Away

"You were gone a long time,"  Girl Cat climbed into Camilia's arms and expected.
"No hello, glad to see you?"  Camilia was teasing, but she did like the licks on her hands.  The girl cuddled the cat and did her singy-talk while rocking back and forth on the steps.  Both girls like this, a lot.
"We went to the City, caught the ferry, and Bean drove the car for a very long time,"  Camilia talked and rocked.
"This is something you like doing, this being away?"  Girl Cat was thinking these things and in this place of cuddling and rocking, Camilia didn't need more than thoughts to hear the cat.
"Yeah, mostly we like being away ... for short trips."
"Short, long, how can you tell the difference?"  Cat time and Girl time aren't always the same thing even when the two girls were in the same place.
Camilia smiled, and thought about that.  Girl Cat didn't mind the waiting for thoughtfulness is time well-spent.  Camilia cuddled and stroked Girl Cat's belly and ears, the cat pushed harder into the rubs.
Finally, Camilia thought this might answer Girl Cat's question:
"When you go off from the tiny places alone, and we go into the sleeping place we don't see each other.  The sleeping place and the cooking place stay where they always are.  You are some where.   Bean and I say you're 'away', and then you rattle around on the rails while we're asleep and we know you're back."  Girl Cat continued to purr, and listened to the girl's words. 
"Girl Cat?"  Camelia asked.
"Yes,"  Girl Cat
"Is that a short time or a long time?" Camelia asked.
"Hmmmmm" said the cat.

Other cats

"I met Lily yesterday,"  Camilia said. 
"You sound different,"  Girl Cat stopped bathing herself.
"Pollens."  Camilia mostly managed the on-slot of the blossoming trees and the raining yellow powder, but sometimes she just had to sit things out.
"No trail walks for us today?"
"Maybe not."

Girl Cat knew all about the big, big-eyed She Cat who never stepped beyond the window sills or the front glass door.  She wondered about that kind of cat, but took little time to imagine what it was like to never walk a trail.

"I'm going for a nap,"  the girl said.
"Me too," said the cat.

Things cats know

"I've been to town."   Camelia said.
Girl Cat was sleeping, and didn't raise her head. 
"Visited Sylvia."
Still no answer.
"She's in full blossom with tiny buds like puffed pearls all over the stones below her."

The cat seemed interested.
"Puffed pearl buds.  Sylvia, is a ..."
The girl answered, "Sorry, you haven't met Sylvia.  Yes, she's a very tall Golden Madrona."
Girl Cat knew the family.
"She must be very old to be golden."
"Really?  Gold means 'old'?"
"Yes, when they are old, Madrona's turn gold."
"I never knew that."
Cats know things.

Spring-making sneezes

"Let's go," Camelia was up early.  The girl peeked into the tiny door, beckoning with her hockey stick.  The rain had stopped, mostly.  Not sure about leaving the warm pillow the cat looked.
"I'm going." 
"She can be impatient," thought the cat.

Camelia had her colorful raincoat on, the hood sat loose on her head.  Behind her she heard the tromp of a cat on the run.  "Thought you'd come.  Hoped you would."
"Course you did," Girl Cat said skimming Camelia on the right between stick-fall and right foot.

Tiny misty rain sprinkled around the girls.  Girl Cat stopped, sat.  "Still wet."  She sniffed and sat some more lifting her nose stretching her neck.  "Is it easier to smell things when they're wet?"  Camelia wondered.  The pollens were raging.  The girl's eyes and ears filled with the yellow dust of spring-making.  The cat blinked.  "Can you hear me?"  Camelia was about to repeat herself. 

Girl Cat knew there was a people word for the yellow dusty spring-making thing that made both girls sneeze.  Camelia could hear the cat thinking.  "Allergies.  The word is 'allergies.'"  Life, the cat thought.  That's all.

Talking about Bean

"He moves fast."  "So do you."  The two girls watched the long legs go in and out of the tiny house.
"Why does he move so fast?" the cat asked.
"Why do you?"  asked the girl.
"I have it in me."  Girl Cat said.
"Right," said Camelia.

Camelia and Sylvia

"There's something about that car."  The cat watched the wheels disappear down the curvy road.  Girl Cat knew something about that car.  She'd been in it several times, and when Camelia finally released her from that wire box-cave she was somewhere else.  "My people like Else."  Girl Cat preferred walks in the woods, on trails, where her nose and her paws knew what to expect. 

Camelia was not really a car lover, but it did take her to places where friends yet to meet often showed up.  Out of the woods is a town.  Camelia has begun to call the town "Home."  The winter was a cold one, and prayers were her closest company, warming her in places better than hot rocks.  Today, the car had taken her to a place where people help people.  People put seeds into the heaps of dark brown dirt there.  People dig into boxes filled with small red worms there.  People share cans and bags of food there.  Camelia liked that about this place. 

While waiting in the car, a bright gold light caught her eye.  Across the gravel lot where Car was parked, a very tall and ... well, elegant golden tree kept winking at Camelia.  The girl had never seen a Madrona as golden beautiful as this.  "Hello," the girl said looking up, up and further up.  Without thinking much about what she did, Camelia reached her small hand out and pat her palm tenderly, as she greeted the Madrona.  "Sylvia."  "Oh, Sylvia!"  The girl smiled.  "I am Camelia.  We live in the same town."  "I know," said the golden Madrona.  She had seen the girl before.  "I'm glad," they both said.

Mostly about family

Hunting has been very productive for Girl Cat.  Not so good for the small critters, Camelia pondered the perplexity.  "Girl Cat," Camelia started with that 'this-is-gonna-be-a-deep one-voice. The cat blinked, pretending to be more deeply ASLEEP than present.  "She's gonna talk anyway," the cat knew it to be true.

Camelia continued in that earnest voice.  "You know, if you hunt 'em you should eat 'em."  The half bodies of baby bunnies and birds lay in Girl Cat's tiny courtyard, an almost-graveyard.  The place was also unavoidable anyway you looked. "I'm a cat.  I'm an outdoor, mostly wild cat." 

"I know," the girl said.  The cat said, "You needed somebody.  You needed family.  You got me."  "I know," the girl said.  Girl Cat said very gently, "Better be careful what you wish for."   

Camelia was quiet for a long time, doing that thinking thing you does.  "I got my wish," she said and swooped the cat onto her lap.  Girl Cat licked Camelia's hand.  "Me, too."

Camelia and Doug Fir

The girls often took themselves on solitary walks.  Thunder frightened Girl Cat.  Camelia seemed to be drawn by the distant rumble, and followed it out the door.  "She needs space," Girl Cat noticed most things, curling into her tail she quickly dreamed.  She was right of course, Cameilia was in that betweeny place.  Her thoughts were vibing out beyond reach.  From her dreams Girl Cat said, "Talk with Tree." 

The pump house was rumbling.  Camelia stopped to listen for a minute, long enough.  The trail leading back up the incline was mostly used by the critters.  Girl Cat would have been canopied by the salmon berries fresh in leaf and thorn.  From this angle the Doug Fir was like a sentinel.  He stopped Camelia, and the girl was drawn in like a magnet.  "Tears."  "Yes, and whimpers.  I don't know where they come from?"  "Doesn't matter.  So many reasons for them." 

Camelia stopped her whimpers and looked at the burnt and fallen trees, family to Doug Fir.  "You would know about tears, ha?"  "Yes, I would know about tears."  "Do you choose to be tree?"  "We do."  "And, do you like being tree?"  "We do, mostly."  "Will you choose differently next time?"  "Won't remember.  Doesn't matter."  Camelia leaned her chest against Doug Fir, loosened her grip on her hockey stick, and hugged tighter.  "I like this."  "I like it too," Doug Fir said.  "I like it a lot."

Camelia and Girl Cat

"Sometimes I wish, and sometimes I hope." The two might mean different things I'm not sure. The girl was content to watch the sun warming up her cat. The cat was content to bathe with shadows. It had been too long since sun and shadows kept the two company. The day was quiet except for the ocassional small planes that buzzed the sky with their propelling noises.

"Once I thought that buzz was a bird too big to eat, so of course I figured it was big enough to eat me." Girl Cat was a funny but very practical sort and the thinking she thought out loud were usually the kind that made Camelia laugh or at least smile broadly.

"Is that why you always twist that twisty jump thing when we're out walking on the trails, birds bigger than you could eat sounds?"

"A cat my size just can't be too careful. That nine-lives myth you humans love to bat around. We're not immortal or even multiple-liveables. We're cats, and that's that."

Girl Cat was not only practical she was glib. She reserved her conversations for Camelia, and then mostly napped and dreamed of trail-walks and tasty nibbles of things small enough to eat. Wishes? Don't know. Do cats make wishes?

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It was wet. "Carry me,"  Girl Cat looked up at Camelia.  "Okay, I know this is our amends walk." 
"Better?"  The soft hood and shoulder of the girl's jacket was home.  She nestled.  Locked in the car over night, Girl Cat was armed and alarmed, ready for defiance.  "We really didn't know you were in there.  You didn't say a thing."  Silence. 

Misty rain scented the forest with the delicious smells that turn a nose in all directions.  Girl Cat was doing that turny-twisty thing with her tiny black nose.  Leaning over the top of Camelia's curved arm she finally dropped from it and ran ahead.  Forgiven.

Walking and whistling was another favorite pasttime for the two girls.  Things were always better on the trails.  The newly moved cedar babies were settling in nicely.  "You could have been on that planting trip ..."  Camelia caught herself.  Stopped mid-sentence.  No need to rub salt in that newly mended offense. 

"I do like that whistling.  But sometimes, I think you're a bird and it startles me."  "You wouldn't consider eating me?"  It was a rhetorical question.  "Too big," Girl Cat said through a grin indistinguishable through her whiskers.  The smell of spring was nearly overwhelming.  So much coming to life.  The bracken snakey heads had already begun to crowd the trails.  "I like them at this age,"  Girl Cat stopped to sniff.  "Don't like 'em after they're taller."  Camelia chimed in, "They made you and me sick if we tried to eat 'em tall."  "Defense."  Girl Cat added wisely.  Camelia walked ahead, taking the lead and whistling that whistly thing she did when she lost herself on the trails.  Thinking so the girl could not hear Girl Cat purred, "I like her."

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