THE KITTEN 

By Tessa Harvey

    Jackson had no idea his lovely, obliging wife had suddenly become an unknown quantity. She no longer fitted into his perfect ordered life.
    He felt lost - after all most men, even those claiming to be Christian were involved in porn - even children, though that seemed wrong to him. Suddenly he felt himself to be without a moral compass. Or had he ever even owned one? Why should he?
    He had patiently explained that other men were far more involved. "I don't look every day" he had defended himself. "You can change neural pathways in the brain," Velma had countered. "What walks in the parents (and I have faults also) runs in the children. That is why we have none." He was left speechless.
    Suddenly he had called out as Velma was almost out of sight  "I am not a murderer!"
    To his consternation, he realised people were watching, including to his horror, a family he knew and two children. But they had greater concerns. The boy ran up to him. Jackson sighed. "What awful luck," he thought, "they chose the same place. Agh!"
    "We lost Harry!" Henry was dashing tears from his eyes roughly with his sleeves. Anna was crying, unashamed. "No, look, he is coming so," another tourist called in a beautiful Irish lilt. "See, your woman has him safe on her shoulder, has she not? Just like the Good Shepherd in the Bible."
    Velma looked radiant, even though her burden was heavy. And Jackson knew then how much she loved children.

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