The Falling Darkness and Appearence of Mystery Cat XI - Finis

When the man had found Clio's strange leaf journal in her bed she had already
gone.

The mystery of how or why a cat would care to keep a journal of her life and adventures
was pretty much unfathomable. Some would call it a miracle. That such a thing, if it were
even remotely true or even possible, showed that there was a side to animals we didn't even  begin
to understand. That in some impossible way they wondered about the world as much as us.

Asking questions as the people animals do. What is this life? Why are we in it? Is there meaning
to any of this? And, if there is, what is it? But different than the view most people animals have of
this life was the curious attention Clio had paid to the world around her.
Watching the breeze turn through the leaves of a sunflower during a full moon night.
Admiring her sister, Shadow, and seeing the beauty and worth in another being. Knowing, in a way,
that even though she might never have answers to all of her questions and wonderings about
everything that this was indeed an amazing world.

The man still keeps her bed in its place in the kitchen. Knowing that she is gone.
But it reminds him of the magic of this strange thing called life. And the importance
of writing one's own history down. For in doing so perhaps we can understand who we are.

One sunny morning near the first day of spring that year, as he wandered down by the creek,
he found a small paper package lying in the dead grasses. He saw its color first. Though faded
there was still enough red in it to catch his eye. He picked it up. It was a package of Black Cats.
Firecrackers. He had loved shooting them off when he was younger. Their sound and smell.
He smiled to himself. Then studied the ferocious looking black cat face on the package.

Odd. It reminded him of a black cat he had seen many times over the years. Sitting quietly
amongst the sunflowers and hollyhocks. Once he found Clio skulking in the grasses along
the creek. A black cat crouching in the grasses near her. They seemed to be hunting birds
together.  Wow.  This must have been Shadow, her sister, that she had written of.
He shook his head in disbelief. He hoped he would see Shadow again.
He stuffed the firecrackers into his coat pocket and wandered home.