CAT CALLS

Last night I delivered to an old house at the end of a cul-de -sac. The driveway and detached garage were along side, a good 30 feet from the house itself. From there, the yard flowed into a park-like area with palmetto bushes and a few large trees. As I was getting out of the whitish chevy, I could hear a faint meow. I stopped for a second, heard no more and went up to the house. I gave the elderly lady her pizza, took the money and pounded down the wooden porch and steps as I headed back to my car. Almost there, I heard it again, very faintly. The meow sounded small, like that of a kitten. It was strangely close, yet muffled, almost distressed. I threw my empty pizza bag into the open passenger side window and stood glaring intently into the darkened park area. The slight meow continued and I took about three steps toward the sound, a clump of palmetto bushes. At that moment, a car breached the entrance of the cul-de-sac just to enough to hang a u-turn. In doing so, it very briefly shot a spray of light into park area. For a millisecond, I could see the outline of a man in the exact area I had determined the sounds were coming from. He seemed to be squatted down between bushes, staring directly at me. The light reflected off his teeth and I could see his mouth was making the meowing sounds.

Startled, I said, "Oh...I thought it..."

In an instant, the car-provided lighting was gone. I heard the bushes rustle and the man was gone, as well. I got into the whitish, backed out of the driveway with my high beams on. I drove in a circle around the cul-de-sac several times hoping to see the figure again but it was gone and I got the heck out of there.