Shadow at the door.

SHADOW AT THE DOOR

By Lewis Clarke





He was almost there. A few more steps and he would be home. Home was a  weathered shed behind an old house, constructed of vertical planks that had, long ago, lost their paint. One of the double doors was open slightly; enough to let a cat squeeze through. Inside dimly lit items that had been forgotten many years ago. A book shelf, couch, boxes and a tall china cabinet, all there never to be used again but, kept for memories sake. The spaces between the planks in the walls and the slit of the doorway letting a small measure of light to enter. Angus silently slid through the door and stood just inside. He was a handsome male tomcat. His body was mostly shiny black fur. He was stout, but not fat. His paws were white and his legs and underside were white. It looked like someone poured black ink on him from head to tail, but there wasn’t enough to cover him entirely, but the most striking part of Angus was his face. His ears were black with a hint of white fur on the inside. Not solid fur, but like new grass growing in the spring. He had round gold eyes that contrasted with his black fur. Starting just above and between the eyes began a white wedge of fur that got wider as it moved down towards his nose and spreading to cover his whisker pads and neck. Most interesting was two, oblong black patches of fur just below his nose. The right patch was slightly smaller than the left and connected with the black end of his nose. He had this mustache since birth, it made him look wise and gave him a certain amount of character.



He lifted his head pointing his nose upward taking in the musty air of his castle as he turned his head from left to right. His nostrils flaring and pupils wide open. Nothing was out of the ordinary today. There in the darkness he could make out two other felines, Archie and Sarah, his brother and sister, whom he had dominated and cared for since their mother had left them. They didn’t know what had happened to her and their memory of her had grown very dim. Archie was larger than Angus. He was striped with brown and black fur. Most of his legs were white, but there were some brown patches on the outside. As with Angus his most striking feature was his face. All the clan was Scottish folds. Angus was the only one of the family that did not have the signature folded ears. Archie also had large round gold eyes. His whisker pads were white with faint tan fur at the base of his whiskers on each side. Between his eyes you could see the beginning of a faint white line that split into two and went down each cheek and ended in the white fur of his whisker pads, reminiscent of an upside down heart. Almost like someone had dribbled paint on him by accident. Sarah was unique. She was a tortoise shell. Her fur was dark brown almost black and she had amber wisps of fur, in patches, over her entire body. She had a short snout and one unique feature. Her left eye was deformed. Her pupil sat at the bottom of her eye like the sun on the horizon. She was the smallest and meekest of the clan.



Archie was in his place on the third level of the bookshelf and Sarah was tucked away in the back right corner that could only be reached by winding her way under the old couch and between some boxes. It was safe and no one could sneak up on her there. They were a family and as all brothers and sisters they had disagreements and she was at the bottom of the pecking order. She compensated for that by not making herself available for pecking.



Angus made his way to the back of the shed where there was an old Adirondack chair. He jumped to the seat and then to a stack of boxes to the right. The boxes swayed slightly, He steadied himself, turned to the back of the shed again and leap to the top of a china cabinet. There at the top he had a perfect view of his castle. Nothing was on the top of the cabinet except an old patchwork quilt that was warm and comfortable. Well suited for his position in the clan. It was well matted down in the middle and looked a little like a large birds nest. He did a quick sniff of the area and lay down fully stretched out. Legs out in front tail fully extended. He laid his head on his front legs and faced to the left with his chin resting on the quilt. Sleep began to cover his body as he relaxed in the place he new as home.



His eyes never fully closed before he detected a faint and unusual noise outside the doors of the shed. There was a shadow at the door. Angus lifted his head. His eyes trained on the only way in or out of the castle. The shadow grew darker. Archie had detected the shadow as well. He eyes were also on the shadow and he also was frozen. Sarah was fast asleep in her corner, unaware of any problem. The door of the shed wiggled and a head appeared. It was another cat, an unwanted visitor. His face was blue-grey with green eyes. His ears were upright and tattered from battles with other cats. There were some scars on his nose as well. He stepped into the shed. His nostrils flaring he knew he wasn’t alone. Angus was on his feet now emitting a low growl to warn the intruder to leave. It didn’t have the desired effect. The intruder slowly stepped to the middle of the shed floor and looked up at Angus. He was challenging him. Even in the dim light Angus could see he was a big cat. He was shabby. His fur was unkempt and the tip of his tail was missing. He took another step into the shed. The pupils were fully dilated now. Angus moved to the edge of his perch and jumped straight down to the floor. The impact of his landing emitted a loud thud, knocking loose years of dust and debris from every surface in the shed. The grey crouched at the sound.  It even roused Sarah from her deep sleep. She made her way from her corner and crawled under the couch to see what had happened. Before anyone could get settled Angus shot across the floor and was on the intruder. He dug his claws into his cheek and back and was ready to sink his fangs into his neck, but the force of the impact rolled the grey cat toward the door. Angus lost his grip and went over the top and hit the door. There was no pain, there was too much adrenaline in his system. The intruder was on his feet in a second, turning to face him. He wasn’t able to finish his turn. Angus was on him again. This time they crashed head to head, eye to eye. He knew it would take everything he had to vanquish his, much larger, adversary. The Grey was wiley he rolled backwards bringing his hind legs up and dug them into Angus soft belly. He could not stay on top of the grey with those sharp claws ripping his underside. He sprung in the air and spun himself around before his feet touched the dirty wood floor. They were face to face now. Both Angus and the Grey were on there hind legs swinging with claws extended at the head of the other. Without warning the Grey lunged forward and knocked Angus off balance. He turned away as he fell and landed on his feet protecting his injured underside. Now he was facing away from the Grey and he didn’t lose any time jumping on his back. Angus reached down inside himself and pulled on something only he knew was there. The strength and determination that made him king. He twisted around and grabbed hold of the Grey’s head. In all the chaos Archie had moved down from his perch to the second shelf. He had seen these fights before and didn’t get involve, but he was there if he was needed. Sarah under the couch was not beyond taking a swipe at a passing leg. Angus pulled himself up by the head of the intruder and drove forward knocking the intruder on his back. He was on top now, biting and clawing. Fur and dust was floating in the air, fangs flashing in the dark. There was blood trickling from a cut in Angus nose. The battle had moved close enough to the couch for Sarah to reach out with the extended claws of one paw and knock the flailing grey in the head. Angus now had a firm grip on the intruders’ neck. All went still; the intruder was not dead, but frozen in grip of Angus jaws. A faint cry from the intruder signaling his surrender and Angus relaxed both claws and jaw and the intruder ran to the door and through with a rumble as his sides as he pushed through the opening. The victor now stood in the middle of the floor his eyes on the door to assure the intruder had truly left. He sat now and licked his paw then began to groom his ruffled fur. As he sat a beam of sunlight squeezed through a crack in the side of the shed and shown as a spot light on the victorious king. Dust like tiny snow flakes fell all about him revealed by the sunlight. He did not care about tomorrow or yesterday or even 10 minutes ago. He just wanted to go back to his place at the top of the world. He stood and turned towards the back of the shed.