The road to recovery was long and tedious, but Malachi always had someone with her. It was usually her pet, Mistofelees, Admetus, Pouncival, Jemima, or Victoria. During these trying days her pet had been very caring. And so the days passed peacefully and every cat never failed not to mention Macavity in the recuperating kitten’s presence.
When she was finally well enough to go outside Phyillda took her on short walks, not trusting the healing kitten to not overdo herself. After her most recent visit to the vet Malachi was given a clean bill of health and later, after a speech from Phyillda she was able to go outside alone and play. Coincidentally, at the moment Malachi left to go to the junkyard Admetus appeared over the horizon. After she saw him the day was immediately better and she ran to see him.
“Admetus!” she yelled. “Where are you going?”
“Well, I was going to see you but it seems like you came to see me,” he replied, smiling back. All the while Malachi had been recovering Admetus had been with her and they had become close friends. As they walked together Malachi told him about her visit to the vet.
“ . . . and then she did the eye thing. I HATE that!” Malachi said, sticking out her tongue.
“You know what I hate the most?” Admetus laughed. “When they stick the thermometer up your-”
“But I don’t want to!” Pouncival yelled at Jemima.
“C’mon Pouncival, it’s not going to kill you!” the female replied in an exasperated tone. Admetus and Malachi burst out laughing, bewildering their friends.
“Hey Malachi!”
“S-sorry,” Malachi sputtered.
“C-c-couldn’t help it!” Admetus finished, erupting, again, into laughter. Pouncival and Jemima looked at each other and shrugged.
“Did your pet let you out today?” Pouncival asked after the white kitten had stopped the outburst.
“Yeah. She gave me a big lecture on safety and stuff. I can’t believe she gave a cat a lecture. Talking to her pets . . . sheesh.” Malachi shook her head in dismay.
Suddenly a voice sounded throughout the junkyard and Mistofelees appeared in front of the kittens in a flash of smoke. “Malachi!” he said with great happiness, “Your back!” she nodded and gave him a quick lick on the cheek. Victoria appeared and gave a short nuzzle to Malachi.
“Hey Uncle,” Malachi asked, cleaning herself, “what are we going to do about the Dampener?”
“What? What’s a Dampener?” asked Pouncival.
“Well, He-who-cannot-be-named put one on me and it restricts my magic powers. I can’t even teleport myself anywhere,” Malachi pouted.
“Hhhmm. I’ve never heard of something like that before. Let’s look it up,” Mistofelees suggested thoughtfully. He whispered a few words and magically, a giant book appeared in front of them on the ground.
“Mistofelees,” Victoria exclaimed, “what’s this?”
“This is the greatest treasure of a magical cat’s life. This, my friends, is The Fantastic Magical Sorcery Book, or some such fiddle faddle. The real name of the book has been lost in the past few generations so we gave it a new one.” He dusted off the top of the book and, with a paw, opened the book to the Table of Contents. “Let’s see, Magically Disappearing Mortage, no, Insects Galore, ick, Things that go ‘Bump’ in the Night, uh-uh, Collar Today Gone Tomorrow, nope . . . AH-HA! Magical Inhibitions. Page XXXXIII.” As he turned to page 43 all the cats and kittens surrounding him leaned in on him, he could feel their breath on his back. He looked to his left and right and saw each cat staring eagerly at the book. Next, he snatched it up and disappeared to a higher place in the junkyard, stuck his tongue out at them, and vanished.
“Uncle!” Malachi bellowed. She forgot about the Dampener and tried to teleport after Mistofelees. Instead, everyone heard a poof and when they looked at her she was coughing smoke and was an ashen gray color.
“Forgot *hack* I couldn’t *choke* use my magic. It *cough* backfired,” she explained. After shaking off the dust Malachi followed the other kittens up to the lofty divisions of the junkyard.
Mistofelees sought one of the quieter vicinities of the junkyard. Truthfully, he didn’t know what to expect from reading the book. He wasn’t really sure whether it would provide a solution or not. Things were just too unstable in the spectrum of magic to ever be sure of anything except of the spells that had been proven, like teleportation for instance. Very little was really known about restraints that could be put on one’s magic. When he finally turned to the proper page he began reading quietly to himself. “Dampeners . . . Ah-ha! The purpose of a Dampener is to obstruct the use of an opponent’s magical abilities. There are many ways to remove a Dampener. The most common way is to have the cat use one of it’s lives. However, if the cat has not been reborn at least two times then there is a serious danger to the cat. Also, the other methods of removing Dampeners depends on the caster of the spell.” There the text ended. Mistofelees skimmed the rest of the page. At the bottom he noticed a footnote. It read: “If the caster was Black Magic User then the usual course to take is to get the user to
remove the Dampener.”
Malachi felt her spirits soar at her uncle’s enthusiasm. He must have found something that would get her powers back. She decided to relax and enjoy the ride, so to speak. A few mintues later they arrived at a house familiar only to Mistofelees.
“Hey Unc,” Malachi asked, “whose house is this?”
“This is the house of Merlin. Kinda strange yes, but, he is the oldest member of our family. Yep, he’s my Greatgreatgreatgreatgrandfathercat, and he’s probably the most knowledgable about magic too.”
Malachi gave a thoughtfull nod and followed her uncle in through the pet door and inside they found the old Persian longhair. Malachi stepped hesitantly behind the older black and wrinkled her nose as she perceived a mixture of leather and flea killer. As far as she could tell the ancient, by cat standards, feline was old, blind, and hadn’t been given a bath in months.
“Ugh! He stinks!” Malachi whispered.
“Shut up Malachi!” Mistofelees replied angrily. “Show some respect. Merlin is the only one who can save your magic.”
“Well Mistofelees,” the old cat greeted, “I haven’t seen you in months. What brings you here?”
“Hey Merlin. Well, I found Malachi, one of Fathom’s kids, and she had a runin with Macavity-”
“Say, isn’t he one of your old-”
“She had a runin with Macavity,” Mistofelees interrupted promptly, “and he put a Dampener on her. I looked through The Book but it said the the user had to take off the Dampener and Macavity won’t do that. After further reading I saw that you had written the article and that’s why we’re here.”
“Slow down Sonny,” Merlin laughed. “Tell me again but slowly.”
“Malachi can’t use her powers because of the Dampener Macavity put on her. Can you help?”
“Really now?”
“Yep,” Malachi said cheerfully.
“So, you’re Malachi are you?” The Persian turned himself around to face her and smiled.
“Hey! How do you know where I am? You’re blind!”
“Malachi!” Mistofelees hissed.
“It’s alright Misto!” Merlin laughed. “You can tell what she got from her mother! Hee hee. Ahem. Before we get on with the magically stuff we have to catch up. What have you been doing lately Mistofelees?”
“Well, I did become a Jellicle-”
“And he’s got a girlfriend!” Malachi added enthusiastically.
“Well! We have been busy haven’t we Misto,” Merlin chuckled. “What about you Malachi? Have you found a significant other?”
“ERK! . . . quick to the point aren’t cha’?” Malachi returned.
“Yes, she has,” Mistofelees offered happily. “ It’s a kitten named- OOF!!”
“Mistofelees is just imagining things. He’s been a little sick these past few days,” Malachi supplimented after jabbing the tom in the gut. “Well, that was fun. So, Merlin, how do we get the Dampener off of me?”
“Well, just get Macavity to take it off.”
“No can-do . . . but that’s another story. What are some other solutions?”
“Well, why can’t Macavity do that? Weren’t you two friends at one time?”
“SSSHHHH!!!! Um . . . we kinda had a falling out.”
“IIIIkkkkkk!!!” Malachi screeched. “Please you guys, observe the rule that we made. Merlin, the Unmentionable Cat and I met and it wasn’t pretty. We all refer to him as He-who-must-not-be-named or the Unmentionable Cat. That is the rule.”
“Hhhhmm, well, there is one other way. You could become a Jellicle Malachi. However, you have to find a mate for the Jellicle Ball.”
“How did you know about the Ball and the-” Mistofelees stuttered.
“Hee hee. Listen here Misto, I may be old but I’m still kickin’. I know about these things, like all other magical cats. Well, I’m sorry but I’ve got to ask you to go. Need my beauty-sleep . . . zzzzzzzzzz.”
Mistofelees jerked his head towards the door and left. As they were walking out of the house Malachi smiled to herself. “Merlin sure if funny. He’s not a regular old cat, y’know? Usually old cat are fuddy-duddies, but not Merlin.”
Mistofelees just smiled to himself and together they returned to the junkyard.
After breaking the news to everyone else Etcetera gave a hearty leap for joy. “WOW! She’s going to become a Jellicle! Waaaahooooo!!!”
Much congradulations were traded between the kittens and cats. When everyone departed from the junkyard Malachi and Admetus walked into the night together.
“So you’re going to become a full Jellicle. That’s really cool Malachi,” Admetus commented.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Why so downhearted?”
“Well, I don’t really know. I like being a drifter. Besides, becoming a Jellicle means I have to grow up. It’s like Peter Pan’s problem.”
“Who’s Peter Pan?”
“What!? Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of the story of Peter Pan! Jeeze, don’t your pets ever watch any movies? Don’t they have any kids?”
“Well . . . no.”
“Jeeze, people in England aren’t big on reproduction are they?” Malachi whispered to herself. “In America, all my families had kids and they all loved to watch the TV.”
“You mean the telly?”
“Well, whatever. Anyway, I had three families and everyone had kids and they ALL loved TV and movies.”
“You mean the telly.”
“WHATEVER!”
At that point they had reached Malachi’s house and just before she went in she gave the tom a quick lick and then hurried inside the house. Admetus stared at the closing door and sauntered happily back to his home.
The next few weeks passed quickly and spring was approaching. Malachi spent her days learning more about the Ball and the traditions that had been passed down through centuries of cats.
“So your telling me someone has to get picked to go to the big litter box in the sky and it’s an old guy named Deuteronomy chooses?” Malachi asked. She flopped down on the ground, crossed her forearms, and looked expectantly at Victoria.
“Where did you ever hear of a litter box in the sky? And Deuteronomy is a very revered figure in this community,” Victoria corrected. “You have to keep your paw out of your mouth when you talk to him.”
“Which will be . . .?’” Malachi asked, turning her paws up and shrugging her shoulders.
“Whenever we can manage it.”
“You all make him sound like God or something.”
“He’s very important to us Malachi. You have to understand that and respect him.”
“Don’t worry,” Malachi assured the white cat. “Everything will be fine. I wouldn’t jeopardize this operation for anything in the world.”
The two continued their walk to the junkyard, being later joined by Admetus and Mistofelees.
“Hey, what are two pretty queens like you doing all alone out here?” Admetus asked jokingly, winking at Malachi. She swatted at him playfully and yelled, “TAG! You’re it!” and sped off. Admetus, accepting the challenge, galloped after her.
The two older cats laughed at the youthful energy of the kittens and together meandered through the junkyard.
In the junkyard Malachi and Admetus found Pouncival and Jemima occcupied with each other The Malachi and Admetus pounced on their friends and began a playful game.
Each day drew out to its natural conclusion of night and the cycle began anew each morning. Spring rolled around and brought the gift of wet weather, though this did nothing to dampen the spirits of the animals. Everything was quiet, until one morning when Munkustrap called a meeting.
“Quiet everyone. Ahem,” he said. He pulled out his spectacles and looked at the first item on his Etcha-Sketch. “The first item of business: please give Victoria and Jemima a round of applause for the wonderful performance given by them last week.” The two cats stood up to acknowledge the applause and then sat back down. “Number two, All the kittens involved in the march on thursday please attend the meeting on Wednesday at the tire. Three, the Plastic Danger Awareness meeting sponsored by Quaxo and Exotica was very intersting and we all thank you for that.” After another round of applause he continued, “and most importantly, as you all know this is the month of the Jellicle Ball. The designated cats should be getting their performances ready and you all know that this year it is Malachi who will be inducted. Also, we need some kittens to sign up for decoration and cleanup. Thank you.” After Munkustrap left the podium the congregation burst into activity.
“Who’s performing?”
“I’M not cleaning up!”
“Oh Romeo! Oh Romeo! Wherefore are thou Romeo?”
“To be . . . or not to be. THAT is the question!”
After all the comotion had quieted down somewhat Malachi hesitantly approached Munkustrap. She had something of great importance to ask him and she wasn’t exactly sure about what the outcome would be.
“Uh, Munkustrap?” She approached him tentatively.
“Hey Malachi. What’s up?” he smiled.
“Well . . . um . . . I was uh . . . just um wondering . . . if uh I could um . . . ask you a question?”
“Always,” he replied.
“Well, I was wondering if we could change the rules for the Ball this year . . .”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well, I was wondering if Pouncival and Jemima could be inducted too . . . please?”
“I don’t know Malachi. We’ve been doing everything this way since bef-”
“I KNOW Munku but this would mean SO much to me! I know that tradition is important to jellicles! I really do! But this would be starting a new tradition, and it would mean so much to us, the kittens I mean. Plus, this is the MOST important day in my life and the best thing you could do for me would be to let me do this . . . . . please?”
The gray tabby looked thoughtfully at the pleading kitten and smiled at her. “Let me ask Old Deuteronomy about this alright? If he says ‘yes ‘then we’ll do it BUT,” he continued looking at her sternly, “if he says ‘no’ then that’s it.”
“I understand,” Malachi replied seriously. “Thanks a lot Munku.”
“No problem.” He smiled and then shooed her off and continued helping the other with the preparations for the Ball.
The white kitten waited impatiently for the tabby to come back from his audience with Deuteronomy. She paced around the junkyard and began muttering to herself about the time and how she wasn’t getting any younger. Admetus, who was waiting with her, began cleaning himself and said, “Calm down Malachi, he’s coming. You know what they say, ‘A watched pot never boils.’ ”
“Yeah I know but he could move just a little bit faster ya’ know. He’s not THAT old.” The female responded.
Admetus just shook his head at his friend and continued with his bath.
When Munkustrap finally arrived back at the junkyard he walked in solomnly and turned to face the kitten. “Malachi,” he began slowly, “before I tell you what Old Deuteronomy said you have to remember that we agreed whatever he said we’d go by, right?”
The kitten just nodded her head vigorously and motioned him to continue.
“Well, Old Deuteronomy said . . . that it would be alright. You’d better go and tell Pouncival and Jemima,” he smiled.
“WOW! He said ‘yes’!?! GREAT! Admetus he said ‘yes’!!! HAHAHAHAHA!! C’mon! Let’s go tell the others!” Malachi grabbed Admetus’ paw and bolted out of the junkyard, with Admetus flying in the air behind her.
Munkustrap shook his head and whispered, “I just hope that tom knows what he’s getting himself into . .."
The weeks passed serenely for Malachi and her friends, though maybe not for other members of the junkyard populace. When she was informed on the ritualistic initation process she refused, saying that she and the other kittens had already worked out a surprise for everyone.
As spring passed and summer began things began to get a little more frantic. Everyone was beginning to get a little irksome to each other as the fatefull day approached. The quartet worked painstakingly on their surprise to perfect it for the Jellicle Ball.
“NO NO! It’s like this,” Jemima stated to Pouncival as she corrected his moves.
“ARGH! I’m a jumper not a dancer,” the tom replied in an annoyed tone. “How did I ever let myself get scamed into this?” he muttered to himself.
“You nincompoop!” Malachi screamed as she demonstrated. “How can you not do a simple move like this?!?”
“Oh shut up! I never said that I was good at polka junk!”
“ARGH! It’s NOT polka! Jeeze!! How many times do I have to tell you!”
The quartet’s voices grew louder and louder until Munkustrap finally decided to kick them out of the junkyard and told them to practice somewhere else.
“Jeeze, I can’t believe you got us kicked out,” Malachi mumbled to Admetus.
“ME!?!? I can’t believe you just said that! You controlling, short, deformed, Mistofelees wanna be!”
“Excuse me? WHAT did you say?” she asked, pushing him away.
“You heard me,” he replied, shoving her back.
Malachi launched herself at the tom and the proceeded to have a catfight which ended up as a game of tag. As the game winded down they collapsed ontop of each other and burst into laughter.
“Hee hee! I’m-I’m sorry!” Malachi gasped. “I know th-that I was b-being pushy.” She tried to stand up to walk but fell back down in hysterics.
“Don’t-don’t worry!” Admetus choked out. “I’m s-sorry too.”
As they both calmed down Malachi flipped over on her stomach and looked at her tom. She smiled at him and licked his ears and then settled down against him. The tom returned the affection and settled down to sleep.
In the morning Malachi jumped up with a start and yelped, “Oh no! I am in such deep trouble!”
“Waa?” the sleep tom inquired lazily. “What are you talking about? Go back to sleep Malachi . . . zzzzz.”
“No! My pet isn’t going to let me out of the house for weeks now! I gotta go. I’ll see you later!” She scampered off in the direction of her house and transported herself into her basket moments before her pet came into the room.
“Angel! You’re here! How did you get in? Oh well, where were you last night?” Phyillda demanded after she picked her cat up and began petting it.
“Jeeze, talking to a cat,” the human reprimanded herself. She set Malachi down and opened a can of food. As the kitten devoured the food Phyillda began making a list of the days events.
“Now, today we’re filming the P & P scenes. After that I’m going shopping with Veerle and Jo . . . and after that I’m going to dinner with a blind date. Hmm, that just about covers everything. Now what shall I do about you?” she asked, looking at the kitten.
Malachi looked up at the human and suddenly stopped eating. She lowered her ears back against her head and cautiously sampled some of her food.
“I guess you’ll have to go outside and amuse yourself again today. I’m sorry that I can’t spend more time with you but that’ll change soon.” Phyillda glanced at the clock on the wall and yelped. “Oh my god! Look at the time! I’m gonna be late! Not again!” She ran upstairs, changed, and left.
Malachi looked at the clock and thought to herself,
“Yessssss!! We did it you guys! It’s perfect!” she hollered. She ran over to Admetus and wrapped him up in a bear hug. She followed suit with Pouncival and Jemima. They spent the rest of the week continuously practicing and each kitten prepared themselves for the Jellicle Ball.
