JeSuis & The Bath

A tortoise-shell tabby with white chin, cheeks and chest, two white front legs and back paws. Her tail had a wide black stripe with with narrow black rings across it. Her wide eyes were moss green, her nose pink with a faint tan moustache below it. The cat leapt easily to the ground. She walked to where Share-All was standing. With whiskers twitching she sniffed then snorted.

She looked up at the slave. “Who are you? You are one of us but you don’t smell like us.”

“A talking cat! What next?,” thought Share-All. “What do you mean ‘one of us’? Who are to be asking me?”

The cat sat down and swished her tail. She licked a paw then looked up again. “My name is JeSuis. It means ‘I am’. I am asking you what is that smell?”

“Smell? What is a smell? I’m sure I don’t have one. As you can see, I have nothing.”

“One of us and she doesn’t know what smell is!” The cat’s tail flicked impatiently. “Do you have a name?”

“My name is HasNothing but my parents call me Share-All. It is a joke about my name. I share all so I have nothing.”

“I will call you Share-All until I learn your real name. Tell me now, how is it that you do not know what smell is?”

“How can I tell you how I don’t know what I don’t know?” Queer cat, she said to herself. My real name! Smell! A cat that talks and speaks in riddles.

“Pick me up, please,” said JeSuis.

Share-All bent down, grabbed the cat in the middle with both hands and dangled her in front of her.

“Put me down! Put me down! Eeoow! Put me down!”

The little slaves came running to see the cause of the cat’s anguished cry. “Have you never touched a cat before?! Fool! Eeoow! That hurt!” The children rushed to JeSuis to comfort the cat. They stroked it gently, inquiring how it felt, was she all right now? “I’m fine,” she said. To the slave she said, “I am sorry for calling you a ‘fool’. I was injured and lost my temper. I see now that you have no experience in tenderness or compassion. You must learn.” The children’s mouths came slightly open and their eyebrows lifted. They had been sure that she was one of them and now they had cause to doubt.

JeSuis began to walk toward the house. Calling over her shoulder to the slave, she said, “Follow me. You must learn these things in time. The smell we will deal with right now.”

Share-All looked at the concern and disappointment on the faces of the children. The cat had said that she must be punished for this ‘smell’ thing. Well, all right, she understood punishment. Obviously she had done something very wrong when she picked up the cat. She followed JeSuis with head hanging.

At the back door of the house JeSuis said, “Open the door.” Share-All did and they both walked in. The room was a bright cream-colored cooking room with festive salmon-colored cupboards, a purple counter, turquoise trim at the windows, a lime green-colored ceiling, honey-colored wood on the floor, rust-colored chairs at the table. Share-All felt weak, her knees wobbled and her head grew light. The room seemed to be moving, colors coming close as if to hug her, then retreating and stretching. It was if they were swimming towards each other or bobbing near each other but definitely in motion. She reached for a chair to steady herself but it was too late. Suddenly the colors swirled into blackness and she collapsed on the floor.

When the slave came to, JeSuis moved from in front of one of the cabinets and stared at her face. “Yes,” she said. “It’s as I thought. Are you feeling better now? If so, why don’t you try standing?” Share-All used the back of the chair to lift her body, clutching it in case she became dizzy again. No, she was okay now. Nothing in the room was moving. The colors were very bright but stayed on the ceiling, windows, cupboards and floor.

JeSuis walked to a doorway and once again said, “Follow me.” The slave was most reluctant to enter another room where the same thing might happen. She was surprised, too, to find that she felt some affinity for the colors, some sense of belonging in this room. This room! The room that overpowered her! “How queer this place is, and how queer the effects it’s having on me,” she thought. Still, she crossed the kitchen and followed the cat.

They moved rather quickly through a livingroom with a large, floor-to-ceiling bowed window. In a nook of the room was a large, deep red, heavily-cushioned recliner. Next to it was a small table covered with books, brushes and a glass of water. A small cat’s bed was on the other side of it.

She stayed just a step or two behind JeSuis going down a hall. There were rooms straight ahead and rooms off to either side. They finally stopped in front of a white door. “I want you to come in here with me and I will show you something,” said JeSuis.

“This is the place of punishment, then,” thought the slave. In the dance and sway of the colors, and with the fainting, she had almost forgotten why they had come. She stood before the door which gleamed. “What a curious door to the basement! Imagine painting the basement door white,” thinking of where she came from.

They entered a room rather than descending stairs. Light came from a window directly opposite and to her right was a large white porcelain trough. JeSuis moved under the window and hopped on a white stool. Near her was a smaller trough with a wood base. Share-All saw what appeared to be a large window above it. “Come all the way and shut the door behind you, please,” said JeSuis. Share-All did.

“I want to talk with you about smell. I’m sorry you must remain standing but I won’t take long I promise. Do you see the metal handles above the tub? The one on the left is for hot water. Bend down and close the drain. Do you see the small lever? Push it up. That’s right. Now turn the left handle.” Share-All turned the shiny chrome handle to the left and water came rushing from the spout. She jumped back in alarm.

“Stop it!” she said. “Oh please, make it stop!” The noise of the pouring water seemed so loud in this small room. Her ears hurt from it. “Make it stop!” she implored the cat. But JeSuis simply sat watching her. No, not watching, but staring, intently, that’s it. The cat was staring at her intently as if she was speaking into the slave’s mind. “It’s okay. Relax, it’s okay.” The noise seemed quieter now.

JeSuis jumped down from the stool and came to Share-All’s feet. She turned and put her front paws up on the edge of the trough. “It’s time. Turn the left handle back to where it was.” The slave moved around the cat, leaned over and turned the handle. She could feel heat rising from the water. Was this her punishment? To be scalded?

“Place your hand in the water to check the temperature,” said the cat. The slave tentatively put her hand in. It wasn’t scalding, it wasn’t even too hot, it was ... it was... She turned and looked at the cat, wondering if this was a trap.

JeSuis said, “Sit here on the edge and I will show you something.” Share-All sat down. The cat jumped up beside her. “Stretch out your arm and look at it.” The slave stuck out her arm and looked. “What do you see?”

“Nothing,” the slave replied.

“Put your nose next to your skin. Breathe in. What do you smell?”

The slave brought her arm under her nose, took a deep breath and said, “Nothing.”

JeSuis told the slave, “Share-All, I am going to move from where I am beside you on to your lap. Do not touch me. Once I am settled, I want you to lean down and smell the top of my head.” The cat placed her paws on the slave’s thigh. The slave winced but didn’t try to stop her. JeSuis continued moving forward, standing with feet on both Share-All’s thighs then turned and sat. She sat very still facing away from the slave. She felt the slave lean forward, felt her breath on the back of her neck, heard her take a deep breath.

“Oh my! Oh what a wonderful smell!” she exclaimed. The slave leaned forward again, took another breath. In her enthusiasm she gripped the cat with both hands and attempted to bring the cat up to her nose rather than leaning down. The cat yowled, “Eeoow!” JeSuis bolted to the floor.

Startled, the slave quickly dropped her head and waited. Eyes closed, she waited. Nothing. She opened them slightly. With her head bent she looked straight into the eyes of the cat between her feet. “It’s okay. I understand. It’s all right.”

JeSuis moved back a bit which forced Share-All to lift her head to see the cat clearly. “Can you tell the difference between you and me? Our smells, I mean,” asked the cat. “There is about you a putrid, dead, disgusting smell. You are unable to smell it because you have lived with it for a very long time. Underneath that smell, you smell just like me.”

Share-All tried to take this in. The cat smelled simply wonderful. The slave had no words to describe it. The cat continued, “First we need to get rid of that awful smell. Climb into the water and use this rag and that pink chunk to rub all over your body. Everywhere you see this brown color,” she pointed to Share-All’s arm, “you need to rub and rinse until it is gone.”

The slave turned on the edge and the cat got down. Share-All placed both feet in the water. It felt friendly, gentle. She then lowered her body into the tub. She picked up the pink chunk and the rag, got them both wet and began rubbing her body. The cat climbed back up on the edge and watched. The water began to turn brown. “We may need to do this a couple of times. You’re very brown in spots, you know.”

Share-All wasn’t listening. She watched as the place where she rubbed changed color. “It’s magic!” Caught up in the ‘magic’, she began rubbing harder. Her skin was turning red from the abrasive movements. The cat cried out, "Stop! Stop it!” Share-All still wasn’t listening. The roughness of the rag being shoved across her skin was everything. “Eeoow! Stop it!” JeSuis cried again. The slave jumped. “Stop rubbing so hard,” the cat said. “The water and the pink chunk will do the work. You must not hurt yourself, do you hear me? The bath is for pleasure. The bath gives the pleasure of getting clean and taking away the ugliness. It lets you give pleasure to yourself if you will let it. Fill the rag with water.”

Share-All held the rag under water. At the cat’s instruction, she held it over her belly and let the water dribble down. It tickled and she made that noise with her mouth. “Do it again,” spoke the cat. Again the slave held the rag under the water then held it over her belly. The noise came again, and again. “For pleasure, not for pain,” said the cat. “Touch yourself gently, like the water. Feel the slip of the pink chunk against your skin. Rinse yourself by scooping water and letting it run across you. This is what a bath is!”

When the water was filthy, Share-All flipped the lever and ran the water out. She rinsed the tub and ran more water. She sat back down and took another bath. Satisfied that the slave was finally clean, the cat spoke, “Let out the water and rinse the tub. Then take this towel and dry your body.” The slave did so. When she had finished drying, the cat walked over to her leg and sniffed her. She sniffed again and did not snort as she did the first time she smelled the slave. Looking up, she said, “Lift your arm and smell it.” Share-All lifted her arm but she knew already that she smelled like the cat. She took a deep breath and said, “I smell like you, JeSuis,” using the cat’s name for the first time. “I smell like JeSuis,” she said.

The cat then excused herself, walked to the small rug below the white stool, circled twice and laid down and went promptly to sleep. She looked so contented that Share-All laid down on the wet rug in front of the door, placed the soles of her feet against the door, and she, too, fell asleep.