Cat and Mouse

Greg’s hand trembled as he struggled to retrieve his keys from his pants pocket. Adding to his difficulty was the fact that his other hand was occupied in pinching his nose shut to stop it from bleeding. By now, however, his nose was so swollen that it had almost stopped bleeding on its own. He tried to hurry to unlock his front door, but his hand trembled so much, he kept missing the lock.

"Come on, come on!" hissed invisible Cat right behind him. "Open it!"

"I’m trying, I’m trying!" Greg said, trying to keep his voice down, despite his exasperation.

"Oh, here, let me do it!" Cat snatched the key out of Greg’s hand. Instinctively, Greg stepped aside and watched the key float over to the lock, insert itself, and turn. The door then opened by itself, and Cat stepped inside. Greg lingered outside for a moment, then cautiously followed her.

Once inside, Greg closed the door and slowly settled down into the armchair, which he had now moved to a corner (for some reason, he felt more comfortable these days sitting with his back to the corner.) He watched as Cat’s overnight bag floated out from the bedroom, across the living room and settled down onto the couch. The bag unzipped itself and opened up, and articles of clothing began to float up out of it. One by one, each garment floated and tumbled about in mid-air before sliding itself onto an unseen female form. Buttons were buttoned, zippers zipped themselves up, and before long, Greg was again faced with the eerie sight of Cat’s empty clothes standing and moving around by themselves. When Cat had put on the last piece of clothing, she flopped down onto the couch with folded arms and moodily waited for her invisibility to wear off.

Greg noticed that she was now dressed much more casually than was usual for her: jeans, a plain sweater and sneakers. Whether this was to let him know she was really angry at him this time (as if he could have any doubt!) or because she usually appeared pretty disheveled when she returned to visibility and didn’t really care much about her appearance anyway, Greg didn’t know.

There the two of them sat for the next half-hour, on opposite corners of the room, each one silently glaring at the other, each one absolutely seething, but neither one saying a word. Greg tried not to stare at the empty clothes sitting there on his couch, yet he just couldn’t look away. Given the current mood she was in, Greg half-expected Cat to say something like, "What are you looking at?!" but she didn’t. Yet without even seeing it, Greg instinctively knew that the look on her face was quietly poisonous.

Eventually, however, he began to notice a faint outline of Cat’s head and hands, as her potion wore off. Finally! he thought. Now she can get the hell out of here!

Cat actually felt the potion’s effects wearing off before it became noticeable. She felt a distinctive cool, chilly sensation course through her body, almost as though she had ice water in her veins, so she knew she didn’t have long to wait. She noticed her hands reappearing shortly after Greg did, but didn’t say anything.

Before long, she faded back into view completely. As usual when returning to visibility, her hair was a disaster area. She looked pretty frazzled anyway, mostly because of the fight she’d had with Greg a short time earlier. Her eyes were reddened and her face was flushed.

When Cat saw that her hands appeared solid and concluded that she had returned to total visibility, she reached into her bag for a hairbrush and comb, got up and went into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Greg winced at the noise, but continued to sit quietly, still seething with repressed rage.

When Cat emerged a short time later, her hair looked in better shape, but her mood had clearly not improved. Still without saying a word, she began to pack her belongings into her bag. Greg continued to watch her in silence. Should I say something now? he wondered. I’d better not, she’s still pretty steamed. Maybe I should let her cool off a bit first. I really don’t want to risk two fights in one day… On the other hand, maybe I’d better say something now; I may never get another chance. And besides, now’s as good a time as any to bring it up...

When Cat had packed away the last item, she zipped the bag shut, turned and headed for the door. She paused for a moment, looking at Greg’s swollen, bruised nose. Greg silently glared back at her.

"I’m…I’m sorry about your nose." she said in a tone completely devoid of emotion. "You’d better put some ice on it; it looks bad." She turned and headed for the door again. When she got to it, she hesitated for a moment, and then said, without turning, as though the words were physically painful to her:

"I’ll…I’ll call you."

"Don’t bother." The words were out of Greg’s mouth before he realized it.

Cat slowly turned to face him. "What did you say?" she asked.

This is it, he thought; it’s now or never. "I said: Don’t bother calling."

Cat blinked and stared at him. "What’s that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"What do you think it means?" Greg said, quietly. "It’s over. Through, finished, no more."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I’m talking about us. You. Me. It’s over. We’re through." Greg took a deep breath, then forged ahead. "Today was the last straw. I’m not going to take it any more. Never again. Enough’s enough."

He hesitated. Cat continued to stare blankly at him, as though she still couldn’t grasp his meaning. He went on:

"Let’s face it, Cathy: This relationship is just not working, for either of us. It can’t go on. There’s getting to be too much bad blood between us, and I don’t like it."

"Oh, I suppose it’s all my fault!"

"I’m not saying that, it’s just—"

"You know you’re just as much at fault as I am! If you hadn’t taken off earlier and then decided to be a smart-ass—"

"Look Cathy, I don’t want to fight about it! I’m tired of fighting." He paused, taking another deep breath. "Look…I just can’t take this constant tension anymore, this growing hostility between us." He hesitated. "I can’t take your… I thought I could put up with…" he hesitated, afraid to even speak the word ‘invisibility’ aloud. "It…" he evaded. "But I can’t. I…" he hesitated.

"So what are you driving at?"

"I think…" he paused, trying to find just the right words. "I think we should just not see each other anymore. Just make a clean break of it right now and go our separate ways before things get any worse between us."

Cat was silent a moment; then she spoke. "You’re telling me we should break up."

Greg hesitated for a moment before answering. "Yes, I am." he said. "If things keep going the way they are, somebody’s going to get hurt." As he said this, he realized how ludicrous these words sounded, coming through a bruised, swollen nose.

Cat continued to stare blankly at Greg for several minutes. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she reacted in a way that Greg least expected: she began to laugh!

"What’s so funny?" he asked, beginning to get annoyed.

"You are, that’s what. You sit there and you’re trying to tell me we’re breaking up. Just like that! As if it’s all up to you, just your say-so and that’s enough."

Good lord, Greg thought, I was afraid of this, she’s gotta make it even more difficult. "Cathy, look…" he tried again.

"No, YOU look!" Cat said, moving closer to him. She bent down until she was right in Greg’s face, her nose almost touching his. "Just who the hell do you think you are, anyway? Who do you think is calling the shots around here? Don’t you get it yet? There’s only one of us who’s going to say if and when we’re breaking up, and it sure as hell isn’t you, buster!"

A chill ran down Greg’s spine.

Cat stepped back and began to pace the room. "I went through hell for you, Greg. I’ve spent many cold, sleepless nights following you around invisible, checking up on you, making sure that you were behaving yourself. It wasn’t comfortable for me, and it wasn’t pleasant, but I did it. I did it for you, to try to make a better person out of you. I know you don’t appreciate such things, but it happens to be true. And after all that, I’m sure as hell not about to just stand by and let you walk out on me!!"

Greg absorbed all this in stunned silence.

"So you can just forget all this crap about breaking up. You might as well get it into your head right now, Greg: I am not letting go. You’re mine, and that’s that."

She paused a moment, then started to turn to the door again. "And I don’t want to hear any more about it. Now I’ll give you a call sometime this week, and we’ll just forget all about this whole thing, all right?"

Greg lowered his eyes and stared at the floor.

Cat had reached the door and just started to turn the doorknob when Greg finally spoke again, quietly, barely above a whisper. "Cathy…I don’t want to be with you anymore. I want you out of my life."

Cat slowly turned back to face him again. Again, she stared at him, only now the smirk on her face gradually subsided. Up to now, she thought that Greg was just blowing hot air, sulking because of their fight earlier, but now she realized he was serious. "You WHAT??" she said, her eyebrows raised. "You want me out of your life? ME?? After all I’ve done for you?! All the things I’ve done to make you happy?!"

Greg’s mouth dropped open and he almost gagged at that last part. Words failed him momentarily. Finally he found his voice and managed to say, "Yes, Cathy."

Cat dropped her bag onto the floor. She reacted as though absolutely stunned, as though the possibility had never even occurred to her. "I can’t believe this." she said. "I really cannot believe what I’m hearing." She began to pace the room again. "With all that we had together, you really truly want to just throw it all away? Why? WHY?!?" She shook her head in bewilderment. "After all I’ve done for you, all I’ve given you, now you want to just throw me aside like I was nothing? I don’t understand…I just don’t understand..."

"You don’t understand?!?" Greg almost laughed. "YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND?!? Well, let me help you then!" Before Greg knew it, he was out of his chair and face to face with Cat, his voice now louder than it had been in months. All the emotional turmoil that had built up inside of him over the past several months was now released, as though from a bottle that had suddenly been uncorked. Words now poured from Greg’s mouth in a torrent that he could no longer control.

"Take a good look at my nose, to start with! Looks real nice, doesn’t it! Think it feels nice? Well, it doesn’t! And how about all those other times you’ve hurt me as well! How about all the times you’ve humiliated me! In public! How about all those ‘punishments’ of yours! Do you think I enjoyed those? Huh? Well I’ve got news for you dear, I didn’t! How many times have I asked you, begged you, PLEADED with you to stop doing them? Did you stop? No! You kept right on doing them! And now you have the nerve to act surprised that I want to break up? Well, what the hell did you expect?"

"Oh come on! We just had a fight, that’s all. So it got a little out of hand. So what? I think you’re making way too big a deal out of it."

"I’m not talking about just today, Cathy; I’m talking about all the months of cruelty and humiliation that I’ve had to suffer from you!" Greg paused to catch his breath for just a moment, and then went on. "I mean, just who the hell do you think you are? You think that stupid potion of yours gives you the right to just abuse people, do whatever the hell you want to them? And to hell with how they feel? Well, you are wrong, dear! Dead wrong! I’ve had enough of it, do you hear? I’ve had enough and I’m not going to take it anymore!"

Cat stood frozen, without even blinking, as this verbal torrent washed over her. Finally, when Greg had finished, Cat spoke again, quietly.

"Oh, I get it." she said. "You’re just envious, that’s all. You’re envious that I have something you can’t have, and that’s what this is really all about, isn’t it?"

"That has nothing to do with it!"

"It’s true. You’re still envious of my invisibility. That’s what it all comes down to." She paused for just a moment, as the tiniest flicker of a smile flashed briefly across her face. "You still wish that you could be invisible, don’t you? And I won’t let you. And that’s what’s really getting you, isn’t it? It just eats you up inside that I can be invisible and you can’t!"

"For the fifty billionth time, it’s NOT your invisibility, it’s what YOU DO with it! Can’t you understand that? It’s not that damned potion, it’s YOU!! It’s all the cruel, hurtful things you do, that you’ve been doing to me ever since you discovered that stuff! You’ve hurt me, can you understand that? YOU’VE HURT ME!!"

Cat’s smiling façade at last began to crumble as these words penetrated her consciousness. "I’ve never… I’ve never done that.." Cat began, "I’ve never…done anything to hurt you, not really…" her speech faltered, her expression gradually began to change into another one which Greg had gotten to know only too well: the ‘Crying’ Cat, the look that indicated that tears would start to flow soon. "I would never do anything to hurt you, Greg, you know that…" she said as her eyes began to well with tears. "I love you, I could never hurt you…I could never…" Her speech faltered as she looked at Greg’s swollen, bruised nose.

She was silent for several minutes, as though trying to figure out a particularly difficult puzzle.

"I know what it is," she said finally, as she wiped her tears. "You’re just angry because you don’t get to see me that much anymore! That’s what it is! You only liked me for my looks after all! I knew it! I knew it all the time! You only like me when you can see me! I’m just a pretty girl for you to look at, a piece of candy for your eyes, that’s all I am to you! But when you can’t see me anymore, you lose all interest in me!"

My God, Greg thought, as he leaned his head back, rolling his eyes heavenward. What is with this girl? Why doesn’t she hear me? Doesn’t she EVER listen? How do I get through to her? He took a deep breath and tried one last time. "Look," he began again, trying to be patient. "I’m going to put this as simply as I possibly can: I don’t like you anymore, Cathy! I don’t want you anywhere near me! I want you out of my life NOW! I want you to go away and I don’t want you coming back! Ever! Don’t call me, don’t try to contact me again, don’t come anywhere near me! Just stay far away from me and leave me alone!"

Tears now flowed down Cathy’s face. She bowed her head down and held her face in her hands as she cried. "How could you do this to me?" she cried. "How can you be so cruel? Don’t you even care about how I feel?"

Greg closed his eyes and sighed. "It’s not going to work, Cathy." he said. "Not this time. I’m not buying."

She looked up at him. She regarded him quizzically in silence for several seconds. When she saw that her tears had no effect on him, her face then transformed into a mask of absolute stark, savage fury. She backed away from him. "All right, then!!" she screamed. "All right!! Have it your own way!!" She grabbed up her bag from the floor and strode to the front door, swearing a blue streak of obscenities of all colors and varieties, which left Greg’s ears blistering. "You don’t want to see me anymore, then fine!!" she screamed. "You won’t! You’ll NEVER see me again!! EVER!!" She flung the door open and stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

Greg felt the bottom drop out of his stomach and he felt weak and faint, as though he were about to pass out. He turned and staggered back to his chair. He slumped down into it, burying his head in his hands.

"My god, my god…" he repeated, over and over. "What have I done…?"

Somehow, he had a terrible feeling that his problems were not over.

Instead, he now felt that they were just beginning.