The Great Adventure

The fight had drained every last bit of energy that either Peewee or Tabitha possessed. As soon as it was over their adrenalin crashed and they both had to lay down and rest, Tabitha with her head between her paws, panting heavily, and Peewee lying flat on his side. Peewee was a bit traumatized (mainly it was his cat pride that was wounded) but luckily he had otherwise emerged pretty much unscathed. After a few minutes they were both revived enough to pick themselves up and look around. They were famished and there was a dead coyote lying right there next to them. They had no choice. They had to eat.

The coyote didn’t taste all that good, but it was better than nothing. They ate until their stomachs were full and they felt newly reinvigorated. When they were finished they once again set off on their way. The day was just about done and it was slowly getting dark, but they instinctively sensed they shouldn’t stay there. They traveled for some miles, and when they felt they were far away enough, they found a cozy spot to spend the night.

They were very tired and they immediately fell into a deep sleep. At dawn they woke up refreshed and promptly resumed their journey, still heading in that certain direction that called out to Tabitha. The day was much like all the others days since the hurricane. The air was hot and humid.

If it wasn’t for all the devastation around them it would have been a lazy dreamy kind of summer day. Instead everything was sullen and depressed. They looked as scruffy and muddy and dirty and untidy as ever. But, having eaten and slept, the two animals had replenished their energy. Tabitha once again happily ran around investigating the world while Peewee, his pride restored and doing his svelte cat routine, trotted along, pretending to be above it all.

The change was subtle, so it was a while before they noticed anything, but as they traveled on it seemed that they came across fewer roads or houses or farms. Signs of human activity seemed to slowly diminish and they soon disappeared altogether. And as Tabitha ran around sniffing she noticed that signs of animal life, not plentiful to begin with, were also decreasing.

The landscape was changing as well. At first the grasslands and fields disappeared and gave way to pine woods. Had Peewee or Tabitha been human they might have stopped to stare a little bit, for the hurricane winds had turned these into very weird and spooky pine woods. Most of the trees were stripped of their evergreen needles and sheared of many of their branches. It was an apocalyptic vision, a shattered and denuded forest.

After a while the splintered forest began to give way to marshes and thickets of oak. Most of the oak trees were still standing but they had lost leaves and branches. They were still big and proud trees, but they were looking a bit shabby, not unlike Peewee and Tabitha.

By the afternoon, as they resumed their journey following their midday break, it was very clear. The landscape had indeed changed conspicuously. Soon even the marshes ended and before they knew it they were in a vast forest of oak. The woods turned deeper and darker as they traveled on. And the deeper the forest, the less obvious the hurricane damage. It was almost as if the winds had lost their way in the depths of the woods. Huge clumps of Spanish moss, lit by a weak and eerie sunlight filtering through branches, hung from trees. As the forest thickened everything began to look mysterious and vaguely menacing. The two animals had never ever experienced anything like this. They were becoming increasingly uneasy in the suffocating atmosphere of this strange world, but they pressed on.

Peewee and Tabitha trotted along through the oak forest for many miles. The sun began to arc downward toward the horizon and the shadows became ever deeper. Everything was very still and very quiet. The deep shadowy woods seemed by now downright creepy and scary. Even Tabitha’s dog senses were affected by the ominous nature of her surroundings. She no longer ran around investigating the world. Instead she walked purposefully on, furtively glancing left and right, not sure of what to expect. Peewee, of course, wore his usual enigmatic poker face, so it was hard to tell what he was thinking.

It soon began to seem to Peewee and Tabitha that the forest would go on for ever and ever, and never end. And that it would just get deeper and deeper and darker and darker. But eventually, to their surprise, they came upon a road. It was an old road. It had once been paved but it was now crumbling and rutted and potholed. The road ran to their left and right as they came upon it, but there was a bend up ahead which turned it in the direction that they were going. They followed the road to the bend and as they rounded it thay saw that the road ahead was perfectly straight. In the distance, maybe a mile away, they could make out what looked to be a large old mansion.

The two animals were now hungry again and it occured to both of them that the mansion might be a place where they could perhaps scavenge a treat or two. They trotted on and as they approached the old house the forest began to thin out. There were fewer trees, but they were much larger: giant oaks with huge piles of spanish moss cascading from their thick branches and down their colossal trunks. As they approached closer the trees suddenly opened up and they found themselves on a weedy and unkempt lawn, in the middle of which sat the mansion. It was big and old and it had a portico with tall columns.

In the gathering twilight the house seemed dark and deserted and the animals could see that it was falling apart, but, oddly, not due to wind damage. Instead, it was suffering from slow decomposition. It had once been white, but the aging paint was mouldy and peeling. The entire exterior was richly textured with years of rot and deterioration and decay. The shutters leaned at all sorts of crazy angles and the glass in most of the windows was cracked. There were cobwebs everywhere. Like the forest around it, it seemed clear that the house had never experienced a cleansing wind, or even a breeze, let alone a hurricane. Peewee and Tabitha, of course, didn’t really understand any of this. It didn’t occur to them the laws of geography and of meteorology would suggest that the mansion and the forest should have shown some signs of hurricane damage. Instead they just felt anxious and uneasy, but hunger drove them on.

The animals walked up to the portico and gingerly up the front steps. They came to the door and paused. Tabitha gave it a slight nudge with her nose, not really expecting anything but just to see what would happen. To her surprise the door slowly creaked opened. They walked into an entry hall. There was a grand staircase directly in front of them leading to a dark second floor. To the left there was a room, but it too was cloaked in shadows. But Peewee and Tabitha could see a warm bright yellowish glow coming from the chamber to the right of the hall. They cautiously approached the lit room and looked in. In the middle of what must have been a dining room stood a long table upon which were placed several large candelabras with lit candles. They illuminated the table and the area immediately around it, but beyond that the light seemed to quickly disappear and get absorbed in dark shadows. The ceiling and the edges and corners of the large room were hidden in a murky gloom.

“Come on in, come on in, I’ve been expecting you,” said a voice from within. Tabitha cocked her head at the sound of it. There, at the head of the table, sat a kindly looking old lady with grey hair. To either side of her two more places were set, complete with plates, napkins, glasses and silverware.

“Come in and sit down. You’re just in time for dinner.”

The old lady stood up and went over to Peewee, gently picked him up, and carried him to one of the chairs. Peewee didn’t complain or resist, but he eyed the old lady very suspiciously with his yellow cat eyes. She placed him on the chair.

“And you please sit here,” she said to Tabitha as she pointed to the chair across from Peewee’s. Tabitha had never done that before, sat on a chair at a table, but in this case, maybe because she was so dumbfounded by this strange turn of events, it seemed the right thing to do. She duly hopped up on the chair and sat down opposite Peewee.

“I hope you brought your appetite,” said the old lady as she sat down.

Tabitha looked at Peewee. Peewee looked at Tabitha. They looked at their plates (Peewee had to stand up on his hind legs and place his front paws on the edge of the table to see anything). They was no food on their plates. They looked at the old lady’s plate. It had a few peas, some mashed potatoes, and a small helping of what looked to be a meat and gravy of some sort. They licked their lips and stared. The old lady ate slowly but didn’t seem to notice that the animal’s plates were empty. Tabitha cocked her head and very clearly licked her lips again. The old lady still didn’t notice. Or else she didn’t care. Either way, the animals’ plates remained empty. This was not very reassuring.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had any guests,” the old lady explained after eating in silence for some time, “nobody comes by anymore. It really has been a long, long time...” Her voice trailed off and she seemed to loose herself in thought for a moment or two.

“This is a very old house,” she said after a while, speaking slowly and quietly, almost as if to herself. “But it hasn’t been the same for a long time now. Not since the since the war. You’re too young to have experiemced any of this of course, but you should realize that it was an awful thing, that war. They destroyed everything then. My great grandfather fought in it, you know... but he never came back... my great grandmother never saw him again,” she said sadly, “it’s horrible to be separated from those you love and then never see them again. It eats at your soul.... the sadness, the emptiness....it has haunted this house ever since then.”

She stopped for a moment and looked at the two animals. Neither Peewee or Tabitha really understood what she was saying because they didn’t know any of those human words she was using (other than when she had said “sit”, which was a word Tabitha understood very well when she wanted to). But they did sense a sorrow in her, a longing which reminded them of their longing for the Old Man.

“And what about you?” the old lady asked them, “why are you wandering in these woods all alone? I sense you’ve lost someone too,” she added, “but please, don’t let me get you all depressed with my sad tales. That would be very rude if I, as your hostess, ruined your dinner with unhappy thoughts. Please, eat and let us just enjoy each other’s company.”

For a while the old lady said nothing more and continued eating her dinner. Peewee and Tabitha meanwhile just stared at their empty plates. They had given up licking their lips, as it seemed obvious by now that they weren’t going to get fed.

“But maybe you two could stay,” she said suddenly. The two animals detected a slight coldness in her voice which made them sit up and notice. “Wouldn’t you want to?” she went on, “it might be nice to spend the night and sleep off the dinner in comfortable surroundings.”

The animals still didn’t understand a word she was saying but it seemed like a shivery shadow crossed the room as she spoke. Peewee’s yellow eyes stared at her very intently.

“We’ll keep each other good company,” she assured them, but the voice wasn’t very reassuring.

It seemed to Tabitha that maybe the light from the candles was getting fainter and that the room was getting dark and chilly, but she wasn’t really sure. What she did know was that she was very hungry and that it was clear that she wasn’t going to be getting any food at this table. Peewee, meanwhile, was becoming visibly disturbed. Something was bothering him, and it wasn’t just the lack of food. Maybe he saw the unseeable, the way cats do. Whatever it was, he had enough. He jumped on to the table top, arched his back, and hissed and spit.

“Now what’s gotten into you?” asked the old lady, “if I didn’t know any better I’d say you’re being downright rude!”

Peewee didn’t answer, but instead he turned his back, ran down to the end of the table, jumped off, and bolted.

“No, wait!” shouted the old lady as Peewee ran toward the door. Her voice now had an ice cold mean edge to it. “I mean you no harm. Stay. We’ll have breakfast together.”

Tabitha, after a moment of confused hesitation, jumped off the chair and trotted after Peewee, who was waiting for her in the shadowy entry hall. His yellow eyes were staring intently into a murky corner. His fur stood on end and his back was arched. Tabitha, who couldn’t see in the dark nearly as well as a cat, peered into the corner. She gazed into the gloom trying to make out what it was that disturbed Peewee so much. She thought she could make out a pair of stuffed animals, but she wasn’t sure. But before she could investigate any further, Peewee hissed and tore out of the house through the still open front door, disappearing into the darkness of the night beyond. Tabitha’s instincts told her to follow the cat, so she too scurried out of the house and back into the forest. And as she ran, it suddenly hit her. The stuffed animals smelled remarkably like a dog and a cat. Like a fluffy dog and an orange cat. No, it couldn’t be. Tabitha stopped, shook herself vigorously, and then ran off after Peewee.