Frances Gapper

Oh well

Although keen on cats, Aunt Jane wished to avoid catching even a glimpse of Murgatroyd the furry death herald, our ancestral ghost. Upon turning 70 she locked her cat flap and blocked her chimney. 

The following week Aunt Jane was trundling her tartan trolley to the mini mart when a handsome stripy cat exactly matching Murgatroyd’s centuries-old profile came stalking towards her. And thinking oh well, she bent down to fondle his ears.

Old friend

I was clearing away Dad’s supper things when a large stripy cat jumped up on his bed. I tried to shove it off, but Dad said Hello old friend.

Caught on camera

Jules my rational partner doesn’t believe in ghosts. Bellowing laugh whenever I mention spooky felines. She decides to map all our neighbourhood cats, thereby proving Murgatroyd’s non-existence. 

Nocturnal visitors: Bluebell from number 92. Mr Fox. Next door’s William. A hedgehog. Murgatroyd, urine-marking the wildlife camera.

Yet next day it whiffs only of night-flowering jasmine and the starry dark.

What Frances said about the prompt:
I’ve been lucky enough to know – or at least be acquainted with – a number of cats. Zak, next door’s ginger queen, inspired my story ‘In Time of the Ginger Cat’ (Mythic Picnic’s 2024 Mythic Micro anthology) and a previous neighbour’s cat starred in ‘Ginger the Zombie Cat’ (Splonk), while my partner’s legendary former cat was the subject of ‘Harry’, which won a Silver Apples flash contest. But Murgatroyd is entirely fictional.

Frances Gapper lives in the UK’s Black Country region. Her stories have been published in four Best Microfiction anthologies and lit mags including Pangyrus, Flash the Court, Your Impossible Voice, Atlas and Alice, trampset, Splonk, Wigleaf, New Flash Fiction Review, Fictive Dream, Forge, Literary Namjooning, Gooseberry Pie and Trash Cat Lit. Social Media: Bluesky and X

Read more from Frances:

Exposition Review – ‘Whoosh!‘
Fictive Dream – Saturday Girl

Here on Trash Cat Lit – All Hail the Earwig and into stones, into water, into clouds