I wondered why I’d never thought of that before. From the moment she gave birth to me, Mom gave me and Dad all of her time. I never imagined that when she had such little time left, she would still only be thinking of us. She didn’t have to, but she devoted her life to us till the very end.
She had me completely fooled—it had taken me all this time to notice. I look back at the photos and notice the embarrassment on my father’s face as he forces himself to smile. And me, with a face so much like my father’s, also forcing an awkward smile. Then Mom sits between us grinning as if she couldn’t be happier.
Looking at my mother’s face, my heart grew heavy thinking of her and all she did for me. Suddenly I had tears rolling down my face, right there in front of Cabbage. My voice caught in my throat, and I stared silently at the photograph.
Cabbage had a look of concern on his face and came closer. He jumped into my lap and curled up there. My heart began to feel soothed as his warmth soaked into my body.
Cats are really something. They’ll just ignore you half the time, but they seem to know when you’re really in need of some comforting.
Just as cats don’t have any sense of time, there must not be any such thing as loneliness for them either. There’s just the time you spend alone and the time when you’re with someone else. I suppose loneliness is another thing that only human beings feel. But looking at my mother’s smiling face in those old photos makes me think that maybe it’s only because we feel lonely that we have certain other feelings.
As I stroked his warm, furry body I decided to put some questions to Cabbage.
“Say, Cabbage, do you know what love is?”
“What’s that, sir?”
“Well, I guess a cat wouldn’t understand. It’s something humans have. It’s when you really like someone, and they’re really important to you, and it makes you feel like you want to be with them all of the time.”
“Is it a good thing?”
“Yeah. Though I guess it can also be a bit of a pain sometimes too, and then you feel like the other person is just a burden. But all in all it’s a good thing.”
Yes, that’s it. We feel love. That’s the expression Mom has on her face in that photograph. What else could you call it, apart from love? And this love, this thing unique to humans, even though it can sometimes be a burden or even get in your way, is something that buoys us human beings up. It’s sort of like time in that way. It’s one of those things that only exists for humans—like time, color, temperature, loneliness, and now love. All these things that only humans experience. In a way these things rule over or control us, but they also allow us to live fully. And they’re precisely what makes us human.
No sooner had these thoughts occurred to me than my ears suddenly picked up something that sounded like a clock. But when I looked, just as before, no clock sat beside my bed.
Nevertheless, even though I couldn’t see it with my eyes, I definitely got the feeling that there was something spurring me on. I started to get the sense that the endless ticking sound in my head might actually be the sound of the hearts of all the people in the world beating in time with one another.
Images occur to me in quick succession. In my mind’s eye, I see the second hand of a stopwatch moving around the dial.
Then athletes sprinting the one hundred meters.
The second hand goes round and round the dial. Someone presses the button.
But the button is on an alarm clock.
The children who pressed the button crawl back under the bedcovers.
In their dreams they watch the hands of a large clock hanging on the wall go round and round the dial.
Then I see the clock tower lit up by the morning sun.
Young lovers wait for their dates below the clock tower.
I walk quickly past the lovers toward the tram stop, glancing at my watch.
As always, the tram is a bit late.
I arrive in front of a small clock-repair shop.
Countless clocks are laid out in the cramped space.
I hear them ticking. The sound fills the small space. The sound of time being carved up.
I stand still for a while, bending my ear toward the sound.
A sound I’ve heard constantly since the time I was small.
The sound that rules my life, but also gives me freedom.
Gradually the beating of my heart grows calm.
Then before long the sound fades into the distance, little by little, until it disappears.
“Well, Cabbage, I guess it’s time to hit the sack.”
I put the photo albums away and called Cabbage.
Cabbage let out a meow.
“Cabbage, what happened? Now you’re acting like a cat again.”
No sarcastic comments came back in the now-familiar outdated way of speaking.
Cabbage simply meowed. I had a bad feeling about this.
“Why, sir, are you disappointed?”
Suddenly from behind me there came a voice. Surprised, I turned around, and there stood Aloha. This time he wore a black Hawaiian shirt with an eerie-looking print—a picture of the ocean at night. He stood there with a big grin on his face.
“Might this be the end, sir?”
“That’s not funny!”
“All right, all right, I’m sorry! I guess the magic spell didn’t last as long as I expected. So he’s back to being just a normal cat. Are you disappointed… sir?”
“Hey, give it a rest!”
“OK, I get it. But you know, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.”
Aloha smiled again as he said this. It was that devilish smile. I knew I had seen it somewhere before. It was the look of someone with evil intentions—something else only humans are capable of.
“So, I’ve decided what I’m going to have you make disappear from the world next.”
Aloha was still grinning that big silly grin.
I got the sense that something terrible was about to happen, and was beginning to find it difficult to breathe.
Imagination. Now, there’s another thing that only human beings have.
Cruel images raced around in my head.
“Please stop!”
Without thinking about it, I cried out. Or no, it wasn’t me but rather the Devil, who looked just like me.
“Makes you want to let out a cry just like that, right?”
Aloha laughed.
“Please… Just stop,” I begged him, falling on my knees.
Then the Devil revealed his plan—
This time, let’s make cats disappear from the world.
FRIDAY: IF CATS DISAPPEARED FROM THE WORLD
His small body shook and he let out a painful meow. He wanted me to save him, but I could do nothing but watch him. Time and again Lettuce tried to stand on his own, but instantly collapsed.
“I guess this is it,” I whispered.
“I guess so…”
There was a note of sad acceptance in Mom’s quiet reply.
Five days had passed since Lettuce had lain down as if he were going to sleep. He couldn’t eat anymore. Even presenting him with his favorite—fresh tuna—got no response out of him. Nor would he drink water. He slept for unusually long periods, and gradually we saw that he couldn’t stand.
Even so, Lettuce tried over and over again to stand up on his own. I had to give him water with an eye dropper because he couldn’t drink on his own. With his strength slightly restored, he would immediately try to stand, but he was still a bit shaky on his feet and would soon lie down again. He always tried his hardest to stand on his own despite the fact that he didn’t have the strength for it. Once he just about managed to pick up his feet and walk unsteadily right up to Mom, and then collapse in front of her.