*
Muse trotted into the grasses and her ears picked up the sound of a voice by the burbling of the stream. "Now children," it admonished, and a bubble of giggles arose. Muse saw a cat playfully batting her two kittens and they pounced over her back. The cat looked like Muse but larger, with longer fur. She had a sweet, mother's voice.
"Children, it's time we went back now," she said. Her kittens romped in circles and tumbled over each other, still giggling.
Muse approached. Hello, Elixabeth, she said.
Elixabeth looked up in surprise. "Why, as I live and breathe!" she exclaimed. "It's Muse! Why, I always knew one of you would come back."
I wish I had sooner.
Elixabeth laughed merrily. "Well at least it's not later! You'd be surprised at how much I've thought of you lately."
Have you? But I barely remember –
"Oh, I'm quite a bit older than you. At least one litter older. And you were so young when you were taken away, I'm surprised you remember anything at all, actually."
It's coming back to me. When I saw Mama, especially.
"Yes, Mama." Elixabeth sobered. "I think Mama is going to be leaving us soon." She looked sadly at her kittens. "How she would have loved to see these two growing up."
"I'm gonna be a train cat when I grow up!" piped one of the kittens shrilly, the girl kitten. Muse smiled.
Are you now? And what's a train cat?
"Why, don't you know, Muse?" said Elixabeth. "They are drifters. Riding into the city when they want, coming back to the country, always in search of an adventure, a change. They are hard to spot, if they want to stay out of sight. They are hard to keep in one place. But," said Elixabeth, with a wistful smile at her kittens, "they are easy to love. So easy."
Train cats. Yes, I believe I've met a couple. Muse smiled at the girl kitten indulgently. It looks like this one might meet a few more herself one day.
"You bet!" The kitten flashed her impish grin and skipped away. The other kitten, her brother, rolled in the grass.
What are their names? Has either one discovered its name yet?
"Not my little girl, not yet. But this one…" Elixabeth and Muse watched the boy kitten roll lazily in the grass. "He knew his name right from the start. And he's why I've been thinking of you lately."
But why? asked Muse curiously. The boy rolled to his feet and looked around for his sister.
"Say hello to your Aunt Muse, Henry," said Elixabeth.
Henry cocked his head and looked at Muse.
Hello, Auntie.
Muse gasped. Henry's mischievous laughter trickled into her head as he stretched and trotted around his mother.
"So you see," said Elixabeth. "I think the two of you may be friends, in a rather special way."
Indeed, said Muse slowly, still amazed. Well Henry…. She didn't know what to say. Perhaps we'll see a lot of each other, nowadays.
He looked at her suddenly, with a knowing, penetrating, and yet fully understanding gaze, a look much too old for a kitten. Then he grinned and the moment was gone.
Course we will, he said. See ya guys! And he pranced off after his sister.
Elixabeth, I'm really home. Elixabeth purred and rubbed Muse's head. They began to walk back towards the grove.
"Muse," said Elixabeth, "As long as your heart was here, you never really left."
Chapter 10
In the deepening night, the only movement under the pure array of stars was Muse's quiet footfalls. She left the grove a little ways behind her and circled through the grasses, almost indistinguishable in the darkness even to a cat's sharp night eyes. Her chest felt too full. A homecoming, a family, a kindred spirit. She needed to think before sleep would come to her in this familiar but still strange home.
Somewhere, Watch's long tail hung relaxed and heavy as he slept in the arms of a stone angel, at peace with resting ghosts, a saucer of cream waiting for him on a caretaker's porch steps for when he woke.
Somewhere, a thrilled Contempt skidded unreservedly along the top of a train, shooting like a star back into the city life she loved so well. Somewhere, the train cats who had also taken to the roofs would make her one of them, under the open sky, at least for a while.
Somewhere nearby, Elixabeth slept in a bundle with her kittens, soundly and dreaming of the next day.
Somewhere, Muse's mother slipped away to find a different and final place to lay her head.
Sometime that night, sleep finally came to Muse, and when it did, the dream she saw beneath her eyelids was the same she saw when she awoke.
The End
About the Author:
Joanna Franklin Bell is a writer and mother of three living in rural Maryland with her husband and family. Muse: A Cat's Story is her first and only chapter book for young readers. Her contemporary fiction novels for adults are the Amazon bestsellers Take a Load Off, Mona Jamborski and That Birds Would Sing. She is also the author of the children's picture book Mrs. Just-So, which is currently seeking its illustrator. She is an occasional contributor to Baltimore Magazine. Many of her articles can be found on various Patch.com news sites, and her award-winning short story can be found on the blog Single Dad Laughing.
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