MicroHorror

“What’s wrong, hon?” Angie asked Hilliard.

His forehead was crinkled and his lips puckered, which was the look he got when something was amiss.

“I can’t find Mr. Troubleworthy. He didn’t come for dinner, and I looked all over the house.”

Mr. Troubleworthy was their twenty-five-pound cat.

“Did you look around outside?”

“No, but the only place open was the back door, and he would never go out that way. He can see the ocean from there, and you know how the waves freak him out.”

“Yeah, he really does have an excessive fear of water, even for a cat. But I’m going to look around outside anyway. I mean, as big as he his, how could he possibly have hidden that well inside?”

Hilliard’s face revealed intense anxiety. He hadn’t looked this bad when any of their three kids moved out, but that damn cat tended to follow him around the house all day long. How could he not be attached to it?

“Don’t worry. We’ll find him. Every one of our neighbors would recognize him and bring him back. He’ll be fine.”

She stepped out the back door and onto the deck. She turned as she shouted for the cat.

“Mr. Troubleworthy. Come here, kitty. Come on, boy.”

One of their neighbors, Karen Pantally, appeared on the beach and walked toward Angie.

“Hi, Karen. Have you seen our cat?”

“No,” Karen replied. The usually calm and graceful lady looked more fear-stricken than Hilliard. “I heard you yelling for him, but he’s not the only one missing. My cat is gone, and Telly’s looking for both of hers.”

“Huh?” Angie said. “That’s odd.”

Hilliard stepped onto the deck. Now, to go with the crinkled forehead and puckered lips, his face had grown ashen.

“What is it, hon?”

“Shh. Listen.”

“Listen to what?”

His throat croaked when he spoke again. “Listen to the ocean. The cats knew it was coming.”

She listened. She thought she could hear it. Then she thought she could see the giant wave coming. It came fast. In the last moments of her life she was slightly amused by the thought of what had driven Mr. Troubleworthy to face his fear of the relatively small waves that usually hit the beach.