First in a series of short stories to brighten up your day (or something like that).
“The Cat Lady”
She stood in the doorway in a green dress patterned with silhouettes of black cats sitting in grace and favour. Her neck was bedecked with a cat pendant, her bosom pinned with a cat broach, her hair fastened into a bun with a needle modelled on a cat tail snaking its way through her hair, her earrings just beneath the same black cat silhouettes already noted to be all over her dress. On her upper arm, she had a cat tattoo, a black cat sitting like a vase, and her plimsoles had little cats sewn around the eyes of the laces. There was another tattoo on her ankle, a sleeping ginger moggy curled into a ball. Her eyes glistened and her fake eyelashes batted, her cat bracelets jingled, and her cat finger rings jangled, and she said in a sharp voice, “I’ve come about the cat.”
Gary Raymond is a novelist, author, playwright, critic, and broadcaster. In 2012, he co-founded Wales Arts Review, was its editor for ten years. His latest book, Abandon All Hope: A Personal Journey Through the History of Welsh Literature is out now with Calon Books.