The Magic of Ruby

THE MAGIC OF RUBY

“Mom!  Can we keep her?  Please!”

Cassie looked at her son and his new “friend.”

“Jake, I don’t think so.  She probably has a family that’s looking for her.”  Jake’s mom smiled at her son.  “She needs to go home.”

Jake’s new friend spoke up.  “No, I don’t have a family actually.  I am currently unhoused.”  She purred and wove her way between Jake’s mom’s legs.

“You … you … you,” she stuttered, eyes wide.  “You can talk?”  She took a step back, almost falling over the cat.

“Yes, I can.”

Jake’s mom turned to Jake.  “Did you know she could talk?”

Jake smiled and nodded his head.  “Her name is Ruby.  She used to live in that old house that looks scary.”  He pointed vaguely towards the front of the house, and up the hill.  “But her human died, and the new family kicked her out.”  He bent to rub Ruby’s head.  “She’s all alone Mom.  Can she stay with us?  Pleeeease?”

Jake’s mom was still in shock.  “But she can talk!”  She shook her head.  “Cats can’t talk.”

Ruby jumped up on the counter so that she could be closer. She purred, and bunted her head on Jake’s mom’s arm.  “Jake told me your name is Cassie.  May I call you Cassie?”

“Uh, sure.  You can call me Cassie. I guess.”  She looked at the cat, uncertain.  “Cats can’t talk,” she repeated.

Ruby purred loudly.  “There are a lot of things in the world that are … unexpected.  Today, in your kitchen, a talking cat is one of them.”  She purred louder, continuing to rub her face on Cassie’s arm.

Cassie shook her head again, shutting her eyes.  “I can’t believe that I’m talking to a cat,” she said quietly.

Jake broke into her thoughts, “Pleeeeese, Mom, please!  I promise I’ll look after her.  Honest!” he pleaded.

Cassie looked at her son.  He looked so earnest.  So hopeful.  “Jake, she’s a talking cat.”

Jake smiled widely at his mom.  “I know!  Isn’t that cool!”  He walked over to Ruby and petted her back.  “I bet I’m the only kid at school who has a talking cat!”

“Maybe you don’t tell your friends about Ruby talking,” said Cassie, vision of Jake being mocked and bullied flashing across her mind.  She looked down at the cat, then back at her son, shaking her head.  “Jake, she needs all kinds of stuff that we don’t have, and special care.”  She paused.  “For example, who’s going to clean out her litter box?”

”I will! I promise!” He begged.

Ruby purred, “Don’t worry, Cassie, I’ll let him know what I need.  Actually, it’s not that much.   Just a bit of food—I do like a soft food, but I’m okay with kibble.  I’ll need a water bowl, and maybe a pillow to sleep on.”  Ruby turned her green eyes on Cassie and rubbed up against her arm again.  “I’d love to stay, Cassie.”

As Ruby rubbed against her arm, Cassie felt a sense of well-being flood through her body.  She ran her hand down Ruby’s body.  She was so soft.  Cassie looked from Ruby to Jake.  She couldn’t think of a single reason not to adopt Ruby into the family.  Since Jake’s dad had died, the house had felt unnaturally empty.  Maybe Ruby could help change that.  But a small niggling voice in the back of her brain reminded her that normal cats can’t talk, and if Ruby could talk, what else could she do?  To paraphrase Glinda from the Wizard of Oz, was Ruby a good cat or a bad cat?

She looked at Ruby then back to Jake.  “I don’t know, Jake …

“Pleeeeese, Mom.  Please!” He looked so hopeful.  “Please!  I promise I’ll take care of her.  And if I don’t, Ruby will remind me!”  He turned to look at the cat.  “Right, Ruby?  You’ll tell me if forget to feed you or something?”

Ruby interrupted her heavy purring to agree with Jake.  “I will tell you, Jake.  I promise.”

Cassie took a deep breath, not sure that she was doing the right thing.  “I guess it’s alright.  At least for now.” said Cassie.  “Is it alright with you, Ruby?”

Ruby swished her tail.  “I’d love to make this my new home.”

Jake ran to Cassie and hugged her hard.  “Thank you, thank you, thank you.  You’re the best mom in the universe!”

Later that night, after Jake was in bed and sleeping, Ruby came downstairs looking for Cassie.  She found her sitting quietly on the couch looking straight ahead at nothing.

Ruby jumped up on Cassie’s lap, startling her. Cassie yelped and almost flung Ruby across the room.

“What … what are you doing?” asked Cassie, a slight whiff of fear rolling off of her.  She looked closely at Ruby.  She was positive that the cat was smiling.

“I can understand that you have some misgivings about me.  And I know that most cats can’t talk, so there’s that.  And, I suspect that you have a number of questions for me.”  She kneaded Cassie’s lap, circled once and settled in.  Cassie unconsciously stroked Cassie’s back.  She’d had been uneasy, worried that she’d let a monster into their home, but now she felt more centred stroking Ruby. 

“I do have some questions, Ruby.  First, why Jake?  Why did you latch on to Jake?”

Ruby purred for a few moments before answering.  “There was something about Jake.  Something missing.  On the outside, he’s a happy little boy, but that’s just a facade.  Inside he’s sad.  I want to make him happy again.”

Cassie slowly nodded her head.  “He lost his dad about a year ago, and he still misses him every day.”  She continued to stroke Ruby.  “I miss him too, but I’ve got to be strong for Jake.  If I’m sad it will only make him sadder.”

Ruby’s back undulated under Cassie’s stroking.  “The loss of a partner is a traumatic event, Cassie.  You need to be able to grieve.  You can’t be the parent Jake needs you to be if you haven’t allowed yourself to grieve the loss of Fitz.”  She purred loudly.

Cassie stiffened, her hand frozen over Ruby’s back.  “How did you know Fitz’s name?” Cassie asked, watching the cat intently.  She should swear that Ruby shrugged.

“Cats know things.”  She paused and purred.  “Like names, and places, and when people need them.”  She sat up and leaned into Cassie.  “Like now.”

Unconsciously, Cassie started to stroke Ruby again.  She looked down at the top of Ruby’s head.  “Am I going crazy?  Talking to a cat seems like all kinds of crazy.”

Ruby purred.  “No, you’re not crazy.  People talk to their pets all the time.”

Cassie shook her head.  “But usually the pets doesn’t answer.”

Purr.  “You’d be surprised.”

Cassie chucked Ruby under her chin.  Ruby reacted by stretching her head forward, allowing Cassie to caress her entire neck.

“Are you magical?” asked Cassie.

There was a pause while Ruby continued to purr, not answering Cassie’s question immediately.

“Am I magical?” she repeated.  More pausing, more purring.  “Yes, I guess I am magical.”

The two sat in silence.

“How magical?” asked Cassie a couple of minutes later.

Ruby purred loudly.  “I do not know how to answer that.”   She laid back down on Cassie’s lap.  “How magical is magical?”

Cassie looked around trying to figure out what she needed to say.  “I don’t know … Can you fly?” she asked.

Ruby stutter-purred, which sounded suspiciously like laughter.  “No.  Cats can’t fly.  Not even magical ones.” 

“Okay,” said Cassie.  “Are you a witch in disguise?  I read that cats are witches who have morphed into cat-form to spy on humans.”

More purr laughing.  “Nope.  Not a witch.”

“But .. But you talk.”  Cassie shook her head and paused.  “I feel like I’m in a Kafka novel.”

“Ah,” said Ruby.  “But I’m not a giant cockroach, I’m a cat.  And I have never been a person.  I’ve only always been a cat.”

Cassie was dumb-struck.  “You can read?”  Pause.  “And you’ve read The Metamorphosis?”

Ruby cat-shrugged.  “My last owner had an extensive library.”

Cassie looked at Ruby, seriously.  “Ruby, why are you here?”

Ruby looked up at Cassie.  “Because you need me.”

When they went up to bed, Ruby went to sleep with Jake, snuggling at the foot of his bed, appointing herself his new protector.

Much later that night, Cassie heard Jake talking to Ruby.  She got out of bed, and crept across the hall to Jake’s room, listening.

“I miss my Dad.  He was killed, you know.”  Pause.  “He was my best friend.  But he was Mom’s best friend, too, and she really, really misses him.”  In the silence Cassie could hear Ruby purring.  Then Jake spoke again.  “Sometimes I see her and she’s all sad looking at pictures of Daddy on her phone.  She cries a lot when she doesn’t know that I’m watching.”  Pause.  “Ruby, I want Mommy to be happy.  I miss the way she used to be.”

Cassie could feel her  heart breaking.  Ruby had been right.  Jake needed his mom back.

The next morning, Cassie had made up her mind.  She needed to reconnect with Jake, and be the best mom ever.

“Good morning, buddy!  How was your sleep?”  She bent over and kissed the top of his head.  

“I woke up in the middle of the night, and Ruby was sleeping on my bed.”  He looked at his mom, worry in his eyes.  “It’s okay if Ruby sleeps with me, right?”

“of course!” said Cassie, pushing away the thoughts of the old wives’ tale of cats sleeping on children’s faces, smothering them.  “As long as you don’t mind sharing your bed.”

Jake smiled.  “She hardly takes up any room!  And she keeps me warm.”

Cassie smiled at Jake.  “So, when you go to school today, I don’t think that you should tell your friends about Ruby.”  She took a breath and continued.  “You can tell them that you have a cat, but I don’t think that you should tell them that she talks.”

“Why?” asked Jake, clearly perplexed.  

“Because, sweetie, I’m not sure that they would believe you if you told them.  They might make fun of you.  Not everybody has a talking cat.”

Jake turned to look at Ruby.  “But you can talk, right Ruby?  That’s what makes you so special!”

Ruby stopped grooming herself to look at Jake.  “I think that your mom’s right about this.  People who have never met a talking cat would be confused.  Maybe even scared.”  She walked over to him and rubbed up against his legs.  “I think that you might even forget about me altogether until we see each other after school.”  She continued to wind around his feet.

After Cassie got back from walking Jake to school, she went looking for Ruby.  She found her curled up on the kitchen rug in a sunbeam. “What did you do to Jake to make him forget that you can talk?” She demanded.

Ruby looked at Cassie,  “Nothing.  I just suggested that maybe the fact that I can talk should be our secret.”

“You used your magic on him, didn’t you! She was furious  “I don’t want you to ever do that again!  Never!  Do you understand me?” She took a deep breath. “If you do, then you’re going to have to leave this house, and never see Jake again.”

Ruby started to groom her paws.  “I understand, Cassie.  And I can understand that you would be concerned about my ‘suggestion.’  But do you want him telling all his friends and teachers about me?”  She looked at Cassie, who just stood there with her arms folded across her chest.  “I know that I don’t want people to know.”  She stopped grooming and jumped up on the kitchen counter to be closer to Cassie’s height.  “The last time that people were told about a talking cat, the person who told them ended up being institutionalized.  And I was hunted.”  She sat and looked at Cassie.  “I don’t want that for you or Jake, and I certainly don’t want that for myself.”  She jumped down and walked away.

Jake kept their secret, and Cassie, while still cautious, began to accept Ruby as a member of the family.  Oddly, though, she found that she never even talked about Ruby unless it was with Jake, at home.  

And Cassie had taken Ruby’s advice about being honest and present for Jake.  It was hard at first—talking about Fitz.  To Cassie, the wound was still so raw.  But she tried.  

She started by talking about Fitz, and asking Jake about his memories of his dad.  Then they started looking at all the photos of him and Jake.  Cassie even bought an electronic picture frame for Jake, loading up with all the pictures of Fitz.  Jake explained each of the photos to Ruby, who purred and kneaded Jake’s lap, making herself comfortable.

Slowly, it became easier and easier to talk about Fitz.  Cassie and Jake found that the liked talking about him.  Sure, it was sad because he wasn’t there with them, but they enjoyed sharing their memories together. A lot of the time, when they would be doing something special, Jake would comment that he thought Fitz would like what they were doing.  Or when they were joking, he’d comment that he thought Fitz would find it funny.  

A couple of months later, late one night, after Jake had gone to bed, Ruby jumped up on Cassie’s lap, much like she had that first night.  Cassie absently stroked her back.  

Ruby purred loudly, than spoke up, “Fitz is really proud of you.  You’ve done such a good job with Jake.”

“I’m sorry?” she said, confused.

“Fitz, he’s happy now.  He can move on.”

Cassie stopped, just as stunned as she had been that first day Ruby had come into their home.  “How do you know?”  She paused.  “How do you know about Fitz, Ruby? He’s dead.”

“Certain cats, like myself, can see things not on this plane of existence.  Like where Fitz is.”

Cassie said nothing.

“He’s really happy, Cassie.  Now that he knows that you and Jake are going to be okay, he’s ready to go.”

Cassie’s eyes filled with tears.  She missed Fitz so much.  “Where to?” she whispered.

Ruby shook her head.  “I don’t know, exactly.  Maybe what you call heaven?”  She turned to look at Cassie.  “I’m not sure.  But what I do know is that he’s going to a better place.  Because of you.  You saved not only Jake, but Fitz as well.”  She leaned into Cassie.  “You’re amazing, Cassie.”

Cassie pulled in a breath.  “I don’t feel amazing.”  Tears streamed down her face.

Ruby purred.  “But you are.”  She rubbed her head on Cassie’s arm.  “And, it’s time for me to move on,” she said, continuing to rub against Cassie.  “You don’t need me any more.  I need to move on.”

The next morning, when Cassie and Jake woke up, Ruby was gone.  But neither of them missed her, or worried about where she was. That was because neither of them even remembered that there had been a talking cat named Ruby who had once lived in their home.