samantha. It is the Siamese in her and one of the reasons we love them so. Sam was with me from age 13 to age 25, 1 marrage, 2 kids and divorce. Now I have the 4!
Wow, both journeys sound terrifying!! I am so grateful that my cats were such great travelers on our recent trip.