Marigold

The cat was a therapy cat first and foremost a constant companion for James to have around, the need for one was certified by several doctors and approved by the rental agency. Two years ago, he went to a place called “The Cat Café”, where cats roamed around the café freely, you sit down and have your coffee and biscuits knowing that one of the cats will eventually start coming to you. It was basically a situation where the cat chooses its owner, not the owner choses the cat. It was during one of James’ times there that a particular orange tabby kitten began interacting with him.

Before taking the kitten, just to be sure, James went back two more days in a row, and each time the same kitten would interact with him, so on the third time, he made the arrangements to take it with him and gave him the name Marigold, because its face especially looked like a huge marigold flower.

Over the two years since, James and Marigold had developed a relationship where they were almost inseparable, and James would only leave the cat when he had to go out, usually for work or to the store. It was of late he met the beautiful woman at work, a Russian girl named Veronika who spoke broken English and sometimes didn’t get her words or the meaning right, but she was good in bed. She hated cats though, especially Marigold who was always “bothering her”.

On one particular Saturday though, it came to a head, Veronika was there usually from Friday night all the way through to Sunday afternoon, then would go. It was on this Saturday afternoon that James had to go out for a few hours hoping he could trust Veronika around the cat. He came home to see Veronika planting Marigold flowers in the yard, and Marigold the cat being allowed both inside and outside, James was expecting to see it come prancing towards him.

“Marigold,” James called out he pulled out a bag of the cat’s favorite treats and shook it in the air, there was no response. He stepped up to Veronika, “have you seen Marigold?”

“I buried Marigold,” Veronika said proudly, as she waved at the rows of marigold flowers, “see?”

“I’m not talking about those…flowers,” James said, “and I think the word you want is “planted”,”

“Oh, I planted Marigold.”

“Yes,” I looked at the rows of flowers, “very nice job with the marigolds, now where is Marigold the cat?”

“I told you, I buried Marigold!”

“OK,” sometimes having a reasonable conversation with Veronika was next to impossible, but at this point James needed to know where his cat was, now. I put the next few words plainly and succinctly. “The cat. You are telling me you buried my cat?”

“Yes.”

“He like it.”

“I don’t think my cat liked it when you buried him… ALIVE!”

“He did and does.”

“Where did you bury him?” Veronika was beginning to make a motion to some point in the yard, but James was growing impatient, so when her arm came up pointing at the freshly planted rows of marigold trying to formulate what she wanted to say, James grabbed at the shovel she was using.

“No, no!” Veronika screamed as James began to dig up the marigolds. “Please. Stop!”

“Where is my cat?”

“I tell you, buried, but he’s fine!”

“How can he be fine if you buried him?” James went back to digging up the marigold flowers.

“Marigold not buried there,”

“You have thirty seconds to tell me exactly where the cat is buried, otherwise you are gone…out of my life.”

“I’m beginning to think you love that cat more than you do me!” Veronika looked at James teary eyed.

“At this point…yes!” James went into the small house and grabbed a large trash-bag, anything that was Veronika’s was going into it.

“Cat is ok,” Veronika pleaded, “really.”

“Then show me where he is!”

“OK,” Veronika lead James back outside, “you’re going to laugh when you see where I buried him.”

“I don’t think so,”

“You will,” Veronika went up to a pile of boxes in which the marigold flowers came in, she picked up one of the boxes that were placed upside down, “see?”

There was no cat under the box or any of the other boxes. “OK,” James was officially pissed, “where is the cat?”

“I don’t know.”

“So, tell me from the beginning what happened that caused you to bury the cat, If I don’t like what you say, the rest of your stuff is going into the trash-bag.

“OK, I go out to flower shop to get some marigolds to surprise you with them come back to plant them, but your cat…he starts playing with them, so I put the empty box on top of him.”

“And?”

“And nothing. That’s it.”

“So, according to that, the cat should have come running out when you lifted the box up.”

“Yes!”

“So,” James looked around, “where is the cat?”

“I don’t know!” Veronika pleaded; she realized her story wasn’t enough. “You must believe me; I didn’t do anything else to the cat!”

James quickly turned and went back towards the house.

“Please, he could just be wandering around. Let me finish planting the flowers, and hopefully by then the cat will show up.”

“He better show up, unharmed.”

“He will,”

James put the bag down, “you have one hour for the cat to show up.”

“He will,” Veronika said, “I promise.”

Over the next 45 minutes, James helped Veronika finish planting the rest of the marigolds in hopes that the cat would come out of wherever he was hiding, because it was quite obvious to James that if the cat were alive, he was hiding from Veronika and for good reason.

“So,” James finally said, “where is the cat?”

“He will turn up, I promise!” Veronika looked around, and muttered out two more words, “I hope!”

“You hope?” James placed his hand back onto the trash-bag, if Veronika didn’t give a reason for saying that, all of her things were going into the trash-bag. “What did you do to the cat?”

“I kicked him.”

“You kicked my cat?”

“Not hard.”

“No wonder he’s not coming out, he’s hiding from you!”

“Look Marigold will be OK.”

“I want to see for myself,” James barked, “now!”

“Last I saw him; he went into the corner of the yard.”

“So, the whole thing about Marigold being under those boxes was just because it might have been something you thought I wanted to hear?”

“Yes,”

James finally lay his eyes on Marigold, he was laying under the planted marigold cowering, obviously afraid of Veronika, he reached in under the marigold and gently pulled the cat into his arms, the cat hid his face into James’ chest, just so that the cat couldn’t see Veronika. “What did she do to you to make you this afraid of her?”

“I did nothing to the cat to make it so…what’s the word.”

“Traumatized?” James said. “I knew you didn’t like the cat; I knew it from the start, but I sort of figured it was a situation where the cat would grow on you as you were around him. I guess I was wrong with that line of thinking.”

“So, it’s either me or the cat!” Veronika said.

“Oh,” James put Marigold down and put some of the treats down for him to eat, while avoiding Veronika, the cat went towards the treats, “you know that much. You have enough time to get your things together and you are gone for good.”

“What about us working together at work?”

“Oh, your work ethic has much to be desired, and it was only because of your positive interaction with me that they kept you for as long as they did.”

“No more positive interaction?”

“Nope!”

“Then I quit. I am out of your life forever,” Veronika quickly rushed around and tossed all of her personal items into the trash-bag, then came back to James, who was standing there holding the cat in his arms, who was finally beginning to get comfortable again. Veronika looked the cat in the eyes and put her face up to it and let out a loud hissing sound.

“Goodbye Veronika, may you find somebody who will treat you with the same regard as you treated my cat.”

Veronika looked at James like a deer in headlights. Maybe she should have killed the cat when she had the chance and came up with some story about it running out into the street, which would have gone over a whole lot better. Fortunately for her right now, James would never know the full extent of how mean she actually was to the cat while he was out. Yet, she knew that one day it would come back to bite her in the ass.

James saw Veronika climb into her tiny little Volkswagen beetle and drive off. He would never see her again even at work, for she never showed up for her shifts or answered her calls to come in. After three shifts of her not coming in, the bosses simply removed her from the schedule and moved on.

As for Marigold, he lived to live a long happy cat life, especially when James finally did find that proper human companionship with the right girl who was able to accept and interact with Marigold in the proper manner.