One year later
This was the life, thought Ambrose as he stretched by the fire. It looked like it was going to be a nice, long one.
He had sure earned it. It hadn’t been easy getting Merilee and Zach together, but he’d managed. He still looked back on some of his lives and couldn’t make sense of them. One thing he knew for sure, though: this last one had been his most important. He had used it well.
And it had paid off. It was snowing outside, fat flakes laying a freezing carpet on the lawn, but in Zach’s living room everything was cozy. Christmas music came from the funny little contraption on Zach’s coffee table, and in the bay window, the lights on the Christmas tree twinkled temptingly. However, Ambrose was too smart to get fooled into going anywhere near the thing. He’d had enough tree encounters to last a ninth lifetime. Still, it was pretty to admire from a distance.
His evening stretch finished, he relocated to the couch where Zach and Merilee were snuggled with Zach’s computer looking at pictures of brides, making himself at home on Merilee’s lap. She had been off to something called veterinary school but she had come back for the holidays, and to welcome her home Zach had given her a diamond ring.
Ambrose knew about that. Cats didn’t bother with such fol-de-rol, but humans seemed to need things like rings and ceremonies before they could take mating seriously.
Come summer, there would be a big ceremony and then probably, somewhere down the road, children. Ugh. But into every cat’s life a little rain must fall.
A new song started and a chorus of humans began to sing, “We wish you a Merry Christmas.”
It had been a Merry Christmas, with all of Zach’s family over, and lots of women to pet Ambrose. They hadn’t brought Aphrodite but that was okay. It meant more attention for him. He and Aphrodite had managed to keep in touch and probably later tonight he’d be slipping out his cat door for a rendezvous. Ah, life was good.
“We wish you a Merry Christmas,” crooned the singers, “and a Happy New Year.”
A log shifted on the fire and settled with a little whoosh, adding “And a happy ninth life.”
Thank you, thought Ambrose, and he closed his eyes and purred.