Seeing the Ghosts

   Stirring softly and just barely waking from her sleep, she felt the 
sun warming her dark brown and black tabby fur. A small, triangular ear 
twitched once, twice. A coolness of shadow passed over her pillow and 
the black-ish stripes of her fur. Something was about to happen, that 
was for sure. Her tail lazed out, tip twitching as she opened one 
golden eye.
   The picture window was alight with the sun’s glare, momentarily 
blinding. Dust motes floated in the sunbeam, tickling her long black 
whiskers. And there was nothing there in the window, nothing to cast 
the coolness of blocked sun. Her hackles still raised slightly, her 
tail twitching in agitation.
   Something was different. Something was wrong. She didn’t know what.

   "Boingo! Here, kitty!"

   With an inward wince at the indignity of her given name, she 
uncurled herself from the pillow and turned her belly up, greeting 
Tabitha as she ran in.
   The freckled young teen came racing in, dark braids waving behind 
her like a banner. Dropping her books and scooping up the feline in 
nearly one motion, she hugged her cat tightly to her white sweater. 
"Missed you, silly girl.. How was your day here at home while I was in 
boring ol’ Biology?"
   Boingo batted her paws at the girl’s black braids, knowing that any 
attempt at answering was always misunderstood. Tabitha usually was able 
to guess how her day really went, but today was probably going to be an 
exception.
   "Let me guess, ‘Go..." The girl took a moment and considered. "You 
chased that darned phantom mouse again, yowled a couple times to be let 
out, then in... And you finished by chewing on mom’s herb garden 
again."
   Boingo mewed plaintively - She hadn’t done ALL that today, just the 
garden raiding. Besides, she’d been too preoccupied: Today felt wrong. 
And it seemed no one else could feel it. Humans and their dulled 
senses...
   Tabitha laughed. "All right, no phantom mice today. Let’s go see 
what snacks we have." She draped the dark tabby across her shoulders, 
heading into the kitchen, through the shaded coolness of the hall. The 
girl turned on the lights as she went, chatting conversationally with 
Boingo.
   "Mr. Derkson was more boring than usual today... I really wish he’d 
hurry up and retire. And I got another A on that story you helped me 
write for English..." Boingo curled half- protectively around Tabitha’s 
shoulders. In spite of the insipid given name Tabitha called her by, 
she loved this green-eyed girl. It was hard not to love someone who 
tried so much to understand her.