Say a little prayer or lulu's field trip

Going driftless : an artist's tribute to Greg Brown











I hate closed doors. If they’re closed, there must be something really, really good on the other side, or else, why are they closed? The bane of my existence is the office closet door. It didn’t used to be closed. It used to be such that I could go in and out as I wanted. I could sit in there, in the dark, surrounded by office supplies. I love that closet. But then, the door was shut. It was okay, though, because I could still open it when I wanted. Then the rug came. Damn rug. It blocks the door, so now I have to paw the rug out of the way and still the door won’t open. I hate that.


For over a week now, the bathroom door has been shut. This is so wrong. Worse, there are very, very odd noises from the other side and He goes in and out, and I used to go in and out, so I know there is something up. Some times I’m busy so I forget to check things out. But today, I happened to be in the hallway, just hanging out. There’s a rug in the hallway and if I lay on it, my fur stays when I leave, that is so cool, because then I can come back later and eat it, if I’m hungry or something.


Anyway, I was laying on the carpet today. Really I was staring at the stairs waiting for my brother. He comes up these stairs. And I heard the noises so it reminded me about the door. It wasn’t long when He opened the door. This was my chance. I snuck in.


This is tricky business you know. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be in there. But if He didn’t see me, then it was cool. So now that I’ve ducked in, I needed to find a place to go. I scampered. There as a dark spot and I was going to take it. Carpe darkspot!


My thought really was just to head into the dark, where I could see, but not be seen. It’s sort of like you should be seen but not heard, one step further. So, there I was in the shadow, but holy ick batman! This was not your normal dark spot. For one thing, where the heck was the floor? There was no floor, this was like a balance beam and that’s fun. And it went on, a long, long way. So I figured, I could watch Him any old time. I was on an exploration.


I love explorations, don’t you? You just never know what you could find. Some times on explorations you have to punch things, but that’s okay. So I went investigating.


I found some treasures. There was a bug! I got to punch it. There was some wire or string or something. I got to punch it. There was soft stuff. I punched it. I slipped once, but that was no big deal. It was soft and I got back up and punched where I feel. Stupid soft stuff.


I went adventuring a long time in the dark away from Him, when I finally saw the light. It looked interesting so I had to go check it out. Leaning over very carefully what I saw was familiar, though this was certainly a new angle.


There was the table that we only go on if no ones home. It has a nice view. And right below me was a sink. All sinks are bad, that’s where wet comes from. But there, a ways away, but certainly in my sight was the food bowls. I like the food bowls. Sometime I put my colorful fish in them.


I tried to reach out, but it seemed an awfully long ways down to jump, but not too far was a ledge. Ledges even small ones are good transitions, so I eased my self over. It was pretty cool. There was the same great view and I was closer to the food bowls. But…


This was not good. There were no more ledges. The hole was too far away. I can do this, I thought. It’s okay. I tried. But no, no. Too far. Maybe the table? No, too far. The counter another transition? No. Too far. Oh no. Oh no. OH NO. And that’s when I started to cry.


I was pretty quiet at first. But then I started to think, I’m going to be here forever. And I’ll never have food or water or fishy again. And I started to cry louder, because it was forever. Then I heard Him. He was calling to me. He was walking around. Of course, I got quiet because I was trying to hear Him. But god, humans what are they thinking, he just walked away.


So I cried some more. This must have gone on for like 30 forevers until finally He found me. It was nice of him, he picked me and I wanted him to just put me down, so I could check on the food bowl and fishy, but no. He held me tight and then tried to wipe me down with a damp cloth. I mean, really? A damp cloth? It was so embarrassing.