FREE ESSAY ON K IS FOR KITTY

K IS FOR KITTY

k is for kitty
It hurts; I'm so cold so cold so cold right now I don't hardly know how I can be alive.
Its best not to think about death, said Jimmy, some things its just best not to think
about.
I was chasing kitties, chasing kitties down the dirty, wet alley. The kitties always run.
They run and run and run, but I think they might like to be hugged and loved and petted.
I think they might. So I kept chasing the kitties.
Sometimes I get hungry, but it's best not to think, said Jimmy. Don't think about what
you're eating, Jimmy said. Jimmy's kinda smart; I think he's the smartest guy I know.
He's half grown up. I can't wait till I grow up. Then I wont be so cold. Grownups are
never cold. Grownups live in houses filled with kitties. And in houses filled with apple
juice.
I really like apple juice. It's so sweet and cool and clean. I mostly only like it in the
summer. Jimmy says I was little last summer, but now, he says, I'm a big boy who can get
his own food, a big boy who can fend for himself. I felt good when he said that, like he
liked me more than the other kids. There aren't many other kids; I try not to pay much
attention, because I know they'll all just go away. Bobbo went away, Jimmy said to a
better place.
I've been hoping it was the zoo.
The zoo is the best place I can think of. I love to go to the zoo. You have to pretend
you're with a school group. It usually always works. But if it don't ya gots ta run and
run, says Jimmy. Jimmy's really smart. There are lots of people you gots ta run from.
Mostly though, we run from the police. Jimmy says police funny, like he's talking about
something that makes him really sick. 'ya gots ta run from the poolease' says Jimmy. He
says if the police ever catch us they'll throw us in jail cause we's been so bad. He says
the police don't understand and that all they want to do is fill their commas. I'm not
real sure what a comma is, but it doesn't sound right to me. I don't want to be part of
any police mans comma. That's all Jimmy says we are, he says we're part of the comma.
Last week I almost caught this kitty. I ran hard and harder and I got so close, but this
kitty ran into a house. 'Oh', I thought, 'this kitty belongs to someone, this kitty
belongs to grownups'. How nice it must be to be able to run somewhere instead of just
running away.
I almost, kinda, remember when I belonged to grownups, just like that kitty. Jimmy said
most people had them at one point or another. Most people had parents. But that ours
hated us, or that we were very bad to them. Sometimes I think that maybe Jimmy's wrong. I
don't really understand why someone would want to hate me. I didn't do nothing wrong. Why
would they hate just us? I wish I could remember what I did wrong. All I remember from my
grownups is how warm it was, and I don't remember much else. In my experience though,
warm things are almost never bad.
My house is a big house; all of us live in the big, big house. Its filled with blankets
and there's a mattress and there's even pictures on the wall in some places. The other
day I found a crayon and made my own picture on the wall. I like to think that my picture
is good. Maybe someone will see it someday and say 'my, what a good picture'. They'd say
'did you make this good picture?' and I'd say 'yes ma'am' or sir or whoever it might be,
I think it would be a ma'am and a sir. And they'd say, 'well I think we'd like to take
such a talented young man with us and give him apple juice and let him pet his very own
kitty cat', his name would probably be Sniffles the cat, I'm almost certain.
Yesterday Jimmy took us to McDonalds. I really like McDonalds. McDonalds throws away its
food. They throw away so much it would feed ten of me, and it almost always does. Jimmy
say's if you aren't careful about what you eat you'll probably get a stomachache from
eating something bad. But sometimes I get so hungry, Jimmy says its best not to think
about it, its just best not to think at all.
I remember when I first met Jimmy; he said I was so little I was like a baby bird. Then
he took it back and said,'nah you was just a little bugger though.' I remember how scary
I thought he was, and how I didn't know how to do nothing right, I was sick and cold and
hungry, and Jimmy said to me, Jimmy said 'hey kid why dontcha come over this way and
we'll see if we maybe cant help you out a little bit' and he sure did help me out a
little bit, without Jimmy I don't know exactly where I'd be. I'd probably be shoted, by
the police. At least that's what Jimmy says.
Jimmy says we have to get money somehow. We at least have to try. He says ain't nobody
gonna chase down a hungry little kid, but I'm still scared. Nobody has the heart to do
that cepting the police. The police chase everyone. We should run and we should steal
women's purses and men's wallets and all sorts of things, we should learn how to steal. I
wouldn't feel bad though, those people have too much, and they should share anyways.
Jimmy says we's all got to share all the time, that that's the only thing that keeps us
human.
I've never been so cold as I am right now. I've just never been this cold. I'm too cold
to yell for Jimmy, but I yell and yell and yell anyways. I yell and yell and yell. But
Jimmy doesn't come. I wrap myself warmer and warmer and I huddle against the wall, I curl
my body into a tight little ball. I breathe into my hands to try and unthaw them. I don't
know if anyone else is this cold, I haven't heard them moving around. Maybe they're
asleep already. I'm trying to wiggle my toes right now. I tell myself I should think, I
should just think, even though Jimmy says it's not the best thing to think a lot. I think
I should think, to take my mind away from being so cold, I think that might help a lot, I
think I think I think.
I think about soft and slippery fuzzy little kitties running and running through beds of
flowers, beds of blue and green and purple and red flowers, swaying and rocking to some
music I cant hear, the kitties even run through a bed of sweet sickly smelling polka dot
flowers. The kitties come and hug me and tell me how glad they are that I have finally
caught them, how happy they are to be with me, how we should always be together. How glad
it makes them that I can now love and hug and pet the all day. 'What a wonderful thing'
the kitties exclaim, then the kitties dance and dance and dance, they dance in wide wide
wide dancing circles, and I laugh because I've never seen a kitty stand on two legs,
though I always suspected it was possible.
Then other people come, other people come and talk to me. Parents come and talk to me,
not just any parents, but my very own parents come and talk to me. And they tell me that
the evil men cam and stole me away, and they've been looking and looking and looking for
me all over the world. In fact they were just recently in France, looking for me in the
waffle tower. How glad how glad how glad they are to have finally found me, that I'm
their big boy, look how big I've gotten, don't I remember my own parents? Don't I
remember them? They come to hug and love and kiss me again.
Then the police come, then the police come and tell my parents to move along move along
move along. And I'm almost certain they're trying to hide Sniffles the cat.
I think about the things that Jimmy says and I think and think and think. Jimmy's so
smart, I try to remember things that Jimmy's said, I try to think of something that will
help me now, I try to think and think and think. And I don't know. I don't don't don't
know. I can't seem to remember anything Jimmy's ever said about staying warm I can't seem
to remember anything.
And all of a sudden, god I'm hot, god oh god oh god I'm hot. Think you god I'm hot, I
should take my clothes off, I feel like I'm burning. God what if I am burning? How can I
be so hot when it's so so so cold outside, so so so cold?
And now I'm falling falling falling. Surprisingly it feels good to fall to fall down and
down and down. The world seems to swirl and all I can think is what if this is the last
thing I ever feel. What if Jimmy finds me naked and dirty and hot and frozen lying on the
floor of our house? All I can do anymore is stare at my picture on the wall, my picture
on the wall next to my bed. Maybe, maybe this is where my parents come in, maybe this is
where my mommy comes in and hugs me, maybe this is where the kitties coming and take me
away to that place that place that place.
All I can see is that place with the flowers that's all I can see anymore. And it doesn't
make me sad. It doesn't make me sad at all. All I can feel is this inside warmth. And it
reminds me of the coldness of the days. And I can turn my back on it and I can just
fly... I can just fly...I can just fly.