The Cat and the Ring Bearer

Oh no! What should I do?

Danny, a 7-year-old, was to be the ringbearer and he had just lost his Big Sis’s wedding ring. And his little wallet too, that was not important. It all started when his mother left him alone when she was being asked to help out with something else. She had finished helping Danny don his best attire -- neatly trimmed white shirt, black trousers with suspenders attached, and his cute little red bow tie. The moment she left, his bladder kicked in. The toilet was very far away. Although his mother told him to stay put, Danny desperately wanted to pee. He inadvertently took the ring with him. His mom was preparing him for his role as the ringbearer after all. In hindsight, that was the biggest mistake he had made. Danny returned to find the ring had gone missing.

That diamond ring, which the bridegroom brought for Big Sis, had to be worth a fortune. Although Danny had no idea exactly how much the ring cost, he was sure that his family would never be able to repay the bridegroom once it was lost even if they were to live a thousand years. The bridegroom’s family size was massive and every member had wealth and social standing that were way out of their league. They wore sophisticated clothes and always travel in limousines. And Danny had been to many of their grand mansions. Danny’s parents’ relatives, however, were technically nonexistent. His mother told Danny that the family used to be rich once and they had owned a factory. But a recession came and they lost a lot of business. Debts piled up and they declared bankrupt a few months after Danny was born. Danny knew too well what the pain of poverty felt like. There was one time when he got caught up in a fight with the bullies at school. In the end, he got beaten up and his croissant, the only food he had for lunch, was taken away from him. The school punished Danny for starting the fight (it wasn’t him in fact). As for the bullies, however, the school could not care less as they came from parents who were respectable and, most important of all, had more money. And after the incident, his father scolded him in a voice so deafening that it reverberated throughout the entire house and startled the neighbors. He even threatened to sell Danny to slavery.

Things got better when Danny’s father was able to get a job with a decent income. And a week later, his Big Sis got engaged to a member of a super-rich family. Deep down, Danny felt that there was something more about that family than just being rich. Somebody told me that the bridegroom’s family had deep connections with the Mafia. He could not remember exactly who told him so but his observations were in line with all the depictions of gangsters in the films he watched on TV. All the males had tattoos of rotten skulls, poisonous slithering snakes, ferocious fire-breathing dragons, man-eating tigers... anything that strike fear in the heart of the perceiver. His future brother-in-law in particular had this large scar across his left eye. His beard was so thick that it made him appear much older than Big Sis and he had biceps so huge as coconuts. Danny refused to believe that he was the kind of guy Big Sis would want to marry. Her engagement with that man a week after Danny’s father got the job could not be a coincidence.

Danny’s trembling mind had already run a list of terrible things that might befall him and his parents once they found out about the missing diamond ring. Would they cut off their arms and legs? Or worst, riddled their bodies with bullets just like the scene he saw in one of the gangster movies? Danny looked at his watch. It was 6:00 p.m. Big Sis's wedding ceremony was about to start at half past six. He had to start looking.

6:05 p.m.

Danny searched in places he had previously come across on his way to the toilet, but still, he could not find the ring.

"What’s wrong, little man?" It was his future brother-in-law, the one man he dared not make eye contact with.

There was an awkward silence.

The bridegroom squatted down to his level and looked him in the eye.

Danny felt as if the man was peering into his soul.

"What’s that smell? You peed in your pants or something?"

Danny believed he did.

"Don’t tell me you lost the ring?"

There’s simply no hiding from him. The bridegroom frowned for a moment. To Danny, he was like a solemn who was about to issue a death sentence.

"Try your best to look for it, okay?" And then he walked away.

What’s that supposed to mean? Can’t you see I’m trying? Danny suddenly felt tears in his eyes.

6:10 p.m.

Danny saw a dude wearing a T-shirt with orange black horizontal stripes and a grey checked flat cap run straight into an alley and he was chased by 3 men in black suits and dark sunglasses. That dude seemed awfully familiar. Then, it clicked. He was the one whom Danny collided with on his way to the toilet. Danny was quite sure that guy knocked him down on purpose. But due to his willingness to help him up and apologize to him in the most polite way possible, Danny banished that thought. Now that he thought about it, that person had to have something to do with the missing ring and his little wallet. So he decided to chase after them as well. Unfortunately, they were too quick and soon he lost sight of them. Feeling desolated, he headed back, trodding down the alleyway that was littered with contorted empty cans, creased wrapping paper, and black goo.

Out of a sudden, a shadow fell from nowhere and pounce upon a trash container with a loud thud that startled Danny. It was a cat and it was digging for something. It was not all black as it had whites on the nose and mouth area, rendering it having a face that looked like a black curtain. The cat also had white fur on the chest and all four paws were white as if it wore two pairs of white gloves. Taking a closer look would find that the cat had the stripes of a tiger due to its coat having different shades of black. And it had a collar. But Danny knew all too well that having a collar didn’t mean it was a house cat. He had seen too many cats with collars on them wandering around aimlessly. It was his common knowledge that real house cats would never leave their premises. They were just abandoned by their owners.

*TING*

Something fell from the trash container. It was very shiny ... Danny could not believe his eyes. It was the ring. His Big Sis's wedding ring. The black cat also jump down from the trash container and looked at Danny with its greenish-yellow eyes. There was something ominous about them. But this wasn’t the time to be admiring those eyes. Danny had to pick up that ring. But as he moved a few inches forward, the cat picked up the ring with its mouth and dashed away from Danny.

6:15 p.m.

Danny lost the cat for a moment but managed to gain sight of him. The black cat was sitting on the brim of a large fountain, licking its back. In front of the cat laid his Big Sis's wedding ring on the polished marble surface, sparkling in the sunlight. When Danny approached the black cat, it gave him that look.

"Okay, kitty." said Danny, "That ring belongs to Big Sis. Leave it alone."

"Hey, kitty!" A boy of his age wearing tattered clothes spoke. Danny could see that his eyes were not on the cat but on the ring. The black cat grew feisty at the sight of the two boys; its fur stood on end.

"Hey! That’s none of your business!" Danny violently pushed the boy away from him.

"I got here first!"

"You liar!"

Then. they started to fight.

After exchanging a few fists, the boy in tattered clothes was the first to notice the cat had gone missing.

And so was the diamond ring.

6:20 p.m.

The boys went separate ways to search for the cat. Fortunately, Danny managed to catch sight of it again. The cat had quick reflexes and was extremely agile. Still carrying the ring in its mouth, it leaped from ledge to ledge, and tiptoed along the railings. Danny’s short legs had a hard time keeping up. Danny accidentally knocked over a guy carrying a basket of fruits over his shoulder.

"You clumsy brat! Get back here!"

Danny did not have the time to apologize.

The cat eventually ended up on the branch of a tall tree, still having the ring on its lips.

"Hey! Get down here, you bloody thief!"

Danny cried. But the cat gave him the aura of indifference.

He tried climbing but he slipped after a few steps. He had scratch marks on both of his palms and his butt hurt. There was someone nearby but when Danny was about to ask him for help, he hesitated. What if he was a bad guy? Already, Danny had formulated a terrible scenario in his mind ...

"Here’s your kitty." The man would probably say something like that after climbing down the tree.

"Where’s the ring?"

"What ring? You must be mistaken."

"You thief! Give it back!"

"Bye bye"

There would be no hope of retrieving his Big Sis’s ring if that happens. At that moment, the dude whom Danny met during his toilet break wearing an orange and black-striped shirt came to his mind. And everyone around him started wearing orange and black-striped shirts in his cynical eyes. He could trust no one.

When Danny was feeling a little hungry, his stomach gave him an idea. Perhaps food could lure the black cat down the tree and eventually let go of the ring. He thought about going to a pet shop nearby to look for some cat food but soon realized that he did not have his wallet with him. When he was about to lose hope, he saw a ten-dollar note under the tree. Perhaps he could use it to buy something from that food stall nearby. When he went there, Danny found that the ten-dollar note was just enough to buy himself a chicken kabob. Maybe cats like chicken. As he got back to the tree holding a chicken kabob in his hand, the black cat had already gone.

6:28 p.m.

Without the ring in his hand, Danny returned to the church. He could already see the bridegroom outside, waiting for him. What should he tell him? Danny had no other choice but to accept his fate. He felt like being on a conveyor belt, moving towards a huge furnace of hell fire.

"Meow!"

Danny turned round. It was that black cat. It was just sitting there wagging its tail. Danny’s heart lifted up a bit at first but then he saw that the cat no longer had the ring in its mouth.

Where’s the ring? Did the cat lose it? Or did it swallow the ring, thinking it was candy?

When Danny’s boiling emotions were about to pop like an erupting volcano, the black cat kicked the ring which had been hidden from Danny’s view by a patch of grass. Then, the cat picked it up with its mouth and dropped it at Danny’s feet. Then it was staring with innocent gleaming eyes at the chicken skewer Danny was holding in his hand. Danny, offering his chicken kabob as a reward, still could not believe it. He wasn’t expecting this feline rascal, who had been giving him a lot of pain and pain, making him run around in circles, to be this gentle and obedient at the last minute. It was as if Danny and the cat had finally come to some sort of mutual understanding.

"It seems that Pluto takes quite a liking to you," said Danny’s future brother-in-law, smiling as he saw the black cat had just finished the last piece of chicken and started licking Danny’s fingers.

"Pluto?" Danny looked at the cat’s collar and indeed the name Pluto was inscribed on it.

"You owned the cat? But house cats aren’t supposed to wander outside."

"Well, Pluto always wants to go outside so I let him. He never lost his way, ever. He is far more intelligent than you think. Pluto is technically my eyes and ears, if you know what I mean."

Danny was not sure what he meant by that but he was seeing his future brother-in-law smile for the very first time. It was an angelic smile, the smile he had seen in the portrait of Jesus hanging on the wall of the church. If it hadn’t for that obvious large scar on his left eye. Dandy would have mistaken him for Jesus.

***

Danny and another girl who was also a ring bearer walked down the aisle, both carrying a ring attached to a cushion. Danny was extremely nervous as he became the center of attention. But seeing Big Sis smiling at him and the fact that Big Sis was being this beautiful for the first in her wedding dress gave him the courage to go towards the altar. When the newlyweds had the rings on their fingers and kissed, the whole crowd cheered ever more loudly.

***

"MmmmH! MmmmH!"

When the city was cloaked in the shadows of the night, the extravagant ceremonious music drowned out the mumblings of muffled screams. Men in black suits pinned a man to the wall, the man who was the one who had pickpocketed the diamond ring from Danny and hid it in the trash container, the man who was wearing a T-shirt with orange, black horizontal stripes and a gray-checkered flat hat. A thousand knives were driven in and out of his mingled stomach.

And there on the scaffolding towering above lay the black cat, curling itself up, spectating the scene. Its greenish-yellow eyes were like the eyes of a vulture.