“Never mind just humans,” I said. “You’re going to end up despised in the world of cats that way.”
She continued to walk ahead of me, as though she had not heard me, arriving at the foot of the hill and steadily beginning the climb through the trees. Finally we reached the usual clearing, with its house made of wood, and rushed to knock on the door.
The first time we knocked, there was no response.
We knocked several more times, tried the knob, and circled the house’s perimeter, but it seemed that Granny was not home. I sat down in the greenery of that empty space and crossed my short arms.
“It’s weird for both Skank-san and Granny to be out.”
“Meow meow,” Miss Bobtail replied, forlorn that she had yet to receive a meal.
“Now you can’t just sulk about it. Life is like a school lunch.”
“Meow.”
“You’ve still got to enjoy it as much as you can, even when they don’t have the things you like. You get it?”
She did not appear to get it, but we descended the hill together anyway. Maybe we will run into Granny on her return, I thought, but we arrived at the park at the bottom of the hill without any such luck. In the park, children younger than me were running around, their mothers watching over them.
Now then, what could be going on? I wondered. Miss Bobtail rolled around at my feet, perhaps distraught that all her hopes had been betrayed.
I set the gears of my sharp mind turning. Then I remembered something.
“There’s a fork in the road on the way to Granny’s house.”
“Meow.”
“Now that I think about it, there’s still a way we haven’t gone. Let’s try going that way.”
Miss Bobtail was still flopped on her side on the ground. I nudged her with my toe. She stood somewhat reluctantly, let out a big yawn, and we began climbing the hill again.
I followed behind her, sweat dotting my forehead. Finally, we arrived at the fork. We always went right from here but today, for the first time, I decided to try left. This path sprawled to a gentle rise. Perhaps pepped up by the chance for some exercise, Miss Bobtail sprang along ahead of me. Cats are such easygoing creatures.
Five minutes later, with the smell of the trees growing stronger bit by bit, the broken iron gate appeared. The gate, which appeared as if by magic, was open just a few centimeters.
As I reached out to touch it, the gate swung slowly open, crying out in a hoarse voice. I hesitated for just a moment, but I looked Miss Bobtail in the eye, thinking how far we had already come, and decided to proceed. I already had plenty of practice looking up and sticking out my tongue for forgiveness, just in case anyone got mad at us.
Beyond the gate were clean-cut stone steps, unlike the rough path we had climbed. We went up carefully, but eventually the stairs ran out and opened up into something like a clearing, strewn with gravel.
I was surprised to see it, and drank in a breath of this new air. I have no idea whether the little one at my feet was surprised as well.
“Meow,” she said, as she always did.
“I had no idea there was something like this up here.”
At the end of the path opposite from Granny’s house was something that was the complete opposite: a building that looked like a square stone box. Looking at the window-like holes along the walls, I thought the building had two stories, but I didn’t have the slightest clue what it was. There were no patterns or lettering anywhere. It looked very much just like a plain stone box. It had none of the warmth of Granny’s big wooden house.
As I drew closer, I found there wasn’t even a door in the place where the entrance should have been. Puzzling over this for a moment, I slipped timidly in through one of the gaping holes. Miss Bobtail swallowed her nerves and casually entered the building. I entered behind her. Don’t tell anyone, but I was actually a bit afraid.
First we looked around the ground level, but there were nothing resembling rooms. The floor was a solid plane, utterly empty. There was not the slightest hint that anyone might be there. The only thing even marking this box as a building was the staircase that sat smack in the middle. With nowhere else to go, we mustered our courage and slowly climbed the stairs.
The second floor was empty as well. It appeared as though the square holes really had been windows once, as there were shards of glass still hanging from them here and there. Obviously, I did not touch them—that would be dangerous.
Ah, nothing left in this building, I thought, looking around the second floor.
Don’t tell anyone, but it really was frightening. I wanted nothing more than to hurry back outside. But then we discovered another set of stairs, leading up. Looking up, I could tell it led to the roof, seeing the open sky above. I locked eyes with the little one at my feet and we decided to climb.
Step by step we climbed the stairs, leaving footprints behind in the dust. When we poked our heads out onto the rooftop, I was greeted first by rays of sun, and the wind brushing my face. And then I locked eyes with a young woman sitting huddled on the ground with a box cutter pressed to her wrist.
That day, shocked to my core, I understood for the first time what people meant when they say that time stopped. And then, an instant later, time was racing.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!!”
“Meow!”
And that was how I met Minami-san.