Socks

Just another snippet from the master magician here....glarg... such ego...

As I travelled, looking back over my shoulder at myself, I knew that I had to be very close to the speed of light. Travelling at or close to lum1 has some very strange effects, and being able to see oneself is just one of the minor ones. Would I freeze; would my self following me also freeze, and we be locked into staring into each other's eyes for eternity? Maybe that's what hell is; forever locked into looking back at yourself and forward at yourself all at the same time �" and making eye contact as well!

Things happened fast then - a great white light erupted in front of me - I looked back over my shoulder in the blink of an eye, to see my self looking at me in amazement, and, somehow, with a sense of longing, perhaps for a future gone before which will now never happen. His mouth was open as if he wanted to say something.

'I yelled: "Sorry, buddy, but I've got to leave you behind. I'm sorry, Wilson - I'm sorry!"".

Then he vanished as if he'd never been. My past was gone, but still with me somehow.

I looked around in the impenetrable darkness that had appeared out of nowhere. Nothing.

I listened with all ears. Nothing.

I sniffed with both noses, felt with every atom of my being, listened again. Nothing. Damn it - NOTHING!

Then it dawned on me. I COULD smell something. And I knew what it was; I'd smelt it a thousand times before, many light years ago and in a faraway place.

SOCKS!

Damn that cat - I knew he'd gotten somewhere, and here he was, first again into a place that no sane feline would ever go. Just like him!

Socks - here, Socks! Now I could hear him purring, and look - the light was growing from pitch black to grey, but I still couldn't see Socks. After all, in the semi-dark, all cats are grey, and this cat was greyer than most. Everything he did was grey, and here he was - the King of Grey.

Uh-huh! Now we see, now we don't, eh? Well, two can play that game, my fine feline friend! Now if I just tune my skin colour to the level of the surrounding light, and blend into that growing.... damn, that light IS growing, isn't it?

Ri-i-ight! Over there, that grinning Cheshire cat look, with all those teeth. Uh-huh �" should never have taught you that trick, should I? How many little old ladies have you frightened with that one, let alone little Alices, you son-of-a-b***h (if you'll allow me to use that phrase with a cat)?