Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Friday, July 24, 2015

The “Other” Cat Story


I sleep in the raw and have done so since the time I graduated high school.  This means, among the more glaring things, that I leap out of bed in the morning and run around the house naked as I start brewing the coffee, feed my 40 pounds of cat, and, perhaps, step outside to check the weather.

Since I live out in the country, scampering around naked is not really a problem.

I have not always lived in the country.

In the late 1980’s I lived in East Helena, Montana.  Living in town had a few advantages.  Pizza places delivered to my home.  I was five minutes from the nearest bar.  A grocery store was only three minutes away.  Also, I found the morning paper freshly delivered to my front steps each morning as started my daily rituals.

One morning, after leaping from my bed and starting the coffee, I cracked open the front door only to discover that my newspaper was not there.

Highly unusual.

On a few previous occasions, though, our twelve-year-old paper girl had flung the newspaper off the side of the steps into some ground junipers.  Recalling this, I fully opened the front door and stepped onto the concrete steps to investigate, thinking I might find the paper there.

Just as I started to snoop around, I heard the front gate creak open about fifteen feet down the walk from me.  I looked up and found myself face to face with the paper girl and her mother.

I stood there—full-frontal naked—with no place to hide.

It occurred to me that something should be said by me.  Especially, as I saw the paper girl’s eyes widening.  Her mother was fully aghast.

I needed to appear casual, calm.  I needed to belong there.  I blurted the first thing that came to mind: “Have you seen my cat?”

No answer.  The girl quickly shook her head and then half-heartedly dropped the paper onto my walk.  Soon after, the pair whisked off down the street.  As I recall, they did not even bother to close the gate again.

I dashed out to grab the paper and then quickly ducked back into my house to dress.       

--Mitchell Hegman

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