Cat Tails: Phone calls

Peep awoke very confused on Tuesday. She’d heard the Mommy’s voice coming out of the phone on the desk, but she knew Mommy couldn’t fit in that little box. LT had told her that the Mommy wasn’t in the little box, but was still in Virginia, but Peep wasn’t sure. When the Daddy woke up she tried to ask him, but all he did was give her a cuddle and say, “Peep, you sure are talkative this morning. Wasn’t it great that you talked to Mary Rose last night?”

Peep appreciated the cuddling, but wished he’d answered her question. It was strange that she could understand the people, but they couldn’t understand her. She shrugged and figured that it was just another one of the ways that cats were more intelligent than people.

After a good breakfast and a leisurely bath, Peep settled down in the living room. She figured that she could hear the phone if it rang, and she’d run in and talk to the Mommy. The Daddy left, saying that he’d be back sometime in the afternoon, and Peep drifted off to sleep.

She was awakened by the ringing of the phone. She ran into the office, jumped up on the desk and waited for the Mommy’s voice. The voice she heard wasn’t out of that phone, but another box across the room, and it wasn’t the Mommy’s voice. It was some lady saying that since the Mommy’s credit was so good, they wanted to give her a new credit card, and to press a button on the phone. Peep didn’t understand any of that, really. She knew that credit cards were the little plastic things that Mommy and Daddy had, and that they looked at them sometimes and said nasty things to them. She’d decided some time ago that credit cards were mean, somehow, and therefore she didn’t think the Mommy would want another one.

She investigated the box that this other voice had come out of. It didn’t look like a phone, really, because it didn’t have the part that people put against their faces. It was just a box with lots of buttons on it. She shrugged and decided that she didn’t understand that box at all. Since she was already in the office, she decided to resume her nap in the open window. She settled on the window sill and drifted off to sleep with a cool breeze ruffling her fur.

The phone rang again, and this time she was sure it was the one on the Daddy’s desk. She ran over to the desk and kissed the phone as it continued ringing. A voice came out of it, saying, “Jay, this is Laura over at Penske. That truck in Asbury Park broke down again. I don’t know what those people are doing to it. Please call back as soon as you get this. I’ll also try your cell.”

That wasn’t the Mommy either, and Peep pulled away from the phone. Eeeww. She’d just kissed a complete stranger! She stared at the phone as though it had betrayed her. That was not the Mommy. What was this phone anyway? She’d never paid a lot of attention to phones. She knew that the people stuck them against their faces and talked a lot to them, even through there wasn’t anyone else in the room.

As she was staring at it, the phone rang again, scaring Peep. She jumped back, sliding on the papers the Daddy had on his desk. This time a man’s voice came out of the box. “Jay, this is Ken. Sorry I missed your call last night – give me a call when you get home.”

Peep knew the person for that voice. He was a friend of the Daddy’s and came over sometimes on a motorcycle. Peep hated motorcycles, almost at much as the vacuum. Motorcycles were louder, but at least they didn’t try to chase you around the house!

Thoroughly confused, Peep decided that she’d look for Miss Rudy and see if she knew more about phones than LT did. She found Rudy asleep on the deck rail, and seeing that Fuzzy was no where in sight, Peep went out to talk to her.

“Rudy, last night the Mommy talked to me from the phone on Daddy’s desk. I thought that meant that the Mommy was inside the phone now, but today two other people’s voices came out of the phone instead of Mommy’s. Do you know about phones?” Peep hoped she did.

“Oh, sure. I learned about phones from the television. You should watch more television, Peep.” Rudy was an avid watcher of anything that was on the air.

Peep had no patience for television, as it was as useless as the little screen the Daddy looked at. No fish, no food, no one she knew. “Well, if it taught you about phones, that’s worth something. Tell me!”

“Phones are ways for people to talk to each other who aren’t together. If two people have phones, the voices go from one to the other and the person with the part held to their face can hear and talk to the other person. If the Mommy talked to you from the phone, that means she’s not here, not that she’s in the phone, silly little Peep!” Rudy started laughing and fell of the rail into the dirt.

“Serves you right for laughing at me, Rudy!” said Peep, and slunk back into the house.

Peep didn’t know whether to be sad or relieved. If the Mommy wasn’t in the phone that meant that she could still give hugs and cook bacon, but since she wasn’t here, she couldn’t do either of those. Peep sighed and put her head down on her paws. She decided she was sad. She really wanted the Mommy to come home so she could see her and talk to her. She’d even let her put her under that blankets if she’d come home.

Peep dragged herself into the bedroom and snuggled down in the covers where the Mommy used to sleep. “Mommy, come home,” she cried, and buried her nose in her paws to hide from the rest of the day.