My parents came over to see how the kitten was doing. We were making some small talk and I said I had just started reading my first Hemingway ‘The old man and the sea’.
My dad : ‘Oh. I have seen that movie ! The old man takes a tiny boat, and then goes out onto the ocean, and then he dies.’
Today, the sky is a bright blue. Perfect weather for a little walk into town, and a coffee and some pancakes.
But. Oh no ! The tearoom is closed. Closed ! Smack in the middle of the Christmas holidays. What to do now ?
I walk around for a little while trying to decide whether I should just go back home or not, but, hey, I feel brave today and I really want those pancakes !
So, I decide to go next doors, to a place called ‘the Peacock’.
After about 5 minutes of me sitting on the terrace, a girl comes out to take my order. I ask for a coffee and some pancakes. She gives me a pitiful look and says : ‘ Oh, no. This isn’t a tearoom…’
So I change my order to ‘just coffee then’.
A couple of minutes later, she brings me some watery coffee in a grey cup with the number 3 on it. The cup is broken. Some of the coffee has sloshed onto the saucer. But that’s ok. The coffee isn’t all that great anyway.
Something totally unexpected happened on the way to work today. A silvery white portal appeared on the pavement, right in front of my feet.
I was so surprised that for a moment I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there. Watching. Looking around to see if other people saw it too.
I tried to make sense of it. Some time passed … and then I remembered I was supposed to catch a train ! So, I took a picture with my phone, and rushed off to the station where I almost missed my train.
I have to say that I seriously considered crossing over. But then … the Christmas holidays were almost upon us …
And hey, did they even have Christmas holidays on ‘the Other Side’ ?
Last night, a tiny, tiny kitten found its way into my home. It was mostly dark brown, with some splotches of red in its face. It was purring like crazy.
Some friends of my parents had seen a litter of kittens in their garden. The kittens were happy and healthy, except for this one kitten that was much smaller. It was a girl, about 3 months old and obviously not very healthy.
My mom dropped it off, and told me she thought ‘Sookie’ would be a very good name for the kitten.
I thought so too, but then had to change my mind about 5 minutes later. My Sookie was actually a Jackson.
There is this woman at work that I like to talk to from time to time. She was born in Russia, but moved to Belgium when she got married.
She told me she has a degree in History.
Isn’t that just sad ?