Halloween is the Night of Cats and Magic
By: Thespia

"Tell us a story!" Tobias demanded of his mother.

"What kind of story?" Hannah asked as she gazed at her three children with affection.

"One with a moral," Anna, older than by Tobias two years, promptly replied.

"One with magic," Sarai, younger than Tobias by two years, contributed quietly.

"Okay," Hannah sat back in her rocker, gently rocking her youngest, Benjamin. "Let's set the way-back machine to when I was 18..."

^.~.^

"Mom, a CATS revival is going to open on my birthday," Hannah told her mother excitedly.

"I know, dear," Hannah's mother, named Melinda, smiled to herself.

"You do?" Hannah stared suspiciously at the small, slender woman she resembled so much.

"Yes, dear," Melinda reached into her pocket and produced a brochure she'd received a month before while her daughter had been at school. "Here, read."

Curious, Hannah took the proffered brochure and read it. It was all about the revival of CATS. "Oh, Mom, please may I go?"

"Here," Melinda reached into her other pocket and produced a business envelope. "Take a look at what's inside."

Hannah opened the envelope and found a round-trip ticket to New York and front-row seats for the re-opening of CATS. "Oh, thank you, Mom!

"You're welcome," Melinda laughed as she returned her teenaged daughter's enthusiastic hug. "Now go and pack."

^.~.^

"Grandma really got you tickets and everything before you asked?" Tobias asked, blue eyes wide.

"Yes, she did," Hannah's bright green eyes shone softly with the memories. "It was all so wonderful, the lights, the colors, the sounds."

"Please go on," Anna prompted her mother.

^.~.^

"Wow," Hannah stared at everything around her. So many people, in and out of costume, and all here for the grand re-opening of CATS. "This is so exciting," a woman in a flaming costume chuckled at Hannah's awe. Hannah studied the woman real hard, then grinned. "Hi, Flamandra."

"Hi, Silver," the two woman hugged. "It's nice to be meeting you face-to-face."

"It is, isn't it?" Hannah asked wryly. "Where are you sitting?"

"Right in front," Flamandra, AKA Amanda, replied after a quick glance at her ticket.

"Really? So am I," Hannah answered.

"Very cool," Amanda grinned. "Let's go sit down."

"Works for me," Hannah returned her friend's grin.

^.~.^

"So you met Aunt Amanda face-to-face when you were 18?" Sarai questioned.

"That's right," Hannah confirmed, shifting Benjamin so her arm wouldn't get tired.

"But you said you've known her since you were 14," Anna objected. "How's that possible?"

"The Internet," Hannah answered simply.

"What's that?" Tobias asked.

"It's an old form of our communications system," Sarai told her brother.

"Why was it called that?" Anna inquired curiously.

"Because it was mainly via computers," Hannah replied. "You three have to remember that our communications system evolved into what it is now as I grew up."

^.~.^

'Dear Mom,

CATS was fantastic! Thank you so much for letting me go, even if it *was* during my senior year of high school. I'll be coming home soon. Before I close, guess who I met face-to-face for the first time?

Love,

Hannah.'

Hannah yawned widely and stretched as she put her pen down. "I'm definitely wearing my CATS costume for Halloween," she told herself.

^.~.^

"What's that got to do with the story, Mom?" Tobias demanded.

"Just wait and see," Hannah told her son calmly.

^.~.^

"Trick or Treat!" Hannah smiled down at the trick-or-treaters.

"Here you go," she dumped candy into a pillowcase, a pumpkin bucket and a plastic Halloween bag. "Don't eat too much or you'll be sick and there won't be any to savor."

"Thank you!"

Hannah sighed as she closed the door. "Mom, we're out of candy!"

"Already?" Melinda bustled into the room, wearing her Christine Daae costume from 'Phantom of the Opera'.

"Yep, they came thick and fast this year," Hannah answered as she carried the empty bowl into the kitchen.

"Okay, why don't you go upstairs and change out of your costume?" Melinda suggested as she pulled off the curl brown wig she'd been wearing, revealing a tousled shock of black hair.

"I think I will," Hannah slowly mounted the stairs, wishing her costume wasn't so uncomfortably hot.

^.~.^

"Mom, what are you getting at?" Anna asked with a skeptical look in her black eyes.

"Just wait and see, Anna," Sarai told her younger sister, very interested in the story.

^.~.^

Lacking the energy to change out of her costume, Hannah collapsed onto her bed and flipped on the television. She listlessly flipped through the channels until she reached an old Halloween movie by Disney called 'The Worst Witch'. I wish there was a potion that could change me into a cat, Hannah thought to herself. She then glanced over towards her dresser and was surprised to see a crystal bottle with 'Drink me' etched into a gold label on it. Hmm, this sure seems like 'Alice in Wonderland, Hannah thought as she approached the dresser. She pulled out the crystal stopper and sniffed the bottle. No smell, she thought with surprise. Oh, well, down the hatch, she lifted the bottle to her lips and drank it at one gulp. She replaced the stopper and burped. No taste, either, she thought as she turned to go to bed and was surprised to find herself shrinking. Oh, no, she opened her mouth to shout for her mom and was surprised to hear a 'meow' instead. Uh, oh, she ran to her unopened bedroom door and tried to open it. She stared her hands, or forepaws. She managed to open it and ran into her mom's room. She stopped and stared at the mirror. Reflected in the glass was a lithe Russian Blue. The vivid green eyes were wide with surprise and fear. The long silver-blue tail lashed with the same emotions.

"How'd you get in here?" Hannah jumped at the sound of her mother's voice. It was loud and and thundering to her now-large ears. "C'mon, out you go," Melinda scooped her daughter up and carried her downstairs. Hannah wriggled and struggled as much as she could, but her mother's grip was too strong and she found herself dumped on the front porch that now seemed so big and frightening. She meowed and yowled as loud as she could, but the only response she got was, "Shaddup ya stupid cat!" from the neighbors. With a whimper, Hannah curled up into a tight, furry ball of misery.

^.~.^

"But, Mom, you're human now. What happened?" Sarai asked.

"Magic," Hannah answered mysteriously as she got up to put Benjamin to bed.

"What do you think of it so far?" Tobias asked his sisters.

"I like it," Anna answered honestly.

"So do I," Sarai seconded as their mother returned. "Continue your story please, Mom."

"Of course," Hannah agreed.

^.~.^

Hannah did not sleep well that night. When the dawn came, she winced as the bright light hit her eyes. She retreated to the shadow of the house and crouched there for several hours, dosing. A strange odor reached her gray nose and she immediately tensed. With fearful green eyes, she waited for the owner of the smell to appear. It turned out to be a big yellow tabby tom swaggering by. She shrank from the tom, but he smelled her scent and investigated it. "Hello."

"Hi," she answered softly.

"Who are you?"

"M-my name is Silver," she told him. As soon as the words popped out, she wondered why she hadn't told him her family name.

"I'm Pouncequick," he told her proudly.

"It's nice to meet you, Pouncequick," she answered.

Just then, they were interrupted by Melinda calling, "Hannah! Where are you?" Hannah dashed onto the porch and scratched at the door. Melinda opened the door and stared down at the Russian Blue queen. "You're not Hannah," at the sound of her name, Hannah meowed. "Maybe you are Hannah," Melinda stared down at the Russian Blue thoughtfully. Hannah meowed again. "Well, come on in, Hannah," Melinda opened the door wide and Hannah trotted inside, leaving Pouncequick all by himself outside.

^.~.^

"Pouncequick?" Sarai's emerald eyes were skeptical.

"Just wait and see," Hannah assured her daughter.

^.~.^

Hannah trotted into the kitchen and studied it from a feline's perspective. I wish I were human again. Everything seems so big and frightening from here, shortly after she completed the thought, a bowl of emerald green liquid, not unlike the ruby red liquid she'd drunk earlier, appeared in front of her. Without hesitation, Hannah drank the whole bowl.

"Hannah, what are you doing on the floor?" Melinda entered the kitchen to find her now-human daughter on her hands and knees.

"Checking for dust bunnies," Hannah quipped as she stood up, brushing off her costume. "I think I'll go up and change."

"Okay," Melinda stared after her daughter's lithe silver form, then shook her head, muttering, "I'll never understand my daughter," to herself.

^.~.^

"So what's the moral of the story?" Anna asked.

"Be careful what you wish for," Hannah told her children. "You just might get it."

"Okay," the children stood up and stretched before approaching their mother one by one to receive a good-night kiss.


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