Chapter Five

Ms. Winters, Apartment in New York City, Day 9

  Ms. Winters prowled down the slope, stalking a deer across the slopes of the snowy mountain, the scent carried on the wind tickled his nose as he prepared to pounce, his weight settling onto his haunches in preparation of a great and powerful leap, yet as his paws left the snow beneath him, and the weightless feeling overtook him as he hurtled toward his prey, he woke up. The clean air and brisk wind of the mountainside replaced with the stifling and unpleasantly stale air of the apartment, his bulk once again lying curled up on the couch.

  He shifted his aching legs beneath him, getting up onto his paws and climbing up onto the back of the couch, checking the food dish, which had yet to be refilled by the dispenser. He looked around for a new spot to sleep, and saw the armchair by the windows, which looked like a nice spot to nap. He moved forward and prepared to leap, but his aching hind legs changed his mind, so he just climbed onto the floor, walked over, and climbed onto the armchair where he curled up for his next nap.

  As he was settling down, however, an aggressive, irregular, stomping sounded outside the apartment, followed by a slurred “Fuck, where’s the key!” from Stanley, causing Ms. Winters to perk his hears in excitement, and the sound of him fumbling with the lock, and opening the door soon after. Stanley came through the door, and headed straight for the kitchen, where he grabbed the half-empty bottle of whiskey, the door swinging back almost into place in his wake.

  Ms. Winters whined, demanding food, but Stanley ignored him, pulling the bottle open and drinking a few swallows straight from it. Once he was done, he slurred out “Tish flashe shmelsh ike sit!”, though it made no sense to Ms. Winters, and headed to the window, roughly pulling it open to let in the smoggy New York air, though even Ms. Winters could tell it was much better than the air inside the apartment with what little sense of smell he had left.

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  Eager for some more of the fresh air, Ms. Winters got back up and climbed over the armchair up onto the windowsill, at the same time, Stanley suddenly lurched into the armchair and nearly sat on him, putting Ms. Winters on edge. When Marie suddenly opened the door and came through, Ms. Winters bolted out the window and down the fire escape, chased along by the startled shouts that followed him.

  He ran down one set of steps, reaching the next level down, but he was moving too fast to stop, and didn’t think he could slow down without killing himself, and so he ended up leaping off the fire escape, falling several yards while flying along the alley to land on a dumpster, hurting his paw and giving him a limp. As he turned around to look, he didn’t think he could make his way back up to the fire escape, so he hesitantly jumped down to the ground, favoring his paw, and began to look around instead, hungry.

  As Ms. Winters padded slowly around the back allies near the apartment, looking for food, he spotted a mangy old rat rounding a corner. That could be food, he thought, and started working to push himself up to a pace, bolting around the corner.

  After the first minute or so to build up to his speed, he began to catch up, but rat noticed and began running for his life, bobbing and weaving in and out of holes in fences and debris, Ms. Winters following as best he could, though where he couldn’t he worked to take the long way around, quickly losing stamina in his efforts to catch it.

  Eventually, the rat ended up diving into a grate, and caught up in the chase, Ms. Winters leapt headlong after it through a hole torn into the grate, only to be surprised to find himself falling headlong into a spike. Despite his surprise, Ms. Winters reacted as quick as he could, twisting to avoid the spike, but to his misfortune, that just propelled him straight into several other spikes, which pierced his back and side, making him cry out in pain and pinning him in place.