The True Identity of Cats

Part One

When I was a child, a cat approached me while I was playing in a nearby park. It was a brown tabby.
It seemed very used to people, meowing and acting affectionate. When I petted its head, it was happy and became even more affectionate. As I was petting it, by some chance, its face came off. The cat had been wearing a mask.
From under the mask, the face of a stranger looked at me without saying a word.
I ran all the way home.

Part Two

Back in my university days, I once performed a live show with Daniel.
Since the venue was near Daniel's place, he told me to come stay over the night before. Even though he said that, Daniel lived with his parents. I declined, feeling a bit bad about it, but he insisted, saying his family wanted to meet me, so I should definitely stay. In the end, I decided to take them up on the offer for the night.
It happened to be a Saturday, and his parents and sister were all there.
"Momo-kun, would you like to eat this?" his father offered me some sea urchin rice crackers, and I was surprised at how delicious they were when I tried one.
"These are delicious!"
I kept munching on them, and soon they were all gone.
"Hey, it looks like Momo-kun really likes the sea urchin rice crackers. Bring out some more. Let him take some home with him, too."
"Sorry, that was the last of them," his mother apologized from the back.
"Then go buy some more."
Since I couldn't exactly take sea urchin rice crackers with me to a live show, I thanked them and said their kind offer was enough.
"Daniel, you should bring some to Momo-kun next time," his sister said. She looked exactly like Daniel.
Daniel grinned and said, "Look forward to it."

Daniel's family kept two cats. A calico and a Siamese.
The calico seemed more used to people, so when it rubbed against me, I petted its back. Then, I felt something hard against my hand. When I pushed the fur aside to look, I saw a small zipper. I opened it slightly and saw a spine, so I hurriedly closed it.
"Don't tell anyone," Daniel whispered in my ear.

Part Three

One morning, when I stepped out the front door, there were cat paw prints on the hood of my car. It seemed like one of them had walked there with muddy feet from the rain the night before.
"Oh, how cute," my wife said.
My wife is a dog person who dislikes cats. She usually chases them away with great intensity whenever they enter the garden, but it seems she finds them cute if it's just their paw prints.

I drove to work with the cat prints still on the car, and while I was working, it started to rain.
"Hey, it's raining."
"Huh?"
Tommy looked outside with a grimace.
"Are you serious? The weather forecast didn't say anything about this."
"The weather has been so unstable lately, it's no good."
"It really is like the Earth has broken down."
"The Earth has broken down, huh? That's certainly true."
I was impressed that Tommy could say such a clever thing.

On my way home, I ran into a cat in the office parking lot. It was a gray tuxedo cat that lived around there. It was curled up under the roof of the bicycle parking area. It wasn't hiding, just watching me intently. It was quite brazen.
In the end, the tuxedo cat kept watching me like that until I got into my car.

By the time I got home, the rain had stopped. When I got out of the car, the paw prints on the hood were already gone.
"The cat's paw prints were washed away by the rain."
"Cat's paw prints?"
"You know, the ones that were on the hood this morning?"
"Oh, those."
My wife started looking at her smartphone, showing no particular interest.
While I was having a drink and watching 'The Walking Dead' on Amazon Prime, I heard a cat's voice from the parking lot.
"It sounds like a cat came by."
"Ugh, chase it away. The trash is out."
"I see."
I opened the front door with my beer can in hand, and there was a stranger in a necktie touching my car. Then, he said, "Meow."
I realized that this man was the one who had been meowing on the night of the wake, and everything finally made sense.