Cat and Mouse
(2/10/09)
The three women adjust their position at the top of the hill. Their black clothes hug their bodies and hide their location. “Cat,” the red head asks the blond, “why are we doing this again?”
Before the blond can answer, the brunette answers her, “Because, Trina, we are the Cat Burglars.”
“Yes,” agrees the blond named Cat, “but also, Lina, there is a key component that will help us.” She looks to her two companions, “There is a magic ball that will let us see what whatever we want.”
The mousy haired Lina continues to explain, “No more will we go into houses blind. We will be able to search the house completely before setting foot inside, finding the precious loot and the sleeping people.”
The red headed Trina rolls her eyes, “I know all that. You’ve been gushing about it for days. Why now? Why are we going with the lights on and people moving about?”
“Because,” Cat says with a smile, “after the last few houses, I think we need a challenge, something to test our skills, to prove who’s the best.”
“We are,” Lina whispers.
“We are undefeated,” Trina agrees.
Cat raises an eyebrow, “So, who’s ready?”
“I am,” they whisper together.
Together they move as one around the side of the large, 3 story, old, Victorian mansion. Arriving at the back door, Cat springs into action. Using the shadows she slips up to the back door and fishes her lock picks from somewhere quite quickly. Deftly she maneuvers them and works the lock. SNAP! She curses under her breath as she pulls the parts of the broken pick out of the lock. Another appears in her hand and she tries again.
Unexpectedly all of her picks break one by one. Cat curses her luck. She falls back to their position. “Ok, Plan B. Lina, go!”
The brunette covers her hair and leads around the house until she spots an open window on the third floor. Lina removes one glove at a time revealing ten sharp, pointed nails. She thinks about pulling off her shoes for ten more but decides against. She places one hand in the wall followed by the other. She steadily alternates hands causing her body to sway back and forth assisting her climb. She smiles as she pulls herself up.
Coming onto the first floor roof, the target window slides down and shuts. Lina looks up at it, “They probably didn’t lock it,” she assures herself, “Very few thieves can reach there. But I can.” She continues her climb.
She reaches the window and with one hand she tries to lift the window. Locked. Undeterred, she climbs up a little more and slides her finger under the window to release the lock. No luck. Agitated and frustrated, she lowers herself down and returns to the rest.
Cat turns to the last of the trio, “Ok, Trina, you’re on. Get us in.” The red head pulls the coil of rope off her shoulder and releases her hair. She checks the hook on the end of the rope. Then she starts twirling. At the perfect time, she releases and it flies up and grapples its target, the chimney.
In moments she is on the highest roof. She smiles as she lowers her hook and rope into the flue. “Now for the fun part.” She twists and dislocates and slowly eases herself into the hole no normal person could fit into.
Downward she oozes until she exits into the fireplace. She adjusts herself back into working order and recoils her rope. With everything in its place she sneaks to the back door and lets them in.
The three spread out and stealthfully search the ground floor. “Nothing,” they report as they group at the bottom of the stairs. A rhythmic Click, Click, Click of heeled shoes comes from behind them.
“Hide,” orders Cat. They look up the stairs. Too risky. Behind them. Too dangerous. The closet. Perfect. They slip in and leave the door ajar. The three of them make a tight fit.
The footsteps get closer, and their escape clicks shut squeezing them tighter. Cat presses her ear to the door. When the person is gone, she turns the knob. Locked.
“Uhhh, guys, we’re after a magical orb, right,” asks a timid Trina.
Lina gapes at her, “Weren’t you listening outside?”
Suspicious, Cat asks, “Why?”
“I’m not sure, but I’m feeling funny. You think this whole house is magical?”
“That’s silly, Trina,” Lina answers, “Whole houses can’t be … I’m feeling it, too.”
“Me, too,” concedes Cat.
“What’s happening to us?”
“I guess we’ll have to wait and find out.” Their once tight clothes start to loosen. Cat feels the nervous bodies around her. I must think of something. “You know what this reminds me of?”
“No.”
“What?”
“The first time we met.” Cat feels the fear start to evaporate. “It was the house with the Darjeeling Diamond.”
“Yeah,” Trina adds, “I slipped under the house and up through their trap door.”
Lina adds, “I carved a piece of glass out of a first floor window and let myself in.”
“And I followed you in the window.” Cat continues, “I let you both find the safe and get into a huge cat fight. Then I snuck by the two of you and put my ear to the safe and unlocked it.”
“And then I saw you sneaking away and lassoed you with my rope.”
“And I pounced on you to keep you from getting away.”
“And then we got into a bigger cat fight and the masks came off.”
“And then we realized we knew each other.”
“You were Cathy,” Lina says pointing to Cat.
“You were Catalina,” Trina points to Lina.
“And you were Catrina. We were all Cat.”
“And we decided to join up.”
“And we’ve been undefeated ever since.”
A cold breeze blows over their bodies breaking them out of their revelry. They look in the direction that it came from and see a mouse hole just their size. The despair falls on them again. The light from under the door reveals their new smaller bodies, and they climb out of the gigantic pile of their clothes.
Cat looks at the red haired Trina and the brown haired Lina. They are women with changes. Larger rounded ears have replaced their own and poke up through their hair. Small gray tails whip nervously behind their gray furred bodies. Their expanded mouse-like noses twitch. Cat imagines that she herself looks much the same but with blond hair.
Trina looks to Cat, “Maybe we should go.”
The bold, brazen Lina is discouraged, “Yeah, that mouse hole probably leads outside.”
Cat turns to go, but runs into Trina’s giant coil of rope. She looks up at the door. Then she glares at her comrades, “What are we? Mice? Or men?”
The two cohorts stop and look at each other. “Mice,” one guesses.
“Men,” the other guesses at the same time.
Cat facepalms. “Well, technically we’re both. But that’s not the point. Are we going to run? or stay and fight?” Lina and Trina look encouraged. “The Cat Burglars are undefeated. Are we going to let something like this,” Cat gestures to the door, “stand in our way?”
“No,” they both call out.
The red headed mouse girl races toward the door and starts going through the motions to slide under the door. “Wait, Trina!”
She slides back out, “What?”
“Not all of us can do that. We’ll need to find another way out. We need to get up there and unlock the door.”
“I think I can get up there,” Lina says.
“Yes,” Cat agrees, “but you don’t know anything about lock picking.”
Trina calls to the others, “Look over here!” The other two scamper over to see what she is pointing at, a paper clip. “Give me a hand, and I’ll get us up there.” The blond leader sees the mini plan and a larger one forms, “Lina, bend the paper clip. Trina and I are going to work on her rope.”
“How,” the red head asks.
“With our new assets.”
Trina cups her mousy mammaries, “These?”
Cat smiles and bares her new teeth, “These.”
“Oh! Right!”
They nibble on the rope and soon have several strands that they tie together. Lina brings over the clip hook and they attach their new long rope. Trina takes in one hand and tosses it over the knob. Cat climbs the rope and sticks her tail in the keyhole. Deftly she hits the tumblers. “Trina, come up and hold these in place.
The dexterous red head sticks herself into the spot Cat’s tail had been moments before. Cat on the knob itself carefully rotates it. Click! “Now, Lina!”
The brown haired mouse digs her sharp toes claws into the ground and pushes the door out. Slowly, the door opens. “Trina, help her.” She squeezes out of the hole, slides down the rope, and the door opens faster. Cat joins and soon they are back at the bottom of the stairs.
“I’m hungry. Can we get some food?”
“We’re the Mouse Burglars now. We are undefeated. We can get whatever we want,” Cat smiles.
“Good. Because I could go for some turkey right now.”
Behind them in the closet in the mouse hole, the door to the outside closes and disappears. As they scamper off to the kitchen, a dark haired woman watches them in a round orb. She smiles and says to herself, “Yes, they will be fine characters to add to this house. The new ‘Lady’ should have fun with them.”
Lady D waves her hand over the magical globe, and it goes dark. Then she turns and goes back to what she had previously been working on.