In the Forest of Light and Dark (17 page)

them
so far.” Then, just when Katelyn had finished speaking. She pointed to the cats still congregated behind me. Who by now had quieted down. Many having gone to sleep.
     “What, the cats.” I said, giving her a queer look as if she was crazy. “Don’t tell me that you can become a cat now?”
     “No. I can’t turn myself into a cat, Cera.” she said now being dismissive to me. “But haven’t you realized the correlation between the amount of children that have died here over the years and the amount of stray cats Mount Harrison has? Just look, there’s like five hundred or so that are sitting behind you?”
     “So, what... In each of these cats is the trapped soul of a dead child Abellona has killed? You really are a whack-a-doodle aren’t you, Katelyn?” I asked her mockingly.
     “It’s no joke, Cera.” Katelyn protested, taking on a serious tone. “When Abellona cursed this village, she said that she would come for the villagers children’s souls. But she has no place to hold them after she’s destroyed their earthly bodies. So, she keeps their souls imprisoned in the bodies of these cats.”
     “Yeah, okay, whatever, Katelyn.” I said again mocking.
     “Why do you think there’s so many of them?
Why do you think they all hang out here in
a graveyard?
What do you think the reason is they don’t die?” Katelyn asked me in rapid fire, and I thought she sounded like she was starting to get frustrated.
     “Of course they die. Everything dies.” I responded.
     “With all the cats that this village has. Have you yet to see a single one lying dead on the side of the road? Have you seen a single one dead, anywhere? Go ahead and kill one if you don’t believe me? Spike that little one you’re holding like a football. It won’t stay dead. It will be back tomorrow just like all the others. In the past the village has tried to reduce their numbers by hiring exterminators to kill’em off, but it didn’t work. They’d always come back. So, eventually the village council just stopped trying.” Katelyn then took several deep breaths while looking around at all the cats. Then, she glanced at the forest before speaking again. During which time I just watched her not having anything else to say. She then said to me sounding sincere, “Look, you don’t have to believe me right now. I know how I must sound. But,
when you’re ready
. I have somebody I’d like for you to meet, okay? I won’t bring any of this up again until you’re ready to know the truth, okay?”
     “Okay, fine.” I then assented telling her, “When I go crazy. I’ll come lookin’ for you, and you can then fill me in on the benefits package.”
     “Deal,” she said and then flipped the conversation by asking, “So, who do you have here anyway? Let me see this little Guy.” She then reached out to take the tiny sleeping kitten from my arms. But before I gave him up I asked her, “Wait, you’re not going to break his neck just to try to prove a point to me that these are zombie cats, are you?”
     “No...
I would never.
”
Katelyn then said letting out a small laugh that was soft and almost motherly in a weird sense. “I would never hurt any of these cats, especially this little guy.” She then added as she started to pet the kitten slowly atop his little white head with her index finger. I then handed him fully over to her and set Midnight back on the ground before we began walking together back up the winding pathway that led through the towering willows on its way up the hill.
     As we ascended. The rest of the cats began breaking up and dissipating. By the time we’d gotten to the top of the hill. None could be seen any longer.
     “That’s a nice stone your mama picked out for Lyanna.” Katelyn said as we walked down one of the rows of graves. She then followed that up with, “She really likes it.”
     “Oh, is that
what she said?” I said back to her once again sarcastically mocking her. “Well, I’m glad she likes it.”
Katelyn then just smiled at me as she continued to stroke the kitten’s head. We then finished our walk together out of the cemetery in silence.
     After we had left the cemetery. I had decided to stop back at my house so I could set up a box in the garage for the kitten, fully equipped with milk, food, and a warm blanket. I didn’t think it would be a good idea for him to tag along with us all day, and I just didn’t want to let him go either. Having to make it all on his own there in the cemetery. He was really small. Even for a kitten, and I thought he may have been just born a day or two ago. I also knew that there was no doubt that a kitten that small should still be with its mama. But,
like an idiot.
I hadn’t thought much about that when I’d first found him. Now that I had, I really hoped that his mama wasn’t anywhere nearby hiding from me when I’d picked him up and walked off with him. The very thought of kitten-napping him made me feel like crap.
     After we had gotten back to my house. Before coming inside. Katelyn decided that she should bless the house and put some of her voodoo, hokum nonsense on it. So that way Abellona Abbott wouldn’t come for me and my mama in the middle of the night. It wasn’t hurting anything. So, I figured what the hell and just went ahead and let her have her fun.
   After the blessing. We entered the house through the kitchen and that’s when I had told Katelyn that I would be right back. I was going to go down into the basement to see if there were any of the old boxes that we’d used during our move still left down there.
     When I got down into the cellar. I looked around for a bit and found that I was in luck. In the far corner of the basement. I came across the perfect size box that I could use to house the kitten in for a while. The box, was presently being filled with my Step Daddy Cade’s old skin magazines. Which I quickly discarded before stealing it. Screw his smut.
     When I got back up to the first floor of the house. Katelyn was no longer in the kitchen where I’d left her though. So I went off in search of her. I ended up finding her in one of the two living rooms. (It was the one which contained all the pictures of my Grandmother Lyanna and her friends.) She was just standing there unmoving, still with the kitten held snugly to her chest with one hand. The other now holding a picture frame she pulled from atop a piece of furniture.
     She hadn’t noticed me come up behind her, and instead of making my presence known by asking her what it was she was doing. I just walked up to her as surreptitiously as I could because I was curious to see which of the room’s pictures she held in her hand. To my surprise it was a photo of her and my grandmother. Up until that point I had thought that I had seen every photo in that room already. Every photo in the entire house for that matter, at least ten times,
and yet,
I hadn’t seen this one.
     In the photo, Katelyn and my grandmother stood next to each other in what looked like the backyard, each of them holding dream catchers. My Grandmother Lyanna was smiling while looking down at Katelyn like
she
was her granddaughter and not me. It had caused me to think of all the memories I had lost having never met her.
    
Would we have had a lot in common and been close with one another like she seemed to have been with Katelyn in the photo?
I thought sadly. Then, I thought.
What if Katelyn was actually telling me the truth about my grandmother really being a witch? Would she have taught me everything she knew about the craft like Katelyn had said she had taught her?
     Just then Katelyn saw me standing there just behind her, but she didn’t say anything about my presence.
     “So, you did know my grandmother?” I asked.
     “Yeah, this was from a couple of summers ago just before your grandmother stopped leaving her house.”
     “She seems happy in that photo, like you two were grandmother and granddaughter.” I said, feeling a tinge of envy.
     “I think she had liked to think of me that way. As a granddaughter.” Katelyn then said with a warm smile having taken over her face as she continued to reminisce about her time spent with my grandmother. “She didn’t allow a lot of people to come visit her in the last couple of years of her life, but she always welcomed me though
.
And,
she used to talk about you all the time.
Did you know that?”
     “Oh, yeah... What kind of things did she say about me?” I asked, feeling a sense of gladness that my grandmother hadn’t just forgotten about me having been born.
     “Oh, she used to talk about how you were growing up to raise hell in Alabama for one thing, and she used to talk about how beautiful you were. You know your mom used to send your grandmother letters a couple of times each year telling her all about how you and she were doing?”
     “I didn’t know that.” I said, feeling a sense of shock and yet wonder over the fact that my mama had kept up a relationship with my grandmother over the years. She had never let on to it.
     “Yeah, your mother used to send your grandmother pictures of you too.
You were such a cute baby.”
Katelyn then teased, trying to embarrass me.
     “What?
Get out of here...
She
did
not.”
I told her actually feeling a little embarrassed for not having known any of this.
     “It’s true.
I’ve seen many pictures of you as you grew up in Alabama.” Katelyn said, but then she added, “I think that may have been part of the reason I felt myself subconsciously drawn to you when I saw you sitting there by yourself in the cafeteria. Either that or I’ve just got a soft spot to take pity on friendless dorks.”
     “Hey, well, I don’t know anything about all of that.” I told her now eagerly wanting to change the conversation off of me being a friendless loser. “But, for now, let’s get this little guy’s bed all set up in the garage, and get out of here before my mama or step daddy comes home early.”
     We then left the living room and as we passed through the kitchen, just as we headed out to the garage with the box, blanket, and a saucer of milk I had gathered for the kitten, the phone began to ring. Katelyn looked at me like,
Aren’t you going to answer it?
And, as if reading her mind, I said, “Let the answering machine get it. We can’t let anyone know were here, remember?” and then after the fourth ring the machine picked up.
     The tape went through its recording of my mama’s voice telling the-would-be-callers that we weren’t home. That was then soon followed by a woman with a somewhat whiny voice beginning to leave her message. If I recall correctly her message went something like this, “Hello, this is Carol Coalaski from the Mount Harrison High School attendance office. I’m calling to inquire about Cera being absent from school today. We will assume that she’s at home sick. But we’ll be expecting her back in school tomorrow unless otherwise informed of her further being absent. If you are unaware of Cera being absence from school today, or have any questions, please give us a call back at…” and then the attendance lady left the number for the school’s attendance office before ending the call.
     “Fuckin’
sweet, that worked out perfectly.”
I said to Katelyn right before hitting the erase button on the answering machine. “Well, that covers me with my parents. What are you going to tell yours later when they surely ask you why you weren’t in school today?”
     Katelyn just shrugged at me and said, “I don’t have to tell them anything. Neither of my parents comes home from work until past six. So, I’ll have my call from the attendance office already erased by the time they get home.”
  
So much for casting a memory spell on them,
I thought.
     We’d then left the kitchen to set up the box for the kitten where we put it tucked away in the far corner of the garage. I then placed the little guy inside where he seemed to take to his new bed right away. After I had watched him curl himself up into a tiny fluffy cotton ball on the blanket he then slowly began to bring down his heavy eyelids.
   While we sat there watching him Katelyn had asked me, “So, what are you going to name him?” to which I responded, “I have no idea.” to which she then said, “How about, Casper?”
     “Casper?” I reiterated giving her an impassive look.
     “Well, yeah, it kind of fits him if you think about it.” She then said with an upward inflection in her voice. “He’s all white, and we found him in a cemetery.”
     “Okay, well, I guess that sorta works. Casper it is then.” I agreed.
     “So what do you want to do now?” Katelyn then asked me.
     “I don’t know.” I responded to her before pausing for a moment. “I was thinking of taking a hike through the forest. I can steal a couple of my step daddy’s beers and we can just hang out there for the day. Besides,
it’s probably best if we don’t show ourselves in the village during school hours. I imagine the two of us will stick out like a couple of sore thumbs, and I really don’t want that sort of attention right now, do you?”
     “No, I don’t.” Katelyn agreed now sounding a little abject. “Hey before I forget, do you have any salt?”
     “Um, in the Kitchen, I suppose.” I told her having been a little confused about what it was she was planning to do with it, but then I just went along and got it for her, not asking any questions. Once outside, I watched as she poured out the entire container as she made her way slowly around the border of the property while incoherently babbling something that was inaudible.
Damn, this bitch is squirrelly,