Read Online The Godless One by J. Clayton Rogers - Free Book Online Page A

drew near? Think of one’s
beloved?
    He dropped to his knees before a large
pile of concrete rubble at the back of the Slave Trail parking lot.
The world crumbled as his heart tried to escape the chaos of his
body. Why had he pushed himself so hard? But wasn’t that his habit?
To exceed tolerances? To shove limits aside? He would have to give
more thought to this…if he lived five minutes more.
    Without realizing it he had rolled over
on his back. Five minutes later, still alive, he turned on his side
and found himself facing an enormous congregation of
cats.
    "Sphinx?" he said, thinking his
condition was multiplying his vision. Then he noticed a very wide
spectrum of colors and sat up. The cats were staring back at him.
They were sitting on the pile of concrete rubble.
    "Please don’t report me…"
    Ari jerked around. A woman wearing a
loose blouse and a skirt that was the worse for wear was staring at
him. She was holding onto the handle of a two-wheel shopping cart
and in the cart was a bag of Purina cat food.
    "The poor things don’t have anyone to
take care of them but the city hates me and even arrested me once
and I don’t know what to do but I keep feeding them
anyway—"
    Ari stopped her with a raised hand,
palm down. He nodded at the broken concrete. "What is it? Why are
they here?"
    "It’s a cat colony."
    Ari conjured up an image of the
colonies the ancient Greeks had established in Persia.
    "They’re feral," the woman continued in
a raspy voice. "They were abandoned long ago, and now they’ve gone
back to nature."
    "I’ve been here before and have never
seen them," he said.
    "They’re around, but they all collect
here when it’s feeding time." With that, the woman scooped out a
handful of chow and tossed it towards the concrete. The cats
scrambled eagerly forward.
    "Do you think…would they…" Painfully,
Ari pushed himself to his feet and staggered towards the frenzy.
The cats stopped eating and watched him. Ari paused.
    "The city says they breed,
and that’s true, but I can’t afford to have all of them fixed."
    "Fixed?" Ari asked. It sounded
ominous.
    "You know, neutered. They remove their
little daddy- and mommy-makers."
    Ari got the point. He was saddened, but
he supposed it was necessary.
    "You see those with bent ears? The vet
does that once he fixes them and gives them rabies shots. But there
are so many…"
    Ari stroked his ear. "Do you think…?"
He took another step towards the cats and they retreated a little
more. Ari had seen plenty of strays in his day, but never a
collective like this. He risked another step and the cats took
flight, disappearing into the rubble like fish into
coral.
    "They’re feral," the woman repeated.
"One or two let you get close, but the rest just whisk away. I have
to trap them to take them to the litter prevention people. If you
want one of them as a pet, get ready for trouble."
    Wasn’t that the way of the world? Ari
thought as he alternately jogged and walked home. The haves
complacent but defensive, the have-nots watching from the fringe,
waiting. Sphinx had not known how lucky he was. Ari suddenly
understood the phrase ‘fat cat’.
    Approaching his house, he saw two men
coming up Beach Court Lane. One of them was his neighbor, Howie
Nottoway. The other was a cleric; a white collar peeped up from his
coat. The two smiled, but looked concerned. If Ari had looked
woeful before, his jagged jog had turned him into a
wreck.
    "Ari, this is Pastor Grainger," said
Howie. "From my church."
    Grainger extended his hand and Ari took
it. Firmness grasped firmness.
    "How do you do, Pastor?" Ari
chattered.
    "You’d better get inside," the pastor
said with a mellow note of solicitude. "It’s freezing out here, and
you’re sweating."
    Ari acknowledged the need to follow
this advice and invited them to follow him inside.
    "Thank you," Grainger nodded agreeably.
"We were hoping to talk to you."
    The interior of the house
smelled of jasmine. After cleaning up Sphinx’s