It was a dark and dismal afternoon with a creepy breeze drifting through the naked trees. It was finally fading into spring and the snow was still melting away. There’s nothing to do on days like that, nothing at all.
Matty and Sillabub invited Mark, Pouncival and Electra over that afternoon to sit around and look at the gray sky.
“Looks like rain,” Mark said for the fourteenth time in the past four hours. And it did look like rain, it looked like any second it was going to pour all over the Jellicle Junkyard like a giant pitcher full of water. And yet, not a drop of rain had fallen.
Sillabub sighed and looked at the others, then out the window. “There has to be something to do…”
“Yeah, right,” Matty said, rolling her eyes as she looked at the dreary environment. “We’ve been sitting here for hours trying to think of something. What can you suggest that we haven’t thought of?”
“We could go for a walk,” Sillabub suggested hopefully.
“It’s too cold,” Electra groaned.
Matty suddenly brightened. “Nonsense. There’s not that much wind, we could take a little walk down the streets.”
“Matty… Are you sure Alonzo won’t mind?”
“Since when would I care?” Matty raised an eyebrow and Mark shrugged and then got up.
“Well, then, let’s go, ‘fore it gets any worse. We’ll prolly get caught in a rainstorm if we don’t hurry up and get this all over with.”
Pouncival shook his head. “It’s hopeless, Mark. It’s not gonna rain.”
“It will. Just look at the sky—“
“Give it up. Let’s go.”
“You’ll see…” Mark challenged quietly as they all went out the door of the shack. “You’ll feel real stupid too…”
Outside marched the five young cats. The ground was dry but the air was damp, and chilly too. Theys snuggled in a close group because as they went on the more cutting the wind seemed to get, though it wasn’t a very powerful wind.
The gray sky overhead was nearly black now and if there was a moon up there it was blocked out by the clouds. The London streets were pathetically quiet, very few cars even passed them and even fewer people walked the streets. The wind grew harsher and colder than before.
“Maybe we should turn back…” Mark said out loud, his voice muffled because he was facing the cement, so the wind wasn’t in his face.
“No… wait…” Matty protested pleadingly. “I hear someone.”
Suddenly, the entire world seem to stop except for the howling wind, and nothing made a sound. Somewhere down the far end of the street, they heard the desperate cry of undoubtably a tiny kitten.
Sillabub gasped. “We have to find the poor thing!!!” She immediately grabbed Pouncival’s arm and pushed through the wind though she could see nothing, but she could hear those helpless cries.
Matty, Electra and Mark tried to race after them but the wind was too strong, and being so small, they got knocked backwards and about quite a few times.
When finally, they heard Sillabub shout above the howl of the wind: “There she is!! I see it!!! Poor little dear…”
When they all finally caught up with Silla they saw what she meant. The tiny thing was skinny and pale, practically see-through, witch rading brown-rice coloring. Her eyes were a terrified gray. The moment the creature saw the approaching cats she cowered against the sidewalk but continued her yowling.
“It’s okay,” Silla said soothingly, slowly pressing towards her. “We’re to help you.”
“Yeah. We just want to help,” Matty added.
Barely able to see, they watched the little kitten still cowering, but mewed out some words. “My name is Mary. Please, help me get home.”
“No prob,” Pouncival said casually, as if this sort of thing happened everyday. “Where do you live?”
The kitten named Mary nodded across the road and replied with extreme timidity, “Across the road. In the alleyway.”
“She must be afraid to cross roads,” Mark whispered sorrowfully to Matty and Electra.
“Poor kid. Out here alone,” Matty said. “Well then, we’ll help you across! We just happened to be experts at crossing roads. Come on, just follow us, we’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”
The little kitten didn’t nod nor speak a work, but she slowly went towards them as they led her off the curb and onto the pavement. Briskly, to avoid anything that might come along, they hurried to the other side of the street.
“There Mary, I think that’s your mother—“ Matty turned around and gasped. “Mary?!”
“I didn’t see any cars…” Mark said trailing off.
“Mary?” Pouncival and Electra called. “Mary?”
“She’s… gone…” said Sillabub. “Where could she have gone. The winds so hard, she surely would’ve been blown away.”
“I swear she was right behind me,” Pouncival said pointedly.
Matty noticed the female cat she had saw coming towards her earlier. She was brown tabby, and looked as though she was surely as old as Grizabella. “Excuse me, Miss, we’re looking for a small kitten, about yay big, brown-rice-colored coat…”
The cat wiped a tear from her eye. “Oh.. my dear Mary… Please, come over this way, out of the wind.” Her voice was so kind, and she apparently knew the kitten they had somehow lost, the Jellicle cats followed her behing a couple garbage can to barricade from the wind. “That was so kind of you to go out of your way to help her home. She’s so afraid of crossing streets…”
“Really, ma’am,” Mark started politely, but she waved her paw and smiles, but her eyes glistened with wet tears.
“Please… That is so sweet, on this horrible blustery day. But thirteen years ago, on an evening just like this with the wind and impending rain, my dear Mary was crossing the road to come home in this little alleyway of ours, and suddenly a trolly came roaring up from the direction—,” she motioned to the north, as a couple raindrops poked Matty in the nose, “and she was hit in the middle of the road, instantly killed.”
By now tears were trickling off her whiskers and the rain began to fall faster. “I thank you so much for the kindness you have shown. You’re the thirteenth cats to cross this road, bringing Mary home.”
Because she could no longer speak trying to choke back her tears she gave one last smiled and turn back and walked into the alley quietly sobbing. The five cats looked at each other and then at the road.
As they started on their way home, Pouncival almost thought he saw a smiling kitten through the rain next to the garbage cans they had just been behind.
This fic was inspired by the very song “Bringing Mary Home” with a few additions and changes, since these are cats, after all.
