A great tabby cat followed close to Jamie, entangling herself in Jamie’s legs every so often. Jamie simply did a dance around her fat torso without dropping a thought on it. Young kittens frolicked all around as the group moved down the shoreline of the murky waters.
“Are you sure we should be down here?” Asked the tabby cat without moving her mouth.
“How could we picnic anywhere else?” asked Jamie with his mind.
The great tabby fussed at a couple of kittens that were lagging behind. “Keep up, keep up, kids!”
Jamie found a suitable area and laid out a blanket. The kittens all trampled on and rolled around attacking each other.
“You have your hands full, Mama.”
“You have no idea.” The great tabby sprawled herself out on the blanket and the hungry kittens jumped over to find their afternoon milk. “Isn’t this near where the great beast has been hunting?”
“So what if it is, if he comes we will beat him off!”
“One should not take risk so trivially, young man.”
Jamie picks up a stick and starts thrusting it and pivoting with it. “He won’t stand a chance against us, Mama.”
“You are so young. Not much more than one of my kittens.”
This caused Jamie to stop, insulted at the comparison. “I am much bigger than your kittens, Mama!” Mama gave him a sideways glance and started licking her paws clean.
“Are you going to get the food out?”
“Sure,” Jamie said making a final thrust with his make believe sword.
“Yay. Your enemies are vanquished," Mama thought sarcastically. "Hooray. The crowd goes wild.”
Jamie looks down at Mama with a look of derision. Mama simply makes her eyes small and her grin wide and a small purr to come through her closed lips. Jamie sighed. He could never stay mad at her when she looked so cute. He sat down on the blanket and pulled out some tuna and set it in a dish next to mama. She rubbed her head against his hand and then began to dig in. Jamie pulled out a sandwich from the case and took a great bite.
Suddenly a huge crocodile leaped out of the water toward the group. Jamie jumped up from the blanket and backed away. Mama leaped out of the way herself. The kittens looked confused and were slow from their bellies being full.
Cat takes on an alligator
Courtesy of YouTube
“Kids, get back!” growled Mama in fright. The crocodile lumbered up to the kittens, his gaping maw brandished with dagger teeth.
“What a nice morsel!” Mr. Crocodile thought as he came up upon the abandoned sandwich and tuna. His jaws clamped down on them and swallowed them whole. His mouth was open again in a minute. The kittens mewed in fright. Mama jumped up and batted Mr. Crocodile on the nose.
“Go back to where you came from foul being!”
“How am I fowl? I am hungry and just saw a nice snack on the side of the bank!” Mr. Crocodile’s indignant thoughts flowed over the group. “How can I be denied a meal when you all are so full?”
“You have taken all you will. Now be gone with you.”
“But there are such delicious delicacies that lie just over there.” Mr. Crocodiles thin grin spread across his whole mouth as he gestured to the kittens who were paralyzed in fright.
“You may not eat those!” Mama swatted at Mr. Crocodile again her claws scratching at the armor of scales which covered him. Mr. Crocodile laughed at her feeble attempts.
“Mama, get away from him!” Jamie cried desperately. “Kittens, come to me!”
“Yes, let me eat. I am so hungry.” The giant beast opened his mouth, the razors of his teeth inching closer to the kittens.
“Mr. Crocodile, you forget yourself!” Mama dashed to his side and swiped at his soft underbelly. His armor did not protect him there! “You have come up to our world. You do not have your power and speed here!”
Mr. Crocodile shrank from the attack and brandished his teeth at Mama who hissed back at him. “How bout I just eat you then?” Mr. Crocodile's teeth swiped at Mama, who dodged the attack. Her claws met their mark again on his soft underside of his jaw. Another thin line of blood appeared where her claw had met its mark.
“Mr. Crocodile, here on land you are slow and cumbersome. Here I will pick you apart piece by piece.” She swiped at his underside again and once again found her mark. Mr. Crocodile was in pain from the multiple attacks. “Go back to your home where you may rule. Find your food there!” Mr. Crocodile eyed the scrumptious kittens once again. Mama ferociously slashed at his nose undeterred by the rows of death in front of her. “Go.”
Mr. Crocodile, sensing the truth in her words slipped back into the murky waters and disappeared under it’s surface. “As you wish Mama, but if you come to swim, I will be waiting.”
“We will never swim again!” Mama cried.
Jamie rushed up and grabbed Mama and hugged her closely. “You silly cat! You could have been eaten.”
Mama purred as her kittens jumped around them happily. “Never underestimate the power of confidence, courage and cunning. With those even the smallest person can defeat the biggest foe.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This story was inspired by the story of Bhima destroying the Rakshasa in The Mahabrarata. The version that I read was the one written by R.K. Narayan. The story talks about how Bhima and his brothers came to a town dressed as beggars. They were taken into a house who told them that the town had been terrorized by a demon Rakshasa who demanded to be fed every day. He would also eat the person who brought the food. Bhima took food to the Rakshasa, ate it in front of him and then killed him. I started thinking about how even the smallest person could overcome an obstacle when given the right motivation. I actually loved this as a moral so decided to change the story to make it more the reason for the story.
The Rakshasa
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Then I remembered the video of the cat fighting off a crocodile that went viral on YouTube. In it the crocodile was simply trying to eat chicken the tour guide had left out. A cat came up and beat the crocodile back into the water away from his food.
I paired the two stories in my mind almost immediately when I read the book. I thought about how nature was funny and wanted to highlight why a cat would win against such a formidable foe. Thinking about a crocodile, on land they become quite slow. They can not do their barrel roll attack either or drown their victim. Thus they are not as dangerous as when they are in the water. Thinking on that I could see Mama being able to outmaneuver and thus use her cunning to inflict damage on the crocodile. I did not want the story to end in death, so I simply changed that to the moral is it is.
I wrote it in the style of a children’s story so that it could be added to the book Na Paisti Na Cumhachta, a children’s book I’m writing about children with extraordinary powers. It will be a companion piece to the TV show #PookasPassages. This will be a production of #GoldenCloudStories.
Also now you know why cats hate water!
The Mahabharata. R. K. Narayan. 1978
I think that this is the first story that I have read for this class that has included a video. What a nice change of pace! The story itself was a nice synthesis of a story from the Mahabharata and traditional American storytelling elements. I particularly enjoyed the author's note. It is always interesting to hear how someone comes up with the idea for their story. So often, my imagination feels so limited.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the form of the story, you did a great job breaking it up into smaller sections. This made it easy to follow and set a pace for my reading. The transitions from narration to dialog was seamless. Your blog as a whole is easy to navigate.
If you are ever interested in expanding the story, I would love to hear more about how Jamie came to be able to speak to animals. Also, how are Jamie and Mama tied together? You did such an excellent job showing the bond between the boy and the cat, it would be interested to hear how it formed.
Thanks for sharing!
Sean,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your retelling! You have a wonderfully flowing writing style, and your descriptions were incredibly detailed. I could absolutely envision the tone in which Mama said “you may not eat those!”—just like my grandmother’s tone when I would try to eat cookies before dinner. I love cats, so it was nice to see such a little creature best a huge crocodile.
Your Author’s Note was one of the best I’ve read (even from my time in Myth/Folklore last semester)! It was really cool to see your train of thought in constructing such a wonderful tale. You switched between tenses a couple of times, but there wasn’t really anything I would change besides that. Very nicely done!
Madison