Little white lost his beard and disappeared. Maybe it was because Mimi teased him too much and his first instinct was to run away from home –I don’t know exactly why. Yet Mimi the Thief was very lonely and unhappy all day long and I pitied her.
One day at the market, I spotted a small male tomcat. I was taken just by looking at him and that is how he became the fourth member of my family –we called him Little Socks.
Little Socks was named after an old red sock. He came to my home in the last days of October in the late autumn chill when he was barely the size of my hand. Every day he had stomach cramps and I used the top of my old sock to place around his stomach and then laid him on the table in front of the heater to keep him warm. He was on the verge of death and seemed just like a decorative ornament. Barely conscious and barely able to survive, he was both a beautiful and pitiful sight to see.
Deep in her heart, Mimi overcame any grudges and was quite sympathetic towards him. She carried him in her mouth to her own bed. Day and night she cradled the invalid in her embrace using her body heat to warm him. Little Socks survived and though she was only six months older tan he, Mimi looked like a little mother.
Soon Little Socks was able to walk and mother Mimi took him out of the nest for a walk. In the beginning he wobbled a bit but was soon able to run. The door to my home had a special entrance for cats to come and go as they please. But for a long time Mimi did not tell Little Socks about it because she was afraid that Little Socks would catch a cold from being outside. Since Mimi was only from a humble calico background, whereas Little Socks was of the “Norwegian Wood” breed, she felt that he was not in the habit of crawling through such small doors. After all, Mimi was a bit of a wild cat and she often could not help going outside. So often while playing, Little Socks couldn’t find his older sister and would search upstairs and downstairs anxiously calling out for her. Never knowing when, Mimi would suddenly reappear in the house.
While I was doing my own thing, I couldn’t keep track of their cat business. Strangely, often after tidying up the house, I couldn’t figure out how small leaves or twigs suddenly appeared. It suddenly hit me one day when I saw Mimi walking on the gutters of the roof holding a twig in her mouth looking like a little dog. She then ran into the house looking for Little Socks –wanting to bring him a piece of the strange world outside.
When Little Socks finally grew up he had an amazing sleek coat of fur and healthy physique –quite a regal and unusual black, white, and grey cat. The corners of his mouth looked like he was puffing on a cigar and was very comical. His deep eyes were enhanced by a thin black circle as if someone had painted it on with an eyebrow pencil. Anyone who saw the darling Little Socks regarded him as my handsome young man.
At this time this “ handsome young man” began to go outside by himself, and upon his return the first thing he did was look for Mimi. They would eat out of the same bowl with their heads lovingly next to each other. And when they would sleep curled up together in a big furry ball, I was always very moved at the sight of the,. But slowly things began to change. I soon discovered Mimi began to spend less and less time at home.
Little Socks would then go up to the roof everyday. Patiently for him were our neighbors’ cats, Big White and Flower, as well as a few thin and straggly female cats… What happened later, well, one can imagine… During an entire night of cat calls one would think that all the roof tiles would have fallen off from the noise.
Mimi would often perch herself in the nook of the eaves with the disappointment of a resentful woman in order to keep her big eyes on the other females chasing after Little Socks. Little Socks’ behavior was disgraceful –when he had had his fill, like a selfish playboy, he would come home looking for his other playmate. Like a small kitten Little Socks would fin his mother with one cry. Mimi’s emerald eyes had a sense of melancholy in them yet she never let on her true feelings to Little Socks. She disliked the smell of someone else on him and hated that he spent an entire night out fooling around.
When she was happy and the weather was fine, Mimi would go up to the roof and squat on the limbs of the walnut tree outside the window and attempt to catch sparrows. One morning while I was in my room working, I happened to see her outside in the middle of her “hunt” –she had such patience!
While eating lunch, not surprisingly, Mimi would return with a sparrow in her mouth. And she would proceed to give us a violent little show by first taking the sparrow by the wing and throwing it up in the air. The sparrow was already wounded and could only flutter its wings in vain before falling down again. Mimi would catch it in her mouth and vigorously repeat her act a few more times as we stared helplessly. Mimi very generously would give her prize to Little Socks. In turn, Little Socks stupidly learned to return the birds to the roof. He would toss the birds in the air but this time they wouldn’t fly and would just fall down again. Little Socks was confused wondering why it was not funny anymore. In the meantime, Mimi just lay on the sofa him with her eyes half open and corner of her mouth upturned…
Mimi’s happiness began to fade, and most of the time she would cover her head while sleeping. When Little Socks called to her from behind, sometimes Mimi would suddenly jump up, unreasonably whip him couple times on his graying cheeks and disappear before he even knew what was going on…
In the summer Mimi would sleep in the eaves in the shadow of the roof where she could not be seen from inside the house –I assume she was disturbed by Little Socks. They were no longer kittens with their former affections and so our home became cold and cheerless. Occasionally, Little Socks would come home with his illegitimate children to steal food. Mimi pretended to ignore him and Little Socks lost interest in trying.
Sometimes I blame Mimi for being too naïve and self-righteous. If not Little Socks, was she not able to have anyone else?
Finally this past autumn, a big strong yellow cat appeared everyday on the wall of my small courtyard. Each time Mimi would hear this cat’s call, even if she was sleeping, she’d immediately jump up and quickly scamper up tp the roof.
Mimi’s stomach soon grew day by day. She no longer went outside. I would only see her wandering around in the house looking for something. So I made her a bed for giving birth. But she didn’t seem to like it.
I came home one afternoon and heard muffled sounds coming from my bedroom. I quietly walked towards the room fearing that there were robbers retreating out the rear window. When I entered the room. instead I saw the gallant Little Socks using his four paws to hold down the bedspread. His two eyes glared at me as if to tell me that something important had happened. I soon heard a small meow, a very faint but long wail of excruciating pain. The quilt began to wriggle and underneath I soon found three little hot pink balls of flesh moving around. At that moment, the fourth little kitten emerged from Mimi’s belly…
Little Socks was so exited that he was going every which way on the bed. But when he went to see what had happened to Mimi’s belly, this time she still did not excuse him and let out a frightened cry not allowing him near her kittens.
But Little Socks is such a compassionate cat. He didn’t go outside for any engagements for nearly a whole month. Rather he would sit next to Mimi’s chair fervently watching everything that happened. Yet Mimi was determined to not allow him to come into her nest –he was helpless.
Finally, one month after giving birth, Mimi didn’t seem to have anymore milk and yet the big yellow cat –the father –hadn’t even come out to see her once. She decided to go out for a stroll and allowed Little Socks to watch over her four little darlings. Little Socks was very happy and jumped into the little box at once. Lying down just like Mimi. The little ones started to wriggle around his stomach. Upon not finding milk at their mother’s belly they let out a fightened cry. Just like Mimi. Little Socks licked them carefully from head to toe. Because of his fat tongue and thick fur, the kittens whined a bit but soon fell asleep against Little Socks’s big belly. Little Socks too fell asleep like a tired middle-aged man, loudly snoring just the same –and thus rewarded an entire month of desire.
Returning home that afternoon, I saw Mimi walking alone on the eaves. I quickly went inside to find three small kittens crying out and pushing up against the happily snoring Little Socks; beneath his large belly one of the kittens had suffocated. In a hurry I picked up the dead kitten and placed it in a plastic bag. When Mimi returned she discovered that one of her children was missing. She anxiously and crazily howled at Little Socks and shoved him out of the nest. Then she went crazy searching all over the house in every nook and cranny for her baby. She couldn’t believe that what had actually happened because she had never experienced death.
For three years, she did not speak one word to Little Socks let alone look him in the eye.
After three years Mimi contracted gum cancer and died of sadness.
She was six years old. She was a mother twice and had eight children.