Chapter 25 twenty five

Around one o'clock that afternoon, Church the cat came back like a cat in a nursery rhyme.Louis is in the garage doing what he's been doing for the last six weeks, making a set of shelves where he wants to put all the dangerous stuff in the garage, like window washer fluid, antifreeze, and sharp tools. On those shelves so Son Gage couldn't reach it.Louis was hammering a nail when Church the cat came in with his tail up.Louis didn't drop the hammer or smash his thumb in surprise, his heart pounded in his chest but didn't jump out; his stomach burned for a moment and then cooled down again like the filament in a light bulb. It seemed to burn out after a flash.Later Louis thought it was as if he had been waiting for Church to come back that sunny Friday morning after Thanksgiving—the whole morning, as if in some deep, primal part of his ideology, He knew what it meant for him and Chad to go to the Meek Mike cemetery.

Louis carefully put down the hammer, took the few nails dangling from his mouth with his hands, put them in the pocket of his work apron, walked to the kitten, and picked up Qiu Shangkou. It's as light as it was alive, Louis thought with a sort of excitement, as light as it was before it got hit by the car.This is the weight when alive.A dead pig weighs more than that in a bag, and a dead cat weighs more than a live cat.This time Louis' heart pounded so hard it almost jumped out, and for a moment the garage seemed to spin before his eyes. Church pricked up his ears and let Louis hold him.Louis carried the kitten outside in the sunlight and sat on the back steps of the garage.The kitten tried to jump, but Louis held it in his lap and petted the kitten.Louis felt his heartbeat was normal again now.He reached lightly into the thick fur on the underside of Church's neck, for he remembered the way Church's head spun around the boneless neck last night after his death.Louis felt nothing, only the muscles and tendons were intact.He held up the kitten and looked carefully at the kitten's muzzle.What he saw caused him to throw the kitten to the ground quickly, put one hand over his face, and close his eyes.Now he felt that the whole world was spinning again, and his mind was a little dizzy. This feeling was like the feeling before he was about to vomit after drinking too much alcohol.

Louis saw dried blood on the kitten Church's muzzle and two thin strands of green plastic bags from a garbage bag on his long whiskers. He thought again of what Chad had said: We can talk about this a bit more, and you'll understand a little more then. oh god!He now knows more than he ever wanted to know! Give me a chance, Louis thought, and I'll find out if I'm crazy. Louis put the kitten inside, found the cat food plate, opened a bag of cat food with tuna and pork liver, and Church purred unevenly as he spooned out the beige food , still rubbing back and forth between Louis' ankles.The feeling of the cat rubbing against him gave Louis goosebumps and he had to grit his teeth to keep from kicking the cat away.The hair on the sides of the cat's body is too thick, slippery, and in a word, too annoying.Louis figured he wouldn't care if he never touched the cat again.

He stooped to put the tray of cat food on the floor, and as Church hurried over to eat, Louis could have sworn he smelled a smell of mud—a smell that seemed to emanate from the cat's fur. Louis took a step back and watched the kitten eat.He could hear the kitten smacking its lips, and Louis couldn't help asking himself—did Church smack his lips when he ate?Maybe the smack, but Louis never noticed it.Anyway, the sound is annoying.In Ellie's words, vulgar. Louis turned abruptly and walked upstairs, at first walking, but by the time he reached the stairs he almost ran.He undressed and threw all his clothes into the washing tub, even though he had changed his clothes inside and out that morning.He put himself in a basin of hot water, as hot as he could bear it, and then jumped in with a plop. Steam rose around him, and he could feel the hot water relaxing his muscles. He took a bath. It also worked on his brain, and his spirit relaxed.As the water started to cool, he felt a little groggy and better again.He thought: The cat is back, just like the cat in the nursery rhyme, so all right, great.

This is nothing more than a mistake.Didn't he think last night that Churchill looked all right, with no signs of being hit by a car at all?Louis thought: Think of all those run over cats, dogs, groundhogs lying on the road, their bodies smashed and their guts everywhere, like a dead skunk that Wayne White sang about on his record That way, the colors are vibrant. It is now clear that Church was hit hard by a car, but only passed out.When he and Chad took it to the old Meek Mike cemetery, the kitten had been unconscious, but not dead.Don't people say cats have nine lives?Thank God he didn't say anything to Allie!She didn't have to understand what Church had been through.

The blood on the cat's mouth and jaw... the way the cat's neck turns... But Louis is a doctor, not a veterinarian.He might have misjudged, that's all.It was impossible to do a careful inspection in that situation. It was so cold, only 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and it was a bit dark. I couldn’t see clearly even if I squatted there. Besides, he was wearing gloves, so maybe—— A floating, oddly shaped figure appeared on the tiled wall of the bathroom, like the head of a tiny dragon or some kind of strange snake.Something lightly touched his bare shoulder and slid away.Louis jumped forward with an electric shock, splashing water out of the tub and wetting the blankets on the floor.He turned, then backed away quickly, and saw the cloudy yellow-green eyes of his daughter's cat, Church, sitting on the toilet seat, slowly rocking back and forth as if drunk.Louis looked at it, the hairs on his body standing on end, and he gritted his teeth to keep from screaming.Church had never looked like this before, never swayed like a snake trying to hypnotize its prey, neither before nor after it was castrated.For the first and last time he had a thought; it was another cat, a cat that looked like Church, a cat that had wandered into his garage while he was building shelves.The real Church is still buried in a grave on that flat rock in the woods.

But the markings on the cat were the same, and it had a funny ear too, and one of its paws had what appeared to be a bitten mark where Churchie had been pinched when Ellie slammed the door shut when he was a child. Yes, this is Church. Louis said hoarsely to the cat, "Get out." Church stared at him for a while longer, oh my god, the look in his eyes was different, different anyway, and then the kitten jumped off the toilet seat in a way that didn't look like the normal way kittens land Instead, she staggered awkwardly, bumped against the bathtub, and walked away. Louis thought, it is not a tomcat, don't forget, it has been neutered.

Louis got out of the tub and dried himself off quickly.He had shaved and was getting dressed when the telephone rang through the empty house.Hearing the phone call, Louis turned around abruptly, his eyes widened, he raised his hands, and then slowly put them down, his heart was beating wildly, and his muscles tensed up again. It was Steve, calling to ask about playing.Louis promised to meet him at the gym in an hour.He just doesn't have the time, and right now he thinks playing tennis is the last thing on his mind.But he had to go out, leave the house, and he wanted to stay away from that cat, that weird cat, which shouldn't be in his house at all.

Louis tucked in his shirt hastily, stuffed a pair of gym shorts, a T-shirt, and a towel into his bag, and trotted downstairs. Churchie was lying on the fourth step from the top when Louis tripped over it and nearly fell, trying to hold on to the banister to keep himself from falling hard. He stood at the bottom of the stairs, panting heavily, his heart beating wildly, he felt the adrenaline rushing again, and he was extremely nervous. Church got up, stretched...and grinned at Louis. Louis left the house, he should have kicked the cat out, but he didn't, he didn't want to touch the cat at that particular time.