Gossip Cat

They spoke of a mysterious black cat, a ghostly being that lurked in high places like cabinets and closets and the tops of bookshelves and dressers. Out of the corner of their eye, they would see his tail swishing, and turn to see the silent creature staring them down with eyes that pierced the soul. “What did it mean?” they wondered. Some said it foretold death because several people lost loved ones shortly after seeing the cat. Some said it signaled financial ruin because its appearance coincided with the loss of a house or job. Still others said he appeared the day before they met their future spouse. Wild rumors circulated about the cat and more and more often the cat would be seen. The town was one large pulsing raw nerve as everyone shared stories about what happened after the cat appeared. The truth is, the phantom feline's appearance foretold nothing at all. They had been so focused on what sorts of things transpired after the cat appeared that they began to project their own assumptions about the cat on the chaos, forcing a pattern where there was none based on their own experiences. If they had looked at the issue from the opposite perspective and asked what had happened before the cat arrived, they would have realized the cat was no premonition, but a connoisseur of stories and gossip.

- Originally mailed to H. Ainsworth from Gulfport, Mississippi