A Cat's Tale (The Secret Desires of Hotaru Nyanko)

Nine: パジャマパーティー (Pajama Party)

The boy reached for his pockets and handed out me and let out a flour-coated hard candy and watched me gobble it in hunger. He laughed at me hysterically.

There was also a river from behind that wall, ten meters away from us, and the mountains stood before me like giants waiting to devour me.

Wondering to myself when the dawn will start, I bathed myself in the most invigorating way.

After I finished, I saw him lying on his back behind a tree.

I laid down my back on the cold ground, and I watched him as he pointed out his fingers to the night sky. I slowly laughed at how incredibly grateful he is that he found a friend like me, and I marveled at the very thought that this journey is special and that this boy saved my life.

That night I had a crazy dream.

“Could you pass me the hot sauce, Hotu?

“Yeah, sure. Here.”

I pass the hot sauce to Courtney, while she poured more into her pizza.

 We were all dressed in pink pajamas, and my pale, light skin stood out the most from their tanned ones.

I took a glimpse at all of them. There’s Gayle, Mish, Alzi, and Courtney.

They were all laughing together, while I feel grumpy from my body aches.

“If only Calvin is a girl, he could come with us,” says Courtney

“Yeah, I could only imagine us dressing him up,” says Mish-and they all laughed again.

I stared in awe at all these cheerleaders, so excited about life.

I looked down at my phone to see a text message.

“Hey, Hotu...you all right?”

It was from Calvin.

I rubbed the temples of my head, while I munch another slice of pizza.

For a moment, Alzi stared at me in disbelief, and they all turn to look at me.

“Are you all right, Hotu?” Gayle said.

Now I am confused.

“Yes…why?”

“Uhmm…” Courtney began. “Do you remember what happened yesterday?”

I eyed all of them.

“No.”

Oh, Hotu, yesterday we were at the bleachers, right? says Gayle in a high-pitched voice.

"Yeah."

"So, after the game and everybody left Courtney and Max there were having the same kind of argument. After that, we saw you covering your ears and acting strange. You told us that you saw a black cat and you wanted to follow it, so you went out to the field, and we stayed there for a while."

"Hot, we just watched you walk up to the tracks and no cat is even there," says Courtney.

I cupped my face in embarrassment.

What have I done?

"Do you remember the guy Calvin and I saw at Bonita's Diner?" she continued.

"We suddenly saw him come out of nowhere."

"Well, I guess he also saw the game" starts Gayle.

"Yeah, but it looks like we are all there and we never noticed him..." says Mish.” ...and then, you collapsed."

"What?"

I looked at the confusion on all of their faces, but I also stared at them in shock.

"I... I don't remember anything."

"I just knew that after the game, I was in the school's clinic and the nurse gave me some painkillers; and told me to get some rest... and then she sent me home."

"Well, I guess I was just tired, I explained."

"Maybe she is," says Gayle to Mish.

After our heated discussion, the girls went on and about their new boyfriends and where our next field trip is going to be.

***

I came home earlier that morning.

The girls must be so tired from last night, because of the movie marathon.

It was a splendid Saturday morning and usually, after school events take place, our school had decided to give us school breaks.

I decided to take a trip by myself.

I went to the train station again and put on my favorite playlist.

As I got closer to home, I bought sour gummies from the store, and then I passed by Mrs. Penn’s library again. It’s still closed.

I walked along the rugged pavement, a few blocks away from school. I stopped by a really old library, more rustic than Mrs. Penn’s.

When I got inside, a strong smell of wood, smoke, and earth came up to my nose.

“How may I help you?” says an old man holding a newspaper with crunchy-looking round glasses, peering at me from head to toe.

“Uhm…nothing. I’m just searching for something for a school project,” I butt in.

“Alright, then,” he says.

I walked further and I saw antique stuff everywhere-from hats to old vintage picture frames, and wooden posters hung everywhere.

As I approached the final shelf, a hazy object suddenly appeared in front of my eyes. I could initially see nothing else since the mist was so thick, but gradually on either side of me, I noticed pillars emerging. I stood on a walkway to my left, a column of some sort. The columns were flecks of beige with green. As if ghosts were wishing to be seen, the foggy vapors cleared. A form appeared unnoticed, a constant rectangle in size. The design of the structure is just about just the length of a modest church supermarket. It had a marble front that matched the color of the arches and a lofty roof with illusions of majesty, a huge metal center door, adorned with fine decorations, and a regal-appearing timepiece on the front porch, Greek letters were painted in black, with hands pointing to midnight.

The front façade was accented with black glass doorways that were framed in granite brickwork.

Once I initially began searching, it appeared there were only three windows, but a couple of minutes later there were undoubtedly five.

I reasoned that perhaps I had miscounted.

There being nothing else in the area and me having nowhere else to be, I approached it warily.

My hands flipped through the hard-bound covers of the books. I searched them one by one, trying to investigate the strange things that are happening to me.

I researched everything- vampires, wolves, mystery books-nothing. I guess the only problem is me, and whatever I was going through stays only with me.

I sat down on a table, looking for a computer; but since the library looks old enough, I don’t think it even wants to upgrade.

Guess I need to go home.