I'm starting to think that the cat doesn't like me very much. That this whole "on the road" thing in far-off Arkansas is really the result of a grand cosmic joke - in the grand tradition of cosmic jokes like placing a snake in the garden together with the first naked couple. It's the grand test of faith. Job passed with flying colours but I'm no Job.
After leaving Dalia's apartment, I tailed the cat passed five or six blocks of shoplots. The cat slipped into an alley and disappeared again. I tried to chase after it, slipped and grazed my right knee on shards of broken glass. Hurt like hell. I was wiping blood away with my bare hands and trying to get up. No such luck. Coupla kids passed by and stared as I tried to crawl back to the main road. I must've looked really weird to them. Chinese guy chasing a cat into an alley and got himself badly cut as a result. I passed out.
To be continued.....
