I Don't Want It

Flash fiction contest winner (7/8)

The door squeaked louder than usual when it was pushed open, causing Leslie to halt and listen. There was no sound from inside the house, so she slipped through the door, dripping wet from the summer rain.

"What are you being sneaky about?" she heard her father call from across the mudroom.

She didn't reply, but there was a pleading little "Mew!" from inside her raincoat and Leslie smiled nervously.

Her father came and stood with his arms crossed, demanding that the girl "introduce" her newest friend.

With nothing but hesitation, a tiny orange tabby kitten was pulled from the safety of an interior pocket. "He was all alone," the girl explained. "Stuck in that ditch near the old barn. Isn't he cute?"

"I don't want it," her father said staunchly. Leslie was quick to say that she would look after it herself. "Let me clarify; I don't want it in this house," was the rebuttal.

The poor girl looked heartbroken as she asked what he wanted her to do with this tiny friend. At first, her father said to put it back where she'd found it... but then he looked outside at the pouring rain. Put the kitten back in a ditch, in that weather? No, he wasn't heartless. Then he started thinking through where the thing could be kept temporarily. The garage was too hot, the barn had too many holes, and the porch wasn't properly screened in.

"Here's what we'll do," he said decidedly. "We'll get one of the old dog crates and put it here in the mudroom for him. But, this is as far into the house as he'll ever come. When the rain is over, he goes back outside." But of course, we all know that the kitten never went back outside.

The End

 

(Word Count: 300)