Cats in the sanctuary. Part Two.

That night I had a dream that my room was searched by five or six special agents. I heard them turning every paper, opening cabinets and throwing my clothes on the floor. I didn’t know what they were looking for, but one of them decided to check my head out. Horrified, “I’m hiding nothing there!” I opened my eyes and saw Santosh, as much as I could see in the dark. “I woke you, hah,” he murmured unapologetically and proceeded between my pillow and the wall. There must have been something really important under the pillow, for he repeated his raid about half an hour later. “They will cuddle on the bed,” floated up in my mind Jason’s words, but this time for some reason they sounded more like a warning. Until early morning, the cats had been exploring every square inch of my room, yet in a very random manner, rushing and jumping back and forth and across. It seemed that they were catching up with the time that they were forced to waste under the bed the day before. By 6 a.m. they decided that they had honestly earned their rest, and the room became alarmingly quiet.

Dmitri was still asleep when I got up. It was shortly after nine. S.&O. were seen nowhere, but I didn’t bother to look for them—apparently they retreated to their proven safe haven, under the bed. Closer to noon, I made pancakes with jam and tea, and Dmitri and I had a late breakfast. At around one p.m. almost at the same time came Irina and J.M., a reporter of a Lower Mainland newspaper. After the interview, Irina and Dmitri went home, leaving me one on one with the cats.

S.&O. enthusiastically greeted me at the door when I returned to my room. “Sorry for the mess,” they tried to appease me rubbing against my legs. I made myself comfortable on the bed to read and Santosh, who had shown himself bolder and more open to communication even though smaller than his brother—I didn’t mention that they were twins,—joined me with no signs of hesitation. “I like it here,” he looked at me yawning, picking up the best spot to lie down on the edge of the bed. Onni pretended being very busy with a daddy-long-legs. “Hey, Onni,” called him Santosh, “Come make us a company, will ya? This guy is harmless.” Onni didn’t answer. “Leave this stupid spider alone! You're embarrassing me,” Santosh started loosing patience. “Are you kidding?” growled Onni back, “Leaving this juicy, no—crunchy, yam-m-my… m-m-m,” he had difficulties speaking and at the moment I thought that I saw spider’s moving legs sticking out of his mouth. “Ah, forget it. It’s helpless. You’re a disgrace,” Santosh turned away and closed his eyes.

Later that day, Irina joined me for dinner and to avoid sharing the night with the twins we moved the bed to a small room upstairs on the other side of the church. Before going to our new bedroom, she took off her necklace and a little golden ring with two tiny diamonds to put on a night cream and left both pieces on the computer desk. We told the cats to behave and wished them good night. It was some challenge to cross the whole church with all lights off except the red exit signs but we made it. Probably because it was kind of a different place and we slept on the floor, though we had a mattress beneath us, we didn’t get the rest we expected. Besides, at 8 o’clock in the morning we were woken up by the vacuum’s noise—custodian was cleaning the carpets—and when it had become really busy in the church by nine, it was time to get up. We went down to my room. S.&O. happily met us at the door—they looked innocent and there were no signs of a major damage. Irina approached the desk to put her jewelry on. The necklace was exactly where she had left it the night before, but the ring was gone.

To be continued.