Inward Appearance (Remake of Venus and the Cat)

A cat became infatuated with a man, to begin with. No one doubted her affections for him. So, one day, the cat decided to confront the goddess Venus and request her to transform her body into a human embodiment. She stalked up to the goddess, awed, scared, intimidated, and surprised by her appearance. She was enchanting.

“Why are you here? You must have something to ask,” Venus said sternly and firmly. Her feet barely hovered above the green ground, and she had a glow around her, making her almost translucent.

“If you would grant me one wish, my lady Venus,” the cat said, “I plead you to convert me to a human. For I have become smitten with a man, and I desire to become his wife, but as I gaze in the mirror I must face reality. Unless you convert me, I may not marry him.”

Venus heard the compassion in the cat’s voice, noticed the longing in her eyes, and acknowledged that her ears perked up at the thought of him, so she decided to take pity on her furry feline friend and change her form. After the cat’s dramatic, drastic transformation, she visited her beloved man, wanting him to witness her new beauty. Later, they married. I, for one, attended their wedding, and it dazzled every on-looker. The union caused everyone to talk for months. She was content as a lark, and she could not want anything else in her life.

One day, after their marriage, Venus wanted to test if the woman, who once had the shape of a cat, still behaved like a feline. She set a plump, fuzzy, curious mouse in the husband and wife’s bedroom quarters while they lay side by side. The woman heard its tiny body scurrying across the floor, heard it squeak, and heard it nibble at the bedpost, so she immediately sprang out of bed like a jack-in-the-box and chased her prey. Her handsome husband was bewildered, frightened, and shocked. She pounced on the mouse, killing it with a swift, sharp, and accurate bite to the neck. Venus observed her behavior and instantly converted her back into a sleek, agile tabby cat, whose fur resembled silk. This left her loved one without a wife. Just because you change your appearance, does not mean you shall also change your behavior.

***This is a paper for my writing class. We had to take an Aesop's fable, I chose Venus and the Cat, and rewrite it in the style of Charles Dickens. That's why there are so many duals and triples. She told us we couldn't make it very long, too.