Kitties and War.

I was on a train one day,
on my way to
somewhere rather
irrelevant,
because that's where trains
seem to like to take people like me.
Irrelevant places.

But this train ride proved
to play an important role
in my life; It's all because
of this little girl.

I was sitting on the train,
with a book in my hand,
and an empty seat right next to me.
And that's where the little girl sat.

She looked at me while I read.
I knew she was looking
even though I didn't look at her
because I could feel
her eyes boring into me.
Children have that kind
of omniscient stare, you know?
And you feel it down to your soul.

"Excuse me, mister?"
The little girl quipped
"How'd you get those cuts?"

I blanched for a second
because
I was very proactive about keeping
those little wounds hidden from
the world.
"I got in a fight."
I told her this slowly,
the way you're supposed to speak to a child.

"With who?"
She looked up at me
with this little furrow between
her eyebrows.
She appeared to be
thinking awfully hard.

"Myself. I lost, you see."
I frowned as I told her this.
I didn't really want to be having
that conversation in the firs place.

"You know, mister.
My Sister had cuts
a whole lot like that.
But the kitty gave them to her.

I didn't like our Kitty too much
because of the way she scratched my sister,
and because the kitty didn't want to meet me.

I guess the Kitty didn't like my sister
too much because she wasn't
like all the other girls- at
least that's what my sister said before the
kitty killed her.

You won't let the part
of you you're fighting do the same
thing,
right, mister?

Because, I miss my Sister,
and I'm sure you're
baby sister would miss you too."

The train stopped right then, and
the little girl hopped out of her seat
and off of the train.

I had never cried so hard in my life.

I never got into another fight again.

And I'll never own a cat either.