Hide & Seek

This morning Aaron went out into the living room to finish getting ready for class. I followed him out there, as without a hearing aid we can no longer have conversations from different rooms together. Not that that was ever particularly efficient anyway. When I got out there though, he was gone.

At first I thought he had left without saying goodbye and I made a face closely resembling this one: =( Then I noticed his bicycle and shoes were both still here. Sometimes he hops into a closet when I am not looking so that he can startle me when I least expect it. Even when I know it's coming, it still manages to startle me. Like some primitive part of my brain still insists that maybe it won't be Aaron but the monster that ate him. So I cautiously began inching towards the pantry in the kitchen.

Then I notice the cats. There is a small square between the sofa and the recliner where an end table should go, but we haven't gotten around to buying one yet. Instead we keep a duffel bag with video game consoles back there. And the cats are like this:

!

I drew and colored that in 2.5 minutes flat. Yes, there is really that big of a size discrepancy between our (fully grown) cats.

It very quickly became obvious that Aaron had jumped between the sofa and the recliner to spook me but the cats had completely decimated his cover. Rather than wander around aimlessly looking in closets I just started cracking up. I walked over and told him he had to come out so he could see the cats betraying him. So confused were they by his behavior that they were still staring at him strangely when he stood up and got out. Then it was off to class for real-reals with him.

I retreated into the computer room with a hot cup of chai and a bowl of oatmeal and decided that despite the temperature and the rain, I wanted to open the window. It smells very crisp and clean outside because of the chill in the air, but because of the chill in the air I'm also huddled under my robe clutching my tea for warmth. I guess in some circumstances you cannot have your cake and eat it too. I'll be damned if I'm not always going to try though.