The Saga of Fishback the Cat - Chapter 2

“You called?” said a tall human with a square head made of cardboard.

“No,” said Fishback the Cat, “I called the cat goddess Bastet. I seek wisdom.”

“I believe it,” said the human. “Clearly it is wisdom you lack if you call for a cat and expect it to come. I am her emissary, Boxtet, the box god.”

“Why would a cat goddess associate with a box head?” said Fishback incredulously.

“Can you think of anything cats love more than boxes?”

He could. Lasers. Catnip. Exactly three belly rubs. Things precariously stacked on other things. That being said, with boxes in the mix, it was very nearly a five way tie for first.

“And you can teach me to make the humans obey?”

“If you do as I say, you will have this knowledge, yes,” said Boxtet.

Fishback had never heard of a box god, and so the whole affair made him skeptical. And yet, he could not deny the trust he felt for the strange man. After all, how many times in his life had a box shared its secrets, offered him shelter, given him a place to hide before the pounce? Yes, boxes had never given him reason to doubt. He would trust this box now.

“What would you have me do?”

Originally mailed to A. Anderson of Portland, Oregon