Carol woke relatively early. It was nighttime but she had fallen asleep in the afternoon. The pain in her stomach was hiding for the time being. She thanked the Lord for it. God bless him she said with something like a sparkle in her once starrier eyes which had been diluted somewhat over the times.
Venus had her little paw on little Buddha's big belly. Her own little belly was bigger than usual, filled with little kittens. Buddha was wearing red fairylights which glowed red over Venus. Buddha was a present from her brother's son, Stanley, an 8 year old boy. His name in English is Sid Arthur but in Indya they call him Buddha he told her when he gave it to her. Smart kid she said to her brother. We think he may be autistic her brother told her. It sometimes works out that way. I hope I don't become one of those crazy cat ladies she said. It sometimes works out that way, she was yet to find any other homes for any of the kittens. What comes first, the cats or the craziness? She'd read somewhere about fleas making people go insane. She didn't need that.
Nobody was coming over this year. She'd have had a man over, but Mo was dead this year. He knew he would die young and he did die quite young. Mad bastards can often die quite young, just a couple of years or so older than the good. A few months before he died Carol whacked a frying pan over his head in front of her daughter, Joanne, a 12 year old girl. Afterwards, he stood there with a knife held to his heart pleading with one of them to plunge it for about fifteen minutes or so before going to the off licence for another can. Joanne just sat there quietly.
Joanne had bought her mother a soft toy for Christmas this year. It was a cuddly donkey. The year before she had gotten her a cuddly lamb. The room had plenty of little animals in it now with more to come. Carol had taken to sleeping on the sofa with the animals. Her bed was full of fleas and they weren't very pleasant sleeping companions, all over her all the time, driving her crazy.
Venus went into labour. OK said Carol. She got off of the sofa. The floor was filthy and her feet were bare. What I like about you is that you don't mind getting your feet dirty a nice ex boyfriend once told her. Venus had now birthed the kittens. Carol picked up the runt of the litter. Her first thought was to name her after someone else but looking at her she named her Carol after herself. A robin dropped by on the windowsill for a moment too brief to really be noticed, quickly flying away before the stray cats scratched at the door, delinquents all 3 of them catcalling female felines and half howling at the moon in a way seeming to be threatening to scratch that silly smile off of its stupid crescent face.
Merry Christmas Carol said to Carol. I don't care for it too much she added. She then put Carol back with Venus beside little fairylit Buddha's big belly and turned off the lamp on the side table and turned the gas heater on. In the relative darkness of the relative earliness the heater glowed over the room and the kittens became more red.
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