The Witch, the Cat and the Book

The Witch, the Cat and the Book

It had been great for me to earn money as a child. Something to boast about in school. When I turned eight my Mother decided that I would walk our dog Bruno every day after school. I got five pounds per week for the walks. Earning some pocket money after school suited me well and Bruno was my best friend. Around the same time an old lady moved in with my neighbours, Mr and Mrs Calve. Along with her she brought a cat who lay curled on their Garden wall. It was black on the top and its belly was white. She was called Myra. The old lady was Mr Calve’s mother. When she moved in mother dragged us next door for introductions. ‘She’s an earls’ daughter’, my mother whispered to my father as he knocked on Calve’s door and made out introductions ‘he was the earl of Rochester, such a wealthy man!’. Old Mrs Calve waddled out to meet us berating Mr Calve as she held Myra purring in her arms and after saying hello, we all went back home.

The next day I walked Bruno after school through Headley common. Afterwards I bought some pokémon cards as I was a tom boy. Bruno was a spaniel, though at the time I didn’t really understand breeds. It had been so for around three weeks before something changed. On my way back I noticed Mr Calve putting signs up all along the street where we lived.

‘Missing cat, Myra cash prize of twenty thousand pounds I read aloud looking up at the sign Mr Calve had just put up. When I got to my front door, I heard screams and wailing from next door. Old Lady Calve was distraught, someone had stolen Myra from her bed overnight.

On my walk that day I saw a lady wearing a pointy hat which was embroidered with pink crystals. The lady was always around animals which were never on leashes, she often talked to Bruno.

I saw her on the far side of the Heath between the gorse-lined river and the bogged woodland. Most people avoided these bogs on account of the soaked ground and thorns. Had I not loved Bruno who ran after the squirrels and badgers there, I would have avoided the Lady’s far side of the heath as well. She said hello and smiled to me and Bruno on our walk just as other walkers in our small town did. Bruno had run to her and gasping after them I noticed a man holding her hand. He wore a bright orange and yellow adidas tracksuit.

‘Hello darling you’re here again today’

‘Yes’ I said eyes fixed upon her face which was pale and smooth.

‘This is Oliver, and I am Sheena’

‘That’s Mr Brouger to you girl’

Only then, after introductions, did I really look at Mr Oliver Brouger. He had large square teeth and limped as he walked. His eyes seemed watery and his skin so scaly I wanted to touch it, curious at his grossness as well as his bold orange and yellow colours.

‘Here’s a fine Spaniel! He croaked energetically whilst I took in his smell and Sheena’s long, radiant blonde hair. He inspected Bruno, smacking his legs and furs. He behaved with them like horses bought and sold for the Newbury races which upset me. After that I hurried on home where I found the notice about Myra.

The next day I found myself walking around Headley common and trampling the muck about there. Almost nothing stirred on the Heath that day after school, it was raining heavily. I walked by the Old Oak, passed the rugby pitches and alongside the small Headley river towards the far side of the Heath. All the while I noticed nothing but the dark thunder clouds and pelting rain. Just by the river’s end Bruno began to bark. The river on one side, thick gorse and woods on the other, I couldn’t see why he was barking. I noticed a trickle of blood from his paw. It bled as I knelt to attend to the thorn. I tore and pulled at the thorn, unable to remove it, still he fiercely barked.

A thunder rumbled and Bruno bolted through the gorse thicket and was gone. I chased after and after him at first excited by the chase. I did not stop until I found Bruno by a campfire. Its embers still red hot. By the fire I found a little black book. Inside there where drawing of cats, from ginger cats to all black and hairless cats. Alongside these cat drawings was writing I couldn’t read. I stole the little black book and ran off home with Bruno.

Pushing around a bowl of chicken stew with my spoon my thoughts were on the little black book I had stolen. ‘Darling, your soup!’, said mother. We cleared our plates together in the small kitchen and as I dried the last plate, I thought of the little black book. It opened on a page with a drawing of a black and white cat. It looked like Myra. I left straight back to the woods.

The Headley Heath was darker now and as my eyes adjusted to the dark blues and blacks of the night. All I could make out were silhouettes from the trees. Bruno had run away to the campsite through the woods and so there I was going. Trudging in mud and wet grass I walked forward, not sure what I would find. As I approached the edge of the woods, I noticed some light and gentle crackling. It was the orange sort of light which came from a fire. I slowly crept towards it. I could make out the outline of a woman and a man in orange and yellow. She wore a hat with pink crystals and had smears of blood on her which covered the man beside her too. Hidden behind a gnarled oak tree I watched them by the fire, my teeth chattering in the cold, wet air. Through my own breath I saw her raise her arms and place items into a large pan, talking as she did so. At first, I could not hear the words she spoke but slowly her voice grew louder. She then closed her eyes and began chanting.

‘Burn the fire

Jump down onto the floor like a cat,

Burn the fire

Stick your hands into the green and black slime

Burn the fire

Smash blood and hex upon all evil things’

She waited, birds and crickets slowly chirped away and the forest itself seemed to moan as if under great duress. I noticed a group of cats by her feet. There was an inside out cat, a ginger cat and Myra! Myra nuzzled her and rolled up to sit with her as she chanted. Behind the cats by a tree a distressed horse stood with a bag over its eyes, neighing and moving in a high pitch as it pulled on its’ tied down reigns. Myra was on a lead; Sheena opened her eyes.

‘Adyn!’

I felt the grip of two warm leathery hands around my neck. A bag was wrenched over my head as I shook and fought back. Warm breath coursed over my back from where the hands had come. The hands squished and oozed all over my neck. Before I knew it, I had a sack around my whole body and was tied up. I squirmed and threw my arms around but to no avail. Soon some time had passed, and I heard some speaking.

‘I’ve brought you a noisy one’ said the deep voice. Sheena spoke

‘Thank you for remembering the bag Oliver, it helps keep them calm’.

Sat there in the sack for a while I heard birds singing in the dark and the cats prowling around. Through the bags opening I saw foxes behind the fire looking at me. I had given up struggling, slumped on my bum with the hard bark of a tree digging into my back. Whilst Myra came up to me excitedly meowing and licking at me in my bag, struggling against her leash. Soon the chanting became louder and I felt blood on my face. Slow pulses of sticky blood flushing down my nose and cheeks. I heard a person move and scuttle near me.

‘Goodness!’ Young lady what are you doing in this bag?

‘Myra’ I said. Myra purred and stood to attention behind her.

‘Ah Myra!’ She turned to her fire, and bade me sit and took out a curved blade. Sitting still, I watched her ease the curve of her tool around the roots of one of the gnarled old oak trees that made up these parts of the woods. She cut a root and having walked over to me licked the smeared blood off my face, spitting it into a boiling pan. She then raised her arms up and sang. The singing didn’t make sense to me, it was gibberish but when she was finished Myra had been set loose, the horse had ridden off and my wounds were gone.

‘Now, Elizabeth’ she said to me ‘Who did this?’ I nodded, unable to speak. Only the slimy hands and orangey tracksuit in my mind.

Sheena sat down by her fire. Looking into the flames we watched as animals took shape, coming and going between that nights gusting wind. From turquoise to red and brown the flames changed. We could see Bruno barking with my mother in tow. She stalked across the low-cut grass of the heath shouting, observing the thunderous darkness. We watched and as the flames changed and Mother’s image went. Lastly, Brouger appeared, walking towards us in the flames. ‘We will talk to him’ Sheena said.

As she stood, holding me behind her the flames weakened and went out with a hiss. In his tracksuit and a fur skin hat he walked through the fire’s ashes, smiling.

‘Do you like what I brought you Sheena? Isn’t she the sweetest of all animals?

‘Oliver she is a child!’

And with this she whispered to herself and then took a step towards Oliver. A knife plunged into his heart and our two bloods mixed a green light appeared. Before I knew it, I saw a Toad in front of me. Sheena walked towards the Toad, ‘Now, the animals you bring to me are to be healed not hurt’. She was crying, tears made her face wet. ‘You created pain where it did not belong. So, I have taken this pain from and have returned it to its owner, you.’

Kissing the toad, kneeling on her knees in front of me the toad croaked as she said these words. As she cried in this manner, I simply watched Sheena. After a while I simply went over to her and hugged onto her warm and wet as she lay slumped on the ground. Her hair was soft, and she was holding the toad. Suddenly, I heard barking. This was followed by shouts. I could make out the voice of my mother. She had Bruno there to help them find me. Slowly the lights of a white torch broke through the trees as my mother and Bruno came closer. And as my mother just broke through a gorse hedge to the clearing where I lay, holding Sheena, I heard a puff!

‘Elizabeth you’re safe! Oh, I was so worried. And there you are Myra’

I picked up and stroked Myra as my mother hugged me tightly. On the floor was an ugly toad and a frog. The toad ugly and the frog amazing in a small, pointed hat with pink crystals on it. I begged to take them home along with Myra, but mother wouldn’t let me. And so that was how we got twenty thousand pounds and I set Sheena and Mr Brouger free, never to see them again,