The Town of Cats

Aura

Jennie's apartment was a small studio one. She didn't have so much stuff either. Almost like she had just moved in. There was a window that goes almost all the way down, 'A big window for a small room, ' Lisa had thought. The curtains were closed.'We can open these, now that its night time' , Jennie had said, when they entered the house. 'But its better if we don't turn the lights on.'


There was a bed, lying on the floor, near the window.


There wasn't any table and her design sketches were spredaded on the floor. There were many of them .


Lisa also noticed that there was a sewing machine in the corner of the room, and an old looking gramaphone.


There was also a small kitchen counter and a pair of chairs.


''Something to drink?'' Jennie asked Lisa, after she opened the curtains.


''Yeah'' Lisa breathed, ''Some water would be nice, concidering that I have just ran a marathon.''


Jennie's smirk created a small spark in the dark.


''Now that we are here, I think you can explain, that, well... Who are we hiding from?''


''Little people.'' Jennie repeated.


''Yeah. How about them?''


Jennie let out a sigh. ''Drink this.'' She handed Lisa the glass, then she got near the window and sat on her bed, her face turning away.


Lisa hesitantly followed her, since she hadn't invited her to her bed. She crouched down on the floor,near Jennie.


'''The commune that my family and I lived was controlled by Little People. When I was little, I was taking care of a blind goat. It was an important symbol of the commune, thats why it needed such good care. ''


She let out a breath, looked up to the sky. Lisa had realized how her face looks so much like the reflection of the moon, under the light of the night sky.


''But I was only a child and I couldn't take care of it properly, so the goat died. And so, I was supposed to stay in the commune, as a punishment. But I got away, without permission. I knew something was wrong. Luckily my father's friend took care of me. ''


''But they want me back, Little People. They call me back. ''


A silence appeared. Lisa couldn't do much of a thing to break the silence.


Jennie had grew up in a cult. And they gathered around a religion that centers something Jennie calls, Little People.
But how this was going to explain the siren Lisa heard? Lisa had no explanation for this, just Like how Jennie also entered her dreams.

With Jennie not being the type of who brings her emotions out of the surface, maybe for the first time Lisa was seeing what was going on, the exhaustion was reflecting on Jennie's eyes.


Jennie slid herself to the head of the bed, and laid down slowly, her head facing towards Lisa. Her locks fell on her face, which Lisa tought Jennie's hair couldn't have done.There was something about her, as if she had just been shaped into her body.

 

Much like a newborn.


''Will you read 'The Town of Cats' to me ?'' Jennie said, withought looking at her. Lisa could have believe that didn't even move at all.


''Are you sure ? It might be kinda scary for night time.''


''That wouldn't be a problem,''


The story was about a man with a backpack, traveling without a destination with just hopping on a train.


One day he decided to drop on a town that looked pretty. He was the only one that had dropped. When he looked around, he realized there were not a single person.
Around dusk time, tons of cats arrived in the town. Different colors and species. They opened their stores, got to their work,
They were shopping, working, dining. Young man watched the cats from a campanile that he hid.
When the sun was up, all the cats went back the same way they came.So the man had found the oportunity to go to the train station.
But the train didn't stop on the station, and it didn't stop the next day, or the next day.
He could see the face of the conductor, and the passengers, trough the windows, but no one seemed to spot the young man that was waiting.
And so, he finally understood, this was the place that he was supposed to wither away,and the train was never going to stop to take him back to where he belongs.


After Lisa finished the story, Jennie got up carefully, much like she was waking up from a dream, she looked at Lisa and said;


''You went to 'The Town of Cats' ''


''I did?''


Just then Lisa startled by the ring of her phone, It was Jisoo.


She had totally forgot about telling them that she won't be there tonight.


Lisa quickly picked up the phone.


''Hi! Jisoo, I was just about to call you and tell you that,I'm not coming back to the dorm tonight.''


''I have been calling you for almost an hour. You should have get the security informed, before 5:00.''


''I know, you are right, can you at least tell them, for this time,''


Jisoo's sigh heard trough the phone.


''Okay, I'll try, don't forget the little favor of letting us know that you are spending the night outside.''


''Thank you so much! I'll promise I'll never make you get worried, okay, good ight.''


Lisa hung up, Jennie was watching her the whole time,


''Your friends are mad.''


''Can't blame them,I think.''


''We have to go to 'The Town of Cats, again.''


''What?''


''Leaving the Town of Cats just like that won't bring good.''


''Why?'' Lisa didn't know what language Jennie was speaking, but she could see that she was trying to solve things with her own type of way.


Jennie stood up and gave Lisa a hand .


''Let's dance togheter, today.''


Lisa thought she could accept that as a part of their date, without the fact that Jennie sounded it more like a purging session.


She took Jennie's hand, Jennie dragged her near the gramaphone and put the needle on the disk that was already on it. An orchestra music started to play. Jennie put her hand on Lisa's shoulder, so Lisa grabbed her by the waist.


She had been dancing since she could walk,but slow dancing was not her cup of tea. But seemingly Jennie had kind of a past knowledge. Also Lisa was quick to catch up her rhythm. Lisa asked when Jennie started to guide her,


''Have you been dancing also ?''


''My mother loved dancing, we had danced togheter quiet much, until I was ten. ''


''That's beautiful. Years had passed and you still have got the rhytym, you must be a natural,''


''I got a chance to find the records my mom used to play. ''


''Yeah? Is this one of them ? ''


Jennie nodded ''Sinfonietta.''


Lisa hadn't heard of the name, before. She wasn't the strongest follower of classical music. But when they were dancing in the moonight with Jennie, at that moment, it was like universe was playing this piece for them.


''Little People had stopped the noise.'' Jennie said, then she looked Lisa in the eye, once again, with the moonlight sparkling in her eyes.


''Is it because we went to the Town of Cats?''


''It's because you and I became one.'' she said, while she still was looking Lisa's eyes, Lisa felt like she had finally earned the welcome of her.


Lisa wanted to kiss her, but she also didn't wan't this moment to end. Jennie must have heard her so she decided it for her.


She took Lisa's lips quite easily, altough she was shorter than her. Her lips were silky soft, again,Lisa thought, much like they had just given shape.


Like they had been put on her face yesterday.


After Jennie drew her lips away,she smiled with affection, ''Little people had cut the noise.'' she then said. ''It's all good now.''
 



Lisa had chaught the 1:30 train to the campus.


She had talked to Jisoo while she was walking to station and learned that she had gotten into a bit of a trouble because of not coming to dorm at night and not letting the security know, but she didn't mind that much because she was walking on the air the whole day after Jennie and she kissed.


She had woken up around 10:00 and Jennie had brewed and made toast and was already digging into it, so she had joined her, Jennie was still the same shy girl in the daylight, but there was the way Lisa could tell that she was feeling secure for the first time, after so long.


So what, she thought, so what if I got into a bit of a trouble, It was worth it.


So she listened music with a stupid smile on her face, the whole way to campus.

On the other hand, Chaeyoung, who had greeted her at the dorm, was not so light-hearted about last night.


She entered the room and found her laying on the bed with her laptop on her belly, as if she was laying in bed like that the whole day.


''Hi! Doing homework?''


''I kind of wonder what were you thinking when you decided to spend the night with a stranger and not thinking of letting any of us know.''


''Harsh, much?I could take a 'Welcome' at least,'' Lisa responded,


''You know, I'ts funny, because, '' Rose said looking up to ceiling and trying to pick something from her eye, ''It wasn't so far ago that I was begging you for not making me worried.''


''Chaeyoung, I get it, okay? But I'm like a also... not... obligated to make an explanation for everything, ''


Chaeyeoung looked at her from her laptop without lifting her head, which made the screenlight reflect creepy blue squares to her eyes.


''You are right.'' She quickly straightened up, ''How dare me, '' she mumbled while shutting her laptop close ''caring for you,'' she tried to pass trough Lisa to reach the door, but Lisa tried to block her when she realized that.


''I didn't mean that, you know that,'' she said while struggling with Chaeyoung, still grunting ''...making sure that you are doing okay, ''
''Chaeng, please listen,'' she said, ''You know that I-'' she realized Chaeyoung surredered, ''...can't even imagie what to do without you guys. What I was trying to say was just that,I, I don't need to be taken care of, ''


''You spend the night with a person you know nothing about,''


Lisa thought about telling Chaeyoung that she is not entirely clueless about that Jennie girl, anymore, but she quickly realized that those  things that she learned about Jennie would make her even more worried.


''Don't you think thats that much extraordinary around collage teens? Maybe not in nerds like you and Jisoo,''


Chaeyoung rolled her eyes ''Yes, but, people have relationships around a safe circle, like... just not from the internet.. I dont know,''


''Where did you get the idea that we were in a relationship already? ''


''Whether you two are dating or not, I'm not saying that she is dangerous; but she could have been,''


''I know, I'll be more careful next time. But for know, I'm still in one piece, right? So it's all good?''


She put her most charming smile on her face, knowing Chaeyoung couldn't stay mad at that face of hers,


Chaeyoung couldn't resist her lips curling a smirk, ''Fine, now let me go, I need to go to stationery,''
 



That night Lisa thought about about how Jennie was traumatized with the doctrins of the cult she grew up in, and how it probably made a place in her head with all these myhtical creations in her head.


Also, was she going to be safe? It shouldn't keep going like this. Was she going to live in constant fear of what she had been trough?

Lisa also thought about how she and Jennie fell asleep cuddling each other, under the moonlight swriled trough the crack between curtains.


Jennie had closed the curtains because they could see them when it's day time.


Just then, she realized that full moon was clearly seen trough their room's window.


Despite of the risk of losing sleep, she got up to open the window and get some fresh night air, and maybe listen to the sound of the night.


She draw the curtain and faced with another shining object, hanging on the sky,


It took her almost a minute that it was a thing thats up on the sky, and not a street lamp, or a firefly or something ordinary.


It looked almost like the moon, same shape and patterns, just a bit smaller and more of a yellow-ish color.


She was not sure how she should react, She looked at the 'second moon' for about ten minutes, observed if it was moving, getting closer to the earth.


But it wasn't moving, at all, just standing there as if it had always been there.


She had to wake Chaeyoung or Jisoo up, even both, she couldn't bear carrying a mind cracking update on reality by herself.


But an instinct inside, told her to keep it that way.


'You went to the town of cats.'


She had to talk to Jennie.
 



-Can we talk?


Lisa had texted to Jennie at midnight.


She had finaly fell asleep around dawn time, couldn't stop herself checking if the moons still were two, again and again.


Now It was 10 am, and Jennie hadn't answered her yet.


But now she had to think about her exam that's in about three hours.


She got in shower, spent a conciderable time on picking a pair of sweatpants and a shirt, messed with her hair, and finally got out of the dorm and headed to her class.


She grabbed cup o iced coffee for breakfast, checked her phone while drinking.


Still no message from Jennie.


An instinct was muttering in her mind that something was wrong. Jennie had always texted back late, but Lisa didn't have a reason to worry, back then.

After her exam, she tried to call Jennie.After fourth call she decided that she could just be in class and It would be fine If she would just call her for a couple hours later.


It was seven and Lisa's message weren't even seen.


After calling Jennie a couple of times again and not getting any answer,Lisa decided to get out from their room and go to the park near, where she thought she could see sky clearly.


It was not so cloudy, still there were a bit, which would make this the best time to watch the sunset if Lisa wasn't so tense about if there were going to be two moons in the sky.


She watched the clouds moving, carefully, and finally spotted the moon, and there was the second one, got out behind the cloud it was hiding, right after the bigger one.
The sky was still purple but it could be seen clearly.


Lisa rubbed her temple. It didn't made sense that Jennie wasn't answering her insisting phone calls.


That was fine.
She could just try to call her tomorrow.



It felt like forever to Lisa to wait for the train to arrive.
Who was she kidding? She could never wait for Jennie to call her back.Not even for another minute. So she took the 8.30 train, the one hour ride, on pins and needles.


It took her a bit long to find which Jennie's apartment was, between blocks, and when she finally found it nobody answered the door.
She thought about throwing something to her window but she had nothing to.


She desperately throw her hairclips to the window, but there were no sign of living.


She hoped that Jennie had gone to her teacher's house. It must have been that, but why wasn't she answering her calls?


She threw the last hairclip, knowing that Jennie was not going to come out to the window.

Just one day ago, right behind that window, they had slept cuddling each other. Lisa could almost see them resting peacefully, away from world's dangers.

'Little people had cut off the noise. Its all good now'

And she saw the reflection of two moons, on the window, looking down at her.



 

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keren_hmlm #1
Are you revising the story, that’s why we keep getting notifs about it, even though it’s already finished?
keren_hmlm #2
Are you revising the story, that’s why we keep getting notifs about it, even though it’s already finished?
keren_hmlm #3
Are you revising the story, that’s why we keep getting notifs about it, even though it’s already finished?
keren_hmlm #4
Are you revising the story, that’s why we keep getting notifs about it, even though it’s already finished?
keren_hmlm #5
Are you revising the story, that’s why we keep getting notifs about it, even though it’s already finished?
MissMichaeng
#6
Chapter 2: So far It's been a little confusing, but I like the story so far
keren_hmlm #7
???
Ghad20
#8
awww this was super amazing
keren_hmlm #9
OMG Haruki Murakamiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. I just found this today. Gonna read it now hehe
hello2013 #10
Chapter 6: I’m so confused but happy?