THE CAT CALLS

Noemi was always a loner. Growing up, she loved animals, and her best friend was a little cat she named Timmy. Timmy the Tabby. He was a beautiful, bright, spirited tabby kitten she adored. Usually, her parents were strictly against stray animals coming into the house. But they never saw Noemi so open and playful, so they allowed it, this once. Years passed, and the two were inseparable. Timmy followed her to elementary school most days and was at the front door with a welcome home happy kitty greeting whenever she returned. Sometimes her mother swore she heard voices from Noemi's room but then shrugged it off. Maybe her imagination was playing tricks. "Cats can't talk." She chuckled. Then one day, Timmy disappeared. Everyone helped with the search. Her parents, the neighbors, the pastor's son, most of their family, even her cousins, second and third removed.

No one ever saw the cat again. No one except Noemi, that is. There he was after Sunday service, in the church garden sleeping. The tabby cat woke up, lifted its head, got up, and walked toward the back of the church. He purred and squeaked out a soft meow as if beckoning her to follow. She started to follow him, then church members began to fill the streets, rushing to their cars, hoping to catch the football game after the late afternoon service. Noemi's parents called out to her. She looked away momentarily, but when she turned around. The cat was gone. His tail disappeared into the shadows of a nearby alleyway. Downtown, at the shopping mall with her parents, she saw him licking his paws by the corner barbershop. Noemi turned for a second to tug on her mom's jacket coat sleeve, "Mom did you see him? It's Timmy again" when her mom finally paid attention, he was gone." Honey that was probably another stray cat that looked like Timmy." 

All the sightings of her estranged cat began to take a toll on little Noemi. She was scared and confused, doubting reality, slipping into a fantasy world. They called her the dreamer. Noemi was in another world at home, in classes, and even on the playground during recess. She cried off and on for a week when the sightings stopped. But then the nightmares began. Night terrors and the feeling she was fastened to the floor and couldn't move. No one could hear her screaming in the darkness. Other times she heard voices in her room, so many frightened tormented souls in her dreams. When she woke, there were a pair of red eyes in the shadows of the moonlight that shone through her window. Noemi was only 8, frustrated, frantic, and inconsolable. she was helpless until she wasn't.

Eventually, Grandma Dweeta took matters into her own hands. One evening, she tucked Noemi in bed and sang a sweet melody that sounded like "I love you, my precious" and "sleep tight, little one." She spoke kind words and made warm milk and honey before bedtime. Noemi called her "Sweething" because she knew how to make everyone feel better. As for Noemi, Sweething made the moonrise and the sunset with her smile. Her Grandmother's big bear hugs made her feel safe and comforted, keeping the night terrors at bay. Sweething often read Noemi traditional tales at night about the Adina and Hopewell Indians and the ancient circles encompassing their small town. 

She told stories of terrifying and wondrous creatures like the Red-haired Giants or the Sky people who came down to Earth and taught them many new skills and advancements. Sweething spoke of falling stars that took the form of men and the war between the gods and the giants that resulted in a great flood. The dreamwalker, who fought in the great rebellion against the Giants thousands of years ago, was a powerful magical being who could travel into dreams and nightmares to slay any monster that frightened people in their sleep. Grandma Dweeta told her that these were special people who could shift into the astral planes, enter the sleep realms, stave off evil attacks, and help to heal those who suffered terrible nightmares, monstrous visions, and difficulties in their sleep life. The children were often the most affected by some evil spirit terrorizing a village. The parents would tell them how to recognize a dreamwalker, so they would know who to trust in the sleep world. "Look for the mark of power, glowing magic symbols that appear on their hands." Sweething believed with practice and training, most people could learn to shift their dreams, but only a few chosen ones of each generation would bare the mark of power. After a few years, Noemi could control the horrific scenes in her dream world. She learned to shift her dreams, change nightmares' outcomes, and break the invisible chains of night terrors. However, some of her cousins, first, second, and third removed, swore that Noemi appeared in their dreams, doing God knows what because they would wake up feeling rested but never remembered what happened. 

Life was perfect, as time passed with joys, sorrows, many lessons learned, and so much more to know. Noemi was excited when she arrived at the most famous international University in Ohio but not emotionally prepared for how small one feels amongst thousands of students. Her hometown, Circleville, named for the mysterious circular earthworks of the Native people known as the Hopewell tribe, was not very exciting at all, except for the Fall Pumpkin festival each year. There was pumpkin spice everything; pumpkin-flavored foods like pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin fudge, and pumpkin spice lattes which were Noemi's favorite treats. People came from near and far for Circleville's pumpkin delights. Then the festival was over, and the only highlight of her week was taking short road trips around southern Ohio to see the sights with her dad. He would usually stop by the Amish bakery on the way to Chillicothe for the best apple strudel you have ever tasted. He almost popped a vein in his neck several times when impatiently driving behind an old-fashioned horse and buggy in the hills and dales of the small Ohio towns. Now that she was in Columbus, Noemi was a big city slicker that stayed to herself most of the time studying, reading, watching TV, or dancing to her playlist while singing with her toothbrush microphone in PJs before going to bed. 

She needed to prepare for the early morning treks to the south campus cafeteria for coffee. There were so many new places and faces of students walking, talking, laughing, running, back and forth pacing, fraternity boys rushing about kind of days. Being blindsided by a classmate late for her next class, bumping into each other, books falling to the ground as her papers fly up into the sky scattered in the winds, kind of days. She was often at a loss, feeling swallowed up, and daydreaming was her out. 

She imagined returning home with her mom and dad, getting ready for their yearly road trip to the Oklahoma intertribal Powwow, a welcomed tradition. She always enjoyed discovering more about her maternal great-grandmothers and her indigenous ancestry. Most of all, Noemi missed visiting her favorite uncle Will, Sweetthing's youngest brother, at his farm in Gahanna, Ohio. They used to make dinner together, picking fresh corn on the cob, tomatoes, squash, greens of varied sorts, and granny smith apples. Uncle Will made the most delicious dishes. She could smell the faint sweetness of stewed tomatoes, candied sweet potatoes, hominy grits, and the hardy robustness of chicken frying in a black cast iron skillet and apple pie. The piece de resistance was his signature dish, her maternal Grandmother's family recipe for "Msickquatash," originally a Narragansett Indigenous word for the Thee sisters' meal known to us as succotash. Noemi didn't have the heart to tell uncle Will that Sweething spilled all her recipe secret ingredients to her aunties before passing away, leaving poor uncle Will in the cold. But Noemi figured she would tell him to dice up red peppers, throw in some okra and add it to the green beans, onions, squash, and corn mixture. Now everyone in the family thinks uncle will is a cooking genius, and she prepares "fry bread" and "hot water cornbread" at family gatherings.

Noemi was hungry, daydreaming about all that good food. I Better go to the grocery store. She promised not to be a "basic" freshman, ordering pizza all the time. She gathered her wallet and her smartphone and headed to the store. Noemi's nose was buried in her phone, surfing through her doodle diary app as she walked home. Noemi was in the zone and hardly noticed a scrappy-looking tabby following her home from the store. When she reached the front door of the apartment complex, It meowed loudly, an all too familiar meow. Startled, she looked up and down, shaken out of her reverie. The cutest tabby cat looked up at her with bright green eyes. "Timmy?" "No, no, it can't be, can it?" The little orange fur ball was persistent, weaving between her legs and meowing until Noemi relented and poured some cream into a small cat bowl left from the last stray cat she hosted. She laughed, "My neighbors will think I'm running a cat Hostel." 

"Kitty boy, here, kitty-kitty. Who's a pretty kitty? Huh? Who's a purrrty kiddy? Cats seem to like that, or at least cat people like it. The Tabby reemerged from, wait, from where did he come? He drank a bit of the heavy cream and ran into a narrow alleyway, meowing. Noemi followed the cat and walked through the small alley beside her home into a small park she had never noticed before. She couldn't believe she had missed it, with its overgrown weeds and neglected bushes. But the cat seemed to know the way, leading her deeper into the park until they reached a small, rundown house.

"Yes, Noemi, it's me, Timmy." " I regret it's been such a long time, but I had to go." 

"There was no other choice. You have no idea what's coming." 

"You see that? Said the cat, pointing its paw toward the house. 

Noemi stared blank-faced, and hesitantly, she muttered, 

"The big ugly house over there?" 

"No, girl, what's inside the big ugly house over there." 

Noemi strained to see through the window into the darkness of the house. She saw a flicker when suddenly a light flashed, and pulsating white light brightened. Noemi hesitated momentarily, wondering what it was, but then felt a strange, inexplicable pull. She reached out and turned the doorknob. The house was dank and musty, with cobwebs clinging to the corners, dust covering the furniture, and the odd smell of rotten eggs. But as Noemi walked further into the room, a light emanated from a small, locked chest. She approached the chest, her heart pounding, tightening, and gently lifted the lid. Inside, she found an old, leather-bound book filled with ancient-looking, arcane symbols. Glowing lights danced over the writing, a runic text or some Enochian calls, which seemed oddly familiar. Noemi did watch a lot of Sci-Fi films. Noemi flipped through the book and ran her fingers over the empty pages, feeling like she had stumbled upon something magical and mysterious. Suddenly words appeared like Enochian calls, lights emanated from the book's pages, and runic markings appeared on the top of each hand. What are these symbols? She asked. He answered, "they are cat calls, an ancient language the Angels of Heaven gave to cats."

The low-pitched voice from below said, "Clench up, hold your arms and hands firmly against your body and your legs tightly together at your ankles. Trust me, go flailing around, and you might lose a limb or two." 

"Why would I do that?" "You're kind of slow, aren't you." "No need to be rude, cat," she huffed. "You're about to go on a little trip to another dimension" Whoosh! Like falling stars exploding in the night sky, vibrant lights flashed around her. Noemi vacuumed into the tunnel and propelled forward at great speed. Screaming at the top of her lungs as she swooshed deeper into the whirling depths of the wormhole. But remembering Timmy's advice, Noemi kept her body tight, hands to her sides and ankles firmly together, just as the cat advised. Then as suddenly as it all began, she fell with a thud onto her living room floor, back in her apartment again; She couldn't shake the feeling that the cat was testing her. Timmy, the Tabby, was preparing her for something unimaginable. This road trip was the best, a journey to discover powerful magic that would change her life forever. "Well, that was pretty good for a newbie. First-time dimension jumps can go wrong. Kiddo, we got a lot to do." Today This is just the tip of the dimensional iceberg. Noemi stared in disbelief at the glowing light tattoos on her hands. She looked over to respond to the cat. It was gone! She couldn't wait to return to her laptop and start researching the book she had found. But now, thanks to the cat, she discovered something even more magical that would take her on a journey beyond her wildest dreams. And for that, she was grateful to the little cat that led her astray.