The Sole Witness

"Help me!! Help me! Somebody help me pleaseeeee!!!" Her startling voice awakened me from a deep, dreamless sleep. I sometimes dream but mainly about preying without being preyed upon. It's mostly about food. Thank goodness, I didn't have to worry much about that since I moved in with Nelly. She was a very passionate and tenacious woman with an exceptional work ethic. I watched her everyday leaving for work early in the morning and coming back late in the evening. Sometimes she would go without having breakfast, not even a cup of her favourite coffee. But she would make sure my breakfast is well served, warm as it was supposed to be. This royal treatment made me appreciate Nelly even more.
Of course she wouldn't allow me to have my food in bed because I would mess the sheets, her beautiful sheets. When I moved in, I had nothing at all to my name. 

At first I felt very awkward to move into a fully furnished house with nothing at all to contribute. Nelly had no problem with that though. At least I didn't bother her with trivialities like clothes. I had a coat, beautiful brown and white, a fur coat that was made from the most original material available. It was only one but very sufficient for me. I didn't need to change at all. Nelly would wash me and my coat nearly every day. But when in hurry, she would just wipe me with a soft cloth before spraying me with sweetly scented cologne. The aroma would stay in my nostrils all the time, making a very lasting beautiful sensation in my body. What a change from the sprays that I was used to, sprays not for fragrance but for territorial marking. But after moving in, I discarded the behaviour albeit gradually. It took me some weeks to be completely delivered from the curse, as Nelly would call it. She was relieved though because all along she attributed those sprays of mine to stress. She thought I was struggling to cope and adapt to my new environment.

"Help me!!" Nelly's voice was clear. She had left me in the lounge, on my couch, when she proceeded to the bedroom with a guest. She would get home, open the door, get to me, give me a hug and a little cuddle. That was her everyday routine which I gladly embraced. I would twinkle and sparkle my eyes in approval. That was enough to stimulate a smile on Nelly's face. I knew she would need that after a very long and hard day at work. She once took me there; unfortunately there was nothing of interest to me. Just a lot of complicated machines, possibly thinking machines to aid humans. She worked with one which she would stare at all day, clicking and punching some keys. At home she had a similar gadget that she would not allow me to use on my own although there are times we had used it together. I have vivid memories of the very first time we got near it; she adjusted its screen before intimately embracing me and started talking excitedly. "That's my boy mama, isn't he cute!!" She laughed and I shyly smiled without saying a word. Then looking at me she said, "Baxter, meet my mama". We spent over half an hour in front of that screen, chatting with her mother. She was still holding me, and forbidding my curious limbs from landing on the keys. I could hear my name popping up frequently in the conversation with her mother but I was no longer paying attention. Eavesdropping is not one of my qualities.

"Help me!!! Someone help me!!" I could hear Nelly's desperate voice calling. I didn't know what to do. When she got home that evening, she brought a certain gentleman, immaculately dressed. Though I had seen the man a few times before, Nelly looked like she had known him for life. She was very comfortable with him. The very first time she brought him home, she introduced him to me in a very lovely way that I can't forget. "Jim, this is Baxter, a man that you have to fight hard to dislodge from me". "Well, then I am very jealous. Be careful Baxter," Jim said light-heartedly. They both laughed, I purred in happiness. Jim had a great sense of humour because each time he was with Nelly, they would be laughing. I wish I could speak and make Nelly that happy. After all she had done for me, she deserved it. Other than Jim, Nelly rarely had visitors at home.

"Baxter! Baxter! Baxter!" she called me three times in a fainting and failing voice. I jumped out of the couch and rushed straight to her bedroom. The door was partially closed which made it easy for me to sneak in without detection. There she was, lying on the bed, struggling to breathe. Jim was on top of her, his strong hands holding Nelly by the neck, strangling her. She coughed several times, gasping for air but Jim's hands couldn't budge. I moved from one corner to another but still could not figure out what to do. Jim noticed me and shouted in anger, "Get out!!! You can't stand this!" I looked at him and wondered where the gentleman in him had gone to. Only if I could speak I would have asked him why he was doing what he was doing. As if aware of what was in my mind, Jim raised his head and spoke. "You're going to die today. You can't poke your nose in my private business. Yes, I deal with drugs, so what? You can't go around telling everyone about that. Want me to rot in jail? Let's see..." Nelly's eyes were bulging out. She had bloodstains as well on her clothes and a deep cut on the forehead. “But Jim, I didn’t…” That’s all she managed to say.

Convinced Nelly was no longer breathing, Jim picked his keys from the small table near the window. He wore his coat and left the room, leaving Nelly motionless on the bed. Helplessly, I followed him all the way to the kitchen where I witnessed him opening and closing the door while holding both handles with his handkerchief. He avoided touching anything else directly. A few seconds later, I heard his car starting and he drove off.

I went back into the bedroom where Nelly was lying lifelessly on the bed and sat next to her body. Night came and left, I didn't leave. The birds sang and danced in the trees outside, I ignored. My stomach rumbled and grumbled, reminding me that it was time for breakfast but I stayed on the bed with Nelly. I wished she could open her eyes but she couldn't. I wish she could call my name, still, she couldn't. Her cell phone, still in the handbag, rang and rang and rang, and gave SMS alerts but Nelly remained sleeping without turning, without moving. The landline picked up from where the cell phone had left, ringing and ringing. I could only wince in distress. The two phones rang interchangeably that day. Towards the end of the day, I heard a car hooting at the gate. Both Nelly and I couldn't answer. It hooted several times before I heard someone trying the gate. It was closed but not locked. They opened it and drove in. They knocked on the kitchen door before trying the door again. Sensing something was wrong, they rushed to the bedroom. They were three, two gentlemen and a lady. I had seen all of them operating those complicated machines at Nelly's workplace.

Moments later an ambulance and the police arrived. The police quickly barricaded the whole area since it was now a crime scene. Nelly's workmates had nothing to tell the police except that she didn't show up at work and wasn't picking her calls neither was she responding to several messages that were sent on her cell phone, which was very strange. They got worried and decided to check on her since they knew her place of residence. The officers then resorted to their sophisticated equipment to try and figure out what had happened. Nobody bothered asking me anything although I had heard everything and seen it all. I swayed my tail in anger and sprayed all over the place, a behaviour I had long abandoned.