Short Short: "Good Evening to the Cat" #AmanoWritingClub
"A part-time job searching for cats in the middle of the night?"
Past midnight, standing in front of a convenience store with a canned coffee in his hand, my friend Takashi said it out of the blue.
"Yeah, and the hourly wage is 10,000 yen!"
"No way, that's definitely a shady job! I heard that 'cat' is slang for a Lexus..."
"It's fine. The job posting said it's just a job where you say 'good evening' to a cat."
"That sounds way too suspicious. Shady jobs are a big no-no."
"It said 'no experience necessary, cat lovers welcome.' Oh, but since it's a late-night job, it says they'll need to take copies of documents to verify my identity—like a driver's license or health insurance card."
"That's 100% a shady job! Don't do it!"
"But I already applied."
"...What?"
"And since it said 'bringing friends is okay,' I sent your information in too."
"...What?"
"It's almost time to meet up. It said this was the meeting spot."
"...What?"
Just then, men dressed in black emerged one after another from the back of the alley. With sunglasses and expressionless faces, it was like a scene from a movie.
"Our lives are over... aren't they?"
"You two must be the ones. I'm counting on you."
One of the men silently held out a photo and a Churu cat treat. The photo showed a black and white cat.
"We want you to find 'Churchill,' a cat owned by a certain celebrity. Look at the photo carefully and memorize its face and markings. If you find it, be sure to greet it politely by saying 'good evening.' Got it?"
"I, I hate to ask something so rude, but... this isn't a shady job, is it?"
"Hahaha, that's impossible. But you know, people are suspicious, so we hardly get any applicants. It's a white-collar job, totally legit. Hahaha."
The men walked away laughing. We looked at each other and sighed.
And so, until dawn broke, we ended up doing a "shady-looking" cat-finding job.
And miraculously, I was able to meet Churchill. Under the moonlight, I softly spoke to the cat sitting on the wall.
"Good evening."
Churchill said, "Good even-meow"... or so I felt.
The End
Shady part-time jobs: just say no.
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