Black cat on a wedding day

A man was waiting alone in a room. The Sun was beginning to shine, he could see warm rays casting through the dulcet window nearby.

A morning breeze lapped at the window’s panel that sat slightly ajar. He adored the nostalgic churning of his childhood home, the whine of well trodden flooring, the rumbling creak of its body like an aging ship, and its trimmings that of an 90’s sitcom. The man loved it dearly and to his end of days.

He was dressed and ready for the day. His suit tailor made and fit comfortably. His tie dark blue and of fabric with visible pores. His hair he dried then gelled for a finished look. And his shoes he loaned from his grandfather who kept a sixpence in the toe, last used on a day such as today.

The shoes spent many years in this very room, unused and left alone. A brief session of polish gave them new life and the man was joyful from the chance to wear them, for although it was not the custom, they would be his something borrowed.

A wash of excitement and fear enveloped him as he noticed his shaking hand. Between his fingers a loose bit of paper written with words of promise, admiration and love. He’d spent months preparing them but he’d felt the words for many years. Now it was time to declare them and live to prove them day after day, for which he could hardly wait.

A moment before his leave a black cat appeared at the window. It perched itself on the windowsill making judgment of the man’s attire until deciding it hadn’t seen enough. Like a stone skipping across a quiet lake, the cat bounced silently between the furniture until coming to a stop on a desk in front of the man.

It glared at him up and down with feigned disinterest for with every squirm of the man it eyed his movement - the cat was vigilant.

The man was terrified of cats. And a black cat he could only see as a bad omen.

He waited for the cat to make its move or leave from the window it came from but it did not. It sat calmly upon the desk gently cleaning a paw then casting a glance up at the man between every paired lick or two.

The cat sat between the man and the single doorway that he needed to leave. He stepped forward with trepidation and the cat froze in place but continued its cleaning after a moment. He stepped again, the cat ignored him.

At the doorway he was almost free until the room’s quiet serenity was shattered under the weight of a melodic question.

Meooow?

The man knew but feared the answer. Even still he could not prevent his empty hand from moving. His open palm extended forth to meet a soft furry head and the cat craned upward to greet him.

He held his hand out frozen and mortified as the cat pat itself around his fingers. Its rigid ears were not so at all as they flopped and folded with every motion. It was then he heard a thunderous rumble that rattled his home’s foundation.

He knew it not and could not determine where at all it was coming from. But it was not as he feared as it was the cat that was ‘rumbling’ - it was purring.

His mind came to ease and his body was loosening as the pur of the cat attuned to the soft wave-like churn of the house. The window lapped in the wind and the breeze whistled quietly through hidden gaps in the walls. Wooden panels creaked under foot and the desk itself seemed to vibrate softly by the cat’s influence.

The man was charmed by the cat’s natural harmony and at last the cat was happy. It took a spot on the Sun bathed desk to rest a while in the warmth.

He watched a moment longer as a tear filled his eye. The cat found its home and was glad for it, and the man was glad too for his home he loved to share.

He stepped from the room and glanced back at the cat with glee - it would be his something new.