Who Keeps a Cat? (196 Words)
Dez shut the door, brushing past Ivan on his way to the kitchen. Ivan watched the bounty hunter roll up his sleeve. Dez winced as he cleaned the wound from the crawler’s bite.
“Thank you.” Ivan sounded awkward. “For saving me.”
Dez didn’t answer and Ivan turned to the cluttered living room. He was walking towards a chair when he started in surprise. Of all the things he had anticipated, he would never have expected the alert, furry face looking curiously up at him.
“That’s Arch,” said Dez.
“He’s beautiful,” said Ivan.
“She.” Dez corrected him. He lifted the cat from the chair, scratching her ears gently with one hand.
It suddenly struck Ivan that he didn’t really know Dez. For all the years they had spent working together before Dez’s license was revoked, he would never have imagined him keeping a cat. It was a side of the other man that softened Ivan a little.
“We need you,” he said. “Grimmer is back.”
Dez’s face tightened. “You trust me?” he said. “Now?”
“No.” Ivan knew better than to lie. “I didn’t want to ask you. I wasn’t going to. But then—I saw the cat.”
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Written in response to Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner. Check it out!
WALLIE'S WENTLETRAP 