Short story: Kyoko's Cat

Kiyoko's cat - Kucing Kyoko

Rama Dira J - February 22, 2009

image source: kucing

Early in the morning, I was startled by the appearance of a three striped cat on the doorstep of my flat. At first, he meow loudly while clawing at the door to make me stop brushing my teeth to ascertain whether a cat is at the door.

I see, the cat is dull. His whole body was wet, it must have been hit by rain. Outside it is raining. These days, Kyoto has not ceased to be washed down by the sky water spill that was so heavy.

Even though I really don't like cats, I can't bear to let them cool outside. Besides, he seemed to be begging for someone's help to release him from Kyoto's cold air snares at this time. I immediately carried him inside. Before closing the door, then I knew that the cat was injured after my hand was wet with foul-smelling pus, flowing from a deep wound, on the left side of the waist. It looks like it's a wound from a sharp object.

I hurried in a raincoat, leaving the cat for a while to get the appropriate medicine for the terrible wound from the pharmacy across the street. Nguyen, a Vietnamese pharmacy student who works at the pharmacy, advised me to apply chloramphenicol ointment to the cat's wound. I rushed to pay, then headed to the convenience store, about fifty meters from the pharmacy. There I get a can of liquid milk and tuna flavored Whiskas packed with 500 grams. After making sure no one was missed, I fought back through the rain storm to reach my flat.

The sad cat was still lying weak on the couch, in a towel that I gave before leaving it earlier. He was rather surprised to hear the door I closed was rather hard. I immediately took the cotton from the room and brought a basin of warm water from the kitchen.

After completing the treatment ritual for the cat, I immediately presented him with a bowl of Whiskas and a bowl of milk. He immediately devoured everything. After that, he immediately fell asleep in exhaustion. I noticed really, it looks like this cat is not a wild cat. The fur is maintained. His body is also plump. Ah, let him be here until healed. If for example in the past few days no one has looked for it, it will be distributed to animal homes.

The cat occupies an instant noodle cardboard that has been resurfaced in such a way as to give it a sense of comfort and proper warmth, so that it can calmly rest with the hope of having a good impact on healing the wound.

Today is Sunday, I am free from college and work. I headed in front of the TV, playing a plate of DVDs I had rented from a rental near the restaurant where I worked. The Catcher in the Rye the film's title. I watched it in deep attention. In line with the flow of the story in the film, I began to realize the fact that sometimes, many small things that appear before us at one time become the lighters of our memories of memories that happened in the past. The film took me to memory when I was forced to quit college because my parents could not afford to pay. The situation then prompted me to wander far away, work while studying in Japan by boarding a cargo ship from Surabaya. Arriving in Japan, I tried to survive by working to move around in small restaurants, until then I became one of the reliable cooks in a large restaurant thanks to the cooking knowledge I had gotten from these small restaurants. From my opinion as a cook at that big restaurant, I can pay for college.

Now, I can live independently and every month also routinely send money to parents in the village. My days go through struggling in cooking spices in a joint restaurant of Japanese and European cuisine, which is located around Imadegawacho as well as dealing with lectures at Kyoto University in the field of electricity. Here, I really enjoy the effect of hard work, focusing on the seriousness that I will not get in my own country.

The Catcher in the Rye is over, my memories of the past are over. I turned off the TV to the dining table, ate two hamaagu and hot green tea which still billowed the smoke. After that, I fell into a long sleep on the couch. Meanwhile, the rain outside did not stop, as if it would go down forever.

I've been interested in girls for a long time in the flat across the street. However, I could not find a way to meet and get to know him. But I never thought, the three striped cat — who had been part of my flat for three weeks — was instrumental in meeting me with the girl in the end. I found out later that his name was Kiyoko, the owner of the three striped cat.

Kiyoko came one night, asking me if there was a three fat striped cat that strayed into my flat. When I showed the cat, he was without a doubt the one who had been searching for Kiyoko for two weeks.

"There was a wound on his body when he was first stranded here. But it's been cured now ... "

"Wow, what a pity ... Takeshi ..."

"Takeshi?"

"Yes, I gave him the name Takeshi."

He later told me that in the neighborhood there was indeed a group of middle school children who liked to torture animals. He believed that the wound was caused by them. The day Takeshi was injured he was not in his flat, he was going to Nagoya.

After chatting for a while, he said goodbye and offered me to visit his flat, just drinking tea cha (green tea) together as an expression of his gratitude for saving Takeshi. I immediately imagined: drinking cha during the rain while watching Serendipity or Before Sunset, why refused?

The next night I visit. He treats me well. Although there was no rain and did not have time to watch a movie together, he presented warm tea in his speech and also warm conversations. I was also happy to see Takeshi who had healed his wound and most importantly, he was back at his house. However, one thing that surprised me, Takeshi was not left free. He was locked in a cage.

"Why is Takeshi in there?"

"Oh, yes, I forgot not to take it out from there. I was out for a while, I can't take it. So then just measure it in a cage. If I leave freely alone, he can get out of the ceiling. I'm afraid he will be the brat of those bad boys again. "He then approached Takeshi and opened the lid of his cage. Takeshi immediately burst into my arms. It seems like he's scared, after being locked in the cage.

I tried to calm Takeshi while stroking his neck. Takeshi was a little old in my arms even when he was fast asleep. I gave Takeshi to Kiyoko and Kiyoko took him to his sleeping box.

Kiyoko is not a beautiful girl who is totally different from the Japanese woman I usually see. Normal physical appearance actually. What made him different was that he was intelligent, an animal lover, and had deep attention to traditional arts, especially those related to Japanese stringed instruments, shamisen, and he was very good at playing the instrument. It was not strange then to learn the fact that he turned out to be a young lecturer who taught traditional music in the Faculty of Arts and Music, Aichi Perfectural University in Nagoya.

Every day he travels about forty minutes to Kyoto-Nagoya or vice versa by using a super-fast train, JR Shinkansen. That was then, every Sunday when he was off on teaching and I was off from college and work, we often spent time together, could be in my flat, could also be in his flat with three activities that we both loved, namely cooking, watching movies, and playing samishen. Without exception, Takeshi who liked me more and more, enlivened our meeting.

This evening, from the glass window of my flat, below I saw Kiyoko had arrived from the minimarket carrying materials for his cooking later. Today's turn is cooking and taking care of me. I became restless waiting for a call from him. He did say that if the meal was finished, then he called me.

Actually, I had been rushing in a shower and dressed well, preparing myself as best I could in a plan to express my honest desire for our relationship. Of course, I hope he wants to accept me as his lover. However, from the way he treated me for these three months I felt confident, he also liked me. Often he was honest and openly expressed his interest in me as an independent migrant man, disciplined in his efforts to complete his studies and work alone for life and for the cost of the study. He also liked my skills and was amazed by the secret of cooking spices that made his tongue not stop wanting to eat all the dishes I served even though his stomach was already full.

Often in our meetings, indeed he always helps me cook, but actually the dishes served at the table are only born from my hand. This time I challenged him to cook in an appointment in his flat.

Two hours later, my cellphone rang. From the other side he said that the food was ready and I was allowed to visit. When I arrived there, he immediately invited me to enjoy the dishes already served at the table. As a professional cook, what he displayed on the table, I thought was quite mischievous. I immediately enjoyed the sukiyaki dish. In fact, Sukiyaki is not a type of dish that is foreign to me. However, this sukiyaki feels more delicious than my homemade sukiyaki. When I asked what the secret of the spices was and how he could make vegetables and meat in sukiyaki was more refreshing, he didn't want to confess. According to him it was something he had to keep secret. "If I tell you, then my cooking won't be special anymore."

After enjoying a meal, we sat on the couch listening to the CD from Jason Mraz's latest album. When Jason Mraz was singing Lucky with Colbie Caillat, I began to express that I liked Kiyoko and hoped he would have a serious relationship with me. As I thought before, without rejection, he accepted me as his lover for a second after my statement of seriousness.

I'm happy, so is he. Lucky's chant was finished and suddenly I remembered Takeshi. I felt indebted to him because he was the one who had contributed greatly to bringing me together with Kiyoko. He was the three striped cat that had brought good luck before me.

"Where is Takeshi?"

Kiyoko didn't answer right away, instead he headed towards his bedroom and brought out a new shamisen.

"This ..." he said.

"You mean?"

"This is Takeshi!"

"That's a shamisen!"

"Yes ... shamisen made from Takeshi."

"You mean?"

"The skin on the shamisen's head is Takeshi's skin."

"???"

I noticed, indeed the skin on the shamisen's head had three striped colors like Takeshi's. I then imagined what we had eaten in the sukiyaki. Maybe it's Takeshi meat. I then guessed and without feeling guilty, he admitted that it was Takeshi meat and he honestly said that he was used to eating cat meat whose skin was used to make shamisen. Before taking their skin as an ingredient in making a new shamisen, Kiyoko must take care of it first because it is healthy cat skin that can help produce beautiful shamisen clinks. He also honestly said that the wound on Takeshi when I found it was his stab in an attempt to kill the cat. The attempt failed because Takeshi managed to escape and was stranded at my place. He felt bad about submitting that confession at the beginning of the meeting. But after we got this close, according to him there was no problem for him to say all the confessions.

"What's the meaning of a cat ..." he said lightly.

I ignored him, immediately rushed to the bathroom and vomited there. I said goodbye without regard to his reaction. When I arrived at the flat, I couldn't do anything else except thinking about canceling our relationship because after all, Takeshi was the biggest part of me that I loved. Without realizing it, my eyes were wet imagining the fate of Takeshi.

Tarakan, 24-25 January 2009