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Hats Off
(a simple story)
She awoke one morning with a
desire to wear a hat to work. She dug through all her closets but could only
find a red stocking cap that she dimly remembered as once belonging to her
brother. She pinned a yellow silk flower on the front of it and wore it. No one
at work mentioned the hat, and since she didn’t deal directly with the public,
her boss didn’t care.
On her lunch hour she bought
a small straw hat that had little silk roses and a small bird on it. She wore
that hat for the rest of the week.
On Saturday she went out and
bought 4 more hats, so she’d have a different hat every workday. Her straw hat
became her Monday hat.
Tuesday was a blue felt
cloche with a matching felt rose.
Wednesday was an Indiana
Jones type hat. (She always felt adventurous on Wednesdays.)
For Thursday she broke with
tradition completely, turning a green denim gardening hat inside-out and sewing
small plastic carrots on the brim.
Her favorite was Friday’s
hat: an old-fashioned man’s bowler with a daisy on the side. It took four hours
hunting in various thrift stores to find that one.
She was much happier now and
decided to indulge in one more desire that had been getting stronger and
stronger. She got a cat.
After that, she was a force
to be reckoned with. There was no stopping her. Or her cat.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
The Inner Cat
(a modern tail)
She finished washing the
dishes and went out onto the patio. It was a bright sunny afternoon. A slight
breeze brought the smell of the neighbor’s rose garden to her. She thought of
the ironing waiting for her in the laundry room and lay down on the warm
bricks. The myrtle trees cast dappled shadows on her face. She lay there
humming softly, a slight smile on her lips.
Her neighbor, who had been
trimming the roses, watched her for ten minutes before asking, “What in the
world are you doing?”
She got up quickly, but with
no embarrassment.
“I was just getting in touch
with my inner cat,” she replied, as she went back into the kitchen and poured
herself a saucer of cream.
