Some Things You Will Never Know
Jemima, Matty, Sillabub and Cliffy sat on Matty’s bunk and talked. The girls of the house were very worried. Very worried.
“Did you see Misto? He looks like someone died.”
“Well after what Travie did I’m not surprised,” Sillabub replied her twin with a scowl. How dare that awful queen do such a think to her big brother. After he proclaimed his love for her and gave her such a christmas gift…”
“I know, but…”
“It’s just not fair!” Matty said louder than she intended. “We’ve been best friends for so long and then she turns around and says she wants nothing to do with me or Misto! I could kill her!”
“But why? Why is she doing this?” rang the quiet voice of Cliffy. “Why would she… after all…”
“Honestly,” Sillabub said snappishly, “if she ever shows her face again…”
“But Cliffy has a point. Why’d she do it in the first place? She must have a reason. Obviously not a good one, but a reason just the same.”
“Well I don’t know but I have half a mind to strangle her in her sleep,” Matty said.
“Well at least Alonzo’s cheered up,” Sillabub sighed. These past weeks had been Hell for all of them. After accidentally allowing Demeter to betray her mate, he had felt awful and refused to leave the shack at all.
“I’m talking to that Travie tomorrow, and I’m going to tell her exactly what I think.” And that was the last to be said. Matty always had the last word.
The next morning, the four queens of the shack (well, three, Jemima didn’t really live in the shack anymore, she lived with Demeter and Munkustrap as company for Demeter when Munkus was away) rolled out of bed with a groan. And came crashing to the floor besides.
The shack was quiet, not a soul was awake, but any minute now Boxer would probably come stumbling through the doorway, drunk as a duck.
They quietly slipped out to the main room in the shack, and then out the door.
The morning was quiet a brisk, a light wind was sweeping the streets. Autumn was coming quicker than it should’ve, summer never seemed to last. But autumn was a good season just the same. Still, how time was flying…
They walked down the quiet streets toward Bombalurina’s Alleyway. Matty thought that this might not be a good idea, as Bomby had never particularly liked her. But then, somethings must be done, and this was one of.
Misto had been crying into his pillow for hours, his cheeks glimmering with tears. His eyes were red and puffy and he couldn’t stop sobbing, he couldn’t talk and everytime he tried he burst into a fresh batch of tears.
Travie did that to him. Her sensible, intelligent, understanding, humorous brother had been turned into a blatting kitten. And it was all Travie’s fault.
Before long, the were staning in front of Bombalurina’s Alleyway, and they were all looking each other, scared to even step forth. There was a tarp hung across the opening.
Cliffy, disgusted with their kittenish attitude, stormed forward and slapped her paw against the tarp about four times, and then listened.
Nothing.
She slapped at it again, listening.
Still nothing.
At last, without even a bit of hesitant rebuke, she crawled under the tarp, and not wanting to be left behing, Matty, Jemima and Sillabub followed, ashamed for trespassing.
But there was not a soul in the alleyway. Not Bombalurina, nor any of her three daughters, Travie, CT or Socketlarose. The wind beat against the tarp and echoed harsh against the alley walls, and nothing stirred.
There was only three old mattresses. Matty remembered having her own special little tiny matress to use when she came to spend the night. She smiled, which only became sad because that was so fun. Tell jokes and laugh, plan explorations, promise to be friends forever.
Never again.
Matty wanted to unsheath her claws and tear everything to shreds, but she knew it would do no good. She didn’t even know why Travie was mad at her. Still, her eyes gleamed with suppressment.
No one said anything, but they quietly stepped further into the alleyway, sniffing the air and the ground. But there was no one here, and seemed to Matty that there hadn’t been anyone here for days. Where could they have all gone?
Suddenly, Matty realized she was alone in the alleyway. She had been alone since she woke up and she had been alone the night before. There was no one their with her. She had wished her sisters would’ve gone with her but they had refused. She was in this alleyway, trespassing, completely alone. Alone like she would always be from now on.
She looked to the floor. The picture of what the Heaviside might look like that Matty drew for Travie was lying at her feet, the corners torn and the edges eaten away.
Matty picked up and staired at it. It had been her best picture she ever drew. Clouds and whirling colours, sparkling stars all mixed into one great world. A tear dripped off Matty’s whisker without warning, and she dropped the picture. How could Travie do this to her?
There was no traces of anything but the empty mattresses and the single picture of the Heaviside Layer, the wind picking it up and carrying it away. Matty held back her tears with more might than stopping the London Bridge from falling down.
She wanted to cry but she could not allow it, for if she started she might never stop. Remember the time we created chaos in a restaurant, or the time, we started a food fight in the lunch room, or the time we saved the Jellicles from being frozen forever or the Thanksgiving we had more than enough to be thankful for, and the Christmas we shared that we’ll never forget?
The memories flowed back like bullets through her heart. All those great times that she never wanted to forget were haunting her, tearing her apart because she knew she could never have such a time again. Because she was alone. Alone.
“Daylight, see the dew on the sunflow’r, and a rose that is fading, roses wither away. Like the sunflow’r, I yearn to turn my face to the dawn. I am waiting for the day.”
It was Mark’s beautiful tenor, and it wasn’t a figment. It was her Mark, singing her, telling her that he was there.
“The street lamp dies, another night is over, another day is dawning.”
Cliffy’s gentle alto was filling the air, as she joined with Mark and a chorus of three sweet sopranos, after Matty begged with her tenor voice:
“Touch me, it’s so easy to leave me, all alone with the memory of my days in the sun.”
“If you touch me, you’ll understand what happiness is, look, a new day, has begun.”
Matty’s eyes were filled with tears as she stood and looked at the group of people who cared.
Then she heard the charming, enchanting group of whom she could pick out 7 voices: Misto, Alonzo, Mezoa, Pouncival, Boxer, Chewie and Electra:
“Moonlight, turn your face to the moonlight, let your memory lead you, open up enter in. If you find there, the meaning of what happiness is, then a new life will begin.”
“Don’t worry, Matty,” said Cliffy. “You’ll never be alone.”
Matty didn’t know why Travie was angry at them, she didn’t what she had done wrong or what had happened. She didn’t why Bombalurina took Travisina, CT and Socketlarose from the junkyard in such haste. She didn’t know why such things would happen, after they had made the promise of friends forever. She didn’t understand why she and the people who truly cared about her had to cry so many tears. But aren’t we all surrounded by people who really do love us? They don’t have to promise to be our friends forever because they always will be. Among all else, some things you will never know.
