Oh no, who's there?

It was the middle of the night and I was alone in the house, except of course for the cats. I was in my bed reading, because I hadn't been able to sleep, when I heard a weird sound coming from the living room.  It sounded like the crinkling of a paper or the tearing of a book, or both.  I looked about me and counted the cats.  They were all present and accounted for, sound asleep on my bed next to me.  Then, fear filled my heart.  If the cats were all on the bed, then who was making the noise in the living room?  I took a deep breath and then rose from my bed to check it out.

I put on my robe, grabbed my cane, not that it would help me much, and slowly and silently made my way to the living room.  With each step, the noise got louder and I become more afraid.  The hallway was pitch dark and all I could see was the glow of the nightlight I kept so that I wouldn't break my neck if I had to get up in the middle of the night.  A shadow was moving just enough to block the light for a split second before moving away once more.  I gasped and put my hand over my mouth hoping the culprit hadn't heard. 

I remembered the flashlight that I kept in the bathroom for emergencies and I reached in as I passed and grabbed the light from the counter.  I moved until I was nearly into the living room and then, taking a deep breath, I clicked on the light and shone it into the living room.  There, on the fan blade slowing spinning overhead, was a large piece of wide ribbon.  It was moving outward with the movement of the fan and hitting things as it passed.  It moved to block the night light momentarily as it passed by it. 

I stopped and stared.  How could the ribbon have gotten up onto the fan, I wondered?  Then I saw the mantle!  It was empty!  Everything that had been sitting on it was now in a messy heap on the hearth.  That was how!  Apparently, while I was taking my shower, one, or perhaps more, of the cats had jumped up on the mantle while playing with the ribbon that they had stolen from my box of wrapping things.  He had somehow tossed it high enough to catch on the blade, and it didn't come back down.  As I looked up, I realized the ribbon was one with a wire on it, so it had taken a bit of time before it spread out enough to catch at the walls and such as it passed.  Suddenly a cat rubbed past my leg and raced to the mantle jumping up on it and then looking at me.  I guess I was expected to remove the ribbon and give it back to him. 

© Cheryl Simonds 2012

I waved my finger at him and began to scold him, but he yawned, meowed, and looked at the ribbon as it slowly waved past him.  I sighed, turned off the fan, stepped on my little stool and pulled down the ribbon.  Then I dropped it on the floor and watched as the cat grabbed it and raced off.  I hate cats sometimes, they can be such a bother.......