Look Before You Leap

Angelia  Martini

"Thank you Doctor, for taking care of my pet, she was so faithful to me.  Here is the paperwork and you do accept credit cards don't you?  Just give me one more moment , I want to say good-bye".  She looked down at the cat and whispered to her.  "My name is Victoria, I want to thank you for freeing my soul from that cat's body.  I'm not sure what will happen to you at this point, but since you were good to me I will share some information with you.  If you reincarnate because cats do have nine lives, you will wake up later, and need to escape quickly, do you understand.  You need to find a caring soul that will make a verbal offer to take your place, usually on your deathbed will that happen, in order to free yourself from that cat's body and become human again.  Good luck my dear”, she said to Clarissa.

 Victoria was so excited to be in this new human body.  She walked down the street and saw a tiny puppy sitting against a wall.  She knelt down to it.  "Hi there", she said, "I know better than to take in strays, good luck on your search little one, it took me hundreds of years to get here".

She looked at her reflection, she was long and lean with a petite frame.  She was wearing baggy pants and a blouse with a jacket.

Clarissa Stephens, 23, a recent college graduate came out of her Long Island Apartment building, rushing to work as usual.  Time management was never her forte.  Her mother always told her when she was in High School, that she would be late for her own funeral, if it were possible.  Clarissa had started working for Daylight Publishing as a Proofreader, since her Junior year at Long Island University.  She was a Journalism Major, and figured doing her Internship as a Proofreader would look great on application.  To her surprise, they kept her  after the Internship.  It started out as part-time since, she had still been in school until last May, but now it was Full Time.  And that 8 a.m start time, just didn't jive with her clock.  There are not enough hours in the day.

    She ran out the door of her apartment, thinking " yes, I will be on time today".  As she got outside her apartment door to briskly walk to the subway station, she saw a tiny thin black cat huddled in a corner.  " Aww you poor little thing ", she said as she petted it, " Hey, I happen to have something you will love."  She reached into her briefcase and took out her lunch bag.  She took some of the chicken out of her salad bowl and laid it down before the cat.  The small cat began to gobble it up and mew gratefully, as she rubbed against Clairissa.  Clairissa petted the cat some more and told her, "If you wait for me, I will take you upstairs when I get home tonight.  And you will be able to sleep in the warmth, eat well and be safe".  She ran down the road to catch her subway, so she wasn't late for work again.  Her boss had warned her already, if she was late again, she would be on a written reprimand.

        " How touching, I may have found my ticket out", the cat purred,   " I will definitely wait for you, my dear".  You see Victoria wasn't always a cat, she was very human at one time.  But unfortunately, there had been a misunderstanding with another witch and her soul got zapped into this cat almost 600 years ago.    She had arrived in the Americas with the Pilgrims and only spent about 5 years of that as a human before she was trapped in this cat.   Thank goodness cats have 9 lives, she was only on her 3rd life but so far found no one who could break the curse.  This one was beautiful and caring, this has to be the one.

        Clairissa was late getting  home to her apartment that night because she had stopped at the grocery store on her way home, she bought some cat food, both dry and soft, a disposable litter box, and some flea bath for the cat.  As she walked toward her apartment she could still see the tiny cat waiting for her in the corner as it had been this morning.  She was so happy.  "Hello , pretty girl", she greeted the cat, " Do you remember me ?  I have treats for you".  

        The cat responded by meowing and rubbing on her legs.  Victoria learned, best way to get close to a human was to act like an animal, a pitiful one at that.

        Clairissa picked up the cat and her bags and headed into the apartment building.  She lived on the top floor and there were no elevators in this building, just 8 flights of stairs.  She got up to the apartment and put the cat down in her hallway and shut her door.  She laid her bags down on the counter in the kitchen and got out  3 bowls, one with dry food, one with a can of soft food, and a bowl of water.  She laid them down in the kitchen so the cat could eat.  She opened the disposable litter box and sat it in the vicinity of the food bowls, to make locating it easy for the cat.  

        Victoria hated the smell of cat food, she much preferred the taste of human food, but if she was going to earn this human's trust , she had to play the game.  She drank some of the water first and nibbled at the soft food.  ' Hmmm turkey and giblets, not too bad", she thought.  Victoria nibbled on the food until Clairissa was out of the room.  ' I  hope you are gonna fix real food and share with me later', she thought.

        Clairissa , happy with herself, went into her bedroom and changed from office attire into a comfortable pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.  She went back into the kitchen and was greeted by a purring cat that rubbed her legs thanking her.  Clairissa picked her up and petted her.  "  Well time for me to fix my dinner", she said as she put the cat down in the litter box, " And here is your litter box, if you need to do your deed".    Clairissa washed her hands and began preparing her dinner.  She got food from the refrigerator and cabinets, placing water in two pots, and turned on the stove.  She began cooking and seasoning things.

        ' Oh yes, a woman after my own heart chicken and pasta', Victoria thought.  She felt a little embarrassed when the human placed her in the litter box, but she knew what to do with it.  It had been a while since her last human.  People were cold in this city and her legs were so little, it took her forever to get anywhere, but maybe this time, this would be the one.  

        Clairissa took very good care of Victoria, however she did call her 'Pretty girl' instead of her real name.  It's not like she could communicate with her.  Victoria had a warm place to sleep, usually snuggling with Clairissa,  plenty of food because Clairissa always shared her food with her.  She had to figure out a way to injure herself so she was dying in order to get the curse broken.  She tried cutting herself, but Clairissa bandaged her up.  She thought about jumping out of the window but realized death would be instantaneous most likely.  She could poison herself but she didn't have fingers to open the bottles and she didn't know where Clairissa kept them.  Clairissa was a very good pet owner, she was treated like a Queen, but her need to be Human again was so strong.  She kept the house too safe, and used all natural products.   And she was very careful to keep 'pretty girl' in the apartment. 

        Clairissa went out from time to time but had a set schedule.  It was like clock work.  She came home at the same time every day.  Kept to herself, she had very few visitors, no kids, no nothing.  

        One day Clairissa had been rushing out the door and had her hands full and Victoria bolted out the door before she could see her.  She followed Clairissa out the building and down the street.  Clairissa was in such a hurry she ran across the intersection just as the walk light started to flash caution.  Victoria was close enough behind but her little legs could not keep up.  Tires screeched and some people screamed.  Clairissa turned around and saw a black cat laying in the middle of the street, that had been hit by a car.  She dropped all of her stuff except her purse and ran out to fetch the cat.  She saw it was wearing a sparkling pink collar, "Omigosh, Pretty Girl", she screamed.  She took off her jacket and picked up the cat, her back legs were crushed.  She walked slowly to the curb.  Holding the bleeding cat, she grabbed her purse and briefcase and briskly walked down the road, holding the cat.  She was trying to get to the animal hospital as quickly as she could. 

        She arrived there in moments, it was practically empty when she walked in.  "What happened?", asked the receptionist as she walked through the doors.  Clairissa told her that the cat had been following her got struck by a car.

        "How horrible", the receptionist said, "Follow me, I will take you back to an examination room.  You can fill out the paperwork back there".  She handed Clairissa a handful of papers on a clipboard.

        Clairissa was relieved at the speed of the animal hospital.  Most places would ask for billing information before she ever got back to see the Doctor anywhere else.  "You guys are fast", Clairissa commented.

        "With cases like this, time is not on our side.  I'm going to go get the Doctor and she will be right in".  

        She wasn't kidding, the Doctor came in after the receptionist had left and went directly to examine the cat.

        "I understand she was hit by a car", the Doctor stated, "How long have you had her? "

        "About 6 months, this was the first time she had ever tried to get out of the apartment.  I don't understand why she was following me", Clairissa sobbed. "She was a stray, I found her".

        "There is a lot of damage to her back legs, they are crushed, so are some of her other organs.  I'm amazed she is still breathing honestly".  The Doctor stated.  "The only humane thing to do at this point is to put her to sleep, I'm sorry.".

        Clairissa kept sobbing, even harder now.

        "I will give you a few moments to gather yourself together, make your decision and say your good- byes", the Doctor stated.

        Clairissa was sobbing, looking at the cat.  She felt so bad for her.  "Why did you follow me? Why? It should have been me that car hit, not you, at least I would have had a fighting chance.  I'm so sorry pretty girl, I love you.  I wish it would have been me instead of you".

        All of the sudden blackness surrounded Clairissa then bright lights.  She was in a giant room with bright lights laying on a table, an examining table, she saw a giant version of herself talking to the Doctor but her voice sounded different.  

Clairissa then realized she had become the cat.