Black Cats

A piece of Paradise

Part 7

‘Mamaaaaa’ a terrified scream got my attention, I looked away from the beautiful valley.  I saw that Carlisle carefully putted Emily on her feet and then stepped away a few feet.

She was shaking on her legs.  First I thought it was because she was afraid.  Then I saw her outlines became blurred.  A second later, there were three cats standing between the trees.

‘Mama ?’ she looked at me with big grey-bleu eyes. The colour hadn’t changed.  I ran to her en tried to comfort her like I had seen my cat comfort her kittens.  I gave her a big lick over her head, diagonally over her ear, and wished I had never done that.

Yuck, ugh – fur – with my hand I tried to remove the hairs from my tongue and noticed too late that there was fur on my PAWS as well.  Yuck, even more hair on my tongue.  I heard Emily and Jolene giggle trough our connection, but Emmet’s laughter drowned everyone else’s.  Everybody laughed. Seth and Colin, human again, couldn’t stand up straight.  They were sitting on their knees, laughing out loud. Maybe they had had the same experience.

I ran to the source to drink, to get the hair out of my mouth.  Emily and Jolene were running with me.  I fell how they ran besides me, without making any sound.  I bet even the vampires couldn’t hear them, although they would hear their hartbeat.

At the well I took a few licks like a real cat.  It didn’t work very much, so I putted my entire face under water to drink.  My girls drank as well from the clear cool water.  That tasted good, and the fur was gone from my mouth.  Then I tried to get my face dry.  Didn’t go so well either.  Being human was easier, apart from the fact that you needed clothes.

‘Mama, do I stay a cat forever  ?’ asked Emily to me.

‘No, honey, you can change back whenever you want to.  But your clothes are still laying over there where Carlisle put you down, completely shredded.  We can learn something from the wolves.  They take their  clothes with them, tied around their legs.’

‘Can we go back to the Cullen house?’

‘No, we need to do something here.’ I hesitated.

‘What do we need to do here ?’ Did Jolene ask curiously.

‘I don’t know.  The spring and the forest make me think of my meditations, so that is what I’m gone try first.  If that doesn’t work ... I don’t know, maybe all we needed to do was drink from the water.’

‘Can I turn into a cat whenever I want to ?’  Emily was very enthusiastic with that idea.

‘Yes, that is really the max !’ was also what Jolene was thinking.

‘I think you can.  It may have its downsides.’

‘Like what ?’ they both wanted to know.

‘Mature very quickly, and then stop aging at all.’

‘And that’s a downside ?’ Jolene watched very incredulously.

‘If the people around you start to notice it, yes.  How do you think the witch-hunting started ?  The Quilleutes are lucky.  They live in a closed community where almost everyone knows about them.  I don’t see that happening at home, telling about us to our friends and family.  Just try to imagine what would happen if you would tell this to your father. ‘

Jolene and Emily both went quiet.  They hadn’t thought about that. My husband wouldn’t believe it, not even when I would change in front of him.  I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t lived it.

‘We could stay here ?’

‘And what about dad ? And the rest of the family ? And how would that work, us cats between the wolves ?’

‘Maybe we can be wolves too.’ Thought Emily.  A fraction of a second later she was a wolf, a big black wolf.  Just a little bit smaller than Sam had been.  I was really shocked, so was Jolene, we were staring at her.  The others, who had been so thoughtful to give us some privacy, stood immediately around us.

‘How did she do that ?’ everybody asked the same, Sam’s voice rose above it, and sounded so shocked.

I asked Emily the same question.  ‘We are shape-shifters, are we not ? Maybe we can even change into a bird.’ She looked up to the sky and saw an eagle fly above us.  Next thing I  knew there stood an eagle between us.  She hipped on her paws, spread her wings and flew up. Jolene followed her instantly.  The moment I saw her do it, I could change into an eagle too and followed my daughters.

The thrill was amazing.  The speed I had had as a cat was nothing compared to the sensation of flying.  Higher and higher we went, till the valley was the size of a little green dot.  It took a while to gain back my sanity and even a while longer before I could convince Jolene and Emily to return.

Reluctantly they went back with me to the valley.

We landed between the threes and changed back to humans.

‘Alice, I hope you have clothes in that suitcase !’ I shouted out to her.

With a triumphant smile she putted the suitcase in front of us and opened it.

For me she had only taken the jeans, a T-shirt and a showy red lingerie-set.  I never wore jeans ! And the pumps.

For my girls there were also jeans and T-shirts, underwear and sneakers.

When we were dresses we walked on the soft moss to the well.  I took the suitcase with me, walking barefoot, that was better  than heels .

‘Thank you very much for the clothes, Alice.’ I was genuinely grateful. ’Sneakers would have been better tough.’

‘I can’t do anything good, can I ?’  She gave me a big smile.  I was really ashamed ‘sorry.’

Then she took some sneakers from behind her back and tossed them to me with a wink of her eye.

‘My guess is that we were here to learn that.  Would you mind if I took the opportunity to meditate a bit by the well.  It looks just like my vision of it.’ I looked at Carlisle for approval.

‘No problem,’ said Sam, ‘We go back to La Push.’  He turned around and ran away.  That fell so wrong.

‘Sam, could you please stay ?  And ... participate ?’ I didn’t know how he would react.

He looked very strange, but then seemed to change his mind.  ‘Can you teach us to turn into birds ?  We all tried, even Leah.  It didn’t work, we stayed wolves.’

‘Maybe.  I can’t promise.’  I did want them to stay.

‘Can we join in as well ?’  Carlisle never wanted to miss a new experience.

‘Of course, I would love you to.  We can all sit around the well.’