“I can’t wait.” Thought the old lady. She wasn’t old, not really. She knew that, but that’s how she felt these days. A bit slower in the mornings, a little more tired at night. The heels don’t feel like they used to, music doesn’t quite attract as it once did.

She made an effort today. All day she’s been waiting for tonight. All week she’s been thinking about what to wear. Is this hairdo too old school? Is this blouse showing too much? She was waiting for a date. A date that wouldn’t show tonight, and she knew it, but she still waited in the corner.

“I can’t wait.”, thought the cat. Sleek and a bit more slim than was healthy. All he could think about was food. It’s been too long since he was picked up like tonight. He wondered if this strange person would feed him. She smelled faintly of a garden and something edible. A garden. That would be a nice place to rest tonight, after the long day hunting for food, the cat was tired. More hungry than tired at the moment, so he still made an effort to call this woman over and ask. “Are you going to feed me?”. The woman barely heard the cat, even though she was looking straight at him, she was not paying attention.

“I can’t wait.”, thought the moon. It has been looking down into this place and seen the comings and goings of everyone. Ever a watchful eye. Today the moon appeared a bit brighter. A bit more colorful . But the moon didn’t care for all of that. As a witness to Earth, the moon was both bored and excited. It couldn’t wait to see the Earth’s evolution as it made a revolution. And it couldn’t wait to see how the lady and the cat found each other. An old tale, unlikely friends, timid allies, sheltering each other. One from the elements, the other from loneliness. “I can’t wait to see them again tomorrow. I can’t wait to see them find happiness with each other.”

Romanian original, English version at the end

- În lumina asta de seară, îmi aduci aminte de ea.

- De cine?

- De Anna.

Găsisem adăpost pe acoperișul unei case înstărite din Constantinopol. Am fost norocos, nu a fost revendicat de nici o altă pisică. M-am simțit imediat ca acasă. Vînam noaptea șoareci și șobolani, dimineața slujitorii mă răsplăteau cu un bol de lapte . Jasmina, în special, mă plăcea și îmi pregătea un bol de smîntînă, de fiecare dată cînd era de serviciu la bucătărie.

Viața era perfectă. Lumea forfotea ziua prin casă, aparent încîntați ca nu erau rozătoare în camere sau în cămări. Mi se dusese vestea peste case că sînt un vînător feroce. Trebuia să fii complet tîmpit, ca rozător, să calci pragul casei Annei.

Însă totul s-a năruit cînd a apărut Niccolo. Anna l-a plăcut din prima clipă, însă eu n-am avut încredere în el deloc. Nu știu detalii despre ei, însă îmi aduc aminte de bulgării de foc care cădeau asupra caselor. A fost înfricoșător. Urletele de durere ale femeilor și ale copiilor, răcnetele soldaților care luptau. A durat multă vreme, soldații cu turban au învins. Anna a luptat din răsputeri, însă soldații cu turban au reușit sa răpună. Am auzit că Niccolo, cel pe care îl iubea, a sfîrșit la fel - furia lui Mehmet a fost mare. Nu a cruțat pe nimeni.

- Așa îmi aduc aminte de Anna. Constantinopol era în flăcări.

În pragul casei, flăcările mistuindu-i casa părintească, și ea, în armură de soldat, cu sabia în mînă, luptînd să apere ce era al ei.

- In this evening light, you remind me of her.
- Of whom?
- Of Anna.

I had found shelter on the roof of a wealthy house in Constantinople. I was lucky; no other cat claimed it. I immediately felt at home. I hunted mice and rats at night, and in the morning the servants rewarded me with a bowl of milk. Jasmina, in particular, liked me and a bowl of cream ready for me every time she was on duty in the kitchen.

Life was perfect. The house was lively during the day, and everybody was apparently delighted that there were no rodents in the rooms or pantries. Word had spread throughout the neighborhood that I was a fierce hunter. You’d have to be a complete idiot, as a rodent, to come across Anna’s house.

But everything fell apart when Niccolo showed up. Anna liked him from the very first moment, but I didn’t trust him at all. I don’t know the details, but I remember the fireballs falling on the houses. It was terrifying. The screams of pain from the women and children, the roars of the soldiers fighting. It went on for a long time; the soldiers with turbans won. Anna put up a strong fight, but the soldiers in turbans managed to take her down. I heard that Niccolo, the one she loved, met the same fate — Mehmet’s fury was great. He spared no one.

- That is how I remember Anna. Constantinople in flames.

Standing still on the entrance of her house, in full armor, while the flames were consuming her family home, sword in hand, fighting to defend what was hers

The lamp had been standing there longer than the town remembered.

Long enough to observe the bridge through storms, through wars, through winters so heavy the river disappeared beneath ice, and summers filled with music drifting from open windows. Long enough to witness the slow replacement of nearly every human face that crossed beneath it.

The moon remembered even more.

But unlike human beings, neither the lamp nor the moon insisted on remembering things the same way twice.

She was five years old and at the market with her mother. Across from their own cart, where they were selling ceramic pots and cups carefully painted by her mother, there was an old woman who sold animals crocheted from wool. They looked alive, as though at any moment they might jump down from the cart and begin running through the market between people’s legs and wooden tables. Rabbits with folded ears. Foxes with narrow faces. A small owl whose glass eyes reflected the morning light too sharply.

And the cat.

The cat had black wool fur and thin whiskers stitched carefully into its face. Its button eyes were darker than the others somehow, glossy, and from certain angles, they seemed to contain reflections.

Every market day that spring, the little girl had stopped in front of that cart to look at it.

And every week her mother said:
“When we sell the pottery, I will buy it for you.”

The market was nearly over now. Vendors were packing away crates and folding canvas covers over the remaining goods. The evening light had turned blue around the edges, and above the square the moon had already appeared. Near the center of the market, the old iron lamp had begun to glow.

Just as they were starting to pack, a customer came by. They sold the last two sets. The girl did not even wait for the customer to leave properly before running toward the old woman’s cart.

But behind her, her mother stopped her. “No. We need the money for shoes for your sister. Her old pair has a hole in the sole.”

The girl stopped halfway. For a second, she genuinely did not understand the words. She looked back at her mom, and then again at the old woman and the cat. The old woman behind the cart said nothing.

The girl walked the remaining distance slowly now until she stood beside the cat. Up close, its eyes looked even stranger. Not made of buttons after all, but something darker and reflective, like wet seeds.

She reached out and placed her hand on its head.

“No,” her mother said again. “Leave it there.”

And then something happened. Her heart began beating so fast it hurt. Something hot and heavy moving upward through her body.

The market sounds changed first. Voices became distant. Metal clinking somewhere slowed strangely. A pigeon crossing the square stopped midway.

The old woman looked at her carefully and the little girl understood suddenly that the universe was waiting to see whether she would accept this world or refuse it.

Behind her, her mother took one step forward, her voice growing louder.

Her fingers tightened around the wool cat.

And in that split second the world separated.

In the old one, the child removed her hand obediently and walked back toward the pottery cart carrying nothing.

But there was another one too.

And there, she took the cat.

From that moment on, things no longer remained entirely the same.

The lamp remembered that worlds rarely separated through grand events.
Usually it happened through smaller things.
A hand closing instead of opening.
Someone refusing to let go.
Someone continuing to call into the dark after everyone else had already accepted silence.

Sometimes the moon illuminated streets that did not entirely exist.

And now and then, beneath the lamp, those who refused loss too fiercely seemed able to cross between them.

A boy once lost his dog beside the river and searched for three days without finding it. By the fourth evening, everyone else had already accepted the loss. But beneath the bridge, under the lamp, the boy kept calling the dog’s name into the fog long after the town had gone to sleep. The lamp flickered once. The black cat looked at the woman. Somewhere in the darkness, paws struck wet stone, running fast toward him.

There was a young man who crossed the bridge every evening with the woman he loved until one autumn night she stopped beneath the lamp and told him she would not be leaving the town with him after all. The river moved black beneath them. Somewhere far away, a church bell rang once. The woman turned and began walking back toward the town. “No,” the young man said, with the desperate certainty of someone refusing to allow the world to become that version of itself. The lamp flickered once above them. Beside the lamp, the cat opened its eyes. Years later, watching his wife asleep beside him, the man would still sometimes remember that night and feel strangely certain it was not the tears in his eyes that made him glimpse, for a moment, another version of the bridge where the woman never turned back at all, but continued walking alone into the fog while his own world remained standing beneath the lamp, waiting for him.

Sometimes, very late at night, the lamp flickered long enough for the shadows beneath it to separate incorrectly again, as though a nearby universe had drifted too close.

The moon sees all versions of the woman at once.

The woman carrying the cat in her arms.

The cat alone beneath the bridge, staring upward with unblinking eyes.

The hat moving across the street without wind.

The lonely woman leaning over the dark water.

There is no cat.

No.

At the far end of the street now. Smaller somehow. Thinner.

The lamp flickers.

For a moment the shadows beneath it separate incorrectly.

Then settle again.

From the series Not Everyone Sees the Same Cat, based on Dave’s interpretation

Passersby are catching a glimpse of a woman holding a kitty… How strange, they think, for this elegant mysterious woman to waste her time with a vagabond cat… But the woman and the cat know what no one else does. They even look alike, a deceiving combination of grace and fragility, as both the woman and the kitty are powerful old souls.

Ignoring everyone, the woman and the kitty are looking into each other’s eyes with trust and delight, capturing each other’s thoughts instantly, before any words or any meow would break the silence of the blue night. Just a soft, content purr now and then, which seemed to make the moon itself glitter on a tune.

“Wise woman, you did good picking me up. Cause you see, I chose you… I came to you in this dark alley lit by the moon as a little kitty, but I am your soul’s mirror. Your soul itself drew me onto you, so we can grow together into eternity. Take me home with you, take care of me, so I can protect your energy and your house.”

What will the woman do, the moon is wondering.

by Mihaela Cosma

From the series Not Everyone Sees the Same Cat

Căciula Năzdrăvană

Căciula

Pot să scriu și eu o poveste? Oricum, tot o scriu, cu voia sau fără voia voastră.

Nu există nicio „doamnă” în această poveste. Există doar o căciulă neagră, din blană de oaie bârsană, pe care un cioban moldovean a pierdut-o când tovarășii lui au vrut să-l omoare, pe undeva prin ținuturile de la Soare-Răsare, ca să-i fure oile „mândre și cornute”.

Căciula era năzdrăvană. Fusese făcută dintr-o oaie bârsană și avea viață proprie. Când era lună plină, se însuflețea fără veste, plutea prin văzduh și arunca spre pământ umbre ciudate care întruchipau visurile sau, după caz, coșmarurile tânărului ciobănaș nenuntit.

În nopțile cu lună plină, căciula năzdrăvană arunca spre pământ raze fermecate care întrupau o doamnă veșnic tânără și înșelătoare, aflată mereu în căutarea tânărului nenuntit.

Doamna e oarbă. Nu vede și nu poate alege drumul. O siluetă firavă, care pare că s-ar putea frânge la prima adiere de vânt sau topi la prima picătură de ploaie. O fragilitate înșelătoare. Cutreieră lumea de la începuturi, fără odihnă și fără să rătăcească drumul. Ajunge întotdeauna unde trebuie și trece mai departe: inflexibilă, neîndurătoare, fără mânie, fără ură, fără dragoste.

Feriți-vă. Dacă o zăriți noaptea, nu-i stați în cale. Ocoliți-o de departe. Farmecele ei sunt otrăvite.

Pisica

Pisica zăcea înfometată la marginea unui pod, pe un drum lăturalnic, într-o zonă puțin circulată, într-o țară unde nu era niciodată nici prea frig, nici prea cald.

În schimb, erau multe râuri și poduri, iarbă verde, drumuri de țară, poteci și zăvoaie. Și tot atât de multe șosele, căi ferate și tuneluri întunecate prin care nopțile păreau să se amestece cu zilele.

Pisica nu era chiar o pisică în toată regula. Era mai degrabă un pisoi slab, jigărit, amărât și înfometat, care nu-și mai amintea cum ajunsese acolo.

Își amintea doar vag mirosul plăcut al coșului în care călătorea alături de stăpâna lui, ca orice pisică respectabilă, într-un tren de mare viteză.

Ațipise.

Apoi, dintr-odată, se pomenise zburând prin aerul răcoros și aterizând în picioare, ca orice pisică respectabilă, pe o porțiune de pământ acoperită cu iarbă deasă.

Noroc mare: aproape că nu se lovise.

Dar și mare ghinion: coșulețul dispăruse. La fel și trenul. Și stăpâna lui.

Chiar dacă nu era încă o pisică adultă, observase că, în orice împrejurare, pisicile țin să fie curate. Așa că începu să se spele cu mare grijă.

Pe Pod

Chiar atunci, pe partea cealaltă a podului, se aprinse un felinar.

Pisoiul ridică urechile, dar nu se sperie. Pisicile nu se sperie chiar de orice.

Pe drum nu se vedea nimeni. Nici om, nici căruță, nici bicicletă, nici câine. Numai că, din când în când, parcă se auzea ceva, ca și cum ar fi trecut cineva foarte încet pe lângă apă.

Pisoiul se opri din spălat și se uită lung în întuneric.

Nu era nimic acolo.

Sau poate era.

Pisoiul își arcui spinarea și pufni puțin, mai mult din politețe decât de frică.

Pe urmă o văzu.

O căciulă uriasă, neagră și înaltă, din blană creață, care parcă mergea singură prin noapte.

Asta i se păru suspect.

Pisicile nu au încredere în lucrurile care par să meargă singure prin noapte.

Abia după aceea zări și silueta subțire de dedesubt.

Femeia mergea încet, fără să se uite nici în stânga, nici în dreapta, de parcă știa drumul fără să-l vadă.

Când ajunse la mijlocul podului, se opri.

Pisoiul încremeni.

Femeia întoarse încet capul exact spre el.

Pisoiul se uită și el la femeie.

Pe urmă se uită la căciulă și înțelese imediat două lucruri.

Mai întâi, că femeia nu vedea nimic.

Și al doilea, că respectiva căciulă era mult prea mare pentru o persoană atât de slabă.

….. va urma

The Enchanted Hat

The Hat

Can I write a story too?
I will write it anyway, whether you want me to or not.

There is no “lady” in this story. There is only a black hat made from the wool of a Bârsan mountain sheep, a hat once lost by a Moldavian shepherd somewhere in the Lands of the Rising Sun, after his companions tried to kill him and steal his “proud and horned” sheep.

The hat was enchanted. It had been made from the wool of a Bârsan mountain sheep and possessed a life of its own. Whenever the moon was full, it would awaken without warning, drift through the night air, and cast strange shadows upon the earth, shadows that took the shape of the young unmarried shepherd’s dreams or, depending on the night, his nightmares.

On nights of the full moon, the enchanted hat sent magical rays down to the earth that gave form to a lady forever young and forever deceitful, forever wandering in search of the unmarried shepherd.

The lady is blind. She cannot see and cannot choose her own road.

A frail figure, looking as though she might snap at the first gust of wind or melt beneath the first drop of rain. A deceptive fragility. She has wandered the world since the beginning of time, without rest and without ever losing her way. She always arrives where she must, then moves on again: inflexible, merciless, without anger, without hatred, without love.

Beware. If you see her at night, do not stand in her path. Stay well out of her way. Her charms are poisoned.

The Cat

The cat lay starving near the edge of a bridge, beside a small side road in a country where it was never too cold and never too hot.

There were, however, many rivers and bridges, green grass, country roads, narrow paths, and groves. And just as many highways, railways, and dark tunnels where nights seemed forever tangled together with days.

The cat was not yet a proper cat. It was more of a skinny, scruffy, miserable little kitten who could barely remember how it had ended up there.

It remembered only faintly the pleasant smell of the basket in which it had travelled beside its owner, like any respectable cat, aboard a high-speed train.

It had fallen asleep.

Then suddenly it found itself flying through the cool night air and landing neatly on its feet, like any respectable cat, upon a patch of thick grass.

A great stroke of luck: it was hardly hurt at all.

And a terrible stroke of bad luck: the basket had vanished. So had the train. And its owner along with it.

Even though it was not yet fully grown, the kitten had already noticed that cats prefer to remain clean under all circumstances. So it began washing itself with great care.

On the Bridge

Just then, a streetlamp lit up on the far side of the bridge.

The kitten raised its ears but did not panic. Cats do not panic over every little thing.

No one could be seen on the road. No person, no cart, no bicycle, no dog. And yet, every now and then, it sounded as though someone were moving very slowly beside the water.

The kitten stopped washing itself and stared into the darkness.

There was nothing there.

Or perhaps there was.

The kitten arched its back and let out a small puffing sound, more out of politeness than fear.

Then it saw her.

An enormous black hat, tall and covered in curly wool, seeming to move through the night entirely on its own.

Only afterwards did the kitten notice the thin figure beneath it.

The woman walked slowly, without looking left or right, as though she already knew the road without needing to see it.

When she reached the middle of the bridge, she stopped.

The kitten froze.

Slowly, the woman turned her head directly toward him.

The kitten understood two things immediately.

First, the woman could not see anything.

And second, the hat was much too large for someone so thin.

….. to be continued

by Daniela Bunduchi,

From the series Not Everyone Sees the Same Cat

She stands beneath the glowing red moon looking directly into the eyes of a black cat with a slight cheeky smile. The black cat stares back at her, almost as if it understands every little thing about her, even the secrets she has never spoken aloud. The word around them is silent, except for the tall, glowing lantern that casts a warm light across the cold might air.

She does not fear the darkness. In fact she embraces it, wrapped in her elegant black velvet cloak, calm and mysterious beneath the blue night sky. The cat curls its tail gently around her hand, as though it belongs there. Together, they seem less like strangers and more like old friends meeting once again beneath the crimson moon.

There is a magical stillness as they look into each other’s eyes, a quite understanding that words could not explain. For a moment, time itself seems to pause, leaving only the woman, the cat, and the soft lantern glow beside them.

by Petra Leetch

From the series Not Everyone Sees the Same Cat

“Let me look at you. You’ve been away for too long”

“I told you I will be back. Just got lost for a bit trying to figure the way back.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have left you to go to him. He can’t take care of shit. He can barely remember to feed himself let alone take care of a living being. Can’t believe I agreed to sharing you with him.”

“He is not that bad. He always keeps the heating on so the flat is warm for me. And he never cleans, so there were always crumbs and stuff all over the place so I have plenty of mice to eat.”

“You always had a soft spot for him. He is terrible. I can’t believe he lost you.”

“He is fun. He lets me sit on his coach, and I can eat at his table. Unlike someone else I know!”

“Oi, I care about you! And I bought you a coach just for you. And a bowl. And the megacatfood you like. ”

“I know …”

“And I gave you the cat electric warmer roll. While he puts you in a box to entertain his idiotic friends, calls it superposition and he loses you.”

“It was only once. He lost me only once.”

“Hrump. Once was enough.”

“And he did not really loose me. We were playing hide and seek really. I am just really good at hiding.”

“You are really good … THAT IS WHAT YOU CALL IT? It took me 90 years to find you! You went in a box, and I had to spend almost a century and over a trillion spells to find you in some God forgotten universe. And then another year just trying to show you how to get back home!”

“Sorry Suzie …”

“Never again Cat. No more going to play hide and seek with him. And you are never to leave my sight again. You are mine. Not his.”

“OK Suzie. I am your Cat. I am Suzie’s Cat.”

by Raluca Bunduchi

From the series Not Everyone Sees the Same Cat

Every evening, just before darkness settles over the small town, a woman dressed in black appears beneath the streetlamp that stands before the bridge with a cat as dark as her clothes balanced lightly in her palm. There are people who watch from their windows. They say she’d stand beneath the light, staring silently at the cat she holds in her hand before beginning to walk. No one knew anything about this mysterious woman. Not her name. Not where she came from. Nothing. Only that the cat she holds found her. No one ever dares to disturb the woman. She always appears right after the sun sets when the sky is black and the red moon shows itself and turns everything it gazes upon crimson. Children dare each other to follow her through the narrow blue streets as she walks, but they always turn back before the woman reaches the bridge. Something about the silence around her and the bridge felt unnatural. Even the stray dogs avoid the sound of her footsteps. Yet the cat she holds in her arms loves her completely. It had found her years ago on the night the sea swallowed the town’s lighthouse. Waves had crashed against the cliffs, bells rang wildly in the storm, and afterwards the cat appeared in-between the woman’s arms emerging together from the fog the storm had made. No one has ever heard the woman speak. Now she wanders the city each night searching for something only the cat seemed to understand. On this particular evening, the red moon hung unusually low above the rooftops, glowing like an ember in the turquoise sky. The cat suddenly stiffened in her hand, ears pointed toward the water beneath the bridge. The woman stopped beneath the lamp. The canal below them was perfectly still. Then came the music. Soft at first. A distant piano melody drifting upward from beneath the dark water. The woman’s breath caught. She knew that song. Slowly, she stepped closer to the railing while the cat watched the canal with unblinking eyes. Beneath the surface, faint golden lights flickered into existence one by one, forming the outlines of windows far below the water. An entire sunken city. And there, standing beneath the waves as though waiting for her, was a man in a long dark coat. He smiled sadly. The woman reached toward him without thinking. The cat dug its claws sharply into her sleeve. Suddenly the music stopped. The glowing city vanished. The canal became ordinary once more, black and empty beneath the lamp. For the first time ever, to the people watching from their windows, the woman spoke aloud. With a soft smile on her face, she whispered “Not yet”. The cat relaxed in her hand as the red moon glowed silently overhead, and together they continued walking through the quiet town, carrying all the things the world had lost but refused to forget.

by Zoe Leetch

From the series Not Everyone Sees the Same Cat

Under a heavy sky where the moon burned red, a witch emerged from the shadows, her long silhouette stretching beneath a flickering streetlamp. The quiet night seemed to hold its breath as she passed.

Out of the darkness, a small black cat crossed her path.

The witch stopped. A thought came instantly - bad omen. Old stories rose up like a wall.

The cat froze too, its body stiff, its eyes wide. To the cat, the witch looked just as dangerous, just as unknown.

For a long moment, they stood facing each other, each wrapped in their own fear, each certain of the other without truly knowing why. Then, almost at the same time, both looked away.

Time passed. The lamp buzzed softly. The red moon hung still above them.

After a while, the cat took a cautious step forward. Then another. The witch didn’t move, but something had softened.

That’s when the cat noticed—the witch was crying. Quiet, steady tears falling into the silence.

The cat hesitated, then slowly came closer. The witch did not pull away. Instead, she lowered a hand, unsure but open. The cat stayed.

Under the warm light of the streetlamp, they began to see each other clearly - not as shadows or old stories, but simply as they were. The witch gently held the cat, and the cat curled in peacefully. Together, they looked up at the red moon, which no longer felt like a warning, but something calm and beautiful.

And in that quiet moment, they both seemed to understand that fear often comes from the stories we carry and the distance we keep. When we pause and allow ourselves to truly see, what once felt strange or threatening can become familiar, even comforting. There is beauty in everything - the witch, the black cat, even the red moon - it only depends on how we choose to see it.

by Lorraine Stoker

From the series Not Everyone Sees the Same Cat

by Nikki Suh

From the series Not Everyone Sees the Same Cat

Tu vezi cealaltă pisică?

-Nu ești ca ceilalți oameni.

-Nu sint ca ceilalți oameni. Nu pot vorbi. Nu cu ei. Doar cu voi, pisicile. Însă doar noaptea.

-Nu înțeleg …

-M-am nascut mută, și m-am obișnuit ca oamenii să mă ignore. Tatăl meu mi-a dăruit un motan de ziua mea cînd am împlinit 6 ani. A fost companionul meu în nopțile lungi când nu puteam sa dorm. El m-a învățat limba voastră .

Motanul o privi cu neîncredere. Își linse laba dreapta preț de citeva zeci de secunde bune, să câștige un pic de timp. Femeia asta avea calități deosebite.

-De ce eu?

-Pentru ca îmi placi. Semeni mult cu motanul meu din copilărie. Ai o alură arogantă, însă torci ca un motoraș cînd ești mîngîiat. Se vede că îți plac oamenii.

-Nu-mi plac oamenii. Îmi plac ANUMIȚI oameni. Majoritatea miros urît, și sînt răi. Mă chinuie cînd mă prind. Îi evit pe cît pot.

-Pe mine nu m-ai evitat…

Motanul începu să-și lingă laba stîngă. Femeia îl punea în încurcătură. Nu avea explicație pentru încrederea pe care i-o acorda. Practic, îl ținea în mînă, și-i vorbea la nivelul ochilor. Ochii ăia…

-Am vrut de mult să te întîlnesc, să vorbesc cu tine. Îmi placi. Știu ca ești un ascultător bun.

-Asta nu înseamnă ca nu am nimic de spus…

-Exact de aia am vrut să te cunosc.

-Mi-e foame. A fost o noapte lungă. Poate ne mai revedem.

-Vrei de împărțim un bol de lapte? Îl cunosc pe patronul de la Pom Pom Bagels, îi plac pisicile. În fiecare dimineață, înainte sa deschidă, pune 2 boluri cu lapte proaspăt în colțul cu Luis de Azevedo.

Motanul își undi coada satisfăcut. Femeia asta chiar îi place.

-De ce nu…

-Sa mergem, atunci.

Dacă cineva ar fii observat ce se întîmpla sub felinarul de pe strada Dr. Julio Dantas, ar fi putut jura că o tînără femeie suplă ținea elegant în mînă un pisoi negru cu care aparent conversa ...

.. însă femeile de servici tocmite de Vitoria Guest House de pe strada 5 de Outubro ar fi putut jura că au văzut la 4 dimineața 2 pisici negre care pășteau agale pe mijlocul străzii, unduindu-și cozile la unison cozile ca și cum s-ar fi cunoscut de cînd lumea.

Can you see the other cat?

-You’re not like other humans.

-I am not like other people. I cannot talk. Not with people. Only with you, the cats. But only at night.

-I don’t understand …

-I was born mute, and I got used to people ignoring me most of the time. My father got me a puppy on my birthday, a tomcat, when I was 6. He was my companion during my long, sleepless nights. He taught me your language.

The tomcat threw her a doubtful look. Started licking his right paw for a few dozen seconds, just to buy some time. This woman seems to be extraordinary.

-Why me?

-I like you. You remind me of my childhood tomcat. Arrogant look but purring like a well-oiled engine when people pet you. I can sense you like people.

-I like CERTAIN people. Most of them smell awful, and they hurt me. I avoid them as much as I can.

-You did not avoid me…

The tomcat began to lick his left paw. This woman clearly is different. No explanation for his confidence in trusting her. She was practically holding him in her hands and speaking to him at eye level. Those eyes…

-I wanted to meet and talk to you for a long time. I like you. I feel you’re a good listener.

-This doesn’t mean I have nothing to say ….

-That’s exactly why I wanted to meet you.

-I am hungry. It has been a long night. Perhaps we’ll meet again.

-Wanna share a milk bowl? I know the owner of Pom Pom Bagels, he likes cats, every morning he leaves 2 bowls of fresh milk on the corner of Luis de Azevedo before he opens.

The cat swishes his tail smugly. Definitely, he likes this lady.

If anyone had noticed what was happening under the streetlight on Dr. Julio Dantas Street, they could have sworn that a slim and tall young woman dressed elegantly in a black robe was holding a black tomcat in her hand, to whom she was apparently engaged in a conversation…

... but the cleaning ladies hired by Vitoria Guest House on 5 de Outubro Street could have sworn that at 4 o’clock in the morning, they saw two black cats strolling leisurely down the middle of the street, swishing their tails in perfect harmony, as if they had known each other since the dawn of time.

by Alex Galita

From the series Not Everyone Sees the Same Cat

The world doesn't see her during daylight. She's just a cat.

At dusk, the streetlamp flickers timidly at first, no one is watching.

But then, a shadowy glow is cast all over the cobblestone.

A new creature of mystery stretching and clawing all her way up to the red moon - her true form getting revealed.

She's not just a cat, she's the Lady in Black, wanderer of the streets, ruler of the quiet hours, keeper of midnight dreams, shaper of the dark.

by Nadia Schmieder

From the series Not Everyone Sees the Same Cat

by Petra Nykänen

From the series Not Everyone Sees the Same Cat

Midnight sneaks quietly as it always does, like slipping into the pew at the back of church unnoticed. I’ve been standing here for far too long not to notice these things. So long in fact, my stubborn feet are starting to rust but I think that’s what the Passerbys call “patinaed”, which a friend of mine told me is back in vogue. Something about craftmanship’s longstanding pride.

Moon rises with the usual air of pompous superiority – she’s watched empires collapse, love blossom and fade, and cats – oh so many cats – saunter through all nine lives. And she’s never impressed by any of it. Like me, she too has a civic duty, and we argue sometimes about whose lighting is better suited for romantic movies.

Suddenly, a familiar brush of fur, barely noticeable at my feet. My old friend.

“You’re late. Again.” Everyone has one of these friends in life. The ones who arrive at your door unannounced, prepared with hours of conversation to interrupt your day but you’ll never turn away because that’s not what loyal friends do.

“Time is just a suggestion, not a rule.” Cat quips.

“Tell that to Moon.”

“I do – she never listens, the self-righteous grandstander,” says Cat as it sits on my pedestal. “The air feels different tonight. Thick, musty.”

“You said that last time.” Now I’m unimpressed by Cat, and I see Moon out of the corner of my eye tilt her nose upward in agreement.

“No no, I mean it this time!” Cat complains. Cat looks around exasperatedly. “Don’t tell me your paint isn’t flaking more than it usually does – you must feel it too!”

Moon glares down, unsurprised but still disappointed. She has no idea what Cat is going on about and doesn’t much care.

I can feel my circuits spark and flicker so I can hum in response. Cat has lived so many lives on this corner, of remarkable endearment filled with salmon for every meal and others of unmatched despair and bald patches. It reincarnates the way some people change clothes but always returns because Cat’s lineage is tied to this exact place regardless of what time it is.

“Well, believe me or not. I don’t care.” Cat is sniffing the air around us, feeling the dewey particles on its whiskers. “You and Moon are lucky that I put up with you two wet blankets.”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” I mutter with another forced hum. Drama is Cat’s trademark, regardless of which life it’s on. It’s made this last century more amusing than it would be without it.

“I have more lives than I can count on one and. Drama is what keeps me going.” Licks its paw, comes back to my iron feet. “I think it’s a Regular. That’s what you called them, right?”

On queue, the air does in fact thicken and gentle clacking steps can be heard against the pavement somewhere in the fog. Long, elegant, and modern in the way people are always “modern”, she walks slowly into my light. Cat, fog, and I pause as we hear the clacking stop and her graceful silhouette emerges. We hold our breath – or in my case, try not to flicker. Moon is blinded by the fog but is probably still not paying attention. The silhouette is carrying a plethora of different worries but pretends she isn’t. But she’s not pretending now – now she pauses in front of us. And humans rarely ever pause nowadays.

She looks up at my dim light, tilting her head upward so slightly you would have thought she didn’t move at all. I’ve seen that gesture before, decades ago, probably longer but time blurs when you’re made of metal and your best friend is a cat.

“Can I tell you something?” Her whisper is stifled by the thick dampness of the air. Cat steps forward sympathetically. She offers her hand to the old friend. “I wish we could switch places.”

If Cat had a distinctive brow, it raised it.

“I won’t be the next Steve Jobs,” She continued.

“Who?” Cat and I said in unison.

“Or anyone worth a Wikipedia page. Just a person who existed, at best a statistic.”

She stood there silently for a moment, her eyes recalling what hope looked like once upon a time.

“I want to be more than this life, or at least without a care in the world about it like you.”

Cat was unsure of whether to be flattered or insulted.

She closed her eyes and smiled, as if waiting for the impending waves of time to wash her away. “I wish I left more behind me than footprints that are just going to disappear.”

I know this woman. I felt saddened for her. Here she was, striving yet still unsatisfied by her place in the world.

“I hope you remember me, even when no one else will.”

We will, I flickered. Every time.

She gave Cat a soft scratch on the head. The gentle clacking disappeared again as it always does; into darkness.

“Told you.” Remarked my smug friend. “Regular.”

“Of course you did,” I rolled my coils. “I always wish the best for this one.”

Cat purred gently in agreement. “Me too. But she’ll be back -- who knows when. And when she does, we’ll be here for her like always.”

The night folded back into itself. When Sun came to relieve Moon of her shift, my light bulb dimmed, Cat had disappeared, and the fog lifted, taking with it the memory of the longing whispers and gentle clacking steps.

by Erin Steele

From the series Not Everyone Sees the Same Cat

Trei pași înapoi

„Dă-te trei pași înapoi, scuipă în sân și fă semnul crucii”, îmi spunea mama când o pisică neagră îmi tăia calea.

Mama era profesoară, dar vorbea despre superstiții cu convingerea omului care a crescut la sat și a învățat din fragedă pruncie că unele lucruri nu au sens, dar trebuie făcute.

Am făcut și eu școală. Multă chiar.

Te-ai aștepta ca educația să rezolve astfel de lucruri. Nu le-a rezolvat. Le-a făcut doar mai greu de explicat.

Nu scuip în sân când văd o pisică neagră. Trei pași înapoi, depinde de zi și cât e de aglomerat. Cât despre semnul crucii, așa, subtil, cu limba în cerul gurii, când îmi amintesc. Nu îmi amintesc chiar de fiecare dată.

—

O văd pe pod, la miezul nopții, după ce plec de la o petrecere la care m-am simțit străină toată seara.

Stă sub felinar. Luna arde roșie. Arată ca un tablou prost, genul pe care l-ai cumpăra de la un pictor ambulant pentru că simți că ar trebui să sprijini arta, nu pentru că îți place cu adevărat.

Mă opresc. Ea se uită la mine. Eu mă uit la ea.

Îmi amintesc că ar trebui să mă dau trei pași înapoi. Dar sunt obosită. Și am băut două pahare de vin. Și nu mai știu de ce ar trebui.

„Ce faci?” o întreb.

Pisica nu răspunde. Evident.

„Eu plec acasă. Vii?”

Nu știu de ce o întreb. Dar o fac. Și ea vine. Simplu. Fără dramă, fără ezitare. Se ridică și merge în urma mea ca și cum ne-am fi pus de acord dinainte.

Acasă, inspectează apartamentul metodic, apoi se instalează pe scaunul de la birou.

Mă uit la ea. Ea se spală pe labe, complet indiferentă.

--

Nu o numesc nimic primele trei zile.

Oricum nu vine când o chem.

A patra zi îmi dau seama că o strig „Pisica”. Și asta e.

Pisica doarme pe calorifer. Eu mănânc cereale direct din cutie și mă uit la știri.

Apartamentul miroase acum a pisică.

A doua zi cumpăr litieră.

Three Steps Back

“Take three steps back, spit into your bosom, and make the sign of the cross,” my mother would say when a black cat crossed our path.

My mother was a schoolteacher, but she talked about superstition the way people do when they’ve grown up in the countryside and learned young that certain things don’t make sense but still have to be done.

I went to school too. A lot of it, in fact.

You’d think education would take care of this sort of thing. It didn’t. It just made it harder to explain.

I don’t spit into my bosom when I see a black cat. Three steps back, it depends on the day and how crowded the sidewalk is. As for the sign of the cross, I make it discreetly, tongue pressed against the roof of my mouth, when I remember. I don’t always remember.

--

I see the black cat on the bridge just past midnight, after leaving a party where I’d felt like a stranger the entire evening.

She’s sitting under a streetlamp. Above her the moon burns red. The whole scene looks like a bad painting, the kind you’d buy from a street artist because you feel you should support the arts, not because you actually like it.

I stop. She looks at me. I look back.

I know I’m supposed to take three steps back. But I’m tired. I’ve had two glasses of wine. And I can’t remember why it matters.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

The cat doesn’t answer. Obviously.

“I’m going home. Are you coming?”

I don’t know why I ask her. But I do. And she comes. No fuss, no hesitation. She stands and follows me as though we’d settled this long ago.

At home she makes a slow tour of the apartment then installs herself on the desk chair.

I watch her. She washes her paws.

---

I don’t give her a name for three days.

She doesn’t come when I call anyway.

On the fourth day I realize I’ve been calling her Cat all along. That settles it.

Cat sleeps on the radiator. I eat cereal from the box and watch the news.

The apartment smells like cat now.

The next day I buy litter.

by Sanda Berar 
From the series Not Everyone Sees the Same Cat

This painting is currently hanging at Third Culture Coffee in Bellevue.

Over the next weeks, while people can still physically encounter it there, I invited a few writers to spend some time with the image and respond to it through short fiction, essays, and perhaps even poetry.

I have always been fascinated by how different people can see entirely different things in the same story. Perhaps this is simply the reverse experiment: how a single image can contain several emotional realities at once. Some people see the woman first. Others notice the cat. Someone else stays with the red moon, or the lamp, or the silence between the two figures. One person sees solitude. Another sees danger. Another sees tenderness. Memory. Superstition. Waiting. Childhood. Disappearance. Or simply a woman standing under a red moon holding a black cat, without needing the image to become anything more than that.

The stories will appear progressively here during the exhibition.

I do not know yet exactly what this will become. Maybe a small literary experiment. Maybe only a temporary conversation around a painting. But part of the point is to let it evolve before deciding what it is.

Stories from the series

Trei pași înapoi / Three steps back - by Sanda Berar

Gently in the night - by Erin Steele

The Cat Who Owns Matisse - by Ileana Marin

The Rest Is Up to Her - by Petra Nykänen

The Lady in Black - by Nadia Schmieder

Tu vezi cealalta pisica? / Can you see the other cat? - by Alex Galita

Haiku - by Nikki Suh

Under the Red Moon - by Lorraine Stoker

The Woman and the Cat - by Zoe Leetch

Suzie’s cat - by Raluca Bunduchi

Mutual Observation - by Petra Leetch

Căciula Năzdrăvană/The Enhanced Hat (to be continued ....) - by Daniela Bunduchi

The Soul Mirror - by Mihaela Cosma

The Woman Between Worlds - Dave S.'s version of the painting

Waiting - by Alejandro Caraza Duhne

Cruella - Mike A.’s version of the painting