Silence. Absence. No cat.
I tell myself to stop fretting,
and Charles tells me to stop fretting, and I attempt or pretend to stop
fretting, and go on with whatever I’m doing, fretting.
The sense of mystery is constant
and oppressive.
And then, there he is. He has
rematerialized before my eyes. There he is, with his tail curved over his back,
and a bland, friendly expression suggesting permanent readiness for Food.
Pard, where were you?
Silence. Affable presence. Mystery.
I think he uses the Time Machine.
I think it takes him elsewhere. Not cyberspace, that’s no place for cats. Maybe
he uses it to open temporal interstices, like the impossible window-frame
non-spaces by which box elder beetles enter the house. By such secret ways,
known to Bastet and Li Shou, lit by the stars of Leo, he visits that mysterious
realm, that greater outdoors, where he is safe and perfectly at home.