Henry flew along the coastline, taking random pictures for a magazine article about homes along the lakefront. Seeing an opening at one house, and thinking it was a large open window, he flew over for a closer look. A beckoning garage door was open and waiting to be explored. Henry hovered at the opening, looking around. The only light was the natural light that didn’t extend beyond the doorway. Beyond two feet, darkness enveloped the area. What was inside? He switched to silent mode and turned off all his lights except for one small beam, dropped an inch above the floor, and crept into the garage.
On previous assignments, Henry started peeking into windows and doorways, only to be bombarded by towering figures opening a window. Once, someone used a laser pointer to blind him, leading to a crash. Recovering from it was not fun. Another time, a lawnmower chased him down a street.
The large garage had tools hanging on one wall above a table and a shelving unit full of jars, containers, and a laptop. A couple of bikes and a lawn mower lined up against the opposite wall. Henry flew between walls, examining tools and investigating the bikes, and avoiding the lawnmower.
He stopped and paused. Something moved at the back of the garage. He aimed at a small light from where the sound was coming . Yellow and green eyes glowed from a dark corner. A small, guttural growl, a hiss, and then a chittering noise followed. Henry backed up as he noticed a four-legged entity crouched in the corner. Henry flipped through his memory bank. It was a cat. His experience with cats in the past had not gone well. The cat’s eyes grew bigger as it approached him.
Turning off the light, he landed and folded himself up as much as possible, remaining stationary. Perhaps the cat would lose interest and go away.
“Merowll?” The cat crept closer, sniffing, curious and looking. Henry sensed the breath of the cat as it explored and sniffed all his legs and other parts. He felt the long whiskers brush against his metal base. A paw tapped his leg. A few more taps. Another “Merowll?”. Nothing for a minute. Then, swipe. Hard. Claws out. A hiss. More growling.
Henry let off a quick round of beeps as a warning, causing the cat to jump, hair raised, body arched, tail puffed up. He spread out to full size and rose from his crouching position on the floor out of the cat’s reach. All lights on. All noises on full blast. He aimed a light beam at the cat’s eyes. More hissing, more swiping, claws out.
The cat backed up and crouched down to prepare for pouncing. It ran towards Henry and jumped, surprising him. He had forgotten how high cats could jump. The cat hooked its front paws onto one of Henry’s legs and hung on tight, trying to drag him back to the ground. It howled, a loud, guttural meow noise. Henry made all the noises he could make and circled the garage, hoping the cat would release its grip. The cat's powerful claws threw him off balance. He bumped into the lawn mower and the bikes, causing the bikes to fall over with a clatter.
Henry tried shaking the cat off in a hurry, and crashed into the wall of tools, knocking over the shelving unit full of jars. The jars crashed to the ground, sending glass and contents across the floor. The cat howled and dug its claws into Henry’s metal base.
“WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?” A loud voice boomed. Above, lights illuminated the garage as the cat and Henry observed a human in the doorway. With caution, the human aimed a small can of paint at him, carefully avoiding the cat. With a howl, the cat dropped to the ground. It ran into a corner, hissing, growling, and crouching, watching to see what would happen next.
Henry had had enough and flew towards the entrance while avoiding another paint can. He couldn't fight the cat and the human at the same time. He stopped for a moment, looking back. The human yelled and flung another paint can at him. Henry beeped and looked out the doorway. He was sorry he couldn’t fight the cat but happy he didn’t get any serious damage. He still had his assignment for the magazine to finish.
Henry switched his camera back on and continued his flight along the coast. Maybe there would be another open doorway to explore that didn’t involve humans, cats, paint cans or laser beams.