Wednesday 26 August 2020

The Laughing Monocled Cat

 

(HB pencil on a 138mm x 88mm postcard)

- NOT AVAILABLE -

You'll see an afterlife. This, I guarantee. Whether you believe in it or not, it doesn't matter, it will be there, and it'll be Paradise! Everything you were told it would be and much, much, more. And there you'll exist, in utter bliss, for what seems like an eternity....

Then, one heavenly day, you'll notice the strangest of things: A cat wearing a monocle. It appears out of nowhere and turns up everywhere you go. There's no escaping it, no matter how hard you try. It's just always there, until it's all that is there.

It'll sit, silently looking at you, as all cats sometimes do. Watching you. Studying you. Then you'll see a smile grow on its face. A smile which turns into a chuckle. A chuckle which turns into a giggle. A giggle which then bursts into a mad, howling, laugh.

And it's at this point that the full, horrific, nature of it will dawn on you. That it was all just a sick joke you've been playing on yourself. A delusion of a fading mind as it fires its last neurons before you truly die.

And The Laughing Monocled Cat, that mocking herald of your ultimate finality, will remind you of this by its very presence. It'll lay in wait for you all your life, and be there for you at the end. You can try to dismiss it, or even forget about it, but it will never forget you.

And why?

Because I've just put the idea of it into your head, and in your head it will always stay.