The Pet Sitter
Three pets. One empty house. Too much time to think.
He had agreed to watch the pets, though he didn’t like animals and especially didn’t like her mother’s cat. He had not always resented responsibility. But he was staying in their Michigan home, unemployed, and had little ground to object. The arrangement — caring for creatures that did not know him, while his girlfriend relaxed in sea winds on a cruise to the Caribbean — seemed a final, quiet humiliation.
He remembered her promise: “It’s just a few days.” He counted the days she was gone and imagined what she was eating. The pets were geriatric: one cat, blind in both eyes, a parakeet that squawked frequently without reason, and a turtle that hadn’t moved since 2019. The house became a chamber of smells and vague scratching sounds.
He cleaned the cats’ litter box. He refilled the turtle’s water and fed the parakeet nachos even though she told him not to. By day three, resentment pooled. They hadn’t invited him. They hadn’t even left snacks. The pets seemed to mock him, by their unknowing eyes, their blank indifferent stares.
He emailed the cruise line: I think someone might have a bomb on your ship
The message he sent was brief, unpunctuated. His girlfriend’s mother had once said, “Idle hands do the Devil’s texting.” He did not want to scare them — just to remind them he existed. He had not expected the message to matter. Afterward, he sat in the silence and wondered if they would call. They never called.
The authorities did.
When the knock came, he felt something close to relief. At least, now, someone would be taking him seriously. He was sentenced to eight months.
In prison, he took to cleaning the shared sink with care and scrubbed floors for hours. He told no one about the cruise, nor the animals. He dreams of the turtle, floating in still water, utterly unbothered. Sometimes, he swears he hears the parakeet squawk through the vents, still mocking him.
Real headlines that vaguely resemble today’s fiction:
Relate? Leave a comment. Know someone who would? Send it their way.
If you are confusing this with real news, please unplug your Wi-Fi router, go outside and touch some grass to get back to reality. Full disclaimer here.