Anthony Varallo

Anthony Varallo is the author of a novel, The Lines (University of Iowa Press), as well as four short story collections. New work is out or forthcoming in The New Yorker “Daily Shouts,” One Story, STORY, Chicago Quarterly Review, DIAGRAM, The Best Small Fictions 2020, and elsewhere. Currently he is a professor of English at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC, where he is the fiction editor of Crazyhorse. Find him online at @TheLines1979.

BAD CAT by Anthony Varallo

Yesterday I met the bad cat. He was lying on our neighbor’s driveway, sunning himself in the last of the day’s warmth. He had gray fur, slightly mottled with black, and white paws. His eyes were closed, restful. When my family and I walked past, the cat yawned and stretched his tongue the way cats sometimes do. The cat blinked at us for a moment, curiously—pleasantly, I thought. “Here kitty-kitty!” I said. “Psst-psst!” “Dad,” my daughter said, “don’t do that.” “Do what?” I said. “Cats love that sound.” “Please, Dad,” my daughter said. “It’s embarrassing.” “Plus,” my son said, “I…

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