The Blood

A small meow ebbed out of the kitten as it jumped onto Joel’s back and scampered up towards the cheese, leaving bloody pawprints up Joel. She first sniffed and then bit in. She gorged herself on the port wine flavored cheese log.

After having her fill the kitten pounced off Joel’s head. It sluggishly walked toward the stream of blood, and sniffed. The kitten must of thought the smell was very appetizing because she began to drink. Fully nourished the kitten was energized. She frolicked across the kitchen with the friskiness only a kitten could have, leaving bloody paws prints all over the counter, the floor, the kitchen table, and Joel.

All played out the kitten picked a comfortable spot to clean herself. She was still in the beginning stages of her cleaning career, so it goes without saying she missed a few spots. Instead of cleaning herself, she simply spread the blood out on her white fur. The kitten seemed not to notice and sprawled herself out on the floor. Unable to keep her tired eyes open she surrendered and went to sleep.

Close to three hours later the sun rose and the neighborhood awoke. One of the first to wake up was Mrs. Janisk, Joel’s neighbor to the right. She was an elderly lady but could still get around pretty well. The newspaper had already been delivered and Mrs. Janisk went to get it. She opened her front door and took a long, deep breath of the morning air. She stretched, took a step and bent down to get the newspaper. Unrolling the paper, Mrs. Janisk caught the site of her neighbor’s front door hanging wide open.

"That’s very odd," she thought.

Mrs. Janisk went back inside her house to put her shoes on. She intended to satisfy her curiosity. She had no way of knowing if something was wrong, so she grabbed an umbrella, that was propped behind her front door, for protection.

She descended her porch steps, walked across the sidewalk, up Joel’s porch, and then stopped at the open front door. She stuck her head out and peered into Joel’s house. She saw nothing threatening, but held the umbrella ready to hit anyone or anything that might jump out at her. Slowly, she took a couple of steps and then stopped again. She had an awful feeling come over her, as if something very wrong happened to her pleasant neighbor while she slept.

Not heeding the bad feeling she continued down the hall which led to the kitchen. About three quarters of the way, Mrs. Janisk spotted the now semi dried up river of blood. She finished the journey into the kitchen. As she scanned the scene a look of utter disbelief came over her wrinkled face. Her mouth dropped and her hand went limp and released the umbrella. When the umbrella hit the floor it woke up the sleeping kitten. What she saw, she will never forget.

It was her kitten she had gotten not even two weeks ago, with blood caked all over its face and paws. Mrs. Janisk’s daughter had given her the kitten as a gift. Mrs. Janisk named the kitten Lucy, after her favorite comedian Lucille Ball. Which fit the kitten now more than ever since the blood had turned the white hair a light shade of red. It appeared to her that Lucy had killed Joel.

"Oh dear. Oh my goodness!," Mrs. Janisk cried.

Mrs. Janisk’s eyes darted back an forth between Joel and Lucy. She knew something must be done.