Don't get me wrong here. It's nice to have the place to myself so I can sunbathe without all those ambient noises humans seems to love to create but I love a good snuggle with someone warm. Claire's plenty warm and even on the nights when Jack is here I can always finds a place to squeeze myself into on the bed at night.
I used to hate it when Claire had Jack here. He's extremely imposing and very scary. For the longest time I couldn't understand why on earth Claire would want to spend time around him and I made sure I was scarce when he was around. After a while though I kind of figured out that he was going to be around for a while. Knowing this I refused to let him take Claire from me no matter how scary he was. I worked up my courage one night and jumped right onto Claire's lap when they were reading something together on the couch. Claire laughed a bit and I was happened until I suddenly found a hand much larger than Claire's patting my head. I was scared out of my mind and I dashed for the safety of the basket of dirty laundry Claire had sitting next to the door. I didn't move until Jack and Claire had left in the morning.
It was a little while before I got brave again but it did eventually happen. I found myself another very good opportunity to show Jack that he wasn't going to be in charge as long as I was her and curled myself up in Claire's lap purring like I had double my actual number of vocal chords. I didn't run when he made a move to pet me this time. After a little while I wasn't tolerating it anymore but really loving it. I changed my opinion of Jack that night. I even found a nice warm spot to curl up behind his neck when I retired much later the same night.
Jack's proved to be a very nice person to have around. I'm the first one to admit when I'm wrong and my initial assessment of Jack was the one time that's happened.
Well, it's really late now—sometime near dawn I think—and I guess Claire isn't going to be home tonight. That's okay. I've got enough food to last me for a while and I'm used to her not always coming home. What I've gathered by listening to her talk to people on the phone and such is that she spends a lot of nights with Jack. I wish they'd stay here a bit more often but she always makes sure to smother me with attention on the nights they're here so I really can't complain too much.
* * *
Claire never came home that night. In fact I haven't seen her since she and Jack had that screaming match the night before that one. It's been months and I haven't seen her at all. Her mother came by late the next day and took me back to her place.
Claire's mother has cried so much these past few months. There's something wrong here. There's something wrong with Claire but no one seems to want to say what it is. All I know is that it's very bad and I don't think I'll ever see Claire again. I've seen Jack since and he looks so dead. Yes, something is definitely very wrong here. I just wish that someone would throw me a bone here. I've never seen any of them—Jack, Mac or Claire's mother—so depressed before. I'll be having fun romping around the house when I see Claire's mother staring blankly at a wall and all the fun drains out of me.
I guess no one thinks that the cat needs to know. The problem is that I know more than they think. I know that the warm kind human being that raised me, a furry orange runt, from before I can remember is gone for some reason. She's gone and I'm left to wonder.
Maybe somebody will say something someday. Maybe I'll find out sometime.
I have a horrible feeling though. I have a horrible feeling I may not want to know what's happened to her. That scares me. I just hope that for the second time in my life I'm wrong.