where we go, annoyance follows
The growl is unplaceable, this side of a dream. Heard through the window, cracked to let in breeze. Letting in a wail, like an old tom cat prowling along the edge of a bad dream. Sitting up to stare down the silence, no toms here.
Around my place up north, sure. Wooded lots, rabbits. Lots of rabbits. Nasty cries when caught by a coyote. Like a baby wailing. But no rabbits around my girlfriend’s place, no sightings of racoon either.
My Goldie’s asleep in the kitchen alcove, or was. Has she worked her way outside? Pursuing or pleading to escape the Cheshire. Can’t be, I checked the patio door myself.
This haunt is remnant of an awful day, an identity untethered. Restructuring took middle management, and my pay-cheque. A bad dream to a bad day. I flip the pillow to the cool as the quiet of the night.
Nothing more until the roar of a tractor trailer grinding down the highway, a couple blocks north. Several semi’s. Cartoon cars colliding into the shriek of a tomcat, crept into the laundry room. I have my walking cain and will end its pain. Bright. White. Pain.
My toe finds the bedroom door. The light flicks to a scene of crimson. To a wail of shock and denial. That growl, it is come out my mouth. That growl is now placeable. Out my mouth. The walking cane, wet and red, drops from my hand.
