YOU CAN CALL ME KITTY

“Up there. Way up there. Look, Mr. Kendall!”

“Where are you pointing, miss? To the top branches? Anything is practically invisible at this time of night. And have you just been to a funeral, if you don’t mind my asking? All dressed in black like you are.”

“ Pay attention. Yes, of course, I’m pointing to the top branches. Don’t you see them moving? There’s something up there. Something that wants to get down.”

“Miss, it’s nearly midnight, there’s barely any moonlight to see by. My shift is almost over, and if it’s not a real emergency ....”

“ I thought you were here to help! Isn’t that a flashlight in your back pocket?"

“I am also nursing a neck injury, miss. Have you ever had whiplash? Let me tell you…”

“No, I haven't had whiplash. But the damn tree isn’t 100 feet tall…look.”

“I’m looking. Even with my bum neck, I don't see a thing. Just a mess of branches and leaves. Maybe you could call me back tomorrow when the light is better, when we’ve both had a good night's sleep. “

“You think I’m seeing things, don’t you? Go ahead, say it! But I tell you, it won’t be there in the morning. It is only there in the nighttime. Now. Don’t you get it?”

“Sure, sure. I suppose in the daytime it will have climbed or jumped down and run back home, isn’t that what cats do? Or maybe it's some kind of super squirrel…or maybe it's a bat …not a cat at all. Or some otherworldly creature up a tree right here in Eerie County?”

“You don’t get it. It won’t have climbed or jumped. It will have vanished when daylight arrives.”

“Cats and squirrels don’t vanish, miss. It’s more like they scamper off. Not sure about bats.”

“Ordinary cats scamper off! That's not the same thing. Not the same thing as this.”

“Now, it's not just my neck that hurts. It's my head. It’s spinning. You've been reading too many ghost stories, Miss Harper.”

“You can call me Kitty. I didn’t say anything about ghosts. I said there’s something up there in the branches, something that’s black like the branches , something that wants to come down.”

“Is it causing you any trouble? Is it trapped? I’m just a part-time volunteer fireman. I don't corner wild animals. “

“ I heard it sob. Listen. “

“Now this creature I can’t see is crying like a baby?”

“No, not like a human baby. It’s something melancholy and yearning and menacing all at the same time. An ancient cry from out of the distant past.”

“You mean like last week, last month, or last year?”

“No, like a cry from centuries past. Like the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages, black cats were known to conspire with witches. They were once burned alive. Even the Puritans called them Satan’s sentries. No wonder they weep.”

“Oh, now we’re talking witchcraft? I don’t do witchcraft. I am a simple fireman. And it's past my bedtime. Burned alive? I’m no cat lover, but you aren’t saying you want me to catch that animal up there so you can put it on the barbecue, are you? That's a crazy idea. There are shelters for stray cats.”

“Listen, can’t you hear that cry? It sounds like it wants to be set free.”

“Dogs don’t dance and Cats don't weep, I’m sure if it got up there on its own, it will figure out how to get down and without our help. Miss Harper, Kitty. I know you like to keep late hours. Like now, and what young folks like you do after midnight is a mystery to me. I won’t hold that against you, or that goth fashion you wear every day. Young people have peculiar ideas in every era, don’t they? I remember all that Elvis worship when I was a teen. The blue suede shoes and the slicked back hair…”

“Elvis had a cat….he had more than one cat….”

“Imagine that. Well, one black cat would be more than enough for me. And I got a daughter about your age at home, so I hope you don’t mind my saying it, Kitty, but those black nails and the pointy shoes you’re wearing seem a bit Halloweenish to me, especially now that it’s February, but live and let live, I always say.”

“Did you know that black cats were worshiped in Egypt, but by the Middle Ages, they were linked to the devil? Humans are fools.”

“I guess you could say that .We all have our quirks. And you certainly are an encyclopedia of cat lore. But maybe we could continue our chat in the daylight.”

“But that will be too late. I have a stepladder right here. You could be up there and back in no time, Mr. Kendall.”

“I could also be home and in bed in no time, and why would it be too late to check on what’s in the tree in the morning? That creature will have figured out a way to get down unless it wants to stay there.”

“It doesn’t want to stay there.”

“And how would you know what a loony tree-climbing feline wants to do?”

“I just know. Because it is the witching hour.”

“That's funny because for me it's the sleeping hour. You’re not going to stop pestering me, are you? Alright, here. Prop that ladder against the tree and hang onto it. I warn you that if that creature scratches me, I’m coming down empty-handed. Here goes. Well, I’m at the top and what do you know! The cat is gone. Kitty?”

“I’m right here, Mr Kendall. “

. Now, where did you go, Kitty ? And how did that cat down there?”

“I’m right here, Mr Kendall. Look next to the saucer of Moon Water. “

“ All I see is a large cat with pointy ears and black….

“You can call me Kitty, Mr. Kendall. You can still call me Kitty.”