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It stayed in my room for the rest of the day. I stubbornly refused to even enter my room. My parents were confused. I didn’t know why they couldn’t see the evil blob that was clearly there. I wouldn’t even sleep in my room, so my parents let me sleep on the couch. A few days later, the thing disappeared and everything went back to normal. Yeah right. Every few days, another different monster would appear. Sometimes more then one at once. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get them to leave. Some wanted me to send them ‘back’. Back where, they wouldn’t tell me. Others tried to attack me. I had no idea why, but at least I never got too hurt. Whenever they were around, I wouldn’t go anywhere near ‘em. Seriously, would you have? Not all were scary, of course. When I was six, there was a little cat-thing that visited me. I thought it was the most awesome pet a kid could have. It looked like a pink cat, only it had a three-pronged tail, each prong was purple, and over-large ears that were green with purple polka dots. I first saw it in the kindergarten playground. I was playing with a group of kids when I saw it.
“Lookee!” I squealed. “I’in’it pretty?” Jon, one of the boys I was playing with, frowned.
“The slide? Nuh-uh,” He told me. “The slide’s all dir’y.”
“Not the slide,” I sighed. “The ting next to it! The pink kitty!” A girl next to me, Sara, decided it was a game.
“Uh-huh! I have this little green turtle with yellow spots,” She held her empty hand out, palm-up. “See?” I sighed and walked off without responding. Sara, I knew, was pretty ticked off at me. But then, she was a spoiled little brat anyway so I didn’t really care. Anyway, I headed over to the strange cat. As I got closer, I realized that it was a pretty big kitty. It’s shoulders came up to my shoulders, so it was on eye-level with me. Alright, so I was six and not exactly tall, so maybe it wasn’t all that big. But it sure seemed like it at the time.
“Hiya!” I greeted it. Unlike the first time I approached a strange creature, I was pretty sure that this cat could understand me, and that it would respond.
The cat-thing considered me for a moment, then replied: “Hiya!” I took a step back, startled. It sounded exactly like me, right down to the slight lisp almost every six-year-old has. And, being six, I had to point out the obvious.
“Cool! You sound like me!” I squealed, clapping my hands together. It just smiled at me. “Watsyer name? I’m Aminta!”
This time it answered much quicker. “I’m Aminta!” It was so weird to hear this thing talk. I’m serious; it’s like listening to a high-quality recording.
I giggled and reached up to pat it’s head. “Thass funny! We gots the same name! But that’ll be confusing. So… how ‘bout you be Amy? Iss close to Aminta.”
“Amy? Iss closed to Aminta.” It, Amy, agreed. I clapped my hands, delighted.
“Will you be my friend?” I asked.
“Be my friend?” Amy countered.
“’Course I will!” I giggled.
“’Course I will!” She responded, ending with the same giggle I had. Just at that time, the teacher called for everyone to come in. Of course.
Now, I’d like to take this time to point out something. Some of you may have already gotten that Amy was just mimicking my voice and words. You’re right. For those of you who haven’t gotten that: Get with the program, folks! I’m moving as slowly as I can here without boring you guys.
So, I absolutely loved this creature. She followed me everywhere I went. And, because others apparently couldn’t see her, it was completely fine. I kept on telling everyone about “my kitty Amy” but everyone thought I just made up an imaginary friend. Like I had that much imagination. I spent a bunch of time outside, because being inside seemed to make Amy nervous. One time we were playing in my backyard, just the two of us. I loved playing back there, the trees surrounding it made a slightly open fence around it, casting the edges of our yard in perpetual shade. And because our town was so tiny and safe, my parents never thought twice about leaving me alone out there. So, like I was saying, Amy and I were playing outside. She had been getting kind of quiet, and almost depressed. And thinner, a whole lot thinner. She seemed to be fading around the edges too, but I wrote that off as my imagination. Now I know better. Sitting cross-legged on the grass, I tossed a little rubber ball to her. Normally, she would bounce with her nose right back to me, but this time it just landed on the grass by her paws. Frowning, I tried again. Again it landed on the grass.
“Whassa matter, Amy? You sick?” I asked, head titled to one side.
“Sick.” Amy agreed, nodding sadly.
“You wanna go home?”
This seemed to perk Amy up, but she still spoke in my concerned tone.
“Home?”
Then I did something I had never done before: I pointed with my index finger at the house, over Amy’s shoulder. I know: No biggie, right? You pointed at your house. Everyone does. Well, I had never done that before. I don’t know why I hadn’t, I just never really thought about it. I always pointed with two fingers, or my whole hand. It’s not that big of a deal. Or so I thought. The moment I lifted that one finger, a small white pinprick of light appeared at the tip of my finger. As both Amy and I watched, mesmerized, it started to grow. About when it got to be the size of a golf ball, I jerked back my hand. The little glowing white sphere shot off. At first, I thought it would just pass Amy, but instead it hit her on the shoulder. For a second she just stared at me in shock, and then she smiled and dissolved from view. I sat there, staring at the spot where she had been, expecting her to reappear at any moment. Then, when it finally sunk in that she wasn’t coming back, I took a deep breath, threw back my head and—you guessed it—screamed at the top of my lungs.
By the time my parents got out there, I had subsided from screams to tears. I have a really shrill scream, so trust me that this was an improvement. When they got there, all I would tell them that my kitty had disappeared.
 Faith-Hoping-Love · Fri Oct 12, 2007 @ 07:35pm · 0 Comments |
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