Chapter 4. The Weekend OutCall [edited]

The sun was high and the question was old. A man asked what life was, and the sea did not answer. It only moved against the shore.

​Life is the beach. It is the sand that gets into your shoes and the salt that stays on your skin. It is a place where you stand until the tide comes to take the ground from under you. If you stand well, it is a good life.

​Some say life is suffering. They are the ones who look too long at the sun until their eyes ache. There is pain, yes. The wind blows cold and the fish do not always bite. But a man can live with suffering if he has a point to his life.

​Then there is the cat. The cat does not ask what life is. It knows. It sits in the sun and waits for the small things. It has whiskers that feel the air and a heart that beats fast and quiet. To have a cat is to have a small, warm truth in a world that is mostly cold and deep.

​The weekend comes now. It is a call from across the hills. A man should not fall when the weekend calls. He should stand straight and drink his wine and look at the kittens. The kittens have no use for mittens, but the thought is a harsh one.

​God bless you all. It is a simple thing to say, and it is better to say it than not. The light is fading over the palm trees and the orange cat is sleeping. That is all there is, and it is enough.