Flash Fiction Friday

Cam thought he saw the bird in the naked tree. It was a huge black crow.

"Do you, see it?" His little daughter pointed from where she set in her stroller. She was daddy's girl with ringlette's of ginger hair while his was ginger too, but straight under his woolen cap. Mare might only be going on four, but sometimes, he thought she might be wiser than fourteen.

The bird was gone. Mare pointed to what was under the tree, it was a silver cat with green-grey eyes, mysteriously looking at them next to the park benches that he'd never seen a person sit on at the retirement apartments.

He pushed the stroller up the hill, closer to the cat that didn't move. Maybe it was hurt, as it was huddled there under the tree.

"Can we keep it?"

"I dunno M." He was afraid her mother might give him the third degree. After all, she was the bread winner. She was walking her beat right now, down town. She was a police officer.

Cam waited for the cat to run away, but it stayed huddled and didn't hiss or moan. There were no tags
nor collar.

He looked back at Mare who glared at him as if what was he waiting for.

He reached for it with his gloved hands. Immediately the cat purred in his grasp. Cam smiled. It was so unexpected. It was as if the cat was happy someone wanted him.

"Let me, hold him. Daddy. Please." Mare's little hands were suppose to be in her mittens but she was excited, and it really wasn't as cold as Cam expected.

They were on their way home from the library. Mare liked her SIGNING DVDs, but she was jabbering away about the cat.

Cam brought the cat to her and it was instant love. Its paws kneaded the old baby quilt. There were no claws to injure Mare.

 Cam felt as if he needed to take the cat. No way could it defend itself. After all, it was a shock that the cat managed to be on its own this long.

"What will you name him?" Cam asked as they went on their way. The cat snuggled next to Mare without a problem. Cam was sure the cat would be on the run by now, but it wasn't. Instead, it purred.

"Diego, of course." Mare's favorite name. She loved Diego videos from Dora the Explorer, and hoped one day to meet the real Diego. She often said that some day she'd marry Diego and they'd go on adventures together.

"Diego, I dunno, he looks more like a Duke to me." Cam shrugged, thinking she liked the name too much.

"All right, just this one time. Duke." She gave in. as she hugged the cat tight.

Hopefully, her mother would be OK with Duke. After all, Cam was the one who stayed home with Mare. His wife wouldn't have to do a thing with the cat.