epicene-street-light:

hi anon! random fact about my life: funny story of how i actually adopted the familiar of a recently deceased witch 

the year was 2005. i was 7 and at the music school. the school year was over, and i was with the other children of my music theory class, having a party in the school’s garden. there was juice and cookies and, more importantly, no adults, and a cat. there were plenty of cats hanging out in the school’s garden, because an old lady who lived in the building around the school fed them. so, we were like, 12 or so seven years old, and we saw the cat, so the natural reaction was to run towards him and try to pet him. the cat didnt give a fuck about us, he was sleeping (out of our reach) on the wall, things were normal. 

and then we heard an old lady’s voice screaming: “little rascals! stop harassing this cat! right now!!”. it was the old lady living nearby and feeding the cats, wearing all black, carrying a ripped supermarket bag, standing right in front of us. she waved her walking stick at us and we ran away screaming. then she left the garden, and was back in the street, out of sight. 

so we started bugging the cat again. 

approximatively 30 seconds later, we heard her voice again, screaming: “you should be ashamed!! leave this cat alone!! immediately!!”. and it was her, same bag, same clothes, same walking stick. we were a bit surprised to see her again, but still ran away. then she left again. 

“how could she be back so quickly?” we wondered, standing in a circle, whispering. “we didnt even make that much noise”. 

“she lives right there, in this building”, i tell them. (musical theory classes were so boring, i had noticed where she lived exactly). “maybe she saw us from her window.” 

she walked very slowly, and we could still see her. 

“someone should follow her just to make sure, so when she’s really far away we can play with the cat again’, someone says. we made a random selection and i was chosen to follow her. 

so i started walking a few meters behind the old lady. she walked from more or less 10 minutes, to the tram station. i waited for her in front of the station. i saw her get on the tram, the tram’s doors closing, and the tram starting. the next station was 20 minutes away (by foot). i made sure she wasnt on the platform anymore, and ran back as quickly as i could to the school. once there, i told the others: “its okay! shes gone, i saw her getting on the tram, we can play with the cat now!”

so we started bugging the cat again. 

and then. behind us, a voice. “this is it! im fed up with you little brats!!!! go away!!!” 

it was the old lady again. 

***

we never cleared that one mystery – the others accused me of lying, but i know what i saw – and years passed. it was now 2010. i was 12 and still going to the same music school. i made a friend of an adorable, big muscular black cat usually sleeping behind the building the old lady lived in. i petted him and played with him twice a week when coming back from music lessons. it was summer again, and i was petting the cat when a man came to me and asked me if i knew the cat’s owner. i told him no, and asked why. he sighed. “because she’s my neighbor, and she’s at the hospital with a final phase cancer. i thought maybe you were related, you kinda look like her.” i told him i was sorry for her, and he left. 

when the school year started over this year, i stopped seing the buff black cat. but another cat had arrived. she was a calico, and unless the other cats hanging out in the garden, she did her best to get inside the school and getting petted. she liked everyone, including me. she was so cute, and so willing to get adopted i convinced my parents to adopt her. she was obviously an indoor cat, having all of their reflexes, and adapted really quickly to our home. i was persuaded she belonged to the old lady, since she was used to a quiet life and arrived when she had passed away. one of the school’s secretaries told me she believed it too.

i never saw the black cat’s owner in person, but i doubt there were more than one mysterious old lady living with 15 cats and having magical powers in this very ordinary building. 

so that was the story of how i adopted a witch’s familiar cat.