Generally, when I write cat stories for Cracked Flash Fiction Competition, they don’t win. Sometimes, I write cat stories anyways.
The Purrrfect Crime
By Sara Codair
“I taught you to pick locks and this is how you use that skill?” Grandma gaped at me, gourd-shaped eyes enlarged by her glasses.
I shrugged.
“Our family has a reputation to uphold!”
My cheeks burned. I relinquished eye contact and stared at my sneakers. There was a hole in the tongue, and a piece of sole peeped out from under my toes.
“You have nothing to say for yourself?”
“She was cold and hungry.”
“A lot of people are cold and hungry,” spat Grandma.
“But she was so skinny, like her kittens were sucking the life right out of her!”
Grandma shook her head. “You could have at least taken something useful while you were in there. They have to keep all their donations somewhere.”
“But they need those.” The locked cashbox had been tempting. I’d even picked it up and gotten halfway to the door before a black tom ghosted out of the shadows and sliced my calf open with his claws. I stared into his yellow eyes forever before placing the metal box back on the ground. He nudged my hand once then purred over to the hungry mother and kittens I’d snuck into the shelter.
I left the cash box where it was, and placed a few coins and note on top of it, asking them to use my small donation to help the new mom and her kittens.
Grandma glared at the post on FriendlyFelineFriday. It read “You’ll Never Believe What Happened on this Break-in!”
“Your mom was the best jewel thief in the country,” muttered Grandma, “And you use the family trade to sneak cats into shelters.”
“Yup.”
Grandma continued to rant, and I endured it. Our reputation in the underworld could go to hell. I saved a family of cats.
Sara Codair 