Kitty KIbbles:(Author’s note) Yes, that’s the Jacob Brent you saw in the Cats video (Mistoffelees—the hot one). I’m taking some fictitious license and pretending he doesn’t live in New York. Please bear with me here. Sorry for the interruption. Read on.
Jiintaildancer awoke to her back being gently stroked. Ah, Jacob, you know I love it when you do that, she thought to herself. Her red-patched eye opened a slit in recognition of her master, Jacob Brent. She was a beautiful long-haired cat, her cream-colored fur lined with dark auburn stripes.
“Sorry I woke you up, Jo.” Jacob had named his cat after the actress who he’d performed with in the recent video. Jiin thought that she didn’t resemble Etcetera at all, but she didn’t mind names that much. Oh, I like it just fine, she thought as she rolled onto her back so he would stroke her stomach. “Why, you spoiled little—“ Jacob chuckled, petting his cat to make her happy. He flashed that brilliant smile of his and the cat purred.Jiintaildancer swished her tail back and forth in content. Jacob was the nicest master she ever had, and she intended to stay with this one for a long time. However, she’d have to get up sometime, and now was as good as any. She stretched her legs and rolled over again, trying to get across that she’d been caressed enough for one session. “All right, then, fine—just be a brat like that,” her master teased as she stretched her legs sleepily. “I suppose now you’ll want me to be your butler and open the door so you can go out?”
How did you know, Jiin thought sardonically. She looked up at Jacob as if to say, Of course—what else would I want?
Her master snickered and swung the door out. “Right this way, milady,” he teased. She stretched her legs once more and, being sure to keep up her tail perpendicular, stalked out of the room.
Today’s the day, Jiintaildancer mused. Grizabella and I will finally visit that mysterious junkyard of hers. She didn’t have to go very far; Jacob’s home was conveniently close to her friend’s private alley.
“So, Griz, when are we—“ Jiin stopped short. Grizabella wasn’t there.
“Yes…very successful,” the older cat mused, thinking of Grizabella’s recent journey to the Heavyside Layer.
“Think she’s happy?” Munkustrap queried, reading his leader’s thoughts with that remarkable intuition of his.
“I’m sure of it. She seemed so sad, and so horribly alone—we sure didn’t help her with that one. I wonder if she left anyone behind, though,” he wondered aloud.
“I’m sure she did, but she’s happier where she is now. Her friends could rest easy knowing that her pain is over,” the silver tabby comforted.
“Still… well, I guess you’re right, Munkustrap. You always are, aren’t you? You’ll make a good leader… when I’m gone.”
“If I’m always right, then I predict that won’t happen for a long, long time.” The pair of friends laughed.
Mungojerrie and Rumpelteaser’s existences thrived on making trouble. They were looking for it right now, when a cream-and-red cat emerged from the shadows. Jerrie’s jaw went slack at the sight of the gorgeous feline.
“Excuse me, but could you assist me in finding my friend? Her name’s Grizabella. She’s kind-of brown with—“
“Grizabella?!” Rumpelteaser was shocked. Who would be looking for her?
“You know her? Well what—how—“
“But she’s…gone,” Mungojerrie told her, confused at how someone could not know of a journey to Heavyside.
“Gone? What do you mean, ‘gone’? She told me we would go to a junkyard today… see someone called the Jellicles…”
“Hey, that’s us!” Rumpelteaser was happy to have some recognition in the conversation.
“You’re a Jellicle? Well, do you know why she wanted to see you? What do you mean when you say she’s gone? Where did she go?”
“Up…” Mungojerrie said vaguely.
“Come on, she can’t fly! How can she go up? What do you mean, ‘up’? Up where?” The confused cat bombarded the two with questions; she was getting impatient.
“Up, up, up—to the Heavyside Layer,” ‘Teaser answered, her voice lilting to the tune of the song.
“Where is that?”
Now it was the siblings’ turn to be confused. Where was it? How could she not know where it was? They looked at each other, then her, befuddled.
“Forget it—I’ll find someone with better answers.” The cat stalked off, leaving Jerrie and ‘Teaser completely bewildered.
The Rum Tum Tugger and Mistoffelees were resting on the car hood and talking about the Ball the previous night.
“Etcetera’s sure got an eye for you, Tugger. Did you see her? She practically glued herself to you all night! Lucky,” Misto sighed wistfully.
“Look who’s got an eye for the kittens,” Tugger teased.
“She’s more grown up than you!” the magic cat shot back.
“Yeah, yeah, sure—whatever you say, Misto,” the leopard tom bantered.
“Oh, yeah? Well—“
“Excuse me, boys. Am I interrupting something important?” a voice purred. The two toms turned, and a beautiful cream-and-auburn cat slipped into the clearing.
Tugger’s mouth sagged and Misto stared. “I—I—I—ah…”was all they could muster.
“I see. I’m looking for a cat—“ Jiintaildancer stopped and eyed the black tom closely. “You look familiar. Do I know you?”
“I—I—ah…don’t… think…so…” Mistoffelees jabbered.
“Remarkable. You almost…nah. Are either of you Jellicle cats?”
“That’s me.” Tugger finally found his tongue.
“Me, too,” Misto added, batting Tugger with his paw.
“Excellent. I’m looking for my friend—Grizabella. You seen her?”
“Are you kidding?” Tugger asked incredulously.
“Why would I be?”
“Well, she’s gone, I mean… didn’t you know?”
“Know what?” Jiin wasn’t very patient.
“Old Deuteronomy—our leader—chose her to go to the Heavyside Layer…”
“Same story I got from those other ones. Where is this place? Is she coming back?”
“Come back to a different Jellicle life…” Misto muttered obscurely.
“You mean you’ve never heard of it?” Tugger was confused.
“Never.”
“But you were her friend—you must have… never mind. The Heavyside is…you know…the Heavyside.”
“Got any other names for it?”
“Humans might call it something like cat heaven,” Misto explained. “Except you come back, you know, in a different form—cats have nine lives.”
“WHAT?! What is that supposed to mean?! Did she die or something?!”
“No, Deuteronomy chose her. It’s a privilege.”
Jiintaildancer was stunned. Griz had left—and was not coming back. She sunk down on her haunches, shocked and upset. “Gone…” was all she muttered.
“What’s going on? Who’s this?” A silver tom with black stripes entered from the pipe and approached the trio.
Jiin was obviously in no position to answer. “Oh… she’s a friend of Grizabella’s, apparently. You never told us your name…” Tugger turned to Jiintaildancer questioningly.
She gave it to them listlessly.
“Knew Grizabella? Well, well—you don’t say,” Munkustrap mused, remembering his conversation with Old Deuteronomy. “It’s all right, my friend. She is happier where she is—“
“What do you mean, calling me ‘friend’?! I don’t even know you and you tell me that—she’s gone—“ Jiintaildancer choked back a sob and fled from the junkyard.
Tears streamed down the feline’s cheeks. How could she be gone? I just saw her yesterday—she said we were going to see someone, Jiin thought, pained at the thought of never seeing her dearest friend again.
“Hey, baby. What’s wrong?” A nondescript brown cat appeared from the street to her left.
“Go away, Parn. I don’t want to see you.”
Parnioffem feigned shock and rubbed sensuously against her side. “Funny…you’ve never said that before…”
“Well I just did!” Jiintaildancer yelled angrily, pulling away. “Can’t you see I want to be alone?!”
Now he really was surprised, and a bit offended. “Come on—you can tell ol’ Parn what’s wrong. Come back to my place…we’ll lay out in my box…you can tell me everything. Didja have a bad hit, or what?”
“JUST SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE!” Jiin screamed hotly. “I want to be alone,” she sniffed, quieter.
“Fine, babe, I’ll leave ya alone. See ya another time.” The stray licked Jiin’s neck with mock passion and then disappeared into the street.
Jiintaildancer returned to her master’s house, not knowing where else to go. She scratched the door and mewed softly.
It opened and Jacob appeared. “Hey, Jo. Back so soon?”
Jiin didn’t even look at him; she just walked slowly and silently into the house.
“All right, be that way.”
Why is everyone being so critical of me today? The feline meowed and pawed at Jacob’s leg, wanting to be held.
“That’s better. Are you okay, baby? You’re usually perkier than this.”
Jiin just looked up at him sorrowfully and meowed sadly, waiting for her master to comfort her.
“Beats me,” Tugger sighed. “Who was she? How did she know Grizabella? Why was she looking here for her?” He looked to Bal questioningly, as if she had the answer.
“You were looking at her funny,” she stated flatly.
“Don’t I look at everyone funny?”
The red cat smiled humorously. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Well, I guess I’ll just leave you two to have your privacy,” Mistoffelees teased. “Come on, Munku—I think they want to be alone.” He said the last word with feigned passion.
The silver tabby chuckled. “Yeah, I guess so,” he mimicked Bal.
The two toms walked away, talking as they went. “There was something about her that reminded me of Grizabella,” Misto mused. “Something in her eye…”
“Perhaps they were compatriots in profession,” Munkustrap suggested, hoping the black tom would take the hint.
“Maybe.”
“She seemed upset like she didn’t understand. I don’t think she knows the significance of being chosen to return to the Heavyside Layer.”
“I’d back you on that one. She’d obviously heard nothing of Jellicle lore before. But she said she’d come here to see us…” Misto trailed off, having nothing left to say in his confusion.
“Strange indeed. I wish I knew new where she went so we could ask her some questions about what she knew of Grizabella.”
“Yeah.”
Jiintaildancer laid in her padded bed and thought about her friend. They’d known each other for a long time, but not forever.
Griz had said nothing of her past, only that she’d left some sort of tribe to discover the world. Jiin’s story was that she’d been born a stray and never known her parents. Eventually she sank down into the level of an alley cat and ended up taking Grizabella with her. She’d thought they were happy in their life, but every once and a while Griz had seemed wistful for her old existence in her tribe. Jiin hadn’t asked her anything about it. Now she kind-of wished she had.
So she went to these Jellicles so she could have the chance to go to this Heavyside Layer. Why didn’t she wait ‘till today? Why did she go last night and not say anything to me? Why did she leave me all alone?
Jiintaildancer’s only hope for answers lay with the Jellicles in their junkyard. But not today, she thought. I want to be alone with my memories today. She began to cry again, remembering. Eventually she fell asleep, letting the blissful slumber help her forget.
“So you haven’t seen Griz either?”
“Nah. Saw Jiin though. Real upset about somethin’—wouldn’t come to my place and tell me what was wrong.”
“Weird. Somethin’ strange is goin’ on. What’s with the girls today? Griz missing, Jiin cryin’ an’ turnin’ down offers… what’s it all mean? What’s goin’ on?”
“Beats me.”
“Maybe tomorrow everything will be okay. Maybe it’ll just blow over.”
“I hope so.”
“Hero? Who, me?”
“Yeah—you saved Deuteronomy and brought the lights back on.”
“Ah, I wouldn’t call it that—“
“But I would.” Etcetera moved a little closer to the black tom, making him nervous. “Howz ya say we have a little…celebration?”
“Tugger put you up to this, didn’t he? Always making fun of me! I can’t believe you would—“
“It’s not that. I really like you, Misto. You’re nice and you’re smart and you’re so heroic and brave…”
“Ah, you’re teasing me. Stop it. Come on. Admit that Tugger had you do this to make fun of me.” Mistoffelees was tired of the Rum Tum Tugger’s games.
“He didn’t.”
“Yeah, well—“ Misto stopped, surprised. This wasn’t the answer he’d expected. “Really? You mean it?”
“I mean it. How could I like Tugger? That’s so… unoriginal. Everybody likes Tugger.”
“True. But how come you hung around him all night at the Ball?”
“You could call it peer pressure—all the other kittens were with him and I didn’t really want to be alone.”
“I guess that makes sense. Hey, did you see that female the other day, the one with the red stripes?”
“No. Was she a Jellicle? What was she doing here?”
“She said she was looking for Grizabella.”
“How odd,” Etcetera mused, perplexed. “I assume she didn’t know what had happened to her?”
“Didn’t know nor understand when we told her.”
“Hmmm…what do you make of it?”
“Nothing—that’s why I asked if you’d seen her.”
“Huh. Nope, can’t say I did.”
“It’s a shame. I wonder where she went. I wish we could explain to her what happened, so at least she’d understand.”
“Umm…Mistoffelees? Is… that her?” Misto turned to see Jiin walking toward them.
She approached them. “Mistoffelees? Is that your name? Of course! Why didn’t I think of it before? You’re him—you’re that cat my master always talks about—the one he portrayed in that play!” Jiintaildancer was very excited about her discovery.
“Play? Mr. Webber’s play? Cats?”
“Yes! His costume looks just like your coat!”
“It seems you have a fan here, Misto,” Etcetera commented.
“What brought you back, umm… what was your name again?”
“Jiintaildancer. I wanted you to tell me what you know about Grizabella. I’ve known her for a long time, but she never told me about before I met her…”
“Whoa, you’d better ask Munkustrap or Old Deuteronomy about that one. It’s not my place or my job to talk about that kind of stuff.”
“Who are they? Where can I find them?”
“The grey-and-black tom you met yesterday is Munkustrap; you’ll probably find him wandering somewhere around here. As for Old Deuteronomy—he stays at the vicarage wall. It’s around four blocks east of here, next to a big mansion.”
“Thank you, Mistoffelees. I’ll talk to him.” Jiin smiled with proud recognition at the name her master so often used. “It was nice to meet you.”
“You, too. Good luck, Jiintaildancer.”
She blushed (if you can consider it blushing) and smiled. “Please …well…my friends call me Jiin.”
She soon reached her destination—the vicarage wall. There a large brown cat was sleeping in the sun.
“Excuse me,” Jiin said timidly, “are you Old Deuteronomy?”
The cat stirred, sat up, and faced his visitor. “Who are you? What brings you here, child?”
“My name is Jiintaildancer. I was told to come to you with questions concerning Grizabella.”
“So you’re the one Munku was telling me about last night,” mused Deuteronomy.
“I…I guess so.”
“Grizabella…” he muttered, remembering. “She was born into our clan, the Jellicles in the junkyard. At first she was happy, but she became restless and decided she wanted to go out and see the outside world. She left the tribe and wasn’t seen nor heard of in quite a while. Then we caught word of her having resorted to—“
“I know the rest. I guess it was me who made her that way—she came to me after she left you guys.”
“Hmmm…interesting. Now we’ve put most of the pieces of the puzzle together, but I assume you still don’t understand the concept of the journey to the Heavyside Layer.”
“No, I don’t. Where exactly did she go? How? Is she ever coming back?”
“Patience. One question at a time, my dear. The Heavyside Layer is up—up there among the clouds and the sky and the sun… I can’t explain it any more that humans explain their heaven. As far as how, a gold-and-silver staircase comes down…no, let me back up. We hold a Jellicle Ball every year to celebrate the coming of the Jellicle Choice, where I decide who will ascend to the Heavyside Layer. After a night of festivities, I announce my decision. I take that person to the magical tire where I summon a golden staircase to transport the lucky feline to meet their destiny in the clouds. That’s how. She is coming back, but you wouldn’t recognize her. She is now some cat’s kitten somewhere, living her second or third or whatever-numbered life she’s on. Does that answer all your questions?”
Jiintaildancer had listened carefully to what Old Deuteronomy had said and was still a little confused, but she was sure she wouldn’t understand it any more than she did now. “I think so. Thank you very much for taking the time to listen to me,” she said gratefully. She began to leave, but the old brown cat stopped her.
“You… are welcome to stay in the junkyard and learn more about the Jellicles if you wish. You may even want to become one of us.”
Jiin’s eyes shone. “Really? You mean that?”
He smiled. “I do, wholeheartedly.”
“Then I accept.”
