*** You are with me ***

Inspired by "Lions", written by Mark Knopfler.

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"Will you ever tell him?"

Marlene woke up. That voice again. How long hadn't she heard it? Did it come from the deepest of her conscience or from the real world? Marlene closed her eyes. That wasn't but a memory, let's sleep again.

But she couldn't get that question out of her head anymore.

It was a trifle. What was wrong in telling him? Would he get angry? Oh... really? Would he get angry, when everything was classified and secret for him, if she told him that one day she had told him a small lie? Well, better when he woke up... right? She wouldn't wake him up to tell him that! But... why did she feel that she had to talk about that? She tried to sleep again.

Oh, damn it. She couldn't sleep. Not now, now she had that idea inside her head again. He'll laugh if I tell him, she thought. Precisely that. Skipper would laugh. No, it hadn't happened, everything was okay. Marlene rolled over in her bed and bumped onto him. He was deeply asleep. And she couldn't sleep again.

And then she heard that voice again.

Marlene left her habitat blindly. And she saw it. The silhouette of a starling who was standing on a branch of a tree, outlined on the full Moon's surface. Marlene made an effort to recognize him. No, she didn't know who he was. He wasn't a starling from San Diego. She went into her habitat cave again, laid down and closed her eyes. She wasn't able to sleep again.

.

In her mind there wasn't more full Moon, but a red Sun caressing the skyscrapers for the last time before hiding between the houses. Unlucky Sun, instead of sleeping in the sea as the New York one did, it went to the hard solid ground. And how soon it got dark! Marlene hated the winter for that reason more than for the cold.

Her mind traveled further. Marlene was there as always, alone among her kind. Her relationship with the other otters wasn't very good. She had always tried to see her mates' positive side, but they always disappointed her. They were gossips, proud and hypocrites. Marlene had some candor that contrasted painfully with all that.

Marlene, bored, decided to follow one of the zookeepers. The boy opened a service door and closed it, not noticing that he hadn't left alone. Marlene had left behind him, stealthily, with the intention of finding someone like her. Not knowing where she was going or what or whom she would find.

The city noises filled her ears. She recognized some, more intense outside. Steps, voices, shouts, whistles, slams, hurries. Hurry was another noise. And the church bells, seeming to compete for grabbing the attention of the churchgoers who never arrived because there and in other parts of the city they were praying to immediacy, to that limp bus which never was the one people were waiting, to that latecomer apathetic train which would take them home.

And the starlings, flying around in circles and plummeting, everywhere. It looked as if the wind was carrying them, but they controled their flight as a squad of black fighter planes. The wind was moving the flags on the squares and the buildings, and it was playing with Marlene's fur. It was very cold, Marlene didn't like it. The zoo was more of a shield. Marlene, as if she were fleeing from that wind which seemed to bother everyone but the starlings, followed her way. Crossing the streets when people did it, learning to be a pedestrian by imitation.

The Sun was as high as it could be on a January day when Marlene left the zoo. Making its appearance, but not offering heat. And Marlene had seen lots of things, but she really hadn't arrived anywhere. And little by little, minute after minute, degree by degree, the Sun was lower and lower and slipping by, giving the buildings an orange dye. The starting point for her memories.

She had been through a neighbourhood of wealthy low-storied houses, then on newer but not so tasty zones. The size of buildings grew as she got further from the zoo. The city was more of a city, and Marlene started to think that it had been a bad idea to take a walk. Anything that she was looking for, she couldn't find it among concrete and glass.

When she saw that concrete hanrdail, she got on it and started to walk along. Below there were cars and trucks moving in both directions, and a coach with a 7 that she recognized as the one she had seen soon after leaving the zoo. It would be her reference, her way home, but she would go ahead.

Not much later she started to find warehouses, car lots and some empty plots. And the sky was getting darker. As she was keen on astronomy, she distinguished some constellations. She stared at Capricorn, so familiar but now so disturbing. If it was the same sky she used to see from her zoo, why did she suddenly have a bad feeling that she had never had before? She was absorbed on her two hind paws staring at the stars.

"Are you lost?"

Marlene turned round. Out of the blue had appeared an orange cat, or she imagined that. He had a light color, but under the dim light of the streetlights she couldn't be sure. Marlene was motionless and the cat got near her.

Now that she could see him better, she noticed some details. The cat had untidy fur, he was clearly a stray cat. He was full of scars, some of them of great dimensions. But what grabbed her attention more was the feline's stare: his green eyes were small and sunken. That cat was surely very old.

"I think... I hope not," Marlene answered shyly.

Tender and innocent... the cat smiled and got nearer her. Marlene felt then a strong smell of alcohol and shivered.

"Tim can take you home," he said getting even closer to her.

"Eh... I think... I think I can go... yes, I can go home alone, thank you." Marlene wasn't aware of the slight trembling that made her words vibrate.

Tim smiled and got nearet to her. He was almost touching her.

"But it's always better to go back accompanied, don't you think?"

"N...no."

"I think it is."

"Re... Really not." Marlene was now more scared. "I... I know how to go home, yes. I'll take a walk."

"I insist on accompanying you," Tim replied placing his paw on Marlene's shoulder, and she shrugged trying to avoid the touch. "What's wrong? Don't you trust me?"

Marlene looked away, placing her stare unwillingly on one of Tim's scars.

"Oh... I see. You think that I get in fights, that I'm tough and dangerous. No... I'm just a war veteran."

Marlene thought that, for stinking of alcohol, that cat talked too well. But he had a careless accent, as if he were throwing the words.

"No... I... I respect the war veterans. That is."

Tim's gloomy smile was shining. "You can spend the night with an old lion, beauty," he told her caressing her cheek.

Marlene was aware of her fear: she was visibly trembling and she was hearing her heartbeats sounding stronger than the thoughts in her head. She closed her eyes, what would happen next? She was lost. Really lost.

Some far gunshots startled Marlene, and Tim too. Damn it! He had been about to kiss her. And those damned gang boys had ruined the moment. He looked around, he didn't see them... and, when he looked again, Marlene had started to run. Her heart was running even faster than her. Tim started to run after her and saw her getting into a bus which had just stopped there, and disappearing among the travelers' feet. Just before the door closed, he sneaked inside. Marlene hadn't seen him.

"Hey! A cat!"

Marlene had thought that she was safe in the bus until then. Quickly, she looked for a hiding place. There was a newspaper left on a seat and she hid under it. She was scared to death. Tim was walking slowly, sniffing. He looked up: he had found her.

"Get out of here, pest!" a man shouted grabbing the newspaper and using it to scare the cat.

Marlene, being uncovered, hid under the seat. From there she saw Tim running, pursued by that man. Right when he reached the end of the bus, it braked and the doors opened. Tim ran out, Marlene was safe. The lion wasn't as brave after all.

Some minutes later, Marlene hadn't still recovered from the fright. But she knew she had to go back home come what may. She went to the back door, expecting to leave when she saw something familiar for her. The park where her zoo was, her home. She wouldn't feel safe until she were with the other otters.

Now walking, alert to everything, she saw a starling looking at her from a tree. He looked her back and Marlene avoided the exchange of glances. When she got into the zoo, she decided that she didn't want to go out again.

She got into her habitat. She was safe, but she didn't feel safe. She thought that the starlings were tough, but there were tougher beings out there.

"Will you ever tell someone?" she heard say, but she didn't know if she was dreaming.

.

Marlene remembered it all as if it had just happened. She couldn't help it. A tear, another... When she noticed it, she was sobbing and Skipper was hugging her. It was comforting to be with him.

"Did you have a nightmare?"

Marlene didn't want to answer.

"Do you want to tell me?" Skipper insisted lowering his voice. He knew that he disarmed her by doing that.

"It's that..."

"Yeah?"

"I lied to you." Marlene gulped. "When I told you that I had never left the zoo, it was a lie. In San Diego I ran away, and then I was so scared."

Skipper hugged her tighter.

"And I found a cat. And he tried to -"

"Schhhhhhhhhhhhh... You are with me," he replied caressing her head.

Marlene sighed and closed her eyes, soothed. Skipper's flippers were the perfect shelter for her soul and her heart.