The Truth

I stood there in the kitchen, nervously eating the cookies Natalie had sent, while ‘Mewsy’ ate her cat food from her bowl. But, she wasn’t sitting down. She was standing, eating it with a spoon, looking at me inquisitively.
“How does this kind of thing happen?” I asked aloud, putting my head in my hands. “How’d you get like this? What’s the purpose of that?”
I decided to at least test this whole thing. Maybe I yelled ‘Nippy the catnip mouse’ in my sleep at some point and a neighbor heard about it. Then they contacted their crazy daughter who decided to break into my apartment to impersonate my cat, of all things.
So I’d ask questions only Mewsy could know.
I grinned, expecting this to go humorously well.
“Hey Mewsy.” I said, playing it like I was cool with this new development. “Where’d I get that tick removed?”
Mewsy looked over at me, her eyes big and round, and said, “Which time? When you did it yourself or when you took me to the vet?”
I balked, then decided to go with the former. “When I did it myself.”
“In my left ear.” The girl said, pointing to her ear with the spoon.
I frowned, then started round two. “What’s your favorite type of pizza?”
Mewsy shook her head.
“I don’t like pizza. You tried to give me a piece with just sauce on it, and that made my tummy really upset.”
The girl looked down at her stomach and her brow knit at the painful memory. I remembered that night. Thought it would be cute to give Mewsy a piece of pizza like what I was eating, but the sauce really upset her. I was shocked that this girl knew this. I didn’t know what to do. This was just, unbelievable!
“Do you know why you’re human?” I asked after a moment to think about all of this.
The girl had just spooned another bit of chicken into her mouth, and shook her head, spoon still in her mouth. As odd as it was, it was kind of cute too. Just like Mewsy. But, as entertaining as it was, I was still really confused. There had to be a reason. Just then, the girl paused, pointing a finger in the air.
“Oh, I remember.”
“What?” I asked, intrigued. As I watched the girl, her eyes seemed to shift as she paused for a few seconds, turning into eyes that looked like a real cat’s eyes.
“I’m here to help you. To feel better when you need it most.”
She spoke in a sort of trance like state, but before I could inquire, she snapped out of it and chuckled.
“Sorry, did I sound funny?”
I didn’t reply. I just thought about what she said. I’d read several stories of people meeting strangers who, right when they needed it, helped them in a major way. Not sure how this compared exactly, but that’s what came to mind.
“Mewsy.” I said to myself again.

That night, I slept uneasily in my room. Mewsy was fine sleeping on the floor. Not that I was worried about this girl impersonating my cat to do anything untoward. She didn’t strike me as that type, and since she really didn’t get up on my bed, my fears were put to rest. I couldn’t sleep after awhile and stayed up late on my computer, checking my emails. Since they gave our customer service one to two business days to reply to any emails (I answered emails instead of over-the-phone service, which was another department), I was able to take my time.
As I read emails and speedily typed replies, I ate some of the cookies Natalie had sent me. They tasted really good. I’d had a lot of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies in my day – not that I was old or anything, I was only twenty five – these matched some of the better ones I’ve eaten. For Natalie to go through so much trouble just so she could break the ice to strangers, she really had some guts. And a whole lot of hope too. Maybe giving her some cookies in reply would be the nice thing to do. I smirked as I looked at another email. Maybe show her Mewsy.
I paused. No, wait, Mewsy wasn’t a cat anymore. I turned, expecting to see the girl standing behind me, but she had dutifully fallen asleep on my floor. I still didn’t know what to make out of her. I wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone, but I really believed this was my cat. That’s why I didn’t mind having her stay. I knew she was just my cat. But what troubled me was why she’d turned into a human. What purpose did that serve? She went into that crazy trance to tell me and could only figure that she was there to help me and stuff. Didn’t pets usually assist in keeping their owners calm and relaxed? Isn’t that why people had pets?!
I looked down and realized I’d broken one of the cookies in my hand, for some reason being so tense at what I was just thinking. I cleaned off my computer pad and sat back, cracking my neck as I thought. What could she help me with? I went to bed not knowing the answer.