The Story of Red
The Story of Red
Before I was born, my father and mother and brother Anu lived in an ugly green house on Woods Hole Road. They Had many people who would come and stay with them from time to time, waiters and waitresses from the restaurant they worked at, hippies passing through town... And my mothers siblings who travelled out from Michigan...
My uncle Robert came to stay for awhile- he was a teenager then, and very strange one. Robert liked guns and motorcycles and looking ugly. He was actually quite a handsome man, but he would grow a messy beard to hide his face and always chose the most hideous eyeglasses on purpose.
One day Robert came home with a present for them. Two kittens, one black, and one red. He named them "Black Boy" and "Red Man," which my mother though was terribly rascist and would go on and on about.
Eventually Robert left, probably back to Michigan to go shoot his guns and ride his motorcycle and be ugly, and something happened to Black Boy. I do not know what, but neither Robert nor Black Boy were not still around when I came along.
Only Red Man remained, and eventually he became simply Red.
They moved to a summer house on Gardener Road, which was not equipped for winter at all. When it was cold the four of them would huddle around the small wood fireplace, and they all slept on a large futon on the floor together.
That following summer I was born, in that little summer house with lilacs blooming outside the window, or that's how the story goes. I entered this world surrounded by my mothers friends, a cat, and an angry little boy.
"Put her back!" yelled the angry 2 year old Anu. Those were my welcoming words to this world. If only I could remember!
Needless to say, he hated me.
Red became my brother, my partner, my companion. He was a very mellow cat.
When I was three, he ran away for three days, and we thought he might be dead, but eventually he came slinking home, bruised and broken- his tail had been run over by a car, and hung limply from him.
When we took him to the vet, they said his poor tail was not dead, only paralyzed, and that amputating it would be bad for his balance, so they left it alone, and he lived to be 14 all the while dragging his poor paralyzed tail behind him.
I think, probably because of his pathetic state, he became an even more mellow cat. The mellowest cat in the world. I would play tricks on him, step on his tail while he sat- he would never notice until he tried to walk away, and never understood why something held him to the spot- he could not feel my little foot on his tail.
He would never meow, only look at me with large pleading kitty eyes.
My mother had been catholic, when she was a child. For her confirmation she had to wear the silliest little white veil, and she gave it to me when I wanted to play dressup. I don't think she ever knew the real reason I wanted it- to make Red wear it and drink tea with my stuffed animals and I.
He never complained.
Before I was born, my father and mother and brother Anu lived in an ugly green house on Woods Hole Road. They Had many people who would come and stay with them from time to time, waiters and waitresses from the restaurant they worked at, hippies passing through town... And my mothers siblings who travelled out from Michigan...
My uncle Robert came to stay for awhile- he was a teenager then, and very strange one. Robert liked guns and motorcycles and looking ugly. He was actually quite a handsome man, but he would grow a messy beard to hide his face and always chose the most hideous eyeglasses on purpose.
One day Robert came home with a present for them. Two kittens, one black, and one red. He named them "Black Boy" and "Red Man," which my mother though was terribly rascist and would go on and on about.
Eventually Robert left, probably back to Michigan to go shoot his guns and ride his motorcycle and be ugly, and something happened to Black Boy. I do not know what, but neither Robert nor Black Boy were not still around when I came along.
Only Red Man remained, and eventually he became simply Red.
They moved to a summer house on Gardener Road, which was not equipped for winter at all. When it was cold the four of them would huddle around the small wood fireplace, and they all slept on a large futon on the floor together.
That following summer I was born, in that little summer house with lilacs blooming outside the window, or that's how the story goes. I entered this world surrounded by my mothers friends, a cat, and an angry little boy.
"Put her back!" yelled the angry 2 year old Anu. Those were my welcoming words to this world. If only I could remember!
Needless to say, he hated me.
Red became my brother, my partner, my companion. He was a very mellow cat.
When I was three, he ran away for three days, and we thought he might be dead, but eventually he came slinking home, bruised and broken- his tail had been run over by a car, and hung limply from him.
When we took him to the vet, they said his poor tail was not dead, only paralyzed, and that amputating it would be bad for his balance, so they left it alone, and he lived to be 14 all the while dragging his poor paralyzed tail behind him.
I think, probably because of his pathetic state, he became an even more mellow cat. The mellowest cat in the world. I would play tricks on him, step on his tail while he sat- he would never notice until he tried to walk away, and never understood why something held him to the spot- he could not feel my little foot on his tail.
He would never meow, only look at me with large pleading kitty eyes.
My mother had been catholic, when she was a child. For her confirmation she had to wear the silliest little white veil, and she gave it to me when I wanted to play dressup. I don't think she ever knew the real reason I wanted it- to make Red wear it and drink tea with my stuffed animals and I.
He never complained.