Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

Kate’s been gone a while. Years. Today, while tidying the electronic desktop, I stumbled on several images that made me smile. Kate loved investigating a lower kitchen cupboard during late-night wanderings. The open cupboard door next morning always revealed her secret.

This particular morning was the beginning of a gut-the-first-floor house remodel. We’d set up a safe room for her in the upstairs bathroom: her toys, her food, the litter box, a cushion she liked to drowse on.

The construction crew was due to arrive and I wanted Kate (a stranger-averse being of the first order) safely tucked away before they showed up. But Kate, anticipating disruption, had safely tucked herself away. I searched high and low and couldn’t find her.

That morning, she had added a new skill — closing the cupboard door behind her. When, as a last-ditch effort, I checked, there she sat looking at me like “May I help you?” I laughed and grabbed the phone, and she, with great dignity stepped out.

Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang.

Photo by Susan Palmer