The closet incident

Traducido del español al inglés por María del Consuelo García Morales

The night degraded into a silent murmur, from the depths of the open closet, a loud bellow shook us. My cat and I were terrified to look at that threshold and crouched down. With her bright yellow eyes, she told me she would go investigate. She walked determined, and disappeared into that blackness.

I could not reach it because I felt a dizziness when breathing a breath of stale air; I groped inside the closet, and I was not able to see the finitude of my fingers.

On the third day the cat appeared. I ran to hug her and she escaped in terror. Shy she returned. It changed physically. Before leaving it was blacker than white with a characteristic spot on the right eye. The cat that returned was whiter than black and the spot was on the opposite eye. Without a doubt, it was another; I did not feel any bond with her.

I wanted to observe her closely. Then she jumped and scratched me in the face, her claws pierced my skin until I bled. Between screams of pain and insults, I threw that evil animal where it came from, it left with a heartbreaking meow.

I was beginning to resign myself to living alone when I saw her. It was her, my cat, she was back! She came out of the portal with a jocular walk, jumped to my legs, looked at me with joy as her tail caressed me enthusiastically. She told me that the incident would happen again; I should learn to live with her and with “the other”, the violent invader.

“What will my double living on the other side of the closet look like?”

I thought as I closed the door.