Sebastian

The smell of something sweet wafted through the air and into Sebastian’s tiny pink nose. It was unusually hot today so he had taken shelter under an abandoned sedan. People coming out of the supermarket occasionally dropped scraps of food here and there. It was paradise. He had a place to sleep and enough food to eat.

…sometimes.

On hot days like this one, no one even noticed the tiny white cat under the old red car. Sebastian’s stomach grumbled. Where was this delicious smell coming from anyway? Opening one eye and peeking out, he saw a human crouched down and staring straight at him.

Ugh, another admirer. Sebastian had seen enough of those not to be bothered with them anymore. Although, they were usually smaller. This one was quite large and rather hairy. Perhaps it wasn’t even a human at all. He had never seen a human with hair on its face. Closing his eye again, Sebastian tried to go back to sleep but the smell suddenly seemed to get stronger. This time he opened both eyes and raised his head. It seemed to be coming from the human who was now holding out something to him.

It even had hair on its hands but Sebastian was too hungry to care. He stood up on all fours and began to walk towards it. The human seemed pleased. It said something that Sebastian didn’t understand and then dropped the thing in its hand onto the pavement.

Ah. It was a fish, but unlike any fish he had ever seen. This one was brown and wrinkled…but it smelled divine.

James had first noticed the cat on his way into the supermarket. It was small and white with a grey patch on its right hind leg and it seemed to be sleeping. He ignored it and finished his shopping but as he was walking out again, he couldn’t help but notice that the cat was still there.

Good.

James hurried to his car on the opposite side of the parking lot with a single thought running through his mind – ‘This is ridiculous.’

As soon as he was within range, he unlocked it, yanked the back door open, and threw his shopping bag in. Then he raced around to the passenger’s side and rummaged through the junk spread out on the seat. He made a mental note to clean out his car just before he slammed the doors shut again and raced across the parking lot again. The tell-tale ‘beep -beep’ of the car assured him it was locked as he walked away.

Upon reaching the red sedan, James hunkered down at the front end of the car and waited. Soon enough, the cat stirred. It opened one eye and looked at him and then shut it again. James held out his hand. He was holding some leftover fried fish.

The cat opened its eyes and stood up. James smiled.

“Here kitty” he said.

It was a beautiful creature with green eyes that shone like jade and as it walked towards him, he noticed that it also had a grey patch on its nose.

The cat seemed to be assessing him – deciding whether he was to be trusted or not, so he slowly dropped the fish onto the pavement between them. The sun was high and the pavement was hot but it didn’t seem to mind.

Sebastian continued to stare at the human as he came closer to the fish, but his hunger got the best of him and he lowered his head to take what was supposed to be a small nibble.

The human inched backwards a bit as if to give him space. That seemed trustworthy enough and Sebastian soon found that he had finished the whole thing. It tasted as wonderful as it smelled. He was much too busy with his meal to notice that the human had moved closer again.

With slow, cautious movements, James carefully picked up the cat. There was something about it and he couldn’t bear to leave it behind. It struggled a bit but eventually relaxed in his hands.

He had a new pet.