SALVE ROMA! A Felidae Novel - By Akif Pirincci Page 0,26

one hand, and nipped red wine from the glass in his other hand. Doing this, he smiled to himself, abstractedly, as if he wasn’t above the clouds but above everything earthly. Gradually, certain uneasiness began to build up inside me. Soon enough, I found out why.

My eyes wandered past the guy next to me, sort of zoomed out of the plane’s window and reached the outside. We were in the final descent; I was able to see a lot of details. In consternation, I noticed that we weren’t heading towards Rome, or towards any other Italian city. For sure, here also everything was bathed in sunlight. But instead of Southern pastures, we dashed towards a skyline landscape that trended to the horizon. The sea of high-rises towered up the steal-blue sky like an artful composition of countless building blocks. Although the buildings stood side by side, every single one of them seemed to have their own distinctive face. My initial consternation turned into pure horror.

I found myself caught in a nightmare scenario which had been broadcasted around the globe billion fold, and which drew closer to me at breathtaking speed, choking me. The destination of our flight was New York, namely Manhattan. The front line of the high-rise-family, the twin towers, stared at me like long-decayed relatives that somehow came to life again. They became bigger and bigger, higher and higher, and we flew towards them relentlessly. The mirrored facades reflected the piercing light, causing a burning pain in my retina.

My pulse rate by now reminded of the rhythm of a drum solo. My whole body shivered and I tossed and turned in my seat. Of course I knew what was about to happen a few seconds from now.

Then I heard this sound ...

I averted my eyes from the towers and looked at the clear sky. Something black sheered up very fast. At first it was just a vibrating spot in the infinity of the blue firmament, but then I recognized Antonio, who was flying towards us like Superman or maybe Batman. While flying he also seemed to rotate in a couple of full turns. In doing so, he laughed triumphantly, as if he actually was a comic hero who was about to save the earth in the nick of time. He came closer and closer, and I saw that his wedge-shaped head had assumed the shape of missile head. With a loud crash he pierced through the plane window and landed, carefully targeted, in his master’s lap.

Outside the scenario suddenly seemed like spirited away. The sun again was petting fluffy fields of clouds; harmony seemed restored. My neighbor’s hair flapped wildly in the puff of air from the hole in the window. The fine gentleman hadn’t let the incident interfere with his meditative mood. He still smiled mildly behind his dark sunglasses, calmly nipped his red wine and now lovingly caressed his pet. I also calmed down a little due to the restored chime, although I just wasn’t able to grasp the last minutes’ absurdity. Yeah, when I looked at snuggled up, contentedly purring Antonio, I somewhat relaxed.

But then the lonely passenger ripped the glasses of his face, grabbed Antonio by his neck and violently, like it was a restive screw cap, turned his head towards me so I could see his profile. Instead of the ear there was a gigantic hole in the black fur. Through the open skullcap I could look right at the rosy shimmering brain. A flush of blood and some slimy material oozed out of it, ran down the Oriental’s throat and wetted his master’s pale pants. The grotesque of this sight was that Antonio’s beaming green eyes still moved and that despite all this he still kept his foxy smile on his snout.

»We have too many of your kind at home, Francis!« the man said and raised his glass at me. At the same moment Antonio burst in thousand pieces in a deafening explosion.

7.

It would hardly surprise anyone if I said that I woke up from this nightmare yelling and crying. But that wasn’t the case. Instead totally reasonable sounds wakened me, though so subtle that they were audible only for the hypersensitive, hunting-tested ears of my species. Some rustling and crackling, almost unhearable and mysterious. The visions still in my mind, I looked around the dark room. Antonio had snuggled down in the cushion next to me and apparently shifted from one sleep phase to another. He neither snored nor farted like