The Miracle of Little Cat

The Miracle of Little Cat

It was a beautiful late summer morning. The sun was shining in a gloriously blue sky, and the bright blooms of late roses perfumed the air. Little Cat danced along the corridors of the World Trade Center, reveling in the wonder and beauty of the scene before her, and savoring the tiny nip of Fall which was in the air.

It was September 11th, 2001, but Little Cat could not read a calendar. She knew only the joy of the day, the joy of her unique world, and the joy of her two little kittens who had been born six weeks earlier, and who were now safely tucked away in a corner closet in the Mall, which was deep in the bowels of the building.

Little Cat was born on the streets of New York, and had come to this building, and this world as a young and inexperienced kitten. That day, so long ago, she had ridden the elevator to the very top floor, 104 stories above the ground. There she had met Big Tom, the ruler of all the cats who lived here. She had been so nervous as he interviewed her, but she longed to make a good impression, to become one of the elite corps of cats who lived in the building and who spent their lives helping the humans who worked here.

“So, Little Cat, why do you want to work here?” Big Tom had asked.

“I want to be able to help humans feel good. I want to be able to give them back some of the kindness they have shown to me,” she had replied.

“Ah. But not all humans are kind. Some of them can be mean, and surly. Some of them don’t like us at all, and they will chase you away,” Big Tom had said.

“Oh, but surely there is goodness deep down inside each human. If I dig deep enough, I am sure I will find it,” Little Cat told Big Tom.

“Well you are very idealistic, Little Cat, but I think you may have what it takes to work here. Okay, I will give you a chance. I am assigning you to the basement Mall, and to the first six floors. You will be working with many other cats, and your section leader, Jinx. If you have any problems just go to him. You may go now,” Big Tom said, as he dismissed her with a wave of his huge paw.

Little Cat was elated! She was a World Trade Center cat! She raced down the hall, and hopped onto the elevator, which she rode down to the sixth floor. There she found Jinx, and reported in.

Over the next weeks and months she got to know “her” people, and she fell into a daily routine. And so it was on this beautiful morning that she went about her early morning routine, greeting first one human as they came in, and then another. She met Mr. Octinian in the hallway. He was the old janitor who worked in the Mall. He should have retired years ago, but he was all alone and had nowhere else to go, so he stayed on, working part time. He was one of those surly humans that Big Tom had warned Little Cat about. He growled out his ‘Good Mornings’ as if it hurt him to say them, and he batted at all the cats with his broom. But Little Cat knew he only did this to keep up his image. He had often shared his meager lunches with her, tuna fish, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and cheese puffs. 'Oh mew,' how Little Cat loved cheese puffs. And when she had become pregnant, he had actually bought her special cat food, and fixed her a nice box in the janitor’s closet in the Mall. Now as she walked past him he greeted her with a mumbled "goo’ mornin’" and batted his broom at her. Not wanting to damage his image, she jumped out of the way, mewed, and went on dancing down the hall.

Next she encountered Paul, and his lovely fiancee Lilah. Paul was an accountant who worked on the 6th floor, and Lilah worked as an illustrator in an office on the 10th floor. Little Cat remembered when Lilah had first come to the building a little more than a year ago. She had met Paul soon after, and the two had fallen madly in love. Their fellow workers had given them a lovely engagement party. Little Cat could still taste the yummy crab stuffed hors d'oeuvres and the little crackers spread with caviar. The two would be married in October.

Little Cat thought of her own handsome winkwink, Charles Cat. She had met him when she was out in the rose gardens one day, and she too had fallen madly in love. The neighborhood cats had thrown a party for them on their wedwinking day. Besides the tuna sandwiches nabbed from open lunch boxes, there had been all kinds of other delicacies. Little Cat laughed when she remembered the fish head stew that Yu Jiang and his troop had brought from a local Chinese restaurant. She thought to herself that soon her kittens would be old enough to try some of these delicacies. She had noticed last week that little Charley’s eyes were open. He looked so much like his handsome dad, with his dark orange stripes. Would he have green eyes too? And just this morning as she groomed and fed them, Zyntha had opened her eyes too. She was a beautiful tortoise shell kitten, with long fluffy fur. They had both looked at her with such trust in their baby blue eyes. Little Cat sighed. She knew they would soon be big enough to leave her, and dear old Mrs. Meyers was going to adopt them.

Today was Mrs. Meyers’ last day. She was retiring after nearly 40 years as an executive secretary. She worked on the 20th floor, and that was where Little Cat was now heading. They would be having a lovely retirement party for Mrs. Meyers. One of her co-workers had ordered the pizza from Joe Rizzo’s Pizza Parlor yesterday, and a beautiful cake from the nearby bakery in the Mall. Little Cat hoped Mrs. Meyers would bring some of her delicious home-baked oatmeal raisin cookies. She kept Mr. Octinian supplied with them, and Little Cat was quite fond of them. She would miss Mrs. Meyers and her cookies. But where was Mrs. Meyers? Surely she would be here soon. She wouldn’t want to be late on her very last day.

Just as Little Cat stepped off the elevator there was an unexpected jolt to the building. Then suddenly the world went crazy. People started running towards the elevators and stairways. Lights went out. Chunks of concrete and beams fell. Little Cat stood for a moment in stunned terror. Then she thought of her babies and ran toward the stairs. People ran in terror all around her, crowding and screaming and pushing. She jumped over the crowds, or slithered under their feet. With her heart in her mouth she ran down, down, down, down 20 flights of stairs, and into the basement Mall. She had never run so fast in her life. She thought that surely her heart would burst, but she must get to her babies. They trusted her, and needed her. She ran to where the closet used to be. But now there was only a pile of rubble. She stared at it, and tears clouded her eyes. She wanted to meyowl and scream and tear out all of her fur. Her babies! Her babies were buried under the pile of rubble. Little Cat heard a horrible wailing scream, and realized that the sound was coming from her own throat as she mewed in horror and anguish. 'Stop it,' she told herself! 'Stop! They are in Bastet’s paws now.'

She turned quickly and looked around her. There beyond another pile of brokenness she spotted a bit of daylight. The opening was just large enough for a small cat to squeeze through. She picked her way carefully over the mess that had once been her home. Then she heard it. A wheezing, gurgling sound came to her quick ears. “Help me. Someone help me. Little Cat, is that you?”

It was her old friend, Mr. Octinian. He had been trying to save her kittens when a beam had fallen pinning his legs beneath it and trapping him. Little Cat took one last look at the hole filled with bright sunlight then she looked back toward her friend. She knew in her heart that she would not abandon him. It was not the right thing to do. So she resolutely turned her back on the beckoning freedom and made her way over to where he was lying. Just as she snuggled down beside him, a chunk of concrete fell, sealing the hole, and cutting off any escape.

Mr. Octinian reached out his gnarled old hand and patted Little Cat on the head. “It is you,” he said. “Oh, I am glad you are here with me.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t leave you,” Little Cat replied, then suddenly she realized that a miracle had happened, for she was talking. Not just mewing, but really talking just like a human. And Mr. Octinian could understand every word she said.

“Oh, Little Cat, I have so much I need to say.” And Mr. Octinian began to tell her about his long and sad life. She sat quietly purring and listening, until he finally went to sleep.

He woke again, and talked some more. He told her of the War Years, and of his wife, and his son, who had been killed in Europe. He told her how after his wife had died, he had become a lonely, crusty old man, who liked no one. “But you changed that, Little Cat,” he said. “You were determined to like me no matter what.” And so he lapsed into silence and sleep one more time.

Little Cat did not know if hours or days had passed. She knew only the darkness, the sound of Mr. Octinian’s voice talking when he was awake, and the sound of his laboured breathing when he slept.

Finally he woke one last time. Little Cat knew he was very weak, and she purred and comforted him as best she could in the darkness. “Little Cat, thank you,” he said. “Thank you. I needed to tell that to someone. I had carried that bitterness inside me for so long. But now I feel that I can die in peace. Thank you.” A soft sigh gurgled from the old man’s lips, and then there was only silence. Little Cat knew that her dear old friend was gone.

The great cat goddess Bastet looked down into the darkness and destruction of humanity and saw her child sitting in the darkness waiting, and in her great and infinite wisdom she reached out a paw and took Little Cat home.

Epilogue

Mrs. Meyers stood staring at the scene of utter destruction and desolation for a long time, hugging a bag to herself. A bag which had surely saved her life, for she had forgotten it this morning, and had to go back to get it. And because of that she had taken a later train to work. In it were cookies for Mr. Octinian, a lovely crystal vase which she had brought for Paul and Lilah, and two cute little collars which she had made out of pink and blue bandanas for Little Cat’s kittens. Tears streamed down her face. A ray of sunshine caught one of the tears as it fell on her glasses, and cast a myriad of rainbows over the scene. Finally Mrs. Meyers walked over to a memorial of candles which lit the sidewalk in front of what was once the World Trade Center. Softly she laid the bag by the candles. Then, with the vision of rainbows in her mind, she turned and went home.

By Sage Lucinda BugBug Milliken
Catuary by the Sea