Notes & Stuff (That Probably Won't Amount to Anything)

Black Cat

[Author's Note: This is the last of the three pitches that were required this week for my class. I'm interested in knowing which of the three YOU found most interesting! One of them will be selected by my class for me to develop over the next 7 weeks, but I'd like to know which one my current readers are actually interested in, too! So if you read the last three entries on this book, please let me know which was your favorite! You can comment or message me!]

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Black Cat

            The black cat's name was Akio 昭夫. "He will bring you luck," Baba had said when she brought him to my apartment. She smiled and held her crocheted shawl closer around her shoulders. In Japan, black cats are known to help single girls find husbands, and this was the superstition which Baba had been raised. Perhaps Japanese black cats are different, I don't know, but, from the moment he arrived, Akio seemed driven to live up to his American expectation.

It was not in Akio's nature to be cuddly. My new pet was not one for purring and went out of his way to avoid affection, leaping from bed to window sill to book shelf to escape my touch. He took to hiding in the small cupboard over the refrigerator, where I could not reach him. "I don't think Akio likes me," I told Baba while visiting her for tea a week after she had given the cat to me.

"Don't be silly," Baba answered as she poured hot water over our tea leaves. "Akio is your lucky cat."

"But he won't let me touch him."

"Akio is teaching you about life," Baba replied knowingly. "He will bring you many suitors. Just you wait and you shall see."

I sipped my tea and waited while she read my leaves, squinting into the cup, and, predictably, discovered that I would meet a luminous man soon because of Akio.

I wanted to tell Baba that I suspected that my little black cat would bring me far less suitors than going out on a Friday night wearing my little black dress would. Tradition and superstition was important to Baba, and I could not break her heart by suggesting Akio's presence would make no difference in my love life. Of course I could not have known then just how wrong I was about Akio – and what a difference he would make after all!