Natalie Wolf
Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Natalie Wolf has won our writing contest on the theme Humanity with her story "A Study on the Nature of Companionship."
Natalie Wolf is a writer from the Kansas City area and currently pursuing an MFA in fiction writing at the University of Kansas. She is an editor for Ambidextrous Bloodhound Press and a former co-editor and co-founder of Spark to Flame Journal. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Popshot Quarterly, The Hooghly Review, I-70 Review, JAKE, and more. You can find her on her website (https://nwolfmeep.wixsite.com/nmwolf) and on Instagram @nwolfcats.
A Study on the Nature of Companionship
There is something profound in how
the cat looks up at you, begs
to be held – how this middle-aged
creature seeks you out, recognizing –
you, who are still wading into the waters
of adulthood, wondering when the seafloor
will drop out from under you, feeling
like it has long been an illusion – you are
struggling to stay afloat, never caught
the hang of treading water, despite
your father’s best efforts to teach – amazing
how the cat wraps her legs
around your neck and holds on tight –
humans never hold you like this. Today,
your arm brushed by chance
that of a coworker and you felt again
the sudden thrill of touch, forgotten
by all but the skin. You thought
of the happiness others must feel
so often – arms wrapped around
necks, legs around legs, the resting
of stomach on torso. For you, here,
now, there is the cat, resting
on the V of your legs, torso – so soft,
so trusting. She will not always
be here, you know. You are already
feeling your hand damp, the liquid
dripping from her mouth. The shaved
patch on her neck where until this month
the tumor lived, the fine ridge of stitch scars
under your finger. And then there
will be a new cat, almost certainly. Almost
exciting even, this thought of change.
You feel bad for thinking it, of course,
but you do. Perhaps this is how
God thinks of you. But for now,
there is no grand lesson, no
overarching moral. There is only
the press of her warm body
against your own, the calm,
quiet joy, and the knowledge
that one day, it all will end.