Weirdness Magnet

Lester's cat

When I was a kid, we had a family friend called Lester, who was my uncle's friend from high school or some such thing. I haven't seen him in years. In any case, Lester was a person with a delicate psyche. He had been in and out of the mental institution a few times, the last time only just prior to when he came to visit us in our old farmhouse.

The back porch of our place had a railing which was constructed in such a way to be out of view of the back room, which was the kitchen. Most of the time, when guests came over, they would sit at the table in the kitchen. Lester was no different. He sat facing the back door, which was open to the screen, regaling us with tales of the latest disasterous turn of events in his life.

Mom was nodding in sympathy at his tale of woe, when suddenly he fell silent and stared, wide-eyed, at the back door.

"What's wrong?" my mother asked.
"Do you see a flying cat back there?" he stammered.
We turned to look.
The cat next door was standing on the railing, which was unseen from where Lester was sitting. From his vantage point, it looked for all the world, as though there was a floating cat hovering outside our back door.
I smiled.
My mother patiently explained things to Lester, and he sighed with relief.

Later, she confessed that at that moment there was nothing in the world that she wanted to do more than say, "What cat?"