Patrick Hounds Sr. look at the telephone again, "Jennifer got me so caught up in that silly
game of hers that I didn't even think to ask why she sent me a mirror express mail -
saying it would look good in my office!- And after Jennifer said she's too old for
games...twenty or twenty five years ago..." All the same he'd have time to ask these
questions when he saw her in person and her husband. "I wonder what inspired her to call
her grandfather after not sending me anything other than christmas card for ten years.... I
wonder how little Jenny is doing," She acted like such a sweet little princess. It would likely
take him a couple of days to get everything set for him to leave his business to run
without him for a day or two, but he wasn't about to turn down a invitation at last.
+++++++
That same day and thus a couple of days before Julie would make her fated meeting with
the woman who'd open her eyes to the truth of Glendale, Trevor laid lazily on the roof of
Madame Serenity's place of business. His new home, and now perhaps the only home he
could have.
Even though he knew his family had a policy of neutering all their pets, in his gut he knew,
he would have given it up if it meant finally being with them but... he just couldn't... he
didn't want to be with his family just so they'd shoe him out in the evening and look
through him as a house pet during the day.
The roof was warmish, nice, sunny, and all in all made Trevor feel lazily, it was a nice
change of pace to that pet store window. Not to mention it had taken him forever to get
used to the taste of pet food, as well as he had been able to eat in that damn muzzle
strap! The other cats in the pet store had actually teased him about it, knowing all he
could say in reply was 'mumble mumble.'
At least Madame Serenity acknowledged his personhood and allowed him to eat something
other than dried fish and horse meat and relatively free reign of the building.
"Hello there cutie." He heard a meow translated as.
He turned his head and saw a queen strut her way up onto the roof, checking him out like
a piece of meat her tall and proud. Trevor knew next to nothing about cat breeds, he
needed Madame Serenity just to tell him he was a tabby! This cat looked about the same
breed as him.
Not knowing what else to say he replied, "He-hello."
The cat either didn't notice or care he was speaking in english as she continued to purr
and call in sounds whose meanings rang as clear as day in Trevor's head. "So... I don'
recognize your scent, I take it you're new in the neighborhood?"
Trevor noticed she didn't have a collar. Stray. "Yes." Trevor said keeping his tone short and
to the point.
"Well, gotten to know anyone yet?" She asked sultry.
"No." Trevor conditioned by social convention asked, "What's your name?"
The queen replied, "Don't have one, don't need one, don't want one. What's yours?"
"Trevor."
"Odd name. Your human must be one of those special people."
"Special?"
"Oh... one of those humans who think they can understand what we're saying and only get
it right half the time, and recognizes us for the master race we are."
'I knew it.' Trevor thought but said nothing. At least he had kept his human mind enough
that he hadn't started thinking of cat as the 'superior race.'
"Where was this one girl in town who'd feed us without humans of our own as a hobby,
but soon after being upgraded somehow her family hightailed it out of town... things have
gotten a bit annoying recently."
"...upgraded?"
"Bast or whoever must have blessed her devoted service with ears and tail, a step in the
right direction, but she didn't seem to appreciate her gift, and like I said, her family
vacated town soon after."
'The girl from the pet store.' Trevor thought but again said nothing, "So what brings you
up here?"
"Just looking for some other human with too big a heart to mooch off of ... do you think
your human could manage?"
"No."
"Oh well... wanna work off the stress? You see tense..." The queen rubbed against.
Trevor felt his fur stand on end. "Work off how?"
"Oh.. I'm sure you can guess big boy."
"No." Trevor took a step back.
The queen's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, "A tom saying no to -me-? ... That's a first... "
She took a few step foreword. Something about her demeanor set Trevor on edge now.
"Maybe..." She said sounding more serious than playful now, "You just need some
encouragement."
Trevor leapt off the roof, the queen leapt off in pursuit a twitch of a whisker later, 'I
thought this was only supposed to happen to the poor souls turned into female animals!!!'
Trevor took back all the nasty things he ever thought about God as he saw the backdoor
was open and dashed inside.
"CLOSEITCLOSEITCLOSEIT!" Trevor said repeatedly to Madame Serenity who thank heaven
happened to be right there. The elder woman complied.
"Dog?" She asked in a concerned voice.
"If a female cat with my coloring comes clawing at the door... do NOT let her in!"
Trevor went to a corner and curled around himself and shivered. The worst part was, some
part of him, and he wasn't sure if it was the human or the cat, had -wanted- to mate with
her, so he'd leave at least one ripple in this universe after his time was done, which the
curse had insured he'd only know had been cut dramatically short. When he heard a
familiar meowing outside, he tried his hardest to tune it out and ignore the urge to let her
him so she could let him in, and sow his seeds in her soil. Trevor was very glade he hadn't
figured out how to open the door himself yet.
++++++++++
A man wearing just a pair of worn beige short calmly played his banjo on the obscure
tropical island in the middle of nowhere. It's remote location meant tourist only rarely
came here, and he only knew english because he was an immigrant and no native. He
watched the waves crash against the sand for the millionth time that day plucking his
banjo strings. He turned towards his modest dwelling which had the all the doors open.
He wondered if he had been out in the sun too long as he saw a little girl werewolf ghost
in a nineteenth or eighteenth century dress peak out from his bathroom mirror, and climb
her way out, being covered in a film of glass or maybe -becoming- glass as she climbed
out and set herself down. She walked out of the house as the banjo man watched her. She
looked at the position of the sun then at her surroundings, she spotted the banjo man and
mime curtsied at him. "Hello and good day."
"... Hello." Said he banjo man calmly staring at her slightly large eyes.
"If I may ask: do you realize I am a glass wolf who has just climbed from your mirror? I
think it is your mirror, that is, if it's your house of course...."
"It's my home... and yes I can see you're a glass wolf." the banjo man said in a surprised
but not overwhelmed voice.
"And you do not feel like calling the dog catcher or telling me to put something on for my
naked state?"
"No... not really..."
"Thank you sir." The wolf curtsied again like it was a trained reflex. She didn't ask if she
wasn't in Glendale city limits, the position of the sun told her that and she had traveled
over a thousand miles in those three steps. "I'd ask you to play with me in my world, but
my family's gotten quite bigger recently and are expecting a few more before we're finally
done."
"It's quite alright."
One last mime curtsy, "Good day to you then sir."
With that the glass wolf girl went back into the mirror, while the banjo man went back to
looking at the waves.
+++++++
"Well Alice?" Darla asked when her daughter returned safe and sound, being indestructible
didn't mean she couldn't be tied up and thrown into a volcano and Darla was glade to see
her alright.
She and Fran were in the master bedroom, Alice having used a large dresser mirror. The
other cubs were with Martha back in the backyard reading since it would have been
impractical to play the wii with all the activity going on in the living room and reading in
the study would have been near impossible with the noise.
"Everything went perfect mother dearest!" Alice nodded, "I did not become Adam again
when I left the city limits, and the person I talked to did not scream and shout or run from
me upon laying eyes on me."
"I hope they weren't stoned." Fran commented.
"Oh I do not think rocks were thrown upon him auntie."
"I mean I hope he wasn't drugged up." Fran suddenly felt incorrect for using such terms
around Alice.
Alice thought for a moment, "I do not think so... nor did he seem drugged down either."
The twins looked at each other. Then Fran knelt down and put a paw on Alice's shoulder,
"You've done a very brave service for the pack Alice, a very brave service."
"Thank you auntie."
"Now Alice." Fran put both her paws on Alice's shoulders and knelt down best she could
so she was as close to eye level as she could be with the glass wolf. "Auntie has a very
important favor to ask you..."
++++++++++
All across town, four 'upper crust' teenage girls, one of whom whose only claim to fame
was the proximity they had to the star cheer leader Jennifer Smith, after the school day
was done and with no sign of their inner circle self proclaimed leader had called each other
into a four way phone chat.
"So like, none of you saw Jennifer either?"
"Nope!"
"Nada!"
"Wasn't lookin', figured ya all would for me." Said a forth voice over the phone followed by
the sound of munching chips.
Two sighs and one groan replied back to the last voice.
"So like, she didn't call any of you? Grace? Hope? Isabell?"
"Sorry Zylphia she didn't." Grace answered, "You think something happened to her?"
Hope said, "She didn't call me either. I guess we aren't as important to her as she always
makes us out to be, it's not like she COULDN'T pick out new friends if we got stale after
all."
"Don't say That! She'd never do that!" Said Grace sounding more angry at Hope that scared
at the idea of Jennifer abandoning them.
"Nay, she didn't call me..." Isabell finished, "I figure, if she wants to tell us somethin', she'll
tell us, it's not like she's ever had a problem sayin' what's on her mind before, y'all hear
what I'm sayin'?"
Zylphia spoke, "So like, what's up with that? Do you think we give her space? Wait to see if
she calls later or shows tomorrow or what?"
"Wait." Yawn Isabell's voice.
"Whatever." Said Hope's voice.
"We call." Said Grace, "In fact, I vote we do that right now."
"Okay Grace that works for me just fine." Zylphia answered. "You two have any objections?
"
"Might be interesting." Said Hope's voice.
"I won't stop you." Said Isabell.
At that, Grace punched in Jennifer's cell phone number... it buzzed, buzz, and buzzed
some more, and finally went to her voice mail.
"That isn't like Jennifer at all..." Zylphia conclude, "She never misses a phone OR doesn't
have it with her..."
"Things happen." Hope said and Isabell agreed.
"I'm calling her house." Zylphia's voice said.
"You're wasting your time." Hope said, "If she didn't answer her cell she won't answer the
phone.
The phone rang, and rang, and rang, Zylphia sighed knowing she'd be getting the
answering machine on the next right. However,
"Hello, Smith Residence who may I ask is speaking?" Said a feminine voice on the other
end.
All four teenager 'popular girls' hear construction work in the background. But that wasn't
the issue at the moment. They didn't ask who it was. They had never seen many servants
or work hands at Jennifer's house ever except Martha but figured she had more logically.
"Yeah this Zylphia calling,"
"And Grace!"
"Hope..."
"...Isabell."
"... shouldn't that be Grace Hope and Charity?" Replied the voice on the other end.
"That was funny only the first one hundred times." Shot Hope.
"Like, look," Said Zylphia getting things back on track, "Can we talk with Jennifer? She
wasn't at school and she hasn't called and we're her friends and we're kinda worried."
"Very well, I shall inform Mistress Jenny." They were put on hold.
"'Jenny?'" Hope said, "Who'd have thought it."
"I wouldn't." Isabell answered first.
They waited several minutes. Hope was all for hanging up and letting it be, Grace was for
all hanging up and calling again. Isabell just went along for the ride. Zylphia waited in
silence only saying anything to keep the others on board.
Finally a young female voice answered, "Hello?"
"Jen'!" Called Grace, "Is that you?"
"... Yes it is."
"Your voice sounds a little high, you okay?" Zylphia asked.
"Phone's just bein' a little buggy, you guys okay?"
"Yes." Zylphia said.
"Yes." So did Grace.
"Uh-huh." Isabell answered.
"Pretty much." Hope finished. "So where were you exactly today?"
"I'm being hope schooled now... sorry I didn't think yo call you sooner... hey guys! I have
an idea! Why don't you all come over? We can make it sleep over for those of you who can
stay long enough!"
All four girls started, normally Jennifer let these plans be known far off in advance, and
home school? Jennifer -loved- the attention she got. Something wasn't right. But the only
way to find out what was to go right to the source.
"Okay ... Jen', we'll bite." Said Hope, "But you had better tell us what's really going on when
we get there."
"I'm sure I can drop by for a bit." Grace said.
"I'm not doing anything else." Isabell confessed.
"I guess that just leaves me." Zylphia said.
"Okay guys! Wait tell ya get here, yer infer da time of yer life! Come soon after sunset
please. Oh and kiss yer mom and dads I mean parents goodbye will ya? Ya never know
what tomorrow will bring."
Jennifer hung up.
All four girls were silent for a moment.
"Okay," Said Hope, "I'm going there just to find out what the heck is going on!"
"Ditto." Said Grace.
"Like Triple." Zylphia added.
"Quadruple." Isabell finished. "You think she's a vampire now?"
"Nay...." Said Hope,"Not enough angst..."
"You'd know." Grace said.
"Hey!"
"Just kidding."
With that all four girls hung up and packed their things for a visit to Smith Manor.