A Safe Place in a Pillow Case

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Students burning flags and hoping for safe spaces. Colleges banning flags on campus. Riots in city streets and protests in countrysides and native lands. Friends blocked on fb for opposing views. Underlying agendas everywhere a person goes; stick with the status quo or be blocked; be ostracized. Six months ago a majority of posts on fb supported or defended a liberal ideology. Currently right leaning opinions surface just before they drown. Amid this dissension many find they are suddenly a hero or a pariah.

When I was six or seven an abandoned cat came round our home in Cuba. I begged my mom to let me keep the cat. She said I could feed the cat but I had to leave it out of doors. Every day I fed that cat and was happy it chose to stay. I made up a makeshift bed with towels in a low box on top of the trash can.  After several weeks the cat had kittens in that box. What a joy seeing new life from a trusting cat previously abandoned. I again begged my mom to bring the cat indoors. Since the cat had kittens my mom said ok but the cat must stay in the bathroom.

As I slept in the room next to the bathroom I felt my pillow case moving and mewing in a melodious dance. I awoke to the soft and beautiful bodies of kittens brought to my pillow case by the mother cat in the dark of the night. I marveled the kittens weren't hurt by my head resting on the pillow. I moved over and let the kittens have their space. The mother cat slept nearby knowing and trusting all was safe in my pillow case.

In the morning I told my mother about the kittens in my pillow case. At first my mother was doubtful of the story about the cat bringing her young to my room.  My mom thought I'd brought the kittens to my bed. But my mom knew the story was too preposterous to believe I had put kittens in a pillow case. Sometimes you know, you just have to agree, the best place to be, is a safe place in a pillow case.