Finding a Familiar

“Another cat in a tree?” Kendra asks as she approaches Nia.

“Yes,” Nia replies with a sigh.

“That’s the third one this month.”

Nia side-glares at Kendra.

“I mean,” Kendra amends her statement, “that’s only three this month.” Then under her breath she murmurs, “so far.”

“Why do they all run away from me?” Nia says throwing her arms in defeat towards the tree. The cat hisses and jumps to a higher branch.

“Maybe your magic is too powerful for stray cats.”

This earns Kendra another side-glare from Nia. Kendra is great with animals, particularly rabbits. Her familiar is a brown bunny that found her in the fourth grade.

“No, no, hear me out. Maybe your familiar is supposed to be a big, ferocious dog and the cats can sense it, so they run.”

“Dogs bark at me,” Nia says.

“Not all of them. Doesn’t your neighbor’s Maltese sometimes sniff you?” Kendra says trying to keep an upbeat tone.

Nia holds up a bandaged finger, “It bit me this morning.”

“Okay, I can see you’re headed down the negativity path and you need me to guide you back to the sunny side of the street. So, we are going to Sophia’s Powerful Creatures and Amulets right now. There are lots of familiars that need a good home, and we will find the right one for you.” When Nia doesn’t move, Kendra adds, “today.”

“What about him?” Nia points to the cat.

“They always come down on their own,” Kendra says waving her hands as if shooing the cat away. Then she reluctantly adds, “once you leave.”

Nia’s face flickers with surprise, then hurt, and settles on defeat. “Okay. I can’t start ninth grade as the only witch that doesn’t have a familiar. I’ll give it a try.”

Kendra gushes as the two girls walk to the shelter, “You’ll love it. The mice are so tiny, the birds swoop overhead, and you can feed the goats.”

“Wait,” Nia grabs Kendra’s arm and abruptly stops, “All the animals are just loose? Don’t you remember what happened at our class trip to the petting zoo?”

“Nia, when we are seniors, everyone in our class will still remember what happened to you at the petting zoo. And by seniors, I mean citizens, not graduates.”

“Maybe this is a bad idea,” Nia says.

“Nonsense, Miss Sophia keeps all the animals calm. They don’t even fight with each other. It’s like a spell or something. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

Nia nervously walks along, recalling when her kindergarten classmates were at the petting zoo feeding the pony until Nia reached out her chubby little hand. The pony thrashed its body against the stall, knocking over Nia and three other children, all to escape her tiny touch. The pony managed to break through the wooden gate and run away. The goats followed, leaving trails of poop pellets as they ran.

Nia tried to help gather the goats, but more animals broke free and scattered as she passed through the zoo. In the end, the whole class had to leave early so the staff could find all the frightened creatures and repair the broken stalls. Nia wasn’t exactly banned from the petting zoo that day, but it was strongly suggested that she never return. Nia took this as a sign that all zoos and aquariums were off limits and skipped any animal related field trips.

A tiny bell jingles against the door as the girls enter the shelter. Immediately, a black crow dives onto Nia head and swoops off with strands of hair in its talons. It lands on a high shelf, cawing a loud warning of nearby danger. Other birds in the room squawk along.

Nia holds her head with one hand and reaches for the door with the other. “Nope!” she says as she moves to exit, but Kendra stands in her way.

“What in the world?” says a sleepy voice from an adjacent room. Miss Sophia opens the door, and the birds abruptly stop screeching, as if someone pulled the needle off a record.

Miss Sophia’s gray hair is piled on top of her head in a braided bun. Her glasses are thick and make her eyes look larger than natural. She must be cold because she is wrapped in three knitted shawls.

The door creaks as Miss Sophia walks in, but Nia imagines it is the old woman’s joints. “I’m so sorry,” Nia says out of habit. “I didn’t mean to upset them. We were just leaving.”

“No, we weren’t.” Kendra says, “Miss Sophia, my friend needs some help.” Nia doesn’t particularly like the emphasis Kendra put on the word needs, but she also recognizes that it is true.

Miss Sophia sagely nods as she comes closer to Nia and looks her over. She twirls a crooked finger indicating that Nia should spin around to be examined from every angle. As Nia turns slowly Miss Sophia asks, “What’s your name, girl?”

“Nia,” she responds. She comes back to the front and stops spinning.

“She’s tried cats, dogs, birds,” Kendra is counting off on her fingers all the animals that have rejected Nia in her search for a familiar. “Mice, ferrets, frogs, bunnies. There was the guinea pig, that one time. Oh, and you tried fish for a while. Who knew beta fish could be so mean? And then there was the scorpion.” She shivers with the memory.

“Okay, you can stop now,” Nia says.

“I have to,” Kendra holds up both hands, fingers splayed. “I’m all out of fingers.”

Slowly a black cat saunters into the room. It sniffs the air, hisses, lowers its head, and raises its tail. Then it slowly backs out of the room.

Miss Sophia takes Nia’s hand and examines her palm. “I sense that traditional animals are not a match for you.”

“Really, you got that from my palm? Or maybe it’s the rabbit doing backflips against the wall, searching for a way out.” Nia says dubiously.

Kendra scoops the struggling rabbit in her arms and sets it by the door, where it calmly hops into a different room. Kendra’s magic touch. Nia isn’t exactly jealous, but she does long for a little of Kendra’s natural skills with pets.

“Have you considered snakes?” Miss Sophia continues uninterrupted. Nia wonders if the old woman ignored the rabbit, or if she really didn’t notice. Either way, she was losing faith that Miss Sophia can find her a familiar.

“Well, snakes don’t run away from me,” Nia begins.

“Because they don’t have legs,” Kendra interjects and laughs at her own joke.

Nia rolls her eyes and continues, “Because I’m not too fond of getting close to them.”

The old woman waves for the girls to follow her to the opposite side of the room. The entire wall is glass, like a department store display window. On the other side are dozens of snakes of various sizes and colors, lounging on rocks and in tree branches.

“Step closer,” Miss Sophia urges to Nia. “Let’s see if one comes towards you.”

Nia reluctantly approaches the glass. A large rattle snake lifts its head. Miss Sophia claps her hands once, and smiles. “You see,” she says. The snake straightens taller then strikes. It aimed for Nia but hit the glass and bounces backwards. Nia watches as the rattle snake poses to strike again, but it’s a different snake that hits the glass. She looks further into the glass room, and all the snakes are posed for a strike.

Miss Sophia briskly closes a drape across the window hiding the snakes from view, but another thud hits the glass as a reminder that they are still there. She takes Nia’s arm and pulls her away with more strength than Nia expects from this frail woman. “No reptiles,” Miss Sophia says as she shakes her head, her bun wobbling from side to side.

“This calls for crystals,” Miss Sophia brings Nia over to a pair of comfy chairs with frayed upholster. Nia sits while Kendra wanders into another room. Miss Sophia takes rocks out of a cupboard and sits next to Nia. She arranges the crystals on a coffee table between them. She describes each one while Nia holds them in turn.

Nia feels ridiculous clutching each stone individually, and then in combinations. She doesn’t know what Miss Sophia thinks will happen. Maybe a kitten will suddenly curl into Nia’s lap and purr itself to sleep just because she’s holding a jagged rock. But whatever Miss Sophia expects, it doesn’t happen, and she is visibly disappointed.

Kendra returns holding an adorable puppy. It’s licking her face, and she giggles, “I found this cutie.”

Miss Sophia places a small piece of sphalerite in Nia’s palm and pats her hand. “Take this and keep trying,” she says. But Nia knows the old woman is out of ideas and politely dismissing her from the shelter.

After leaving Sophia’s Powerful Creatures and Amulets, the girls find a food truck and a park bench to share a plate of nachos. Nia holds the sphalerite in her hand. It’s the size of a large marble but not nearly as smooth. It’s brown with flecks of red. “Miss Sophia gave me a pet rock as my familiar,” Nia complains.

“Maybe you should glue some googly eyes on it,” Kendra says. “What will you name it? Oh, I know. Jagger! After the Rolling Stones.”

Nia shoves the sphalerite in her pocket and a loaded chip in her mouth. “Maybe I should just give up.”

A scream comes from the edge of the park. Near the trees, a woman grabs her picnic basket and pulls on her companion’s shirt. The man looks towards the woods, jumps up and the two run off, leaving their blanket abandoned.

“People always forget there are ground bees there.” Kendra squints her eyes but doesn’t see anything.

“They probably disturbed a hive,” Nia agrees. “We’re going to need more nachos,” she adds as Kendra takes the last chip.

“I’ll get more,” Kendra pops up from the bench and skips to the food truck.

A woman yells, snatches her toddler from the grass, and darts past Nia screaming, “Run!”

“Geez lady. They’re just bees,” Nia mumbles.

There’s a rustle in the branches above her head and a leaf softly floats to Nia’s shoulder. She brushes it off as Kendra walks back to the bench, holding the nachos in one hand and frowning down at her phone in the other.

“My mom is totally panic texting me. She wants us to come home. There’s a wild animal loose from the zoo,” Kendra looks at Nia, and then just above Nia. She drops the nachos and stumbles backwards.

Nia looks up and comes nose to nose with a black jaguar. The sleek feline lays across the tree limb, hovering above Nia’s head. Before she can scream, the jaguar licks her entire face with one swoop of its rough tongue.

“Oh great,” Nia says with a sigh. “There’s another cat in a tree.”