Gabriel

The cat with the ebony coat and pale green eyes sat on the fence post next to an elm tree where a family of squirrels lived. The cat’s name was Gabby, and the squirrels were his closest friends.

Jeremy, a fluffy-tailed grey squirrel, climbed down the elm to the branch closest to the fence. He said, “hey Gab, have you seen Juniper?” Juniper was Jeremy’s sister. He had two younger sisters and an older brother. There had been six siblings at one time.

Gabby said, “Nope. She’s probably up in the oaks with Jersey collecting acorns.”

Jeremy said, “Yeah, you’re probably right. Mom’s kinda freakin cuz of …you know…”

Gabby did know. Jeripoo had disappeared the month before and the family was still unnerved and on edge and sad. Squirrels are at the bottom of the food chain so as much as ‘the Js’ parents mourned their losses, they accepted the fact that the woods were full of the claws, teeth, and the hungry bellies of animals much larger than them.

“Hey, you guys wanna play hide and seek?” A voice called down from the elm. It was Joey, Jeremy’s brother. 

“Sure!” said Gabby.

“You’re the seeker first!” shouted Jeremy. He and Joey scampered down the tree and into the woods.

Gabby cried after them, “but I’m always the first!”

“Ha! That’s cuz you’re a slowpoke!”  shouted Jeremy, laughing.

Gabby counted to ten as he watched the squirrels’ tails disappear through the bushes.

After the count, he took off through the same bushes. He looked around for signs of their passage: grey fur caught on sharp twigs perhaps, or fine disturbed dust motes in the air. He studied a clump of raspberry bushes and saw a couple of ripe, red berries on the ground. ‘Aha! This way,’ he thought and darted through the prickly bushes. 

An obnoxious blue jay squawked ahead. Gabby ran towards the noise, the tuft-headed birds always freaked out when squirrels frolicked their way.

Through a clearing and into a grove of oak trees, Gabby ran. He skidded to a stop at the base of the tallest one. There was a hollow about ten feet up the trunk. 

Gabby thought, ‘In the tree!’ He jumped and clawed up to the inky black burrow and thought, ‘It can’t be that deep.’ Out loud he shouted, “Here I come!” And leapt through the opening. 

It was deep. So deep, in fact, that he fell in pitch blackness a very long way. 

He feared he would fall forever. Maybe all the way to China.

Just before seriously panicking, the tunnel curved upwards slightly, and he was thrown out of an opening and into the middle of no-where. He sailed upwards into a star filled night sky as if he had wings. He gawped in amazement at the earth far below as wispy clouds breezed by.

        ‘I’m dreaming,’ he thought as looked down upon trees and moonlit meadows. Though he’d dreamt of flying many times and always regretted waking from those wonderful dreams, this time felt so real.

The stars all around him sparkled like diamonds. The moon was the shape of a slender crescent and wispy pale mist swirled around the tops of the trees. His eyes were like night vision goggles, they were agog with the sights around him. The pleasant scent of a cook fire wafted his way. He looked down and spotted a lone cabin, the smoke drifting up from its chimney, and warm amber lighting emitting from its windows.

Gabby was drawn downwards by a magnetic pull.  His paws landed on the ground as silently as feathers. This place felt magical. Even the coming storm clouds were a beautiful work of art, as mysterious and colorful as a Van Gogh painting.

Gabby slinked to the window by the door. On tippy toes, he peered into the cabin and saw a cozy living room with crackling flames in a stone wall-to-ceiling fireplace. An iron pot hung over the fire. A woman came into the room, she was draped in a dark woolen shawl. She wore flowy purple pants and short Ugg boots. 

A rumble of thunder suddenly rolled over the cabin. 

Gabby looked to the sky and saw bluey-grey clouds swirling like misty phantoms. 

He looked back to the window…

A flash of lightening lit the window up… on the other side of the glass, mere inches from his face, was an ancient grotesque mummie’s face, curtained with long white hair like straw.  Blueish lips parted in a wide grin, revealing teeth filed to sharp points. Gabby shrieked and fell backwards, his eyes bugging from his head. He dared to look up. In the illumination from the next lightning strike, the window was empty.

Gabby lay on his back and blinked as light rain pelted his face.

‘Surely I’m still dreaming,’ he thought as he looked through the window again. The woman came out of the kitchen. She was young and pretty, not old and creepy. She crossed the living room and opened the front door. “Welcome little friend. Would you like to come inside? Supper is ready and you look hungry.”

Gabby’s stomach rumbled. It felt empty, like he hadn’t eaten in days. It was nighttime after all, and the aroma of beef stew wafted past his quivering nose. He salivated and followed the woman inside in the sort of trance one only experiences in dreams.

Inside the homey cabin, Gabby said, “Yes. Please. Who are you?”

“I’m Marjabelle… call me Marj.” She giggled like a schoolgirl. On closer inspection, she seemed about thirtyish. She twirled as she went to the kitchen, her pale hair like cornsilk in a breeze, and her purple pantaloons rippling like flags on her slender legs.

She came back with a pair of bowls and went to the iron pot. He said, “I’m Gabby---”

She said, “As in Gabriel like the angel.”

Gabby said, “I suppose so."

The young woman filled the bowls with stew and placed them on the little wooden table where two place settings were set.

Gabby sat at the table across from Marjabelle.

The stew was the best he’d ever tasted. She was a master with herbs and seasonings. The meat was tender, juicy, and gamey. The carrots and turnips were soft and though Gabby wasn’t a huge veggie fan, these were delicious. When sated, Gabby said, “I’m confused by this place, here, where you live. I’ve been hallucinating crazy stuff…”

Marj tittered prettily again. “This is heaven. Heaven on earth.  It’s my own creation. Any creature who makes it here experiences their own heaven. Many wish to fly.” She winked at him.

“Why? Why do you do this?”

“The hollow tree is the only portal. I don’t fit through it…” She shrugged and her smile turned sad.

Gabby said, “You’re trapped here…”

“Yes, I’ve been here for four hundred and thirty-seven years. It’s another dimension, invisible from earth’s dimension, the one you’re from. My father put me here. He was a powerful sorcerer but mad, quite literally mad.” She pointed at her head and cocked it a bit. She was awfully glib for someone trapped in another dimension.

Marj noted the alarmed look on Gabby’s face and said, “Oh, you are free to come and go, don’t worry. If you fit through the tree, you’re good. You’ll never find a mastiff or a donkey in here.”

Gabby remained uneasy, the alarm bells in his head clanged like a firetruck’s.

Marj said, “did you like your heaven?”

“Wow. It truly was my heaven.”

“I know. I’ve had many visitors, through the tree portal, over the years and it became my pastime…my art…my, um, I dunno…a way to make others happy. Doing that makes me happy.”

“I should be going home. It’s so late…”

“Actually, you’ll find when you go back through the tree only ten minutes has passed.”

***

It was true.

Gabby clawed his way up inside the tree (it was only ten feet again) and came out into a chilly March day. Grey, overcast, a little damp…’yup, the real world.’ He felt a pang of regret…he already missed his ‘heaven’.

He went home and wondered if the squirrels had worried about him. ‘Of course not. In this world, I’ve only been gone ten minutes.’

Gabby’s head was spinning, and his belly was full. He crawled into bed for a nap and slept as if he’d been up a week and run a marathon.

Early the next morning, when the day was still purple-pink, the squirrels started shrieking. Gabby raced to their tree. Momma Squirrel was wringing her tiny paws and weeping while her babies consoled her with eyes full of sorrow and tears. 

Gabby said, “what’s going on?!”

Joey said, “Juniper never came home last night.”

Gabby had a thought…one that curdled his blood and made his stomach fold over on itself. He told his wee friends that he was going out to search for Juniper even though he was pretty sure he knew she was lost forever.

“Hey, you want me to come with you?” It was Joey, the bravest of the siblings.

“No!”

Joey cringed and Gabby felt bad, he said, “I’m faster on my---”

“---But I’m faster than you…”

“No! Please. Let me use my catness to search for your sister.” He knew exactly where to go and couldn’t risk Momma Squirrel losing another of her babies.

Joey eyeballed Gabby a few seconds then nodded. “Fine.”

Gabby silently made his way back to the enormous tree with his ears on high alert. Squirrels were very sneaky but not so stealthy, their claws made tiny plicking noises as they dug into tree limbs and bark. Every time he heard a squirrel his hopes rose…but none were his wee friend.

He dove into the hollow and eventually came out the other side into his sanctuary…’heaven.’ It was as before- he exited the tree and flew in the starry sky. Though he would have loved to fly for hours, he was on a mission. He made his way to the cabin and peeked into the living room window. No witch in sight. He saw that the back door in the kitchen was ajar and cautiously circled the cabin to it.

The cabin was as cozy as before, with a fire in the hearth and the welcoming scents of onions, herbs, and rich, meaty gravy.  Gabby’s mouth watered involuntarily. He scolded himself and felt ashamed.

His sharp ears detected no one in the cabin.

He crossed the living room and peeked into the pot hanging in the hearth.

A small white skull bobbed to the surface as he watched.

The kitchen door slammed shut!

He whirled around and the witch was there! “Hello there nosy kitty.” She stepped towards Gabby, and he stepped away. “I don’t want to kill you. I enjoy your company. I even thought perhaps you’d like to be my familiar…”

“Never! You’ve been eating my friends!”

“Yeah, well, a gal’s gotta eat.” She shrugged her shoulders. “But you liked flying right? Stay with me and you can fly any time you want to.”

“I could never trust you! I saw what you really are…”

Marj’s eyes narrowed, and her lips tightened whitely. She lunged at the cat with her thin white fingers curled like the talons of an eagle. She screamed like one too.

Gabby dodged unexpectantly towards her instead of away and the witch stumbled.

She screeched as she whirled around. A wicked grin cracked her face from ear to ear, revealing glistening pointed teeth, as the black tail vanished around the corner and into the kitchen.

As the witch raced into the kitchen, the cat knocked over the broom by the fridge directly into Marj’s path. It caught her in the shins. “AAA!”  She stumbled to the linoleum, her head whumping into a cabinet. “Oh no! Ohhh no. I don’t think so.” She leapt to her feet and grabbed the cleaver from the knife block on the counter. As she exited the kitchen, she said, “Say night-night my furry friend.”

The cabin was small and offered few hiding places. She looked around for signs of disturbance. She scanned the interior and sniffed the air.

Gabby thought, ‘that’s disturbing.’

He was hidden at the base of the coatrack by the door, concealed by a long velvet cloak. He noticed the window over the credenza on the other side of the door. It was open about six inches. A tight squeeze but his only option. His eyes flicked towards the fireplace as a shadow passed over the cauldron. She was heading back towards the kitchen. He chanced a peak out from under the cloak.

Gabby took what might be his only chance. He raced to the credenza but before he jumped onto it a black booted foot caught him in his side with a sickening crunch (not Uggs this time, but leather with pointy toes.) He went sprawling under it instead.

Marj yanked him out by his tail. Every breath hurt, it felt like every rib was broken.

“Aww, poor kitty.” Marj dropped the cleaver and wrapped her hands around the cat’s neck. “Wanna watch the life seep out from your eyes.”

And she did.

The witch was singing as she added more wood to the fire. Her voice lilted into the kitchen where Gabby lay unbreathing on the counter by the sink. 

And then he breathed. And listened. The song was familiar, an old classic rock tune. ‘Sympathy for the Devil,’ he thought as he came back to life.

As Gabby lay, pretending to be dead, he felt strength building in his limbs…limbs he was very happy to still have attached to his torso. His nerves thrummed with energy like live wires. Warmth spread through his deathly cold body. Over his head the kitchen window was open halfway. Gabby invoked every silent, stealthy cat gene in him and slipped out of the window as silent as a ghost.

At the tree, he looked up and wished he could fly again. He scrabbled up its bark and heard the THUNK of the cleaver whacking the bark an inch below his tail.

“FFFLLLYYYY!” shouted a voice from nowhere. It was one he’d never heard before. Deep and reassuring.

Gabby grabbed an ounce of faith and pushed off the trunk into the air. 

He flew.

He didn’t have the luxury of enjoying the flight. He heard a lengthy screech of frustration from down below as he entered the mysterious tree tunnel.

On his side of the world, he looked around and sighed a breath of relief. The feeling didn’t last long. A voice- the same that had commanded him to fly- said, “Gabriel. There’s something you need to know.”

Gabby looked back at the tree and spotted an unnatural pale blue light where he’d just exited. It expanded and pulsed as if it had a heartbeat. The light floated down towards him. He stared in wonder as the glow took the shape of an elderly, ruggedly handsome bearded man. He turned to flee but the light man said, “Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you. You could say I’m your guardian angel.” He laughed warmly. Grandfatherly.

Gabby turned back and saw that the light emanating from the man dimmed considerably as his feet touched the ground.

“Are you the one who brought me back to life?”

“No. No need to. You are immortal.”

Gabby’s jaw dropped. He instinctively knew the man spoke the truth. 

“I am Siris. An angel like you once were in another lifetime.”

“Gabriel…”

“Yes. The re-incarnate of Gabriel the angel. Sent to earth for a purpose. The flying was not the witch’s doing, it was all you.”

“But I’ve never flown before yesterday…”

“Did you ever try?”

“Hm. No.”

The man spread his hands palms up, in a ‘see, there you have it’ gesture.

“Is my purpose to kill the witch?”

“Oh, no need for that. Simply destroy the portal. She’ll live on forever as a vegetarian.”

“How can I destroy a tree? I’m just a cat…”

“You were once an angel. The King of Angels will grant you a wish…at a cost.” Siris paused a moment and Gabby knew what was coming.

Siris continued, “Yes. I can see that you understand. You may only have that one wish- the closing of the witch’s portal- in exchange for your heavenly gifts: flying and immortality.”

Gabby said, “I was happy before I met the witch. And I’ll be even happier knowing my friends won’t be eaten by her.”

“So be it.” Siris’ glow began to brighten but before his feet left the ground, he said, “At midnight the tree will die of dry rot and parasites. It will fall over and turn to dust; the portal will be no more.”

Gabby nodded. He looked wistfully into the sky. It was as beautiful as his ‘heaven’ had been.

As Siris rose above the tree, he called down, “By the way, it’s only 10:30 now.” Then he was gone.

The cat understood his words. He leapt into the sky and soared upwards. He spent the next hour and a half living his dream.