No-one seemed to be around, although he knew that his mother was in the kitchen preparing dinner. It was likely that his father would be helping her. It was their Sunday tradition to make the meal together, and they made it into a game.
He waddled about the house, humming one of the songs from the radio as he did. It was always playing when his father turned the machine on, and the tune had stuck in Dan’s head. “Wady?” He drew the word out, and kept searching the downstairs rooms.
After he was certain that she wasn’t there, he went back up the stairs, having to make an effort to climb up them now. When he reached the top, he began to race around the upstairs rooms again. His calls never wavered.
After another ten minutes, Dan gave up. He walked back to his room with his head down, and lay down on his bed. The view was amazing from his window, where he could see the entire street, but he couldn’t appreciate it.
Putting his head back on the pillow, and looking up at the glow in the dark stars on the roof, he sighed, and closed his eyes. At the moment he did, a faint meowing sound shook him from his relaxation. He sat up and looked around the bedroom, straining his ears as he listened for the sound once again.
It came soon after, but it was still faint. Dan was sure that it wasn’t coming from his room, and he jumped off his bed.
The noise became consistent, a pitiful mewling noise that came every few seconds. Dave followed the source of it until he came to the sliding door that led to the balcony.
He used all of his weight to push it open, and stepped onto the balcony. What he saw made his heart swell with pity, even if he didn’t understand what he was seeing.
Lady was lying on her back in the sweltering heat of the summer heat. She twisted her head to look at Dan and meowed again. Her leg was twisted, and it made Dan feel sick when he looked at it.
“Wady?” he said, and kneeled on the wood beside her. She made that noise again, and to Dan it sounded like a cry. She was begging for his help, he knew it. “Wady?”
Dan came close to running to his parents and making them come to help her, but he knew that nothing would. He didn’t know how she had injured herself, but it looked like she was beyond aid. The leg was horrible, and droplets of blood had already soaked into the wood.
Dan tried to pick the cat up, and she raked her claws across his arm. Three long scratches opened, and blood welled from them. Dan whimpered, but didn’t drop her. “It’ll be awright,” he said.
He put the cat on the balcony railing, and she stared at him from atop it. Once more, she meowed, but then Dan pushed at her.
She fell without a sound, other than the thud of her landing. The sun was beginning to lower from its threshold in the sky, and even in the heat, Dan could feel the nip of a cool breeze. He leaned over the balcony to see that the cat was now still, and his hands began to shake.
Dan closed the bedroom door and stood, immobile, for a few seconds. He looked at the gashes on his arm, on which the blood had not clotted and stopped flowing. Tears began to pour from his eyes, and he moved to his bed again, putting the pillow over his head and allowing himself to sob freely.
When the tears subsided, he took the pillow away and hugged it to himself, rocking back and forth on the edge of the bed. His cat was dead. She had been in so much pain, though. Dan didn’t think that she would have lived much longer.
Soon after that, Dan heard his mother calling to him to come to the table. He did as he was told, wiping at his eyes before he went to the table.
His father was laying the plates of steaming food down on the table, and he smiled when he saw Dan. “My baby boy!” He put the last plate down and picked Dan up, spinning him around and making airplane noises. Dan began to giggle.
“Dizzy,” he said, and his father placed him down on a seat.
“You all right now?” Dan nodded. “Good boy. Eat up.”
Dan looked down at his meal and smiled. His fourth birthday had just passed, and his parents had recently begun letting him eat his meal without any help. It made him feel warm inside to see their pride, and hear their praise.
“Boy, you need a haircut,” his mother said, sitting down at her place.
Dave looked at her long, frizzy hair and laughed. “So do you,” he said.
She laughed as well. “Oh, now we’re getting cheeky, are we?”
He grinned at her, making him look like a mischievous imp, and she laughed again, shaking her head.
The three of them ate their meal in almost complete silence. That was the way things were done in their house, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. It was the silence of people who knew each other well and were content in each other’s company.
After they finished their meal and washed up, Dan’s mother headed for the door. “Right, time for some gardening. Do you want to help, Danny?”
He stared up at her, his eyes widening. “No – no thank you.”
“All right,” she said, and walked out of the door.
Dan sat at the table feeling as if he was glued to the chair. His father had gone to his bedroom to do something, but Danny couldn’t leave. After several minutes, the inevitable scream came from outside.
When it did, Dan found that he could move when he jumped down from the chair and surprised himself by racing outside. His father was a few steps behind him, and they reached the woman at the same time.
She was standing in the garden with her yellow gardening gloves on and staring at the cat’s body, shaking. Dan could see tears pouring from her eyes.
He felt a pair of hands on his shoulder and they turned him back towards his house. “Go back inside, Danny. We’ll sort this out,” his father said, and Danny walked back inside. He kept throwing glances back towards the two of them, and as he stepped inside he saw his father put his arm around his mother.
Dan went back into his room, and more than ten minutes later, the two of them entered as well. They didn’t knock. His mother seemed to have regained her composure somewhat. She sat down on the end of his bed, and his father followed suit. “Dan? Are you all right?”
“Wady’s . . . not coming back, is she?”
“No, honey. She’s moved on from this life. But honey, do you know what I believe? I think that when a person is good in life, after they die, then they are rewarded. They come back as someone else and have an even better life.”
“Wady be someone else’s cat?”
“Maybe. Or maybe she was so good that she’ll come back as a person, like you or mummy. Wouldn’t that be nice?” Dan nodded, and wiped at his eyes. His mother put a hand on her arm, while his father stood in the doorway and watched the two of them. “Now,” she said. “Remember that it’s all right to cry. It’s completely natural after something like this happens, okay?”
“Okay,” Dan said.
“Good boy. And if you feel really said about Lady, just remember that she’s having a better life now.”
“I will.”
“That’s good. Now, it’s time for you to sleep. Would you like your daddy to read you a story?”
“Not tonight. I want you to tell me more about New Wady.”
“Okay,” she said. “Daddy’ll stay in here and help me with the story.”
So the two of them lay down on the bed with Dan and began spinning fantastic tales about the new life Lady would have, no matter who or what she would be. The idea caught Dan’s imagination, and in his mind he began to make his own stories. Still, he couldn’t forget Lady clawing his arm. His parents hadn’t noticed the cuts. They would soon fade from his skin, but never from his mind.
Okay, so this is the prologue of the story I posted a few days ago. I just done it. Hopefully it'll shed more light on the character. I'll dedicate it to Pingu for all of her help.
All I can say is Dan seems older then his four years. I have younger siblings, and Dan acts older then both of them. But who can tell how a young child's mind works?
It looks like I've got a fair bit of editing to do now... Not just on this story.
