Flashmaster (Short Horror and SciFi)

Swimming The Volga

Lena Markowitz woke to the sound of a knock on her downstairs door. She was startled and a little blurry. Normally, when she napped in the afternoon, she napped downstairs in the old recliner by the window. She must have been upstairs for something, if she could only remember what.

The knock came again and she pushed a cat, it was yellow, off her arm and rose to her feet. There were three or four other cats sleeping on the bed but she managed not to disturb any of them.

It took her a long time to get down the stairs. She was only a little stiff in the joints but enough so that she could not step around the cats and had to gently nudge them out of the way with her slippered toe. Whoever was at the door waited patiently.

Lena opened the door to see an attractive young woman with jet black hair and a hawkish nose standing there.

"Hi grandma." The woman said.

"Hello dear." Lena answered with a faint Russian accent, struggling to place the face. There was an awkward pause.

"I've brought the cat food." The woman offered. Three or four cats had run out of the house since the door had been opened.

"Oh good. Come in won't you."

The woman turned, lifted a large bag of cat food over her arm and followed Lena in.

There were many eyes on them as they stood in the doorway. There were cats napping on the recliner and sofa, scampering in and out the doors, even draped on the shelves of an antique bookcase. There was a strong odor but the woman didn't seem to notice.

"I've brought you two bags this week." She said going into the kitchen to drop off the first bag. The sight of the food in the kitchen brought a round of meows. "I don't know if I'll be here the next two weeks." She came back through the living room and out to the porch. "I've got back to back conferences and will only be home one day. Maybe Thursday." She went back into the kitchen with the second bag of cat food.

Lena wasn't sure what to say. She recognized this girl but wasn't sure from where. Still she had brought cat food and she needed that. "Thank you, dear." Lena said.

"Your welcome grandma." The woman said, passing through the living room again and touching Lena's shoulder. "I also brought you some macaroni and cheese and bread and butter and some stuff." She brought a paper grocery sack in from the porch and headed into the kitchen again. "I also got you one of those loaves of French bread that you like, the sliced ones with the butter and garlic already inside them." The cabinets in the kitchen banged open and shut and a cat hissed about something, then the woman returned to the living room, folding the paper sack. "I asked mom over of course, but you know mom. She doesn't' want to come over till the issue with the cats is settled."

"Oh." Lena said. She was catching on that this was her granddaughter and that they were talking about her daughter. She remembered having a daughter, and two boys, she thought. "Well, tell," she struggled, "Roma that the cats are only for company until Leonid gets back."

The woman looked at her quizzically. "Have you heard from Leonid lately?"

Lena shook her head. "I think he must be very busy on this project he's on. Of course my phone doesn't work so maybe he's tried to call."

The woman looked as if she were about to say something but then changed her mind. "Listen grandma," she said instead, sitting the old woman down on the sofa, "mom's talking about trying to find a home for you again. She doesn't think you can take care of yourself. Now I want you to stay here, but you have to promise me some things."

"Sure dear." Lena didn't know what 'find a home' meant, but she wasn't leaving this house without Leonid.

"You have to eat. O.K. and take a bath and change clothes."