Black Cat Halloween Story

Tom was a hep cat. Sleek, cool, savvy, six-toed, and orange. He stayed behind the dumpster at Mr. Chan's Fish Market. Evenings he strolled the alleys behind the jazz joints making the scene. He was a street-wise city cat. He never wanted for a meal, and he was beholden to no one. He played it safe and stayed in the back streets, blending with the scenery.

Wending his way home late one night Tom saw a vision in the moonlight. She sat high atop a fence, a black silhouette against the bright orange moon. Ignoring the exposure, he took a chance and leapt lightly to the fencepost beside her. "Do you come here often?" he ventured gamely. Originality was not nearly as important as attitude, he had found in his several months experience with the opposite sex. Her head made a slow swivel toward him and she regarded him with eyes as orange as the moon. "Once a year." She purred and turned to watch the street below.

It was a chilly night, and Tom sidled a bit closer - for warmth, you know - and asked her name. "Halloween." she told him. He had never heard such a beautiful word. They leaned together in the moonlight and watched as a parade of people scurried to and fro on the streets below. Tom had never seen anything like it. Back and forth, up and down, big people, little people, pounding on doors and shouting, "Trick or Treat! Trick or Treat!" They wore the most outrageous clothes! Each and every one wore some bizarre costume! They rustled and flapped about carrying strange sacks and poles and brooms and all manner of odd things. But oddest of all were their false faces!

"What the...!?" Tom exclaimed. "What are they doing?"

"Halloween." she said again.

Tom looked at her. "I don't understand..."

"It's my name, and it's this day." Halloween explained. "Once a year, the people run in the streets. They beg for food and they trick each other if they don't get it. They make noise and have parties. Sometimes it's fun and sometimes it's mean. You never know. That's why it's good to stay up high and quiet and not let them see you."

"I know all about that." said Tom. "That's how I get along. By myself and to myself. But you said Halloween is the name of this day and your name, too?"

"I was born on Halloween. It's my birthday."

"Really?" Tom exclaimed, "How ol..." Screeching filled the air! A whistling sound! The streets flooded with bright white light! People shouted and cheered. Mr. Chan and his family jumped about on their balcony across the street shouting, laughing, and waving fire spewing sticks! Tom arched up on all twenty-four tippy-toes and puffed twice his size. "&*%^#!" he spat. "We gotta get outta here!" He sprang from the fence to the alley below.

Halloween dropped lightly to the ground beside him where he spat and goggled and cast about for an escape route. "Where can we go? Where can we go?" he hissed. "There are people everywhere!"

"Follow me." she purred and slipped off into the shadows. He followed, and it wasn't easy. She was part of the night. Through a gap in the fence and down a side street he had never seen before, they slipped away from his familiar city streets and into the strangeness of the neighborhoods. He had never been here before. He knew that here there were dogs!

"Where are we headed?" he asked.

"Home."

"Home? Like a house?"

"More like a cottage." she replied.

"I can't go to house! Someone might see me!" Tom stopped in his tracks. Behind them the sky filled with light again. A big clatter! Flying sparks! Tom wheeled and puffed before he could stop himself then quickly sat and groomed his front paw to show that he was not actually afraid.

"Don't fret." she said. "Someone will see you, and it will be alright. Trust me. With a sidelong glance, he stood, stretched with studied nonchalance, and they continued on their way.

Chapter 2

They trotted along staying close to the white fences and rows of bushes that lined the streets. Occasionally a group of children in costumes would rush past laughing and shouting and Halloween would shy back into the darkness with Tom by her side.

They arrived at a place where the road seemed to end. The bushes and trees were no longer in rows, there were no people, and the night was incredibly still. "HooHoo! HooHoo!" came a voice from the trees. Tom looked up and saw two bright gold discs regarding him from a tree top. "What the...?!" he exclaimed. "Don't mind him!" said Halloween. "It's just Harold. This way!" and she slipped through a gap between bushes and down a path into the woods.

The moon was bright, and the night was crisp and clear. Tom looked up and was amazed by the stars. "Wow! Look at all the lights in the sky!" he exclaimed. "I never saw that before!"

"The stars are always bright in the woods." Halloween explained. "In the city, you can't see them because of the lights. But here, you can see the world just as it was made." The scent of wood smoke wafted by on a chill breeze. "We're here." she said.

"A house? I can't go in a house!" Tom exclaimed again. A rectangle of light sprang up before them and Tom realized that a door had opened. "I didn't know we were so close." he thought.

"Halloween! Kitty-kitty! Are you home?" a woman's voice called as her black silhouette appeared in the orange light. Good smells floated through the door, and warmth, like from the subway grate only without the wind and the noise. Halloween stepped forward mewing politely and Tom could do nothing but follow. "My little girl!" the woman cried scooping the black cat up in her arms. Halloween draped across her shoulders like a stole, and rattled the air with purring. "And look!" the woman exclaimed, "You've brought a friend! Come in! Come in! What a handsome young man you are!"

Tom was enchanted, and there was nothing he could do. He walked through a door for the first time in his life and into a room filled with warmth, softness, and good smells. He looked agog at the small cozy fire, a pot of something delicious bubbling over it, a big soft chair before it. Shadows danced on the walls. Somewhere chimes tinkled softly. The woman ladled a bit of soup into a bowl and set it on the hearth. "You must be hungry." she said to him. "Make yourself at home." Settling, with a colorful rustle into her chair, she took up Halloween and a book. Tom strolled over to the hearth and sat on it's warm stones regarding the soup as it cooled. He had never felt so safe.

Chapter 3

"Today we will name you." The woman told Tom the next day as she picked up a small clear vial of water from it's sunshiny place on the windowsill.

"I have a name!" Tom thought. "It is Tom."

"That's your child-spirit name." the woman told him. "Today we give you your distinctive name and we determine your magic name. But you may not use them until the time is right." Tom gaped. "Yes, I hear you." she said. "Don't look so surprised." She gathered him up, and he hardly thought to protest. Holding him in her lap, she gave him a thorough petting, exclaiming on all his distinctive features. "Hmmm... an 'M' on your forehead. Your magic name must be truly royal! And let's see...well! Six toes on each foot! Twenty four... two and four are six..." she muttered and with a little shake she seemed to go somewhere else. "Six...you are a homebody and loyal. You are a true friend. You want to stay with the one you love..." And she looked him in the eye and tilted the bottle of water onto her fingertip. "Your magic name and your name of distinction are tied together because you love partnership and friendship. Your magic name is Merlin - Prince of Enchanters." and she anointed the base of his right ear at the foot of the 'M' with the drop of pure water on her fingertip. She upturned the bottle again. "Your distinctive name is Jabez, loyal and steadfast friend." and she anointed the base of his left ear with pure water. And until you earn these names, you will be called by your child-spirit name, Tom." and she anointed the tip of his nose. Tom felt a tingling throughout his body, and for the first time in his life, he purred! He kneaded her colorful patchwork skirt with his twelve front toes, and he couldn't have stopped if he had wanted to!

"Now hear me!" she said. "For this is very important! When I see that you have truly become The Prince of Enchanters and a true and steadfast friend, I will call you 'Merlin Jabez', but this will be a secret name known only to you and me. Another who knows your worth will call you 'Thomas', and you will know that person as a true friend." Tom heard, and noted, but he knew that he would never leave this person or this place.

It seemed that time stood still. The world he had known ceased to exist. One day ran into another. He and Halloween romped and played and lolled in the sun. The woman made trips into the woods and came back with herbs and plants that she worked over and prepared. Tom never quite knew why until Harold came one night to tell the woman of an injured fawn in the far-away woods. The next day the woman packed a small sack of supplies and went far into the woods. A few days later she came back with the fawn. It's mother had been shot, and it had fallen and broken a leg. It stayed with them, it's leg in a splint, until it was well, drinking medicine the woman made from herbs and eating limbs she brought from the woods. She spoke with the fawn and instructed it in the ways of the hidden forest. Then Tom knew that he was in a separate world.

Harold brought news from the woods and a bit from the outside world. But no people ever came. Tom noticed that it seemed as if there was no world outside of their hidden woods. No sounds of traffic, no noisy metal birds flying above. It was just the three of them and an occasional animal visitor, long days of gardening, herb-gathering, and nights reading or sewing by the fire. Sometimes it seemed the woman would drift far away. While her spirit was gone, Tom and Halloween sat with her purring and waiting for her return. She was always happy to see them when her thoughts came back and thanked them for staying near. Tom was content.

Each night the trio sat on the porch and watched the moon for awhile. And each time it reached fullness the woman would give it a number. "That's 'One'." she said, the first full moon after Tom's arrival. And "That's 'Two'." the next time, and so on. Until one evening she said, "That's 'Twelve'. Halloween, it is almost time again."

"Almost time for what?" Tom asked. But the woman would not tell him.

"For my birthday." Halloween said quietly. "We must go out for my birthday."

"I don't want to go!" Tom exclaimed. "Can't we have it here?"

"No." she replied. And would say no more.

Chapter 4

Another moon passed, and on the night before the full moon, the woman gathered them in her arms and said, "Tomorrow at sunset, you must go out. Go back to the city, Tom, and don't look back. You can come back after midnight the night of Halloween."

"Why?" he cried. "Why?" but no one would answer. All the next day he cried and asked, "Why?". At sunset, with no explanation, Halloween started down the path toward the city. "Come, Tom! It's time to go!" she called. "No!" he cried. "No! I'm staying here!" She disappeared into the brush.

"Go with her, Tom." the woman said. "You can come back tomorrow. It's dangerous to stay here tonight."

"If it is dangerous, I am staying here!" Tom replied stubbornly and settled in his favorite spot on the hearth.

The woman looked at him and sighed. "Alright, Merlin Jabez." she said. "Alright. But if you are going to stay here, you must sleep." And she pulled a deep purple vial from the bright patch pocket of her vest. She knelt before Tom and turned the vial onto her fingertip. Anointing his ears and nose as before, she murmured, "Merlin Jabez. Sleep."

Tom felt himself fall into a deep sleep from which he could not move. The familiar cottage became distant, and he could see only as through a glass darkly. He heard cries and shouts and loud noises. And then he was aware that the cottage was on fire around him, but he was frozen - cast in bronze. The fire burned down, and he fell into blackness.

It seemed ages later when he awoke in the bright open sunshine to the sound of voices. He was nestled between Halloween and the woman's familiar shoe, but not so familiar. Instead of the soft leather, he found himself looking at metal. Instead of Halloween's silky black fur and golden eyes, there was just cold, harsh brown. "What the...?" he thought.

The voices continued. He peeked over the false Halloween and saw a crowd of people gathered. "What will I do?" he thought in panic. He lay low and crouched out of sight. Then came a voice that seemed familiar, a little girl's voice. "What does it say, Daddy?"

And then a very familiar voice. A voice with a different sound that he had heard often in his alley as he hid behind his dumpster. "The Owl, The Witch & The Cat Tavern." the voice began with some hesitation. "Honoring the memory of Goody Thomas, the original settler of this land, burned for witchcraft October 31, 1692."

"Did they really burn her, Daddy?" Mary asked, horrified. Tom's ears perked up. Burned! No!

"Yes." said the familiar voice sadly. "They did that to lots of women a very long time ago."

"Why?"

"Because they were different. Maybe they had land that others wanted. Maybe they had different clothes or they were friends to the wild animals. Sometimes even because they have seizures like your cousin, Jack."

"But that's not fair!"

"No, Mary. Is not fair. But happen anyway. Hey! Look! There is another cat on that statue!" Tom had not been able to resist peeking any longer. He realized too late that his ears and eyes could be seen and even his front paws.

"It's the kitty from behind the market, Daddy!" Mary cried. "I told you! You scared him away with the fireworks last Halloween, but here he is!"

"No!" said Mr. Chan. "Can't be. That was too long ago!" Then he noticed Tom's paws. "But he have big feet! Just like that tom."

"It's him, Daddy! It's him! Let's take him home!"

Mr. Chan, who had secretly left a few choice pieces of fish behind the dumpster when Tom was in residence and had just as secretly missed the independent orange cat after his disappearance, protested weakly. Mary knew her Daddy, and knew she had won but continued to beg gamely, just to save him face!

"Alright! Alright!" Mr. Chan finally agreed. "But IF we get him to come to us and IF we take him home, we must keep him right! He must go to vet and learn to stay indoors where is safety!"

"Oh, no!" thought Tom. "Not that!" and he dropped to the ground behind the statue. "Tom! Come back!" Mary cried, running to the base of the statue. Tom peered around it cautiously. Mary knelt and whispered, "Come on Tom! Kitty-kitty! Come home with me, Thomas!"

"Go with her Merlin Jabez!" a voice vibrated from above, a voice only Tom could hear. Tom looked up and had a full view of the statue. There was his woman, Goody Thomas, with Halloween at her feet and Harold on her shoulder. There they were - cast in bronze. "Go!" The voice whispered again. And Thomas went home with his family.