Question

Beatrix just asked me: "What do cats do in the morning when they wake up?"

We are fresh from the shower, smelling of herbs and shampoo and baby powder. Our hair mops around our faces.

"Maybe they do the polka," I said.

"Like this, mama--" Bea held up her hands in front of her, fingers together, and washed the air with them. "Or like this," she added, dropping to the floor in her fireman pjs. "Meeeow, meeow."

"I don't know," I said, thinking that cats do not need to dress, or brush their teeth, or eat muesli. "What do you think, Beatrix?"

"You just ask yourself, mama," she said.

So I will be asking myself this evening, as we eat breaded cod and hot oven fries, as I drink another beer with Martin, What DO cats do when they wake up?

I saw a sleek white cat walk on tiny paws through our garden, around the lavender and beside the front bed. She brushed the cosmos struck to black seed by autumn. . . .