The Road Less Travelled
Part Four: Light in the Darkness
By Rheow
In the midst of the frenzy that had seized the Jellicles that dreadful day, Avaleen had collapsed, so highly strung was she. She woke again in the oven with Vesta hovering over her.
"Oh you're up at last," Vesta said in relief. "They're trying to find Macavity--Old Deuteronomy came back and everyone calmed down again. They're trying to straighten out this mess . . ."
And it was a dreadful mess now that everyone was feeling guilty for chasing out a fellow Jellicle. They were starting to question . . . How had Macavity done it? What about the Pollicles then? Was Mac involved with *them* too? Unheard of for a cat . . .
The only way to find out was to find Macavity. But no cat had seen tail or whisker of him. Why did he not return then, if he was innocent?
All through it, Amberene had looked like her heart had shattered into pieces. She hardly spoke to any cat and Avaleen knew the fault was all hers. Oh how she wished she could have taken back all those words!
But later, a month later, the others came with news. News from the Jellicles who were strays and had contacts with others of their kind. Macavity was now leader of a pack of strays. Macavity had killed. Macavity had rats working for him.
There was an immediate commotion in the junkyard at the news. There were Jellicles who were suddenly proclaiming how they had known that Macavity was guilty from the start. Macavity's old friends looked like they had been hit by a tree, the way they stared in shock at the news--they had been the ones still actively believing Macavity's innocence.
Old Deuteronomy's expression was sorrowful as he spoke. "If he has killed, if he has indeed forsaken this tribe, then let him return to us no more . . ."
At this, there was a cry. It was Amberene, well into her pregnancy and grief-stricken by the loss of her mate. Jellylorum and the other queens went to her even as the toms started wondering what Macavity would do next. In the middle of this war-like counsel, one cat looked about in bewilderment and sudden realisation.
"My fault! It's my fault! Oh Everlasting Cat!" Stricken by the magnitude of what had transpired, Avaleen turned and ran, unnoticed by any cat.
Ran as fast as all four paws could take her. Ran away from the awful knowledge that Macavity's expulsion had been *her* mistake, that his fate was *her* doing. The visions in her dream--they could never have come true if not for *her* meddling.
It was she who had been *projecting*--her grief and pain had taken over and she had projected those raw emotions unknowingly. And the others had been affected by it. She saw it so clearly now--her violent moods from those dreams had somehow been transmitted by her latent psychic abilities and so the fork in the path was past. Her visions were coming true . . .
Later--much later--when the fuss had died down at last and some semblance of order had been restored, there was no sign of the black and white queen. They mounted a search, but she was no where to be found. It was a sad thing everyone agreed, that she should disappear out of grief for her lost brother--a pair of twins gone from the junkyard forever.
^-^O~
Griddlebone's Narrative
After that eventful day, we left Macavity alone except to go check on his wounds. He had got an infected scratch and was feverish for days. Estelle told us about how he had been chased out by his tribe and she put out the word that if any cat should ask about a ginger tom, we all were to keep mum about it.
But everyone else would not wait that long.
Even as his fever broke, there were stirrings of dissent. Lockely and Arfehul would not give up so easily. They caught us all unprepared as they returned with their supporters' help and chased the just-healed ginger cat out. The scales of power shifted again . . .
They threw Estelle out as an example--she ran so far even Lori and I could not find her afterwards. Some cats were thinking of leaving--after what they had done to poor Estelle, Lori and Gaffer were thinking of packing it in and fleeing.
And Macavity came back a week later to challenge them. This time he took them both down with a kind of ruthlessness not present before and if there were any disputes about it this time, the dark pulsing mass of rats behind him quashed all opposition . . .
The word would spread.
^-^O~
Tired . . . tired to the bone . . . Macavity slept like the dead even though he was hurting from the scratches he had sustained in battle. When he woke, he knew only a hazy delirium and that there were ghostly figures of cats around him, whispering, murmuring . . .
"Scratched badly . . . infected . . ."
"What can you do . . . help . . ."
" . . . has to live . . . or else . . ."
Much later, he awoke alone. His thoughts went to his mate, his tribe, his lost friends . . . He propped himself up on one shoulder, wondering how much time had passed. Should he even be here? Amberene--the kittens--his train of thought was cut short when he noticed the one anomaly in the decrepit old bedroom.
It was a rat sitting some distance away from where he was lying, all tense and ready to flee.
The rat was saying something to him. Intrigued, Macavity listened. It must be a strange dream indeed for him to be talking to a rat . . .
But Macavity soon realised that this was no dream--and so he was prepared when Lockely and Arfehul came back and instigated the shift in power once again.
They chased him out and hounded him like the blazes until he eluded them. The rat found him and brought him to where the others were in the sewers. There, Macavity thought much upon revenge and how he might have done it earlier . . .
The rats became his eyes and ears to the outside world. Macavity knew of the going-ons in Old Mather's organisation. Lockely and Arfehul were intelligent up to only a certain point. They had driven out their sister as a traitor and after that, they fell back into the cycle of fighting for power once again. They had forgotten about him in such a short time. But he had not forgotten them.
So it was fairly easy to go back to the old house to challenge them both. Macavity knew a savage kind of joy as he broke them both--such an alien feeling to the one time Jellicle--and the rats, they took care of the rest . . .
He had a bargain with them now. He had learned their speech fairly quickly and in exchange for safety amongst the cats he might some day command, they would be his spies and his army. His prosperity would be theirs.
It was not his plan to stay there--his thoughts were still focused on the junkyard and getting back to his mate. He could bear the loss of his tribe, but not his mate. They could stay with his humans. Only he had to repay a debt--to young Estelle who had been cast out by her own kin.
But by then, it was already too late.
^-^O~
Jellylorum came out of the oven, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Well?" Vesta and Belinda asked at the same time.
"Two kittens--a pretty pair of queens," Jelly told them. "They're healthy and loud as can be . . ."
"Oh, the Everlasting Cat was listening!" They went in afterwards to see the exhausted mother and her two kits. They congratulated her, praised the kittens and told her how brave she was. But Amberene only looked wane and tired.
She was a devoted mother and she seldom stirred from the old oven--her kittens were all that she had left of her mate. The other queens began to be worried. It was as though a light had been extinguished the day Macavity had been officially exiled. She never truly recovered from the shock. A week after the kittens were born, Amberene passed on. They would always say that she died of a broken heart.
Vesta and Belinda took over the care of the kits in the memory of their friend. And they named the older kitten Bombalurina--red and fiery like her sire--and the younger one Demeter--who was marked very much like Amberene.
^-^O~
In the aftermath of Macavity's expulsion and the dark days that followed, Julianna found herself going to see old Pherya more often. Autumn was drawing in and winter was not far behind--she was concerned for the old cat.
Julianna examined the older queen worriedly. She was growing thinner and tended to stay in her rude shelter more.
"It's an illness, Julia . . . keep away from me," Pherya said softly. "Soon I will go to the Everlasting Cat . . ."
"Don't say that!" Julianna exclaimed in dismay.
But one day she came and found the old cat lying still in her pipe. No amount of cajoling would wake her and Julianna knew that Pherya was dead. With a bowed head, Julianna exited the pipe, mourning the loss of a friend.
Her appearance surprised one of the strays who frequented that site.
"You shouldn't be here!" the other cat hissed.
"W-why? I was seeing an old friend--" Julianna began.
"That old queen in the pipe?" the tom asked suspiciously
"She just died--"
"It's the wasting disease, you stupid queen!" the cat snarled before loping off, angry and frightened of the disease--and of *her*.
Julianna was suddenly brought up short by the tom's words. The wasting disease--every cat's nightmare. And Pherya had been ill . . . there had been no cats coming by that area recently . . .
"Everlasting Cat!" Was the illness contagious? Julianna remembered how often she had visited the old queen. Oh, she needed help--she needed someone to tell her if she had caught it too--
But she could not risk going back to the junkyard. What if she passed the disease on? To her friends, to the older cats . . . to her children.
No . . .
Julianna began walking, thoughts churning around in her head like frightened mice. Firstly, she knew her presence was not necessary in the junkyard. She was a queen without a mate--even though that absent mate might have been Leader of the Jellicles once--and there were queens to take care of the other kittens.
But her children . . .
Munkustrap. Old Deuteronomy said he might try to get him some humans. He would be safe with humans and well cared for according to the old cat--if he found some good humans, that is. It was Cateract who might need the presence of his mother. But surely, he was an adult now--surely he could . . . not help but see her disappearance as another betrayal.
Burdened with her thoughts, Julianna did not return to the junkyard for the first time in her life. She sought no other Jellicles and kept away from other cats. Like Pherya had--living like a hermit.
She spent her days wondering about, missing the company of friends and family. The pickings were thin, especially when she was a strange cat in even stranger territory.
Was this what her mother had felt?
Julianna paused in her wanderings and stared sightlessly at the leaves that blew past her. But she was truly taken with the wasting illness, she could tell . . . her starved state only made the knowledge worse. So engrossed in her thoughts was she that she failed to notice the human walking past until she heard the loud crunch of boot heels amidst the dry leaves.
The human stopped and subjected Julianna to an intense regard. She tensed up, but she was tired and weak--too weak to fight off anything that meant her harm as the human's hands came closer.
But those hands were kind and they lifted her gently, stroking and petting her as the human murmured soft words to her.
^-^O~
Griddlebone's Narrative
After Macavity had disposed of Lockely and Arfehul in a way that no cat would ever forget, he set everyone out to search for Estelle. I could tell he did not want this position and he felt somewhat responsible for the young queen's predicament. They never found Estelle and after two weeks, even Macavity had to give up.
After that, Macavity sent his rats out to find out news from the junkyard and his former tribe. He took the news of his exile quite calmly but when they came back with the news about his mate giving birth to his kits and dying shortly after, Macavity all but went mad with grief.
He was roaring incoherently after he got the news and no cat dared to go near him. He tore up quite a bit of one wall and spent the night on the roof--we could hear him calling his mate's name over and over until morning. After that day, he kept to his room and never came out even to eat.
Not that there was much to eat. These times were lean and one of the first priorities was to find some form of sustenance. It was the leader's job to take care of those matters. And right now we had a leader who didn't want to be the leader even though he could do it.
After much discussion in the kitchens, I went up the stairs, trailed by a good many cats and entered Macavity's den. The reddish tom was sitting up at the window, looking out. His coat was tangled and untidy--like he had not been grooming for the past few days.
"Macavity . . ."
His bloodshot eyes swung my way and I suppressed the urge to back away.
"Macavity--it's been four days . . ."
He was ignoring me.
"Macavity--you have to do something! Cats are looking to you for leadership!"
He really couldn't care.
So I had to appeal to something closer to his heart. "This . . . is not so different from leadership of the Jellicles." I risked mentioning the name of his old tribe, but it got his attention all right. "You have to take care of the territory. And for the cats. Some of them have families and *kittens* to feed. You're a better leader than Lockely and Arfehul could ever be--they're all depending on you . . ."
He did not speak for a long time but when he did stir, there was something purposeful in his movements again. "Call everyone . . ."
When Macavity lost his mate, he had lost something of himself. We tried to replace that hole with responsibility. He had to see *us* as his people. And when he called the cats to him that day and started speaking, Lori and I knew that he had always been born to lead. It was in his blood and it gave him some direction in life.
He was so much more intelligent than that pair of unfortunate brothers--especially when that intellect was given a definite outlet to flow. He also knew how humans behaved as well--which was why his plans worked. He organised the food thefts so neatly that everyone could not help but agreed. He had them sneaking into butcher shops and making off with the best cuts--as well as the fish mongers, markets and the odd kitchen or two. We ate well for once and any doubters would have been convinced by their stomachs that Macavity was doing his job.
Macavity was the leader now and he did not think about his humans or his tribe anymore--or so I thought. He was soon known as the Napoleon of Crime because of his wiles and cats learned to tread warily when his reputation became common knowledge.
And everything might have been fine--until he came back one day with two kittens.
^-^O~
Busy as he was with the organisation, Macavity's thoughts normally meandered back to one place. It was his birthplace and his fondest memories would always reside there. The pack of strays had given him reason to push on, but that never took the pain away completely. He would often stray close to the junkyard when he was outside, drawn by the pull of the memories. It was also where his mate had died.
In the early days of winter, he began lurking closer. It was inevitable that he gave into the temptation and spied upon his former tribe from a chink in the back fence. The second time he did this, he chanced to see two kittens playing near the back of the junkyard--watched by Jellylorum. One of them was red and the other one was marked so much like Amberene that Macavity forgot to breathe for a while.
And then some cat called for Jelly and she went over to see what the matter was. When her back was turn, there was no other queen watching that pair of kittens.
Before he even knew what he was doing, Macavity had leapt down, seized the two kittens and was over the fence and away before anyone saw him. They mewled as he bore them swiftly back to the hideout.
In the relative safety of his den, he gazed raptly at his children. The older one was red like him and the younger bore a striking resemblance to her mother. They stared back at him silently, frightened. They did not know him at all and that pained him the most . . .
Later, he brought them downstairs--he would have to ask some queen to feed them.
"Are you mad? You brought them back here--" Griddlebone asked him sharply when he had asked them about that matter. Lori was already taking care of the kits--it was the mother in her being protective. Macavity hissed in irritation. How could he explain this?
"They're *my* kittens!" he said stubbornly.
"True," Griddlebone conceded, "but do you think their foster parents would let them go so easily?"
The two queens exchanged a look. There would be trouble after this, they could feel it. The Jellicles would not let the loss of these two kitten pass--not after all that had happened in the past few months. And not if they knew that Macavity of all cats had them. One of the kittens--the younger one--sensing the tensions in the air, started crying for her mother.
That was the breaking point. Macavity looked away from his offspring because it hurt too much now--they reminded him too much of Amber.
"Take them back!" he barked, not turning around. Who was he trying to fool? Only himself apparently. He knew as well as any that his kits were Jellicles and they belonged with their tribe--his former tribe.
Griddlebone obeyed with alacrity.
^-^O~
Howard Dowling entered his office promptly at nine and was greeted by Alice, his receptionist and assistant.
"Good morning, Doctor," said the young woman cheerfully.
"Good morning, Alice--found any strays today?" It was a ritual between them--like her calling him "Doctor" all the time--because Alice had this habit of picking up strays because she felt sorry for them.
"As a matter of fact, Doctor--I have . . . she's in the IU." Alice was familiar enough with her employer to know that her actions would not be frowned upon.
"Ah well, we still have time before my first appointment," said the veterinarian before they went to the room they liked to call the Isolation Unit. Alice was usually sensible enough to put any of her newly found strays in the IU at the back of the clinic.
It was a grey tabby queen that was staring mutely from a cage in the IU that morning. The vet examined her, saw how thin she was and asked Alice to bring food.
"She must have been starving," Alice said as she watched the queen eat. "Is there anything wrong with her, Doctor?"
"A case of FLV, Alice," Howard Dowling said sadly. His own cat had been infected, not five years ago. He had given her the injection himself--he could never forget that.
"Can I take her home?" Alice asked impulsively after a moment's silence. "I haven't had any other cat after old Moggie died."
"She won't last very long," Howard began.
"I know," Alice blurted out. "I'll bring her back . . . when it's time."
The vet nodded his assent. Alice had a soft spot for hopeless cases and they had to be careful that an infected cat did not infect any other patients. And Christmas was coming too. Funny how such a supposedly cheerful season could be such a nightmare for some vets. But quite a few cats and dogs were abandoned during this time. And there were heaps that got given away as presents and needed vaccinations.
Like his next appointment at ten. It was his niece Clara with her new kitten.
"Isn't he cute, Uncle?" thirteen year old Clara asked as she presented the gangling grey tabby tom to him in his clinic later. "Uncle Fred found him for me!"
Howard nodded attentively as he checked this latest addition to Clara's family. Father Fredrick at the Vicarage always managed to find kittens or young cats to put up for adoption. It had something to do with Fred's cat--an old patriarch who's extended family could very probably be found everywhere in the city.
"He's a healthy, strong lad," he told his niece. "Just needs his shots and something for the ear mites. What did you name him?"
"I think I'll name him either Freddy or Howy--after you!"
^-^O~
Munkustrap did not mind his new humans. They were all right once the girl had stopped trying to put ribbons around his neck. And they let him go out for air and play.
Which was why he was on his way to the junkyard that day. His brother might be worrying for him already. And perhaps their mother might have been found. When he entered, he found the Jellicles having an emergency meeting--a state that normally meant very bad things recently.
"Cateract? Whatever's the matter?" he asked his older brother.
"The kittens--Bombalurina and Demeter . . . they're gone--we're going to search for them," Cateract said distractedly. For once he was not brooding--brooding over why Julianna had not came back one day. That was just before Munkustrap was taken away by Old Deuteronomy to go meet his prospective humans. "Did your humans treat you well?"
"They're fine," Munkustrap reassured his brother. He looked around for his mother, but she was not there.
"She didn't come back," Cateract said out of the corner of his mouth as they listened to Skimbleshanks detailing a search plan.
"Oh." Munkustrap could see the doubt his brother faced. Their mother could be dead from some accident and they would never know. Or it could be as the whispering queens said . . . "Gone the way of her brothers, her mother Grizabella . . . footloose . . ." Cateract had pretended he never heard those whispers but he was hurt by them, Munkustrap could tell.
"All right, me laddies! We'll set off now and meet back here when the moons rises!" Skimble called from the front. "Good luck with the searchin'!"
^-^O~
Griddlebone's Narrative
I called a few cats together for an escort and Lori and I took the kittens out into the cold winter afternoon so that we might bring them back to the junkyard. They might not be so suspicious of us if two queen--Lori and I--approached them later.
But things did not go as planned. We were going down an alley when suddenly a bunch of tom cats sprang out at us and started attacking.
"Give us those kittens!" one of them yelled and I realised with a sinking feeling that these were Jellicles--but they had jumped the gun first. Our people started defending themselves--they were street strays and it was practically instinctive. Attack when attacked . . .
I wanted to drop the kittens and call a retreat--and then Macavity was there with his rats. At that moment, he had to save us from his former tribe--not a good situation to be in.
^-^O~
Munkustrap had joined his brother's search party eagerly. There had been a great many searches conducted that year, but Munkustrap was now old enough to join his brother and his friends. The friends of his generation were also going and Munku could not help but exchange grins and winks with Alonzo, Tugger and the others.
"Hurry up, Munku--this isn't a picnic!" Cateract called. And he was proven right very soon.
It was Nic who spotted the approaching cats and they all hid themselves to observed. There were about four toms and with them were two queens. The queens were carrying the two missing kittens.
"We should hurry--Macavity wants us back early," one of the strangers said when they came nearer.
That was enough for Cateract. He leapt out before anyone else could act and the others were forced to go after him.
"Give us those kittens!" he demanded before jumping into the fray. Munkustrap wanted to stop him because he understood his brother's anger. Macavity had been his brother's best friend after all . . . and now with their mother gone, Cateract had been growing more and more angry by the day. This was just the last straw . . .
It looked like they would win--because they outnumbered the outsiders--but then Munkustrap heard a loud shout and he was suddenly surrounded by rats. Large, sleek, black rats who were biting him even as he hissed and swatted at them in revulsion.
At one point, Munkustrap saw the fiery coat of the outcast--and then Cateract was shouting at him from somewhere in the press of fighting cats.
"Macavity!" The grey tabby sprang onto the ginger tom and there was a brief tussle before the exile cast him off.
"I won't fight you, old friend!" Macavity called across the noise of the battle. "Take the kittens and--"
There was a shrill scream as one of Macavity's people fell. More Jellicles were coming, attracted by the noise of the fight. Munkustrap lost sight of his brother as he found himself fighting for his life. This was not any mock-fight, this was not kittens playing at war . . .
This was a bloody and brutal scrap--rats were dying but the Jellicles and Macavity's people were also going down. But it had to end.
It ended with Macavity's forces pulling out at his command. Munkustrap was still slashing out on reflex when there were no more attackers. He halted, panting--and looked about for his brother even as the other Jellicles approached the battlefield cautiously.
Cateract was lying in the slushy ground a few metres away. Munkustrap stumbled over and nudged his brother's shoulder. "C'mon, Cat . . . it's over now . . ." But Cateract was bleeding from numerous bites and scratches and was barely moving. Munku felt more Jellicles moving around him as they supported him and his brother--the non-combatants had came to help move the injured . . .
Macavity was one of the last to retreat from the field, driving his henchcats and the rats before him. Munkustrap would always remember how the ginger tom looked, all bloody and battered as he stood at the tail of the retreating column of rats. He was looking at the two kittens who were being collected by near hysterical group of Jellicle queens and then he turned abruptly and left.
Munkustrap passed out at about that time. He would always remember that battle--his first and the most terrible one. He would remember it always in the winter time.
And Macavity would always be associated with the death of his brother.
^-^O~
Old Deuteronomy knew what grief was. Grief was losing his son when he left with his humans. Grief was exiling his own grandson and losing another when Cateract had given up fighting against the infection from the rat bites. Cateract was one of the three cats who had lost their lives in the battle.
Old Deuteronomy closed his eyes as he sat on the wall behind the Vicarage . . . he did not want to be the one to tell Munkustrap that he was in next in line for the position of leadership, not after what the youth had lost in the past few days. But he had no choice . . .
His grandson was resting at his humans' home. They had sent him to the vet when he had returned with his injuries. Rat bites tended to fester and Munkustrap was fortunate to come away with nothing permanent.
When Old Deuteronomy came to see his grandson, the young tom was looking better already, but there was a change in him. Munkustrap looked older now--more ready to take on the responsibilities of a leader. The battle had aged him in many ways. He would do, Old Deuteronomy decided, he would do . . .
Julianna spent most of the winter in the apartment of the human woman who was kind. The woman lived alone and gave her quite a lot of attention. There had been another cat that lived here once--it had died of old age. Julianna could tell all this from sniffing at the cat basket and the dishes where the human put her food.
It was a blissful time and Julianna felt less burdened even though she knew she was dying. She was purring peacefully in the human woman's arms when she took her to the vet again.
There was a little pain when the human male handled her, and then she fell asleep as the female human held her.
^-^O~
Alice could be heard sniffling behind him as he cleared up. Howard Dowling patted her shoulder awkwardly. "She went quietly--dignified end, I should say . . ."
His assistant nodded and wiped at her tearing eyes. She was still not used to this part of her job even after so long. Howard preferred to let her sit out of most of them but she insisted on carrying the grey tabby after he had given her the injection.
Now it was the end of the day and they had stayed back to see the pretty tabby off to wherever cats went after passing on. They cleared up and closed the clinic in silence.
"Merry Christmas, Doctor," Alice said to him before they left. It was Christmas Eve--he had almost forgot. He even had a party to go to tonight.
"Merry Christmas, Alice."
The End