I often chat to Big Cheese on the balcony. He likes to go out there and look at the sunset. I have my little box out there that I like to sit in. It is very comfy and Chelsea is always trying to make it even more comfy. Chelsea says I need to get out of the flat and get some sun. The flat is big with loads of space but it is nice to get outside. I think Cheese likes that too. A cat isn’t really an indoor animal.
One day I am sitting in my box when Cheese comes out of the flat next door.
“Hi Harry.”
“Hi Cheese.”
“Beautiful evening,” says Cheese and then stretches out and yawns. Cheese looks very long when he stretches out, but there isn’t much bulk to his body under the fur. When Cheese yawns you can see his teeth and they look sharp. Makes me glad I’m not a mouse, as if I’m not glad I’m not a mouse already. We look out over the city. It is so big it seems as if it has no end. There is the constant noise of traffic but this is distant because we are so high up. It is hot too. So hot that I finished my workout early. Sometimes being furry can be a disadvantage. All I feel like doing now is just chillin’. I think Cheese feels the same way. Cheese lies quite still. Sometimes he gives his tail a flick against the ground. Like he is thinking about something.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it Harry.”
“What?”
“The city. London. Looks like it goes on for ever.”
“Yeah it does. Funny, I was just thinking that.”
“You know what would be really great Harry?”
“What?”
“If we were kings of all this, masters of all we survey.”
This is the way Cheese goes on. Big plans. Masters of all we survey? A cat and a hamster from a council estate? How likely is that. That cat was always a dreamer.
“But Harry, study history. The days when a cat can be a god are over, but a hamster?”
Cheese pads over to the separating wall and puts his face close to the gap between the balconies. His face seems very close to mine and I can’t stop looking at his eyes.
“Harry – all this can belong to you,” he says. Then he wanders slowly back into his flat. I watch the sun go down and then go inside. I never really thought much about this chat. Not until much later.
House of Glass 