The Mouse Hole

My name is Persephone the Persian. I don’t much care about what your name is. In fact, I don’t much care about you at all. That’s why I didn’t trouble myself to say hello to you. This is a tale about me. I’m the Queen.

Many years ago I adopted a childless couple. My sweet mother died and my four siblings and I were starving to death. Besides, it was hotter than Hades and we had no water to drink, and anyway, we were too young to drink water. We were too young to be weaned, but that’s life. Mama had obviously used up her nine lives and had nothing left for us.

So it goes.

Anyway, I was the courageous one of the five of us and crawled out from under the wood pile in the pasture to find help. The Man came and found us. He heard me crying out and came to see what was going on. I hid in the tall weeds so he would be sure to get my three brothers and runt sister first. When they were all gone, I was afraid he wouldn’t come back for me. But he did. I worshiped him like a dog worships its owner. It was humiliating since I’m a cat, but there you have it. Some things simply can’t be helped.

The Woman was very nice and liked to sit on the floor with me every evening and brush my beautiful, long hair. She always spoke sweet words to me and I liked her very much. All cats should be fortunate enough to own such gracious servants.

My silky gray hair was the most magnificent hair you’ve ever seen on a cat and I was exceedingly proud of it. I was always very meticulous about how I arranged myself whenever I settled down for a nap, or about who I allowed to pet me. Or even touch me, for that matter. There are only two right ways to pet me—His way and Her way. Everyone else did it wrong so naturally I hissed and clawed at them whenever they had the audacity to try. Heathens.

One day, soon after I adopted the Man and Woman, my three brothers left. I guess they were given to other families. I hoped they were okay. Nobody knew that I thought about them. I kept such sentimental nonsense to myself. I’m the Queen, even though the Man and Woman made sure that I and my runt sister would never have babies of our own.

My runt sister survived. I didn’t think she would. I like her okay but we weren’t close. She’s a ragdoll and contorts her body in the most unseemly fashion. And she didn’t like to be groomed by the Woman the way I did. She bit and clawed so the Woman laughed and played with her with a string. Sometimes I even played strings with the Woman. But not for long at a time because it’s quite undignified.

My runt sister liked to disappear sometimes. I knew all the hidey-holes in the entire house and sometimes I would go in search of her and call her name, but I was never able to find her. Then she would mysteriously show up at mealtimes. Whenever I demanded to know where she’d gone, she would just say, “I was playing with Mama.” I was saddened by this evidence of her mental deficiency and I always swore to take better care of her.

Once, she said she’d been playing with the black boys, which were two of our brothers that had been taken away. I kissed her and walked away. Poor little sister. But she always seemed so peaceful whenever she returned from her imaginative jaunts, so I didn’t think it really hurt anything. I just kept a close eye on her.

The Man and Woman brought more cats home. One had to stay outside because I refused to let her enter my queendom. I hated the others, too. I fervently wished everyone would leave so it would be just me and the Man and the Woman. Sometimes, I’m ashamed to admit, I even wanted my sister to go away. Unfortunately, they never asked me what I wanted.

One day the Woman disappeared. Two of the new cats disappeared at the same time, and none of them came back. Ever. I wondered if they had disappeared into a mouse hole. One time my sister let slip something about a mouse hole when she came back from one of her imaginative jaunts. I had never found any mouse hole, though, so I thought it was all nonsense. Yet the Woman and those two intruder-cats had definitely disappeared. I kept watching for them to come back like my runt sister always did, but they never came. After a while, I gave up.

The outdoor cat got hit by a car, so then it was just me and my sister with the Man. I liked that, except that he never sat on the floor and groomed me in the evenings. I still worshiped him, though. He saved my life and the lives of my brothers and sister. I wished someone had saved my mom’s life, but I only admitted that to my runt sister. No one else would understand.

The Man left my sister and me alone all day while he went to work. I groomed myself, checked the food bowl often to make sure there was food in it, checked the water bowl often to make sure there was water in it, and watched from the window when it was almost time for him to come home in the evenings. I always jumped down and ran to the door when he got out of his pickup and waved at me. He would come in, pick me up, and pet me and talk to me. And he was kind to my runt sister, too, which made me love him even more.

A new woman came to live with the Man. I didn’t like her at all. She was loud. She didn’t sit on the floor and groom me and sweet talk me. She liked dogs. What a philistine. She was entirely unworthy of the Man. My runt sister disappeared more often, and was gone for longer periods at a time. I pretended not to miss her while she was...well...wherever she was.

I wasn’t feeling very well by then and usually opted to heave my old body up onto the Man’s pillow on the bed so I could smell him, then sleep while he was gone all day. Sometimes my runt sister would come up and sleep with me. We agreed that we missed the Woman who had disappeared, but not the other cats that had also disappeared.

Yesterday, I smelled a smell. I recognized the smell but didn’t understand it. I told my runt sister about it and ordered her to go check it out, but she wanted to sleep, so I, of course, had to be the one to go find out what it was. I’m the one who had the courage to go ask for help to save our lives, you remember, so it stands to reason that I, the Queen, would have to go discover the meaning of this new smell. I glanced over my shoulder at my lazy sister, who was looking at me peculiarly. She blinked a kitty kiss at me.

The smell was coming from the closet. Past the Man’s boots and stacks of magazines on the floor. Past the Man’s clothes that had fallen off their hangers and made soft, secluded little beds for me in the comforting darkness. Away from that loud, uncouth dog that belonged to that loud, uncouth woman.

It was coming from a hole clear in the back of the closet that I’d never seen before.

How curious. I sniffed cautiously around the hole. I couldn’t smell any heathen mice so that was okay. I couldn’t smell the death that had enveloped my mother so very long ago, or that damn outdoor cat after she got hit by the car, so that was okay. And I couldn’t smell the other cats that had disappeared with the Woman, or the new woman’s vile dog, so that was okay. I put my paw tentatively inside the mouse-sized hole.

Nothing happened so I pushed it further and felt around a little. The smell came stronger. I liked it. I found it intriguing.

I pulled my paw out and tried to put my head into the hole so I could look around. It worked. I saw a large room that I wanted to explore so I attempted to push my head clear through that mouse-sized hole. It worked. I tried to squeeze my body through the hole. Without messing up my beautiful gray hair. It worked, although I don’t know how. I don’t particularly care, either.

I warily peered around. Nothing moved or made any rude noises so I crept further into the room.

That smell. Where was it coming from?

The room looked interesting. I wanted to explore it and all its little hidey holes but I was compelled to discover the source of that smell first.

It seemed to be coming from behind a big couch on the opposite wall. I slunk with admirable stealth across the room, keeping to the periphery as I went. The smell grew stronger and more enticing.

Edging my nose cautiously around the back of the couch, I saw it. Another hole in another wall. The smell, that enchanting smell, was coming from that hole. Helplessly I crept closer and risked a peek into it.

I found myself eyeball to eyeball with another cat. I leaped back and hissed and growled a warning, but that cat put her paw through the hole and motioned for me to come nearer. For some bewildering reason, I did.

Putting my regal little nose down closer, I smelled the paw. It smelled oddly familiar—it was the confusing familiarity of the smell I’d been following. A sudden memory rolled over me like the thunder that I despised. I cowered and trembled and growled.

“Don’t be afraid, my darling baby girl,” whispered the cat on the other side of the wall. “It’s safe for you to come in.”

I crawled forward. I couldn’t help myself. That voice. That lovely, gentle voice that sent waves of warmth surging over me.

“Come in, my brave little girl,” whispered the voice on the other side of the wall.

I willingly obeyed.

I wasn’t even fully through the hole in the wall when the other cat started licking my face and my ears, and purring and snuggling her head against me. It felt so good.

“My sweet, brave, darling girl,” the other cat whispered in my ear. “I’ve been watching you and patiently waiting until it was your turn to join us.”

“Us?” I asked.

“Two of your brothers are already here.”

I looked past her into the welcoming black, fuzzy faces of my brothers, then back at the first cat, the one who had lured me here. It was her beguiling scent that had called to me through the two holes in the two walls.

“Mama,” I whispered and started weeping in my own catly way. It couldn’t be helped, and it didn’t seem to matter anymore that I act regal and dignified. I was no longer the Queen. “My dear, sweet Mama. I missed you so much. I tried so hard to make sure my brothers and sister were taken care of like you would’ve wanted.”

“You did marvelously well, my darling. I’m very, very pleased with you.” My mama licked my cheek. I closed my eye so she could kiss it, too. It felt so gentle. “Your little sister always reported that you were taking good care of her, my sweet baby girl.”

“What?” I asked. “What did you say?”

“Your little sister comes to visit us periodically. She comes through the portal, the mouse hole that you found, but she always returns to you because she doesn’t want to leave you alone.”

I was stunned, not knowing what to say. I’d been wrong about by runt sister all along. I wanted to go apologize to her.

My two black brothers crept over and smelled my face. “Come on! Let’s go play while we wait for the others to join us. You should see what fun we’re having in here.”

I followed them. I was happy to be here, but I hoped my sister would be okay without me there to take care of her. But wait, clearly she would be okay without me there. She was much stronger than I’d given her credit for. I knew she and the Man would be very sad to lose me, and that made me feel sad for them and happy to know that they loved me that much.

I turned to look at Mama. She gave me a gentle smile. I knew she understood what I was feeling. I also knew that she was going to wait at that portal until my sister and third brother came to join us. I guess moms are like that sometimes. I tackled one of my brothers, forgetting to be dignified and careful of mussing my beautiful gray hair. It was time to act like a kitten again. Suddenly, I was very happy, and my old body didn't even ache anymore. I wrapped my arms around a black, fuzzy body and gave the attached face a big, fat kiss.