The Raincoat

 

The name of this short story is The Raincoat.  The inspiration for my story is a famous Russian short story, The Overcoat, written by Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842. The Overcoat and Nikolai Gogol have had a great influence on Russian literature.  In fact, it has been called, “The greatest Russian short story ever written.  The story has been adapted into a variety of stage and film interpretations.  And here is my humble offering to add to Nikolai Gogol’s inspirational short story.  It’s a sequel to my Faith and Fido Fables.

It’s now summer and Faith and her rescue cat, Fido, have been together for 3 months now and Faith has grown to love her little feline friend.

It’s a good thing Fido is a talker because Faith would really feel foolish carrying on a conversation to a fur ball.  Today, Faith and Fido are on the screened-in porch planting seeds in small peat pots.  Later, when they’re seedlings, they will go outside in the garden. The planting was interrupted.  Faith was not entirely surprised because she had seen a man in the neighborhood, going door to door.  “I wonder what he’s selling,” she thought.

Fido and Faith left the porch to answer the door bell.  It turns out that the salesman was selling solar panels.  “Presently, the family isn’t interested.  Maybe next year.”

When Faith closed the door, she was surprised to see that Fido’s fur was up on her arched back, her ears were back and her eyes were large and round.  And she was hissing.

“Good grief, Fido, I get it.  You didn’t like that man.  Well, he’s gone.  Let’s get back to our seeding.”

The rest of the day passed uneventedly.  The seeds were all planted.  The porch was cleaned up and Fido had had a busy day sleeping stretched out in the sun.  It was time to start preparing supper.

However, the preparation was interrupted by the doorbell a second time.  Once more, it was the solar panel salesman.  While Faith greeted the man with a surprised smile, the smile on her face froze midway because the man quickly stepped over the threshold and reached over to the coat rack and stole the rain coat hanging there!

It happened so fast that Faith’s smile was still frozen on her face.  It was Fido’s screech that snapped Faith back to reality.

“What?!?!?”

Faith stepped out and ran across the lawn to the sidewalk.  She wasn’t sure which way the man ran because he was gone.

“What do you make of that Fido?”

Fido had no response except to make figure eights in and out and around Faith’s legs.

“I don’t believe what just happened.  How strange!”

Faith picked Fido up and caresses her. “I suppose it could have been worse.  He could have stolen you, Fido.”

Fido purred loudly.

“It’s still bizarre. Why steal a raincoat on a nice, sunny day?”