by Marion Dess
Lucia gently picked up the calico cat and laid him down in the carrier. He didn't resist but curled up in a ball then stared at her as she locked it. It looked at her with complete awareness. Lucia felt chills go down her spine. They weren't chills that you get when you're standing in a graveyard at night, but relaxing chills that someone would get from watching ASMR videos or a getting a head massage. She felt strangely calm staring at the cat.
"Well, look I've got to be going, my brother is waiting I am sure. He came to pick me up. I put the cat back in the carrier for you."
"But he's not there, I saw him go behind the baggage claim."
"He's right there in the carrier. I just picked him up and laid him down. He seems tired, perhaps from flying. Enjoy Uruguay!" With that before Miki had a chance to respond, Lucia walked away and out the sliding glass doors into the pick up area of departures. A few taxi cabs stopped when they saw her but she waved them on. An old brown car driven by a handsome young man, Lucia's brother, swung around and she got in the front seat, excitedly talking and kissing him on the cheeks.
Lastly
Miki looked down at the empty carrier and then back to the sliding glass door where Lucia had left. Was she supposed to take this empty carrier to Uruguay even though, the calico cat was gone? Though Lucia kept reminding her that the calico cat was in fact in each carrier, she no longer could see him. To test Lucia's reasoning, Miki picked up the carrier. It was noticeably heavier than it had been before and as if out of a reflex of picking up something disgusting or dangerous she immediate dropped the carrier. It thudded on the cement floor of the baggage claim and the noise echoed off the walls in the now empty area. A few people were coming out of Customs and the people that had been on her flight were all gone. If the calico cat was in fact there but unseen then she would have no choice but to continue though, it was quite late, in fact too late for the last boarding of the ferry to Colonia del Sacramento. Miki was at a loss of what to do next.
Lucia abruptly left her which indicated that she wasn't interested in Miki's affairs anymore and why would she be, they had a very short acquaintance and it's not as if all flight attendants want to continue their work after it's finished. She scratched her head and thought of a nice hot shower. Ezeiza International Airport was a bit away from Capital Federal; Miki had known this when she googled how to get to the BuqueBus terminal in downtown. She had no option but to get an expensive taxi ride into the city or spend the night at the Hilton near the airport.
She walked outside. There was nothing but pampas grass an sparse collection of trees here and there. She saw two headlights coming towards her but couldn't make out if it was a taxi. The light grew brighter until they engulfed her entire vision and the car came to a halt in front of her. It was Lucia's brother's brown car, Lucia was still in the passenger seat. She reached behind her and unlocked the rear door. "I thought you might need a ride into the city. A taxi is pretty expensive and Capital Federal is a ways from the airport ... " she paused.
Miki's eyes were still adjusting to the light but she heard every word Lucia spoke. As if automatically and with no volition of her own, her hand pulled the rear door handle.
Lucia's brother got out of the drivers side and came around to put Miki's one suitcase and the cat carrier in the trunk. He picked up the carrier and held it close to his face. He cooed at the calico and then gently set it inside the backseat next to Miki who had positioned herself behind the driver's seat. "He can see him but I can't?" she thought to herself.
Lucia smiled and introduced her brother, Sebastion, in Spanish to Miki.
"Bienvenidos a Argentina!" He said and smiled. He released the clutch and the car lurched forward.
"Thank you, Sebastian, for the ride." said Miki still a bit disoriented from the headlights and the idea that Lucia had come back for her right at the moment she had wished she'd not lost her number.
"Call me Seba. I speak little English. How you flight?" "Good. Thanks to Lucia."
"Dale! Very good," he smiled.
All three drove in relative silence on the General Pablo Ricchieri highway. It was now pitch black and the city streets were deserted. Miki stared out the window at her new surroundings. She knew she needed to find some place to stay.
"Where are you staying?" asked Lucia.
"I don't know yet. I guess I could get a hotel room somewhere, if you drop me off at any hotel, that would be fine."
"You didn't book any reservations? Tt's a holiday today and the hotels will be expensive for a foreigner. How about you stay with my brother?"
"Oh no. I couldn't do that. It's ok. I'11 figure it out."
"Are you going to Uruguay tornon-ow?" asked Lucia.
"Oh you know Uruguay. Is re linda. Beautiful," Seba said looking at Miki through his rear view mirror.
"I'm not sure now," said Miki.
They were now turning onto the exit on the 9th of July Avenue. A large lit up outline of Eva Peron covered the side of an entire building. She was singing into an old microphone with her hair done up in a classic hairstyle with her eyes closed. The avenue had seven lanes in each direction. It looked impossible to cross during rush hour and usually people had to bunch up on the medians to wait to cross another seven lanes.
"Wow, what a street!" exclaimed Miki
"This is Avenida Nueve de Julio, it is the widest street in the world." "How do people cross it?" asked Miki
"With luck." responded Lucia with a smile. She pointed at the building with the Eva Peron iron work.
"That's Evita. You know...don't cry for me Argentina?" Lucia began to sing the lyrics in a lovely soft soothing voice. "That's a lovely song. I don't know it."
"You don't know Evita? You know Madonna? She played her in the movie." "I'm not much of a TV person."
"You don't have to be. Most people know Evita. I'll have to take you to Cementario de la Recoleta and we will visit her grave some day."
"Cemen-ta-rio?"
"'Cemetery."
"'Oh," said Miki, she wasn't a fan of cemeteries. She felt too much of the energy that came from the dead that rested their worldly bodies. One wouldn't think that the dead could carry that kind of energy but they do. It was as if their entire life's worth of energy could be felt by Miki. Every year since she was a kid, she had put a new set of fake Dollar Tree flowers on her grandmother's grave. She'd kneel gently on top of the grave, scared that she was crushing her grandmother's chest in, even though she had seen her lowered into a sturdy box. She didn't want to add any more to the weight of death and dirt that covered the coffin. She put her hands on the soft cemetery grass and tried to feel her grandmother six feet below her. She could feel her residual energy, but not that of her grandfather, who had died when her own mother was twenty-four. He had been resting too long and the energy had dissipated. Miki had always felt that her grandmother was in some tertiary state before her actual death because of the energy she could feel.
Whenever Miki began to cry at her grandmother's grave, her mother always thought it was for her grandmother, but it was actually due to being overwhelmed by all the dead energy the corpses gave off in their boxes under the ground. Her mother grabbed her hand and led her back to the car where they would both sob for a good thirty minutes. Her mother cried the hardest. She didn't feel the same kind of energy as Miki but she mourned the loss of her own mother, the woman she claimed was the only one that understood her. Miki always felt guilty for not understanding her mother.
"'My mother was the only one who loved me," her mother would say…
"That's not true. I love you," said Miki to her mom who now stared out the driver's side window.
"But it's not the same. I want my mother back," her mother replied. Miki's mother's face would then fall into her hands and cry so hard she gulped for air. Miki just sat in the passenger seat looking forward out of the dusty window at all the ugly slabs of marble and fake flowers that spanned a few acres outwards from the parking lot. The mauso
leum was the only building around then and that was worse for Miki because the dead were at eye level. She couldn't see them but she sure felt them when she passed. Or maybe she thought she felt them in there. Someth1ng wasn't letting go, perhaps the people had left but their energy hadn't. We're all made up of energy anyways. We consume, take, reuse, and make energy, thought Miki.
"Here we are," said Lucia. Seba paralleled parked on the side of a quiet but beautiful street. Miki was still thinking about what her mother had always said when they went to the cemetery. "My mother was the only one who loved me." Miki's own relationship with her mother was never traditional. More often than not, she had been her grandmother's replacement, coddling her own mother and never receiving the maternal nurturing one usually gets from one's biological mother.
The street they were parked on was lit up with an orange glow. It was cool out and dewey. A couple walked hand in hand slowly down the street talking in low voices. Storefronts were shuttered with big sheets of aluminum that were graffitied with all sorts of nonsense. A few bars seemed to be open and there was a distant chatter emanating from their open windows and doors. Miki took note of the street sign "Goritti".
"'Come on Miki, you'll stay with us tonight. In the morning I can take you to Buquebus if you decide to go."
Miki got out of the car. Seba had already taken the carrier and her luggage and was walking up the avenue.
"He's a fast walker, always going somewhere," Lucia said as she grabbed her carry-on and jacket. She closed the door, smiled at Miki and began following after her brother. Miki had no choice but to go with them. It was too late for a ferry or a hotel room. She wasn't even sure what to make of Lucia and Seba seeing the calico cat though she hadn't retained sight of him since the baggage claim. She was overtired and now very hungry. Seba had propped open a heavy cast iron door that lead to another hallway up marble stairs in an old building. It looked old but well taken care of. A few voices were heard behind the doors of some apartments.
"It's late but people are still up?" Miki asked…
"Yes, we Argentines eat around 10 to 11 o'clock and then stay up sometimes talking."
They walked up one flight of stairs and into the first door on the left into a foyer where Miki took off her shoes. Seba was already in the kitchen banging around. Another woman appeared. She looked like a smaller version of Lucia and non-threatening. She had shiny long black hair that was neatly pinned back and exposed her delicate earlobes adorned with two small opals. She smiled carrying a tray of a dozen empanadas and set them on a large antique dining table in the middle of the dining room that doubled as a living room. The room had an old red velvet couch against one wall with two marble topped end tables and a curio cabinet that covered almost the entire adjacent wall. Light off-white lace curtains hung on the windows. The ceilings were high and rounded with crown moulding. The walls seemed solid. Miki knocked on one and was surprised at how hard and cold they were.
"Concrete.' said Lucia when she came out of the bathroom.
"Sit. Let's eat." She spoke some spanish to her miniature version who deposited the tray of empanadas on the table. A few bottles of wine were set and three wine glasses. The long haired young woman reappeared with another wine glass and a bottle of ketchup.
"Miki, this is my younger sister, Florencia. Florencia, this is Miki." Florencia smiled shyly at Miki and spoke a few words of Spanish at Lucia. "She said she's embarrassed to meet an American."
Miki smiled and then thought of the carrier and the calico.
"Hey Lucia, do you know where my things are? I just want to check on something."
"Oh yes, I'm sorry. I am so hungry I forgot to be a good host."
Lucia rose and showed Miki down a ha]] into a small bedroom that had a twin bed and trundle bed neatly made up.
""You'll share this room with my sister."
The carrier was in the comer with no sign of the cat. Miki hadn't the slightest idea whether or not Lucia could still see the calico cat, and she was afraid to ask for fear of seeming crazy. Afterall, Lucia's family was kind enough to put her up for the night.
"You can let the cat out. Seba happens to still have his old cat's litter box and a little litter to put in it. Do you want us to set it up so he can stretch his legs?"
Miki just stared at Lucia unable to process why she couldn't see the calico cat anymore and why Lucia now could.
"You still don't see him do you?" Lucia whispered.
"I--"
"It's ok, perhaps you're really tired. Let's eat something. Seba will take care of the cat."
As she said that, Seba entered with a litter box he had filled with the rest of some leftover litter and set it in the comer of the room. He opened the latch on the carrier and reached into it and pulled out something big but invisible to Miki. Miki watched Seba's empty hands delicately hold the invisible cat to his chest, Seba's hands petting the air. He then bent down and let the cat walk. After stretching his legs and back, the calico immediately went to the litter box. Miki could see footprints indenting into the litter and even saw a stream of water pooling towards the back, then she saw bits of litter fly about as the calico was supposedly covering up his business with litter. Miki stood there shocked. She still couldn't understand why she couldn't see the cat but Seba and Lucia could. "Have I lost it?" Miki wondered. "Am I just a vehicle?" She felt as if an important cord had been severed between her and the cat and desperately wanted to reboot the connection. "No, this cat needs me. He put me in a trance to board a plane and come to South America to Argentina to take a ferry to Uruguay for a reason," she thought. She was too tired and hungry to find a solution at that moment.
Lucia smiled at her and told her to come back into the dining room to eat when she was ready. When she finally sat down, she realized how tired and famished she was. She took a large empanada and bit into it. It was beef, hard-boiled eggs, onions, cumin and olives. She ate four of them. They were delicious, golden and flaky. Two empty bottles of malbec stood on the table before the three tired travellers. Seba left the table and went into another room. Miki sat in silence with Lucia. Her head became incredibly heavy.
"Look Lucia, I don't see the cat anymore, you don't think I am crazy do you?" "No, no please, perhaps you are tired?"
Miki nodded her head. Lucia pushed her chair back and stood up. She stretched her hands to the ceiling almost touching the chandelier. It was big and old, missing quite a few glass pieces. Miki stood up to and decided she would go to sleep."Thank you Lucia for everything. I'm sorry to be a burden."
"It's no problem, everything is ok. Tomorrow is a new day." With that Lucia cleaned off the table and Miki could hear her scrubbing dishes in the sink as she closed her door to the bedroom and changed her clothes. She felt something soft touching her ankles but could see nothing. She bent down and patted the air. She felt the cat! She could not see him, but could feel him. He was definitely there. She could feel the vibration from his purring. She got ready for bed and then laid down on the trundle bed Seba had pu11ed out for her. Her body was exhausted, but her mind ruminated.
Miki didn't think that anything in her life was particularly significant, in fact if she had disappeared forever in Argentina, she doubted she would have been missed by anyone. This thought didn't upset her, it freed her. Her parents had long been disappointed in her and they hadn't been in contact for years.
She thought of her father, cooking breakfast shi1iless on a hot Sunday morning. He used to fry up kielbasa from the night before and scrambled eggs in the same pan. He'd fix her plate and push her to eat more than she could. She wanted to eat more. She wanted to be the son he'd never had but she couldn't so she left. With this thought she fell into a deep sleep.
The calico reappeared to Miki in her dream, this time he was surrounded by something deep and soft and volumeless. It was like the vacuum of space; a womb of the universe. The cat crept towards her slowly on all fours and licked its lips. When she awoke her left nipple
was sore and she grabbed it. Florencia was staring at her wide eyed from the twin bed across from Miki. She looked disgusted and disturbed. Miki just looked at her, embarrassed that perhaps Florencia saw her rubbing her sore nipple.
Florencia finally blinked and then got up and left the room without a word. Miki sat up. The calico was resting in her lap making her sweat underneath the covers. She could see him again! She felt heavy, under his spell. Sunlight streamed into the small bedroom. The wooden floors were shining beautifully and a lone dresser sat against one wall with a lace doily and an old lamp sat on top. Miki remembered she was in Buenos Aires, but she had no idea what part. She set the calico down on the floor and moved towards her bag to grab a change of clothes. Lucia came in again and sat on the bed. She had something to say.
"Miki, look, I wanted to help you your first night but you can't stay here."
Miki waited for her to continue but Lucia wouldn't look at her.
"I want to help you but I can't anymore. Florencia is really upset. Quite frankly it's strange for us Argentinians. Can I ask you a question?"
Miki was confused. She didn't understand what Lucia was talking about. "Is it normal to breastfeed a cat?"
"I don't--," started Miki.
"No, please. I saw you on the plane and last night Florencia woke up and saw you breastfeeding your cat."
It all came to Miki now. She rubbed her nipple. Her stomach sank. She had no idea that had been happening while she slept. Lucia saw and understood this but without another word, she stood up and closed the bedroom door behind her. Miki dressed quickly, threw her things in her carry-on, and put the calico in its crate. It refused at first and slinked into a comer behind the door.