he who loved

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/based on the picture above/

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He used to have a cat.

I don't remember if he gave the cat a name, it was a long time ago and we weren't friends back then. Well, we weren't really friends now but I I lived across the street from him in a picturesque little down on the edge of England, on the Scottish border. The cat was a frequent visitor of my village. I was sure the cat was a female, she strolled around in a rather lady-like manner, her straight white fur hung around her body in a fitted way like a coat. But the most impressive thing about her were her eyes. She had kaleidoscope eyes of blue and yellow, her right one a golden yellow and her left a blended mixture of sky blue and flaxen. She was the main attraction in our village. People for neighbouring towns would come visit just to take a glimpse of the cat. Needless to say, she was extraordinary.

She especially had a connection with him. It was a rather strange connection and everybody knew it but at the same it, it felt normal. He was going through a rough patch when she first approached him and at first, he turned her away. She would always sit by his glass door, waiting for a scrap of food or a show of affection. He was a stubborn young man or maybe he just didn't care. Either way, he left her hanging on to glints of hope like that for years. We tried to tell him to pay more attention to her, be nice to her, feed her. But he never took our advice and so, one by one, we gave up.

Later on, all of a sudden, he found a soft spot for her. I wouldn't have believed it if I haven't seen it for myself. He let her into his house and then he touched her. He flinched when it did it but I knew the reason why. We all did.

It was a long time ago when his wife left him for somebody that he knew wasn't good enough for her. The thought of her leaving broke his heart and ate away at his soul. He was originally friendly and outgoing but this changed him. It would break anybody but I think that he was easiest to crack. He was a good man, of course he was, I knew him since he was a child. But, as people say; 'pain changes people'. The change was gradual but at the same time, it was rapid and within a blink, he wasn't the same man.

Then one day, the cat disappeared. At first, we thought she just moved it permanently. And one day, there wasn't a single trace of her left. We still don't know what happened to her since that day. One day, he just came out of the house, alone, face void of emotion. We asked him and his only words were

'I loved her'

We still don't know who that meant; the cheating wife or the dead cat.

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photo credits : Pixabay

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