Alan put one finger in the water: it was
perfect. He closed the tap and took off his towel. He put it on a hanger just
by the tub and then entered the water, laying peacefully in the tub, closing
his eyes and smiling calmly. He hadn’t been properly relaxed for many days
because of work and family and he had decided to take this Sunday to just be at
peace with himself, enjoying what he liked and doing everything for him only.
He opened his eyes remembering he hadn’t used
the bath foam he had bought a day ago in the mall. He stood up, carefully
stepped on the floor mat and walked to the sink. He grabbed the small bottle
and poured some in the water. Then, when he was about to enter the calm of the
bubbles, he heard the intercom’s sound. He decided not to answer it but then it
kept on ringing. He grabbed the towel, put it around him and went to the
kitchen to answer the call. Apparently someone from work had come to visit him
and leave some documents. He asked the man to say he didn’t want any visitors
but then he heard another voice: it was his boss and apparently he had come
with his wife. There was no way to say no.
He put on an old t-shirt and some gym pants
and received them. He thought his clothing would make them go away but they
certainly didn’t. The truth was his boss was very fond of him but he didn’t
like him in return. He was the kind of person that would use other people’s
time freely, as if it was his own. Alan had to give them some cookies he had
gotten from his mother as well as coffee he had prepared for a post-tub
breakfast.
Their visit seemed eternal. Who visited an
employee at nine in the morning on Sunday? His hatred of his boss grew
exponentially as he told him his stupid stories about the club and encounter
had had with a well-known actor in the airport and when he had gone to
Thailand. Alan did not want to know any of that. He couldn’t give a fuck about
what his boss did outside of work and, clearly, his boss didn’t really cared
about his employee’s lives.
Then, after all his stupid stories, he
confessed he had only come to visit in order to give Alan some papers that he
should read for a reunion the following morning. And the he just left, as if
nothing had happened. Alan decided not to ask why he hadn’t sent those damn
papers by email or with a courier or some other way. Why did he have to come
and bother the only person that visibly disliked him in the office? It was
funny how Alan really did not express any animosity for him but then he was all
nice and kind to Alan.
He tried to not think about work, leaving the
papers on his coffee table. Alan walked back to the bathroom, where the bath
foam had grown so much it was spilling on the sides of the bathtub. Deciding he
didn’t really mind about it, he took off his clothes, left them on the floor
and put one foot in the water. He almost fell backwards when he felt the icy
cold water that was beneath the foam. Now he had to empty the tub and fill it
with hot water again. Half of the cold water out would be enough to fill it
again.
When most of the water was out, he opened the
hot water tap to refill it. He also added some more of the foam solution, as
most of it had gone down the drain with the cold water. Then, the doorbell rang
again. Alan let out an exasperated sound. He was going to kill the doorman if
he had let someone in without asking him. He grabbed his towel and went to the
door almost running. Before he realized he could have just not answer it, he
had opened the door.
It was his neighbor Marco, a big guy that
apparently spent every hour of the day at the gym. Sure enough, he wore the
right attire to go and work out but that wasn’t important right then. He was
holding a white cat, very fluffy with a flat face.
- Hey man. I was wondering if you
could take care of Snowball for a few hours. I normally leave with my…
He’s
face looked as if he had forgotten the word he was about to say or even why he
was there. Alan stared impatient, looking from Marco’s stupid face, to his
cat’s face and then back to Marco’s. Then, he realized he was only wearing a
towel, which could fall at any moment because he had not put it correctly in
the haste.
- Am I interrupting something? – He
said, looking at something over Alan’s shoulder, which wasn’t very hard to do as
he was very tall.
- Kinda… - in a very cold voice.
- Cool…. So my girlfriend won’t take
him. She’s busy and can’t do it. So would you do it? Just for a few hours. She
has already eaten and she’s very well behaved.
He
held the cat in front of Alan’s face, as if the animal was an offering a weird
sacrifice ritual. Alan took the cat that tried to release himself from the
man’s arms, and told Marco not to be late because he had a very busy day ahead.
Marco just nodded, smiling in a way he looked like a very small child. He gave
the cat a pat in the head and then headed down the stairs.
After
closing the door, Alan left the cat on the floor and turned to go in the
bathroom. But the cat crossed his path and tried to attract his attention. The
creature just roared softly and circled him with his fluffy tail but Alan had
no time for this. He grabbed the cat, walked back to the living room and left
him there. But when he tried to leave, the cat would cross his path again. He
grabbed it once more but then realized the cat’s paws were wet. He was about to
yell in fury because he thought it was cat piss but it wasn’t.
There was a very large puddle of water, still
advancing, from the bathroom. Then he remembered the open water tap. He threw
the cat away, which landed softly on the floor, and ran towards the bathroom,
his towel falling to the damped floor. He almost fell trying to close the tab
of water. There was soapy foam all over and the tub kept spilling water to the
floor. He finally was able to close the tap and drain the water out of the tub.
Now he was wet and soapy all over and his towel was more of a wet cloth than
anything else.
He went to the kitchen and when he was about
to grab the mop, the doorbell rang again. Exasperated and frustrated because of
his failure to be at peace, he opened the door, slamming in hard against the
opposite wall.
- What? What the fuck is it now?!
On the other side of the door stood his landlady,
an elderly woman who was always accompanied to the upper floors by the doorman,
who stood behind her. They both stared at Alan and then the woman yelled and
started saying things so loud no one really understood. But Alan did get one of
the words: “Pervert”. And then he realized that he was still naked, having not
replaced the wet towel with a clean one.
He slammed the door shut and, for some reason,
put the security chain on. He could hear the old lady yelling all the way to the
elevator and the doorman trying to calm her down. It was a disaster. Alan just
remembered she had told him she would visit in order to negotiate an extension
on his rent contract, which he needed to do because of the great price and
place he had there. Now that was, like the bathtub foam, down the drain.
He slid down to the floor, covering his face
with his face, frustrated and sad that this so-called “peace” day had been a
total failure. Then, with his eyes covered, he heard a weird scratching sound.
Panicked, he put his arms aside and realized that Snowball had been quiet, too
quiet until now. As he got close to the sofa, he realized the cat was cutting
it open, strings of fabric on the floor and even some of the foam from the
cushions.
But that wasn’t the only thing. The papers on
the coffee table were now on the floor. And no one could say now what they had
been because there was only a bunch of paper strips beneath the table. Alan
looked at the cat, which meowed joyfully to him and kept on going with his
destruction work.
