Cat Nap

When I was small, even before I opened my eyes for the first time, my mother had told me of her dreams.

   "Do not cry little one," she purred, as I shook in fear and confusion along with my brothers and sisters against her chest, "One day you shall close your eyes and become as large as a mountain, as fast as a hummingbird, as content as a still lake."

  We had hardly the knowledge to understand what she meant, but we were calmed all the same, trusting in her wisdom.

  Just as my mother fed us her milk to give our bodies strength, she fed us her dreams so one day we could have our own.

 "You will not always be with me, you will not always have your brothers and sisters by your side," she said one day, when our eyes had opened and our steps were more confident.

  "But why mama?" We mewed, almost in unison.

 She seemed to pause then, stretching her neck so that the white fur of her underbelly was bathed in the sunlight filtering in through the window. When she turned her face back towards us, her yellow eyes seemed far away.

  "It is the way of the world little ones."

 I was taken soon after that. Transported across hills and fields and rivers to live in a new place that looked the same as the old place, only, I was alone.

  I cried for two weeks, scratching at every door, biting at every unwelcome hand, refusing to eat until I was taken back to my mother.  

  One day they brought home a bell for me to wear, so they could hear every step I took. That was when I knew I would never see her again, not in this world.

   I cried for a long time that night, curled up in the dark where they couldn't hear my bell. But when I finally slept, for the first time, I dreamed.

  I was walking along the top of the couch, the paisley pattern swaying like a field of flowers bending to the wind. Below me was a vast abyss of gray mist, above me was a sky full of stars.

  I started to run. As I ran, my paws grew to a the size of two fat rats and turned deep black, the sky above me swirled and the stars dripped mercury down my back. I blinked and shook off the glistening liquid, each drip hitting the floor with a ringing sound, like a bell.

  When I opened my eyes I was in an overgrown forest, the path ahead of me the only sold gap between the foliage. 

  I ran faster than I had ever run before, and when I tried to cry out with joy a roar escaped from my lips instead. 

 "Oh no," I mumbled to myself as my new voice echoed back to me over and over. The earth began to shake, the trees vibrated, the leaves quivered. The faster I ran the louder my echo became and the more the world shook around me, until it could no longer hold itself together and disintegrated into golden sand. 

My paws reached for something to hold, to jump to, but there was nothing. 

  "If there's something you need, you can always find it here." A voice called out through the void as I fell. I had never heard the voice before, but I knew it was my mother's voice. Or at least my mother's words.

  "But who am I? Where are you?" I cried, suddenly realizing I wasn't falling through darkness, but floating through space. 

  "I am in you, and you are in me, and we are together." And I knew now that it was the stars speaking.

   I awoke to the sound of my new name and a gentle hand caressing my back. I purred and rolled onto my back.

  I would always have my dreams.