From Ominous to Luminous
“You’re a shame to our breed,” purred Fluffy.
“No wonder humans hate you,” spat Kitty.
“Have you ever looked at yourself in a mirror?” smirked Eddy.
Katrina hung her head so low as to not let her copious tears be visible to her friends. Friends - that was what she thought they were. Until that moment when insults were thrown at her for joining them at the Fishy Party near the bins.
Although she had been having that nagging feeling that her friends were trying to avoid her, she had brushed it aside, blindly believing in them all to have her back always. But, it only broke her heart to find it otherwise.
“Is being born a black cat my fault?” She looked up at the twilight sky questioning the Maker. “Am I a bad omen?” She sniffed sadly as she trudged through the alley.
‘MEOW!!! KIDNAPPERS! Run for your lives!’ came a voice through the din of the connecting main roads’ traffic. Katrina turned to see Kitty, the cat with the golden fur, running pell-mell. Her other friends from the party growled behind her; all of them trying to escape from kidnappers apparently.
And then, she saw. A couple of men with huge sacks, ready to nab the cats, appeared at the other end of the alley. Katrina froze in panic. Her legs betrayed her.
The next thing she knew was darkness engulfing her.
***
Ten months later
“My goodness! LOOK! Kat’s photo on the TV,” mewed Eddy in excitement as he peeped through a house’s living room window, having perched himself on its sill. The other stray cats around the place tried to jump onto the sill to see their long-lost friend. After the Fishy Party disaster, they had felt sorry for Katrina and had searched high and low for their friend to apologise for their behaviour. But, she had been nowhere to be found. They had assumed she was dead.
The old woman resting on the couch beside the television got irritated at the purrs and meows of the cats outside her window. She tried to shoo them away, but, not one did budge. They sat packed on the windowsill, with their eyes glued to the movie playing on the television.
The first frame of the movie ended with the titles and the scene changed. A spacious hallway with a red carpet flashed across. A door opened and she stepped out – barely recognisable in her new avatar. Dressed in a glossy black dress flowing at least a mile behind her and with a silver crown adorning her head like a princess, the cat known as Katrina to her friends looked ravishing.
“Is she our Kat at all?” whispered Fluffy with her mouth open in awe.
“Yes, that stunning beauty is our Kat,” replied Eddy when the movie name and the tagline popped up right on top of Katrina.
Billika – The Tale of a Black Cat
‘She’s just a cat who is black. She’s not a bad omen.’
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