Cat Out Of The Bag

Richard's TV starts acting up, almost the same time his cat, Rusty, does. After leaving the TV unplugged, it turns back on, flipping through channels on its own. Find out why.

          Richard sits in the warn out, leather recliner that's in the corner of his dark, carpeted living room. In front of him rests an old, box television set, with a bent metal coat-hanger, acting as an antenna, towering towards the ceiling. Richard's watching his favorite TV station, channel 47, the game-show channel. Richard, being an overweight, middle-aged, balding man wearing, stained sweatpants, and a once white, but now yellowish wife-beater, sporting a few holes, lazily reaches over to the coffee table that's situated adjacent to his chair, to grab a cold slice of pizza from the half eaten box that's been out for two days. Richard's eyes never wander from the screen as he attempts to shove the piece into his mouth. Missing at first the piece smooshes against his chin as the cold sauce drops onto his beater, leaving a red stain.

          The TV's picture starts to blur as the sound of white noise fills the musky room. Richard, being lazy, uses his remote to power down the television, only to turn it on a second later. The picture is still blurry, and the white noise once again fills the room. A large sigh leaves Richard's mouth as he kicks his feet a few times against the footrest of the recliner, causing it to go down so that he can stand. Old crumbs fall from Richard's beater and crash onto the dirty, smelly carpet below as he wobbles his way over to the TV.

          Richard reaches the television set and bends down slightly, as he smacks the side of the box TV, hoping to restore the picture and sound back to normal. Richard's attempts fail, so standing back up, he wiggles the make-shift antenna at the top, solving the problem as he hears the game-show host's voice calling out numbers.

          Richard mumbles under his breath, "Damn TV." as he walks back to the recliner stepping on an old sleeve of opened saltine crackers that crunch under his feet. Richard slams his body back down onto his leather chair and resumes his previous activities.

          An almost empty bottle of milk sits next to the box of pizza. Richard reaches over and grabbing it, he brings it to his face and slugs down the remainder of the room temperature milk. A few drops spill out of the side of his mouth and are absorbed into the thin fabric of his beater. Richard drops the empty bottle onto the carpet, just as the screen goes fuzzy, once again filling the room with the sound of white-noise.

"Good for nothing TV." he frustratingly murmurs as he uses the remote to turn it off. Without him even pressing a button the TV automatically turns back on. "What the-" Richard comments as the channels start flipping on their own. Perplexed as to how the Television is doing this, he presses buttons on the remote trying to get it back to his beloved game channel. The remote seems to not be doing a single thing, and so Richard once again pulls himself out of the chair and wobbles back to the television set. Bending over, he reaches around the back of the TV, yanking the plug out of the outlet in the wall.

          The television remains on, even though it now has no natural source of power. "This makes no sense." Richard states, as he bewilderingly stares into the screen, almost mesmerized by the rhythmic flipping of it's channels. The climbing numbers are now in the 700's, which Richard finds very peculiar, as he only receives 50 of them. With the TV being unplugged, but still rising in channels, Richard finds there is nothing more he can do, and so he wobbles back to his leather chair, once again crushing the saltines under his bare feet, before slamming his body back down onto the chair.

          A high pitched noise pierces the quiet living room as the TV lands on an all blue channel, nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine. Richard's orange and white striped cat, Rusty, springs wide awake, jumping onto the carpet from the sofa before running over to the chair and sitting by him. "Meooow" Rusty lets out, stretching his body. Richard ignores his cat and continues to watch the TV screen.

          The screen remains blue as a mysterious, ominous voice calls out through the speakers. "Congratulations, you have been selected to participate in a new game-show, giving you the opportunity of a lifetime, all you must do is choose the correct sequence of numbers. I'm thinking of a number between 1,000 to 9,999. If you can guess the number I have chosen, you win!"

"This doesn't make any sense." Richard interjects as he leans forward in his chair, wondering what in the world is going on.

"Actually Richard, it makes perfect sense, it's quite simple really, you choose the correct number and you win!" the mysterious voice calls back, through the speakers of the television set.

'How the heck did it know my name?' Richard thinks as he looks around his living room, wondering if he were alone.

"I would prefer if you did not refer to me as an, 'It' Richard. I would tell you my name, but there's just no explanation I could give, in which your human brain would comprehend. Now if you would please choose a number, and quickly, as I have other matters that require my attention."

          Richard sits there speechless, not knowing what to make of the talking TV that knows his name and reads his mind, but loving game-shows he decides to have a try at it. As he's thinking of what the number could possibly be, Rusty jumps up onto his lap. Richard, not wanting any distractions, reaches his hand out towards Rusty to push him off. Before he was able to, Rusty swats Richard's hand with his paw while hissing, "It's not all about you Richard. Selfish human being." Rusty declares with a snobby British accent while moving off of Richard's lap, climbing up the armrest of the chair and jumping onto the coffee table.

While leaning towards Rusty Richard asks, "You can talk?"

"More or less. I'm not physically speaking out loud but rather, you are hearing my thoughts in your head, only the ones I want you to hear, of course. Now, to more important matters. I believe I know the correct number this man is thinking of. It's three-thousand, six-hundred, and forty-eight. Yes that's the number, I'm sure of it." Rusty adds, squinting his eyes while raising his head to puff out his chest.

"How can I hear you in my head?" Richard inquires, while leaning back in his chair.

          Rusty lifts his paw, and using it to cover his eyes, he slightly lowers his head, shaking it back and forth for a moment before removing his paw and looking Richard in the eyes. "I have told you the correct number, yet you are asking me how I am able to communicate said number to you. Humans, I don't understand how they rule the Earth when Felines are much more intelligent, and clean, mind you." Rusty comments, while looking around the dirty living room with disgust, his tail flitting around quickly.

"I do not have all day. The world doesn't revolve around Richard." the mysterious game-show voice impatiently states.

"What was the number again?" Richard asks, scratching the balding part of his scalp while looking back at Rusty who's sitting majestically on the coffee table.

"Three-thousand. Six-hundred. Forty-eight. You should have paid attention Richard, this is why you live in a run down trailer." Rusty remarks, while lifting his paw to his face, licking it.

"Three-thousand six-hundred and forty-eight." Richard answers, while reclining back in his chair, as his beater lifts up revealing his hairy belly-button.

          With no response from the TV, a moment of silence passes before the mysterious voice one last time calls out through the speakers. "Well done! You won! I knew you had it in you. In about nine seconds there will be a man knocking on your door. This man will be transporting you to me, where you will receive the opportunity of a life time." the television turns off and there is a loud thumping coming from the front door. Rusty leaps off of the table and runs over to the door.

 Rusty lets out a long, "Meooow." as he sits patiently waiting for Richard to answer the door.

          Excited, Richard climbs out of his chair and quickly waddles over to the front door. He stands there for a second wiping off his wife-beater and sweat pants, as if that made his appearance any less repulsive. Another loud knock comes from the other side of the door and before wasting any more time, he opens it. A tall, lanky, pale looking man wearing a black suit, stands carrying a very expensive looking cat carrier.

"Who, are you?" the man questions, while looking Richard up and down.

"Richard, I won the-"

          Before he could finish, Rusty bellows out, "Meow, meeeoooow, meeoow!" as he strides past Richard, sitting in front of him, at attention before the stranger.

"Ahh, the winner!" the man announces, opening the door of the cat carrier, while bending down to pet Rusty, making him purr.

          Rusty walks over to the man, circling one of his legs while rubbing up against it, before jumping in the open cat carrier.

"You are a smart little feline." the man says while closing the door of the cat carrier. The man quickly turns around, walking away from Richard into the cold night air, cat carrier in hand.

"But I won. I said the numbers!" Richard shouts from the doorway of his trailer.

          The stranger stops, and with his back towards the trailer, he turns his head, peripherally looking at Richard for a moment. Rusty stands up in the cat carrier and lets out a long, "Meeoooooooow." Before laying back down, curling his body into a little ball of orange and white fur. The well dressed stranger turns his head back in front of him and carries on, disappearing into the darkness of the night.

Author's Note

My use of the name Richard was done purposefully. Let me know what you think of the ending, if it's too confusing, or what. Most importantly, enjoy. Thank you.

Reviews

[Lauren Pauly]

I really enjoy the plot of this story, it is very interesting and somewhat mysterious. Great piece of writing, however, I would add a couple of new words. Some words in the beginning were repeated, downgrading the story itself, which was very good. My suggestion would be to visit thesaurus.com and enter some of the words that are repeated. The site will give you a bunch of words that you can use instead, and you can select the word that makes sense in the context of you story. Great job! If you have any questions or want more feedback, I would be more than happy to help you out. Wonderful job,
Lauren Pauly

[CMaxwell]

I will be sure to fix those things. Thank you for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

[Lauren Pauly]

:)Hope that helped! Let me know if you need anything else.

[Lauren Pauly]

Oh, and PS, the ending was actually my favorite part. The myteriousness of the man walking away with the cat and not Richard was an interesting plot twist that I admire very much:)