The cat seemed undecided on the matter. It pawed rather condescendingly at the piece of fish the man was holding out, and then got distracted by a piece of dust on the floor.
“Pussy not eat his fish, pussy get thin and waste away, I think,” said the man. Doubt crept into his voice.
“I imagine this is what will happen,” he said, “but how can I tell?”
He proffered the fish again.
“Pussy think,” he said, “eat fish or not eat fish. I think it is better if I don’t get involved.” He sighed.
“I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge?”
He left the fish on the floor for the cat, and retired to his seat.
“Ah, I seem to see you eating it,” he said at last, as the cat exhausted the entertainment possibilities of the speck of dust and pounced on to the fish.
“I like it when I see you eat the fish,” said the man, “because in my mind you will waste away if you don’t.”
He picked up from the table a piece of paper and the stub of a pencil. He held one in one hand and the other in the other, and experimented with the different ways of bringing them together. He tried holding the pencil under the paper, then over the paper, then next to the paper. He tried wrapping the paper round the pencil, he tried rubbing the stubby end of the pencil against the paper and then he tried rubbing the sharp end of the pencil against the paper. It made a mark, and he was delighted with the discovery, as he was every day. He picked up another piece of paper from the table. This had a crossword on it. He studied it briefly and filled in a couple of clues before losing interest.
He tried sitting on one of his hands and was intrigued by the feel of the bones of his hip.
“Fish come from far away,” he said, “or so I’m told. Or so I imagine I’m told. When the men come, or when in my mind the men come in their six black ships, do they come in your mind too? What do you see pussy?”
He looked at the cat, which was more concerned with getting the fish down as rapidly as possible than it was with these speculations.
“And when I hear their questions, do you hear questions? What do their voices mean to you? Perhaps you just think they’re singing songs to you.” He reflected on this, and saw the flaw in the supposition.
“Perhaps they are singing songs to you,” he said, “and I just think they’re asking me questions.”
He paused again. Sometimes he would pause for days, just to see what it was like.