|
Mister Tibbs smoothed down his
grey fur before walking through the back gate into the alleyway.
There, amongst the garbage bins, rusty bike wheels and broken house
bricks, sat more than a dozen cats in a small group. An old apple
crate stood in front of the group, and perched on the top of the
crate was a black and white female.
The grey tom saw an empty spot
near the front of the group, walked over and sat next to a ginger
cat. Almost all of the other cats were quietly meowing amongst
themselves, except for the ginger tom. He and Mister Tibbs seemed
to be the only ones in the group who were looking at the black and
white queen on the apple box.
From his position next to the
ginger, Mister Tibbs could almost make out some lettering that had
been written on the fence behind the black and white speaker. He
leaned over a little until he could see what looked to be chalk
markings. It was written in an untidy scrawl, but Mister Tibbs could
read the few letters of the sign ‘M.A.C.K. Club’.
“Order! Order!” the black and
white cat addressed the group in general, shaking her head and
causing the bells on her collar to tinkle. The cats all turned
towards the speaker and listened. “And the last item on the agenda
is the garbage from the fish shop in Brunker Street.” She paused
for a moment before looking at a white cat who was sitting next to
the apple crate “Ralph, do you have something for us?”
The one-eyed cat stood and gave
his report: “There are new owners in the shop and they leave out the
bad fish for us cats. Tommy was sick from eating it the other day,”
he stated before scrunching up his nose and adding, “and besides
that, it smells awful.”
“How is Tommy?” the spokes-cat
asked compassionately.
“He’s fine now, but he had an
upset stomach for a day or so,” the white cat nodded for emphasis as
he spoke.
“And what is your recommendation,
Ralph?” the queen on the apple box asked the white cat.
“That everyone avoids the Brunker
Street fish shop for the time being,” Ralph stated.
“Does everyone agree?” There were
assenting meows from the assembly of cats. “Okay, good,” the
black and white spokes-cat said, before quickly dismissing the
meeting for a few words. “Thank you everyone for coming to M.A.C.K.
club today. We will meet again at the same time next week,” she
added before jumping down from the box and turning to run down the
alley with the bells on her collar ringing and her tail in the air.
The ginger cat turned to Mister
Tibbs. “She has to go home and feed her litter,” he explained, as
though he was continuing a conversation.
“Oh,” was the only thing that the
grey cat could think of saying. That information seemed a bit
personal to be given to a complete stranger. Mister Tibbs didn’t
know anyone in the area as he had only moved in a week ago, and had
been kept inside the house for that length of time. He decided to
introduce himself properly to this forward stranger. After all, he
figured, he could do with a friend.
“How do you do?” said Mister Tibbs
lifting a paw in greeting.
“Do what?” the ginger replied and
furrowed his forehead.
Mister Tibbs didn’t know whether
the ginger was teasing him or not. He decided to play it safe and
introduce himself properly. “Never mind,” he started. “My name is
Lancelot Maurice Sheffield Tiberius, the third. But you may call be
Mister Tibbs,” said the grey cat haughtily.
“My name is Huey, but you can call
me…” he waited a beat before continuing “Huey.” The ginger cat
burst out in guffawing laughter.
Mister Tibbs smiled at Huey. He
wasn’t sure if they were going to be friends or not, but he liked
the ginger cat already.
“That was an interesting meeting,”
said the grey as he tipped his head toward the apple crate. “How
often do they happen?”
“About once a week,” replied Huey.
“It’s how we find out what’s happening in the alley.” The ginger
spoke as if it was a normal part of cathood to get together and hold
meetings.
“It’s a new idea for me…but I like
it,” Mister Tibbs spoke fervently.
“Didn’t you have meetings, back
where you’re from?” Huey asked.
“No. No one was friendly to
anyone at Medford Street,” Mister Tibbs looked sad. “In fact, the
closest anyone was to getting together was when they gathered to
bully one of the younger cats in the street.”
“Oh,” Huey looked a little sad as
he thought for a moment, and then smiled brightly. “But we are a
friendly bunch around here, and I’ll help you get to know everyone
if you like.”
“That would be nice,” Mister Tibbs
grinned at the ginger. “Thank you Huey.”
“No problemo,” was the reply as
the other cat shrugged his shoulders.
Both cats stood and with their
tails in the air walked a little before the grey decided to ask a
question.
“Huey,” he started, “what does
M.A.C.K. stand for?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” replied Huey.
“Maisy Alley Cats and Kittens”
“Good thing that we aren’t meeting
under Franklins Underpass,” said the grey long haired, quite
matter-of-factly.
“Yeah,” the ginger tabby agreed.
“Nice area you have here,” the
grey cat looked around.
“Yeah,” said the ginger and,
without warning, he burst into giggles.
“Are you all right?”
The ginger struggled to catch a
breath between giggling. He cat fell to the ground and started
rolling on his back as he was overtaken by laughter. “Franklins
Underpass Cat and Kittens. Hehehehe.” His orange eyes started to
glisten, as if tears were forming in them. “If you put their first
letters together you would get a rude word! Hehehehe!”
“My my,” the grey cat looked at
the ginger. “A little slow today?” he asked, referring to the
length of time for Huey to understand his comment about the name of
the group.
Without warning, the ginger jumped
onto his feet and with his tail high in the air, ran to the end of
the alley and returned before stopping and sitting in front of the
larger cat. “Nope. As fast as usual,” he declared as he sat tall.
Mister Tibbs could see that the edge of Huey’s mouth was pulling a
little as he tried to keep a straight face.
Mister Tibbs rolled his eyes at
the joke and after a second or two, Huey stood again and the two
cats walked along until they came to a broken fence paling. There,
behind the fence, was an old garden shed where an elegant Siamese
female and several younger cats of all different colours and breeds
were sitting in a class.
Huey accidentally stepped onto a
discarded crisp packet, causing it to crinkle loudly. The Siamese
looked over and twitched her tail in annoyance at the disturbance.
Mister Tibbs’ eyes went wide before he bit his lip in repentance.
Both cats sat quietly as neither of them wanted to make any further
noise.
“Children,” the Siamese started,
“you have all done very well in practising your hunting and catching
skills,” she purred at her students as they sat a little straighter
after hearing their teachers praise. “Now you will need to know how
to use them to make your humans happy.”
Mister Tibbs and Huey were
listening as well. Maybe they could learn a thing or two from the
teacher about keeping their own humans happy. They both leaned a
little closer, as if they were about to hear a secret.
“All humans love gifts. Do you
agree?” the Siamese paused for a moment and waited until the young
cats had all nodded their heads. “And your humans will be more than
proud of you, when you bring those gifts.”
Mister Tibbs could see how the
young cats’ eyes opened wider as they took in the lesson.
“When you bring gifts home to your
humans, you will make them overjoyed at your hunting and catching
abilities. And all humans love to eat little brown mice and big
brown rats and all sorts of colourful birds,” the Siamese smiled and
twitched her whiskers as she continued. “Your humans will jump and
squeal in delight at your gift. And when they jump and squeal, you
will know they are happy.”
The young cats twitched their
whiskers to emulate their teacher’s joy as she obviously remembered
delighting her own humans in such a manner.
“Children!” the teacher spoke
sharply, causing the young cats to sit quietly again. “You need to
remember one thing about your gifts for your humans,” she paused
again, waiting until she had the attention of the entire class.
“The larger and more blooded the gift, the louder your human
squeals. And the louder your human squeals, the happier they are
with their gift.”
The Siamese twitched her whiskers
again more, and then stood before saying her final words to her
students. “Now, children, I will see you all next week. Please be
prepared to give a report on the differences between brown and white
mice. But for now, your class is dismissed!” The young cats meowed
excitedly, as school was out for another day.
Huey grinned as he looked over at
two kittens that were batting a yellow weed that was growing through
a crack between the wall and the cement floor of the garden shed.
“I remember the last time I took home a mouse for my human. The
mouse was still alive when I took it into the house and as soon as I
let it go, the little brown thing started running around in
circles,” Huey laughed as he remembered his human’s reaction. “My
human had so much fun. She was jumping from the chair to the table
and back again. And screaming…you have never heard anything like
it!”
“Your human liked the mouse
then?” Mister Tibbs asked the question, although he already knew
what the answer was going to be.
“She had such a good time.” But
then he frowned. “But later on, when I sat on her lap for warm her
up, her breath didn’t smell like mouse. It smelt like peanut
butter.”
“Humans are strange creatures,”
Mister Tibbs pointed out to Huey. “They put the most revolting
things together when they eat them. Maybe she made a sandwich with
your mouse and peanut butter,” he suggested, turning his lip at the
thought of ruining the taste of a perfectly good mouse with
something so unpalatable. The grey cat was about to make another
comment when all of a sudden, a human voice rang out throughout the
alley way.
“Here puss puss puss,” the human
called loudly. “Tibbsie…where are you?”
“Tibbsie?” Huey grinned at Mister
Tibbs.
The grey cat closed his eyes and
waited for the inevitable teasing.
“Can I call you Tibbsie, Mr Tibbs?”
Huey asked genuinely.
The grey opened his eyes at his
new friend. “Yes Huey. You can call me Tibbsie, Mr Tibbs, if you
wish.”
Huey burst out in laughter at the
joke. “Tibbsie, Mister Tibbs…we are gonna be bestest friends
forever,” he smiled.
“Yes I believe we are,” Mister Tibbs agreed and then
turned, with his tail in the air, and started to bound away.
Without warning he turned back again and rushed up to Huey and
bumped his forehead. “See you tomorrow,” he said before turning
back again and running home for dinner. Mister Tibbs had never had
a best friend before and he knew that from that moment on, he and
Huey would truly be bestest friends forever.
I hope you enjoyed this story.
Feel free to leave a comment in my forum.
Back to My
Stories
Page
The Authors
Haunt Author Directory
The Authors
Haunt Library
The Authors Haunt Home
|
