>>28328327The cat was a nuisance. It was gone now. It was noisy and orange and he didn't want it in the first place. He tried to talk her out of it. She wouldn’t listen. Her orange bangs bobbed when she told him she doesn't ask for much so he'd better give her this. Now they didn't sleep. It meowed and mewled all night by their door. The blue-white pulse of the computer screen in the dark throwing light on the bed sheets from across the room. Across the hardwood floors he paid extra to have installed when they moved. She was fine with carpet but he insisted. For her. She was his princess. He really did love her. He was angry and impulsive and did things he regretted. She was sweet and sad and never talked over anyone. He half-seriously suggested throwing it off a bridge. She shocked him by saying yes. He was almost fired for screaming in his boss's face. Crazy from lack of sleep. Then it had to go. He put it in the cat carrier and fired up the Jetta and drove it into the woods. The black plastic grip of the pistol was cold in his hands. Cold from the morning. He walked far with the cat into the black and green woods. He let it out. He let it eat grass and feel the dirt under its paws. The first time it had been in the woods he knew. He shot it in the head as it turned away, a flat crack under the roof of the boughs and leaves. She was sad for a while. She was happier now. She smiled with her eyes at dinner. She laughed. He loved her. The cat was a nuisance. It was gone now.
