626. End of the bed © Bruce Goodman 28 June 2015 |
Hailey and Malcolm lay in bed. It was a warm spring night; not overbearing, but mild enough to have the window wide open. Hailey read a while, with Malcolm snoring beside her. She turned out the bedside light and snuggled down in the bed. Around midnight Hailey felt something run across her feet. A rat? A mouse? She sat up with a start. She woke Malcolm. There was nothing to be seen. They fell asleep again. The next morning, at the end of the bed, there was a cat. She had given birth to three kittens in the night. Whose cat it was, they had no idea. It wasn’t their cat. They hated pets. Malcolm put the kittens in a sack with a couple of boulders and dropped the bag from a bridge into the river. |