Kitty Bensonhurst
Noone could believe that Kitty died so suddenly. Without warning. But here they were, practically the whole town, at Kitty's graveside service, huddled together under a blanket of emotionally stitched together umbrellas to bid her farewell. They mourned for her in the same way in which she lived. Quietly. That's not to say that she didn't live deeply, for Kitty touched every single person's life in this small town. She was only fourteen. So sad.
Virginia Woodley let out a sigh as she thought of the depths to which Kitty would go in order to save someone's life from the isolation of depression. Her own dear Charlie had died only a year previously. Just at the right moment, Kitty would show up at her window and tap lightly on the screen to let Virginia know she was there if Virginia needed to talk to someone. She would invariably let Kitty in through her back door and Kitty would come in, sit down and listen. She was such a good listener even for someone so young.
Everyone in town vaguely remembered Kitty's mother but no one knew her father. He slipped into town one night and left by the next morning like a breath of cold air caught momentarily under some blooming hydrangeas only to be released by the warming of the morning sun. But on that rainy night when Felicity James found Kitty, abandoned on the back doorstep of her neighbor's "under renovation" bungalow, the town never said a word. Felicity James was a childless widow and the good Lord knew she needed someone to love within her solitary existence. Everyone seemed to see it as another mysterious way God worked, smiled, and took it for granted that it was meant to be.
That night when it all began Felicity had gotten up from her regular Thursday night TV programs to fix herself a cup of tea when she somehow felt an overwhelming urge to go outside. Puzzled at herself, she put on her raincoat. If there was one thing she had learned during her difficult period of new loneliness and unwanted freedom was that it paid to follow her instincts. So when that little voice said, "Put on your raincoat, Felicity, and go outside . . . " she didn't question it.
"It may change your life", the voice added as an afterthought.
The backyard was muddy, and the silent dark structure next door loomed black against the strangely iridescent rainy sky. The rain was soft but relentless, and there was, for a brief moment, no wind. Felicity paused on her back deck acclimatizing her ears to the outside noises. What was that? A sound from next door? She gathered her raincoat close around her neck and shone the flashlight she had picked up off the dryer as she went through the back porch in the direction of the soft whisper. Taking a step around a puddle, she gingerly found her footing along the small path leading to the back door of the silent house. Was that a bundle? Felicity reached out to touch it, and she felt a slight movement. Picking it up she saw little blue eyes staring at her and her heart melted. She knew she wasn’t going to be alone. Felicity named her Kitty Bensonhurst because one of the new characters on General Hospital came from Bensonhurst and it just sounded right to put them together.
Pearl took off her raincoat and hung it on the simple knob on her back porch. The knob was special because Kitty brought it to her one day when Pearl was weeding her small vegetable garden out back near the clothesline. Kitty had just shown up out of the blue and dropped it in her lap. Kitty had never given her anything material before, so Pearl nailed the knob up by her back door while Kitty watched. “This is going to be my special knob, Kitty. Thank you.”
Inside the screened porch where she’d let her apple pies cooldown on the shelf next to her garden gloves, she could hang her wet raincoat on that knob and the drips of life could fall upon the wooden floor. Pearl would look at their descent and wish it were the tears her therapist said would be good for her to shed. Her therapist told her that “some people are so sad that they prayed they could cry. If they could cry maybe they would feel better.” After that session, Pearl prayed fervently every night and every morning that she would be the one person whom God would answer, and she would finally be able to cry all the dried-up tears she kept hidden in her shriveled heart.
Pearl stared at the drops now as they made a small puddle on the peeling porch grey paint thinking of Kitty’s funeral she just attended and for the first time in ten years, her eyes were wet. Reaching up to touch them she realized her prayer had been answered. Why did it have to be answered this way?
(c) nancy 6.4.2011
