Flash Fiction #378 -- Tom Cat

Tom had never seen a reason to be polite.  People said he was lazy and useless, just because he lived with his old aunt and let her cook and clean.  She had money to support them.  Why should he work?  He'd grown up on a farm before he came to live with Aunt Sally.  He'd worked enough.

He snarled at all of them, including the old witch who lived next door.

He didn't know she was a real witch.  Then one day, he purposely knocked into her as she was carrying bags to her house.  Just for fun.

"Enough of that," she said, lifted her hand and pointed at him.  "Cats have better manners."

He started to laugh.

A huge gray cat appeared at his feet, and then something odd happened: the world grew suddenly very, very big.

He meowed.  Then howled and leapt at Agnes, but she waved her hand, and he froze in mid-air, flailing.  Gasping, too, until he hadn't the energy to do either.

"That's better.  I think you need to learn a lesson or two in life.  Good luck."

She waved her hand: Tom lifted high over the town and flew -- flew a long, long way.  He landed, rather abruptly, in a field of grain several miles away. 

The mice were as startled as he was.

"Fucking hell!  Myrtle!  A huge cat just fell from the sky!" one squealed and ducked behind a tall stalk.

"Watch your language, Frank.  You know it's just someone Agnes sent out from the city --"

"What has she got against us?  I've never seen such a big damn cat --"

"Frank, watch your language --"

"Turn around and look!"

Tom watched as the second mouse turned, froze, and began to back away.  "Holy shit!"

Tom let them go.  He was barely able to stand on four legs and tripped over three of them when he took his first step.  The cat inside the same body held back and chortled in a cat fashion.  Tom tried to take a step and landed on his chin and whimpered, glad the mice were not around.

It took him all night to figure out his legs.  By then, he was starved.  He'd never gone so long without food.  At home, he would have told Aunt Sally to make him something.  Now, even if he was back at the house, he couldn't order anything.

He was going to die.  Maybe he could get back to town and somehow force that old woman -- but how?  He could do nothing.  So he just walked and didn't even care what direction.

The little cottage took him by surprise, especially when the young woman stepped out, followed by a sleepy little girl. 

He walked up to them.  "I want --"  But it was only a meow.  He couldn't demand anything.  He let out a wail of real despair --

"Poor kitty.  Are you hungry, friend?  I think I might have something for you," the woman said.

And that was how he became Friend.  He had food every day, and he sometimes helped, like chasing off the fox from the five startled chickens.  He played with Crystal when she came home from school and guarded the house while Mom was out in the fields with the cranky old tractor.

One stormy night, Mom called him in and let him sleep by the fireplace while she sat at a table and sorted through all kinds of papers.  When she gave a sudden, unexpected sob, both he and the cat he had almost forgotten in the same body, leapt up and rushed to her.

"I'm sorry, Friend.  I just -- I can't make it work.  Uncle Ethan told me to sell the place when he died.  He said it would break my heart to try to keep it going.  He's right.  I can't afford the help I need.  I have to sell."

No!  She belonged here, and so did Crystal!  No!  He had to do something to help, but there was nothing he could do as a cat.  He needed to be human again.

The next day when he went out to look over the hens, he found Agnes the Witch waiting.  He started to back away, but no -- she was just whom he needed.

"Meow?"

"Yes, you have more than learned your lesson.  I am surprised, in fact, that there is so much goodness in you.  Maybe if the rest of us had been kinder..."  She stopped and shook her head.  "Come out."

He stood up.  Unsteady for a moment, but he smiled at Agnes.  "Thank you.  I can help Mom now -- what is her name?  Do you know?"

"Cathy Hyde.  She's not going to trust you, a stranger showing up."  Agnes paused and nodded.  "Say you worked for her uncle sometimes.  You know the place well enough to make her believe it.  Good luck, Tom.  Oh, and write to your aunt.  She's worried."

And with a snap of her fingers, she disappeared.

Cathy did mistrust him, but he only asked to stay a couple days in the barn, and he'd work for it. First, he got the tractor working and then took it out for a rest -- managing to bring in a quarter of the grain.  He fixed part of the roof and then helped with the garden vegetables.  The days passed quickly.

"You can't keep working for nothing, Tom.  I'm sorry --"

"I have good food and a place to stay.  We can keep it at that for now, right?"

Tom turned out to be good at farming now that he wasn't being ordered to do things.  Crystal adored him, and Friend the Cat seemed to like him, as well.  They spent the rest of the late summer and early autumn fixing up everything and preparing for the next growing season.

Before the winter set in, they went to town and had the judge marry them with his stunned Aunt Sally and an amused Agnes as witnesses.

And yes, they lived happily ever after.