Shame on the Night

DAY ONE:
I figured it out when I smelled their luggage on the floor. They left. Squirrels bickered in The Mayakofsky Tree, I dreamed a clammy bumblebee said, "If I were as small as the Great Ocean, I'd tiptoe on the waves and woo the moon like the tide" as I swallowed him. I rubbed myself on the bumpy clawhammer legs and wheels of Tony's computer chair. I knocked a milk-bottle cap-ring off the bookshelf.

Aaron walked right in the back door and tried to steal my bowl of Science Diet Senior Formula. I was under the bed, waiting to catch him off-guard. But I could smell Tytan, and potato chips, so I waited. I fell asleep. When I woke up, in the middle of the night, more food was in the dish somehow. And more water. That night I dreamed I caught the thunder and pranced the living room as it struggled in my indomitable mouth then I killed it.

DAY TWO:
Rubbed the smooth copper legs of a plant stand in the South Forest. Then the plant fell over and made a word I couldn't understand.

DAY THREE:
"Shimmy, don't crouch in the South Forest," Murray Slaughter said. "They're coming home tomorrow. They will think you have stomach flu and ship you to the Satanic Majesties Veterinarian." A fish, my education, the incalculable summer thunder, a scabrous baby squirrel born in The Tree. Sometimes the living room windows squeezes sunshine into the carpet if you're not hiding under the bed. Yes, of course I taught myself how to open the bedroom closet doors.

DAY FOUR:
I was ready for Aaron and the invisible dog, Tytan. Were Tony and Shelly ever coming back? If they did, would they bring a world's parade of goldfish and hide them under the rug for me? I heard the key in the back door. I was ready for Aaron this time. I clipped my red Squeaky Fromme cape around my neck. Where was the invisible dog? I could smell him.

Aaron disturbed the dining room, spread a heap of mail on the table I walk on when nobody's looking. I heaved myself from beneath the bed and attacked him. He flailed a copy of the New Yorker, a People's Energy bill, and a wedding invitation. He held a book package from Amazon like an oyster in front of my face and I was afraid.