SLEEPER AND SAMHAIN'S STORY: PART I - THE STORY

[SAMHAIN AND SLEEPER LIE BASKING ON THEIR SUNNING PLATFORMS IN THE CATTERY – FINALLY THERE’S SUN TO BASK IN!]

SAMHAIN: “That was some party last night at Gump’s.”
SLEEPER: “OMC! I saw this morning there were 464 posts!!!
SAMHAIN: “Too bad about those who were having all the bad weather, and couldn’t stay. I think it just missed us here – we only had the high winds. Mama hasn’t walked around yet to see if there are any more downed trees like last time.”
SLEEPER: “Yeah, I hope everyfur was OK. I would have liked to talk some more with…well, with some of the cats.”
SAMHAIN: “MOL – you mean Hunter!”
SLEEPER: “I barely KNOW him!” (blushing slightly)
SAMHAIN: “My point exactly!”

[SLEEPER HUFFS AND TURNS OVER. BOTH ARE SILENT FOR A WHILE.]

SAMHAIN: “I’m bored.”
SLEEPER: [rolling over, sighing] “Me, too. It’s so…sunny!”
SAMHAIN: [sitting up, licking her paw]“Let’s do something.”
SLEEPER: [standing up, stretching] “We could run up the tree to the catwalk and yell names at the squirrels.”
SAMHAIN: [yawning] “Been there, done that, bought the cat toy.”
SLEEPER: [hesitant] “We could write a story, you know, like…Zachery’s.” [her face taking on a smiling, dreamy expression]
SAMHAIN: [rolling her eyes] “Oh, PUH-LEAS-S-S-E-E-E! You’ve been mooning over that tomcat ever since he called you ‘cute’!”
SLEEPER: [blushing, with an obstinate look on her face] “Have not!”
SAMHAIN: “Have too!”
SLEEPER: “Have not!”
SAMHAIN: “Have too!”
SLEEPER: “Have n…”
SAMHAIN: [quickly, rolling her eyes again] “OK! You win! Besides, I like the idea…” [licks her shoulder slowly, thoughtfully, staring off across the lawn]
SLEEPER: [with a little frown of concentration] “What should we write about? We don’t know anything about the wild west.”
SAMHAIN: [leaping up and pacing back and forth] “Let’s write about escaping from the cattery.”
SLEEPER: [looking alarmed] “Oh, no! That would be too scary! I don’t want to leave the cattery; it’s safe here!”
SAMHAIN: [disdainfully] “Not for reals, silly! Just pretends. We’re writing a story, remember? We can write about anything we want to.”
SLEEPER: [eagerly] “OK! Once upon a time there were two kitties…”
SAMHAIN: “No, no, NO! That’s a baby story! We’re almost fullgrown kitties now. It’s got to be more…adult-sounding. Like… ‘it was a day like any other summer day in Michigan, hot and languid…”
SLEEPER: [stamping her paw] “I like my beginning better! Languid, what’s languid?! Why can’t we write it my way?!”
SAMHAIN: [ staring her sister down] “Because I’M the Alpha kitty, THAT’S why!”
SLEEPER: [disgruntled] “Oh, ALRIGHT!”
SAMHAIN: [ softening, putting her paw around Sleeper’s shoulder] “ We’ll leave out the ‘languid’ part.”


It was a day like any other summer day in Michigan, hot and humid. Sleeper and Samhain lay on their sunning boards, lazily slapping mosquitoes off their flanks.
“I’m bored”, Samhain grumbled.
Sleeper rolled over and sighed “Me, too. It’s so…sunny!”
Little did they know that their day was about to become very exciting.

Just that morning the Mama and Papa had left for their first ever overnight stay away from the girls. The Mama had fussed a lot over them, telling them again and again that there was extra food and water set down for them, and their litter box clean and fresh. That they’d only be gone for a night and back again the next day in the afternoon. Sleeper and Samhain could come and go from the cattery as much as they wanted, and they knew, didn’t they, that if anything threatened them out there, that all they had to do was run back into the house. Nothing could get into the cattery, Mama was confident, but for sure nothing was going to get to them in the house. The Papa said, “They’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

The girls had watched from the cattery gate as their pawrents put their bags in the trunk and then drove out of sight. The first hour or so was fun as they pretended they were two feral kitties loose in the woods. They ran up the tree; fought on the catwalk; yelled at those silly squirrels who have no business being in THEIR tree in the first place! Then they felt hot and sleepy and came back down and napped. Now that they’d woken up, they didn’t feel much like doing anything; even eating seemed like too much effort. So they lay in the sun languidly.
[SLEEPER: rolling her eyes].

As chance would have it, that week a new boy had moved into the neighborhood, and he didn’t like cats.

[SLEEPER: “Oh, NO!!! Is this true?!]
[SAMHAIN (exasperated) “Sleeper, it’s just a story!”]
[SLEEPER: “Oh…yeah…]

This naughty little neighbor boy had seen the girls outside in the cattery and he decided he was going to go pull their tails. So he waited till his own parents had left to go shopping, and he snuck across the road to their pen. Sleeper and Samhain saw him coming, but didn’t feel alarmed right away. He was just a little boy after all, and they’d never had any humans hurt them, so for the moment they were more curious than afraid.

He came over to the cattery and opened the gate, calling to them, “Here, kitty-kitties!” As the girls got closer, he sidled his way around behind them and made a grab, first at Sleeper’s tail.

[SLEEPER: “Not MY tail! You’re the Alpha kitty – let him grab YOUR tail!!!]
[SAMHAIN: “Chill out!”]

He sidled his way around behind them and made a grab, first at Samhain’s tail.

[SAMHAIN: “There – you happy?!”]

Samhain bolted the only direction that was open to her – out the cattery gate! Sleeper, finding herself alone with this mean little bully, ran after her sister, right into the tall grass that bordered the paths her Papa had mowed through the field. Meanwhile, the neighbor boy, suddenly feeling scared he might get caught letting the cats out, ran home. The kitties didn’t stick around long enough to see this, though; they were already far from the house when he was hurrying down the driveway.

Samhain was reliving a nightmare from her kittenhood. Something was chasing her, and had caught her at one point, swiping at her head and eye. She’d gotten away, but the pain in her head was terrible, and there was something wrong with her eye so that she was having trouble seeing through it. But that was then, before the Mama came and rescued her. Her eye was fine now, and as she slowed down, she realized that it was Sleeper running behind her, not some monster from her past. She stopped, panting a little as her fear lessened; Sleeper came up beside her, shaking. Samhain bumped her shoulder, and began to groom Sleeper’s face and ears.

Sleeper was looking back over her shoulder, “Is he still chasing us?” she asked fearfully.
“No”, Samhain said, glancing back, too, the way they’d come. She could no longer see the house from where they crouched. “I can’t hear him anymore.”
“What do we do now?” Sleeper asked. She was afraid to go back to the house, even a little uncertain which way to go, not having paid too much attention to direction in her flight from danger.
“Well… I don’t think we should go back yet,” Samhain answered slowly. Sleeper heaved a secret sigh of relief.
“We could wait until the Mama and Papa come home, then it would be safe,” Samhain reasoned.
“But that’s a long time from now!” Sleeper was unsure how long a day was, and the pawrents had said they would be gone longer than that.
“What if we get hungry?” she asked nervously, nibbling her paw. The thought of food suddenly made her feel ravenous!
“We could catch our dinner!” Samhain exclaimed brightly.
“I caught a mouse once, remember? And a snake, too! And you have caught scads of junebugs. How hard can it be? – there’s got to be loads of stuff to eat out here! Come on, Sleep!” And the two of them scampered off through the grass in search of prey.

For awhile they played “cat and mouse”, switching roles as the mood struck them. It was hilarious fun, and they had the whole world to play in, with the warm benevolent sun shining down on them, and the cool grass under their feet, and no worrisome children or other creatures bothering them or telling them to “get down!” or asking sharply “what have you got in your mouth NOW?!” And there were things to catch! Butterflies and crickets! Beetles and worms! Not the bee! – Mama says watch out for those! – Samhain reminded her sister. But no mice. And now they were getting a little tired and drowsy, so they lay down under a shady tree and fell fast asleep.

to be continued...

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