Martha and Carl

It was a magical dawn in rural Virginia when a black, brown, and white kitten jumped at Martha’s front door startling awake Martha in the big chair in her empty living room. Martha was an elderly woman with short, dark brown hair, frozen in a beehive with copious amounts of hair spray. Her light brown cataract-stricken eyes were lost without the thick framed black glasses she searched for in her chair before she gave up and stood up with her cane. She found her glasses on top of her chair and limped to the front door after putting them on. Expecting her hospice nurse, she opened the door and was delighted to see the small kitten at the doorstep.

“What a blessing!” Martha said to the kitten before picking him up. She had pet him a few times and he purred loudly while she looked for a collar on him. She kept the kitten in her arms and limped back to the chair in her living room to continue looking for a collar. “I’ve been wanting to get a cat,” she told the kitten.

“I’s carl, not cat,” the kitten said to her. “Watch,” he said and put his paw over her mouth. He showed her in her mind the possible future of her being able to help heal the tangles in spacetime with her knitting needles and mesh like flowers.

There was a flash of light and a Siamese kitten appeared in front of Martha. “I’s Benji,” the second kitten said. Martha reached out to pet the kitten, but he hissed. “I’s has work,” he said, and ran out of the room. Martha put her hand over her mouth in sadness. She was getting all these lovely cats, but couldn’t pet them all. ‘What a shame!’ she thought to herself in sadness.

“It’s okay,” a mysterious female voice said. Then, a majestic white cat appeared in front of her, “I am the guardian of spacetime. If you see me, I ask that you help us fix this tangled mess of spacetime. You are the chosen one.” The white cat said to her and licked her front paws allowing Martha to pet her a few times.

Before Martha could answer the white cat, her hospice nurse arrived. Elizabeth was a muscular five-foot-six-inch woman with long straight light brown hair pulled in a bun with piercing light blue eyes in a pair of dark red scrubs with a medium sized black bag swung over her right shoulder. “What a cutie!” she said before she picked up Benji despite his loud protests.

“Put Benji down, he has work,” the white cat said to Elizabeth. “We are Martha’s guardians. She is the chosen one to help us fix spacetime.”

“How will she fix spacetime?” Elizabeth asked the white cat. In response Martha’s blue knitting needles began to glow a bright blue despite being hidden under the blanket on her chair.

“She will untangle the knots in space that are preventing time from flowing freely,” the white cat said to Elizabeth. Carl swayed his tail back and forth like a cat who saw a tasty mouse and was ready to pounce and hid under Martha’s chair. “It’s time for us to go,” the white cat told the group. Benji came into the room and nodded at the white cat. He took off running towards the front door and disappeared right through it.

Elizabeth blinked several more times and the scenery around them changed. Martha felt so alive and she stood up without her cane and took in the new surroundings. The jungle was thick, humid, and the smell of rain was fresh in the air. She picked up her glowing needles and began looking around her chair for any sign of the mesh flowers Carl had shown her. She found one and sat down in her chair to work on it.

“I’s look around.” Carl said and flew out from under the chair. He sniffed the ground again and again trying to pick up the scent of danger. He took off in a direction of a loud bang transforming into the size of a bear on the way.

Carl saw the source of the danger: a large green creature with spikes on its tail munching on a tree’s leaves. It got on its hind legs to reach higher leaves and Carl jumped on the creature’s back. The creature thrashed and Carl slid down its back tearing apart its flesh. Martha finished a petal of the flower and the spikes on the creature’s tail vanished. Carl slid off the creatures back completely. His fur stood on end and he roared at the creature. The creature pounded its tail in Carl’s direction.

Carl jumped at the creature again. This time landing on its head. The creature shook its head again and again, but Carl stayed. It was then that the white cat appeared, transformed into bear size. Together they took turns attacking the creature’s neck with their teeth and claws.

Carl finally latched on to the creature’s neck with his teeth. Martha had finished the flower and Elizabeth placed it back on the ground where it was absorbed instantly. The creature Carl was fighting disappeared instantly. There was a noise to the right of Martha and a group of lizard-like creatures stood there looking directly at the needles in her hands.

A creature jumped into Martha’s lap and began biting her left arm. She pushed the creature down with a glowing needle and Elizabeth swatted at the creatures approaching the chair with her bag and hands. “Benji!” Martha yelled out for the cat, remembering what Carl had shown her. The cats were her guardians and would appear if she called for them.

Benji appeared and fought with the creatures, taking them out of the way and Elizabeth swatted at them with her bag. It was then that Elizabeth noticed Martha’s pale skin. “I have to give her medicine,” Elizabeth told Benji. Benji growled loudly to attract the attention of the creatures and led the creatures away some distance.

Elizabeth took out a measuring cup and filled it with a dark red mixture. She capped the bottle and handed Martha the cup. “You need your heart medicine, ma’am.” Elizabeth told Martha, handing her the small cup.

“Thanks, sweetie!” Martha said and swallowed the mixture in the cup. “My heart jumped from my chest,” she told Elizabeth. Elizabeth placed the cup and bottle back in her bag and marked in a small notebook that Martha took her heart medicine.

The white cat appeared on top of Martha’s chair and Benji came back to listen to what she had to say, with the small creatures following him. “We are missing repair on one more tangle,” she said to them.

Martha tried to stand up, but Elizabeth pointed at kitten-sized Carl running towards them with something in his mouth. Carl placed the mesh flower at Martha’s feet and Elizabeth bent down to pick it up and handed it to her. The white cat, Benji, and Elizabeth stepped away and taunted the small creatures to follow them for Martha to work on the flower.

The flower was easy to finish, and Carl grabbed it and set it down on the ground where it was absorbed. This made the small creatures disappear. Elizabeth, the white cat, and Benji appeared by the chair again. Carl’s tail swayed from side to side, and he crouched low to the ground.

“It’s time to go back now,” the white cat told the group and Carl jumped back on the chair into Martha’s lap. He licked at the wounds on her left arm and healed them. The scenery around them changed back to Martha’s living room.