The man across the street at number seventeen had never been at all friendly.
The word was that his domestic life wasn’t any better. He and his wife, both in their late forties, lived alone. They had never started a family. He was difficult to live with. Nevertheless, her world is made bearable by Toby. This loverly creature was a cat. He was nothing more than a domestic short-haired black and white cat, but he made her life at number seventeen more tolerable on a daily basis. That was the case, until the night that he came home in a really foul mood, saying he had a particularly bad day. As he came through the front door, thinking he wasn’t seen, he kicked the cat out of the way.
That evening he made his way to the local pub, where he spent his time shelling out money and getting well and truly drunk. Finally, staggering out, he was at his car when it happened. In the poorly lit carpark, a figure ran up behind him and cracked him on his head with something hard. He went down and seemed to black out, while the attacker found his wallet and removed what remaining money he could find. Then, looking around briefly before kicking his victim in the stomach, he ran off into the night. It was several minutes before another patron, returning to his car, found him and called for an ambulance.
What followed was a worrying period of several long days in a hospital bed, in some sort of coma, with her visiting every day. That was what could be seen. What was not evident was the dreams that plagued him while lying there. These were strange and truly powerful fantasies that had a profound effect on him.
Eventually, he recovered, with little to show that the incident had ever happened. He was told to rest and take it easy for the next few days. So, that’s what he did.
On his return home, the first thing he did was to settle in his favourite arm chair in the lounge, while his wife dutifully went into the kitchen to make him a cup of tea. When she returned, she found him sitting, with Toby on his lap.
He was smiling at her, while stroking him!