Dead Ringer

Margot sat by the apartment complex pool at 11:47 PM, her cutoff jeans soaking up chlorine-scented water. The iPhone buzzed against the concrete—him again. Three calls in twelve minutes.

She'd suspected for weeks. The way he'd started taking showers at midnight. The sudden password on his laptop. The way he recoiled when she tried to hug him from behind, his body going rigid as a board.

The screen lit up: 'Babe, please pick up.'

A noise behind her. Margot turned to see the neighbor's cat—a ragged orange tomcat—perched on the pool fence, watching her with unnerving intensity. It had been showing up at her window lately, yowling at odd hours. The internet said cats sensed things. Untrue things you didn't want to know.

Her thumb hovered over the green button. Answer and hear his lies. Decline and pretend she wasn't destroying herself slowly, atom by atom.

The cat leaped down, splashed into the shallow end. It didn't swim. Just stood there in three feet of water, staring at her, drowning itself on purpose.

"What are you doing?" she whispered. The cat kept staring. Maybe it knew something she didn't.

Her iPhone rang again. This time a number she didn't recognize. Area code 714—Anaheim. Where he said his conference was.

She answered.

"Margot?" A woman's voice. "He said you wouldn't pick up. We've been at this hospital for four hours. He wanted you to know before—"

The pool lights flickered. The cat shook itself off and climbed from the water, sat beside her chair and began to lick its paw with terrifying calmness.

"Before what?"

"It's pancreatic cancer. He's been getting treatment since January. The 'conferences'? Chemo. The passwords? He didn't want you seeing the medical bills. The showering? He was sick, Margot. He was trying to protect you."

The cat finished grooming its paw and looked at her again. Its eyes were ancient and knowing.

"He's asking for you," the woman said. "Room 412."

Margot stood up, her cutoff jeans dripping, her iPhone clutched in her hand like a lifeline. The cat watched her walk away, then curled up on her warm chair, purring like nothing had changed at all.