고등학생 때 동아리에서 썼던 소설 도입부
A cat has nine lives.
I’m not sure whether it is a human myth or a tale handed down from mother cats to kittens. I know the latter guess seems impossible to you, but, well, I was an ordinary cat ― Of course a cat never think like this; How can a life be ordinary? Maybe I am personified a lot ― before I died for the first time.
Anyway, it was what he said to me. Sometimes humans say an authentic thing. And I liked him even though he was human.
An animal usually chooses a mate who can feed and protect its offsprings. Could he raise my offsprings? Of course not. He was a human and I was a cat. It is love? No; I don’t know what love is. It’s too humane concept. In fact, I fear it.
No, I’ll correct what I just said. He could raise my offsprings if he wanted. He actually used to feed me. I liked the smell of food that spreaded when he came to drop the bowl in front of me. I liked his chapped fingers that tasted salty when I licked. I liked his worn and discolored cotton clothes, warm, smiling brown eyes, and tangled dark hair that often tickled my downy fur. I wanted to speak beside him rather than look up under his chin. Language seemed to be the only sufficient way to sincerely express myself to him since he was a human. I longed to be human.
Do not assume that I did nothing but wish. I certainly tried. I remember the day so vividly since it was the last day of my life.
My black fur was thick and sleek, but on the day biting winds rose gooseflesh all over my fair inner skin. I was on a vacant ground abundant with man-made debris, a bit away from my real lair. Nothing sheltered me from freezing winds that usually tender limbs got numbed and paralyzed with cold. Nothing blocked me from a lump of sky radiant with yellowish orange, a lump of burning fire. Having waited for him longtime, I was not aware of cold. Soaked in the illusionary sensation, I decided to follow him to his home.
I looked ahead. At the end of the ground was a gate made of barbed wire entanglements. I felt my passing the gate as a fatal step of that life, but I knew of no reason at that time.
A tremendous chain of blackened branches, contrasting oddly with the sky of glowing orange, impended over my head. Dim yet radiant. I stalked along the road. It was the first time I used human road to find out something. Soon I faced a byway concealed in dense woods. I licked up the bark of a tree, checked the smell of his hands, and took the way. I continually moved on that way, but the black chain over my head was endless as I was confined in eternity. And one moment – I don’t remember, there was an instance that I passed out the forest and faced the human town. He was there.
He was holding a shopping bag and talking with a female human. A roadway divided me from him. His back was turned on me. I wanted to talk to him as she did. I ran on across the roadway. A sudden wind told me that a car was closing in. Hindrance. This kind of everyday threat hadn’t been fatal for me. I tried to jump as usual ― instantly the sight went black.
Something that had been sunk in unconsciousness chilled up my blood. Yes, that chill ― my legs, numbed with cold, could not bounce my body. Instead a enormous shock bounced me up.
CRASH
After the following shock I was not cold any more. The veriest warmth embraced my body.
The sky flushed crimson.
Eventually blackened…