Simba

Simba was named when he was small. He grew into the name perfectly.

Now he is the size of a small dog and has the confidence to match. Customers step around him and the stacked Corona boxes like he is part of the store layout. Simba does not move for anyone.

He picks a spot and that spot becomes his for the rest of the shift. If it happens to be the middle of the aisle, customers adjust. If it happens to be on top of the delivery that just arrived, the delivery waits. Nobody moves Simba. Simba moves when Simba is ready.

There is a type of bodega cat who makes the store fit around him instead of fitting into the store. Simba is that type. The aisles are narrow. The inventory is stacked high. There is barely room for two people to pass. And there is Simba, planted in the center of it, watching the whole operation like he is running it.

He was small once. Nobody remembers that version of him. The name is all that is left of it.

From the StoriesSimba's story appears in Bodega Cats of New York, out this fall.