For John Came Fasting

I prayed to Saints Joseph, John and Elijah– particularly Joseph, whose icon I keep on the headboard of my bed. “Rose needs friends,” I said. “Please give Rose friends. That’s the most urgent thing. I want everything else I keep praying for too– an Eastern Catholic parish where we’re welcome, a car, a house closer to Pittsburgh with a yard we’re allowed to play in, financial solvency, all the things I’ve been praying for for months. But in the meanwhile, please give Rose friends. I’ll keep waiting to be rescued but we can’t wait for friends.”

The next evening, Rose went out to play with Joey the cat again.

She came when he saw her come out of the house.

“Here, Joey!” she said.

“Here, Bootsie,” said a boy on a bicycle, riding by the house.

“Here, Joey!” said Rose.

The cat came to Rose; she patted and played with her.

“Here, Bootsie!” said the boy again. He sat on the porch of a nearby house and continued to call the cat.

“She was my friend first!” snapped Rose.

“Mind your manners,” I reminded her. “Cats can have more than one friend.”

The cat padded over to the little boy; Rose followed cautiously.

The boy introduced Joey as Bootsie, a cat he’d had for seven years, since he was a baby. “I let her out to go do her business  in the evenings. She likes to be outside at night. She’s called Bootise because she has four white boots.”

The boy introduced Rose to Bootsie’s mother, a spotted cat named Dalmatian. They patted her as well, and played with her. The little boy’s younger brother came to admire the cat with them. Then Dalmatian and Bootsie, formerly Joey or John, went off into the bushes.

“I’ll get my bike,” said Rose.

The three children biked together until the street got too dark to bike safely. Then they wandered over to the boy’s yard, half a block away from ours. They stayed until very late, talking of cats and of other things.

“Do you know how to play tag?”

“Okay, but I play tag the old fashioned way– I only count as high as ten.” 

“Do you want to play Hide and Go Seek?” 

“Only if it’s Hide and Go Seek Tag.” 

“Watch me turn a cartwheel!” 

“I can do a back flip!”

“Can you parkour? Let’s have a race!” 

The wisdom of the saints is not my wisdom, but that’s a mercy.

(image via pixabay)