Of gods and men

‘I heard just the other day that some people actually worship cats, and birds ...’
‘Yeah, the Egyptians, the bird was a hawk, Horus, not something as stupid as a duck ... or a seagull.   I could be your hawk, you my cat.’
His voice vibrated something low within her stomach, and, mobile phone to her ear, she smiled. She’d got the phone for her birthday and two days later he’d phoned and although he’d said ‘Sorry wrong number,’ he’d kept talking to her, had made her laugh.    He’d rung her again a couple more times and yesterday had asked about where she went when she wanted to take refuge from the world.   When she’d told him about the old barn, and the cart propped up on bricks he’d said ‘Go there on Saturday afternoon, I’ll phone you there, then we can talk some more.’
It was ages before her phone rang, she’d lain on the cart watching her cat trying to catch mice, laughing whenever he missed.   She’d straightaway told him about that, her cat pretending he didn’t mean it, which was when he’d said about Egyptian gods.  
Then he said ‘The Egyptians called their cat god Mau ... I can see your cat from where I’m standing ... I’m going to come and see you now.’
Even before he appeared she wondered whether this was one of those errors of judgement her mother said she hoped she’d grow out of, before she got herself into trouble.


[This was my response to yesterday's Thinking Ten Capstone challenge, when the six prompts for the week have to be combined in one ten minute piece of writing.   Usually I also try to keep it short, but this one had a mind of its own.   As ever I am aware that the daily challenge - and challenge it often is - to write for ten minutes about whatever prompt is thrown up - is a hugely beneficial way of exercising one's writing muscles, but the site could do with a lot more support.]