chuchki saved

when i got home today i couldn't find chuchki. it was 11.30 at night and usually she comes romping to the door when i enter. but even five minutes after i filled chloe's bowl, which also gets chuchki's attention, i turned on the light to find only the ghostly chloe crouching silent above her food dish. as usual, she stared at me with an uncertain significance, which came across this time as urgent concern, accurately reflecting my inner thoughts. perhaps that is what chloe's stare does: it simply throws back what i am revolving around in my mind.

it was then i heard the yowl. it seemed to come from the closet containing the trap door leading to the basement through which clothes are dropped down to the laundry machines. i opened the closet door and found only the familiar trap door and bottles of preserved food, packages of pancake mix, the hanging light switch. i then opened the basement door: entryway to a darkness so impenetrable it takes on a life of its own, a lingering smell of musk and old linoleum, the descending staircase down into the graveyard for all the house's unneededs, the tight spaces that lead to my grandpa's old laboratory, still decorated with cloudy beakers, piles and piles of screws and nails, unmarked glass bottles filled with mysterious liquids, hanging light bulbs activated only by screwing them in by hand.

as soon as i opened the door, the instant the musk hit me, my cat's bright orange silhouette struck my eyes against the darkness. she was cowered, unsure of the light from the kitchen that stung her eyes, staring at my feet in disbelief. i scooped her up and cradled her, and she loosened up considerably, refraining from pulling her escape moves or enacting an annoyed struggle. i carried her upstairs and fed her some seafood-flavored pellets, which she gobbled at briefly before wandering out of my room mysteriously to stare into the void galyna left in the next room after leaving this evening. she returned in intervals to finish her meal, and once done hopped up onto my desk to receive some affection and stare out into the black night from my window overlooking the backyard. she made a few rounds around my computer before settling down, lowering her head familiarly when she reached mine, whereupon i gave her the familiar toothless bite and kiss between her ears. sitting with her face practically pressing upon the window screen, her tail twitched as i played amnesiac by radiohead, complemented by the scratchy chirps from the insects outside.