Post by The Cat Lady on Jun 8, 2010 16:34:31 GMT -6
The house on the corner. Those who travel near it call the home hideous and disgusting, and who would blame them? The place was a run down pig sty. The paint was chipping, the wood was warping. There always seemed to be an odd smell that wafted through the cracked and broken windows and really I just don’t like the looks of the place. It’s creepy. But other people called it a home. It was a home to at least forty cats, big, small, kitten, adult, and two humans. One male, and the other was female.
The male, Tommy The Cat, purr-ennial jobber to the stars, sat in a old wooden chair at a stained up rickety card table. All around him were all the cats, sitting all over the furniture and shelves. They all loom in the shadows and watch Tommy with there deep yellow eyes. With a pair of reading glasses over his wrestling mask, he focuses diligently on balancing the check book and looking over the daily mail.
“Hmmm…..that’s one hundred and fifty for cat food. We spent a good sixty when we went to see The Revenge of Kitty Galore…..”
Tommy trails off and starts licking the back of his hand and then uses it to clean a smudge of the side of his mask. Then goes back to his checkbook.
“What else…ah oh….um….two hundred for my ounce of cat nip….”
He looks over at a black cat to his immediate right.
“Don’t judge me Frank. I’m going to quit after this I swear.”
Suddenly a brown and white cat with a red collar and a bell attached to it comes jingling up and leaps onto the table where Tommy was working. It brushes up against Tommy and he purrs along with it.
“Tom Tom, you just ate. Your going to get fat if you keep eating like this.”
The cat then scampers off in what almost seemed like anger, shuffling Tommy’s whole stack in the process.
“Awh, sunova….”
He was about to finish when suddenly, something on the table catches his eye. He picks up and the label on the front of it read, nCw. He tears the top and pulls the letter from the envelope. His eyes light up in excitement as he reads the words off the page.
“Somebody go get her…..”
A smile creeps onto his mouth.
“…She’s going to want to see this.”
She sat on a huge crate in a dark part of the hallway. She was hunched over, her arms held in and wrapped over each other, her matted down and twisted hair covered her face but the pain in her eyes was more then obvious. They never look directly into the camera but you could feel the pain they’ve seen. The pain they caused.
“Four little girls stand in the backstage of a local bingo hall.”
Her voice was shaky as she began to speak.
“The Pittsburgh’s Prettiest Little Girl Pageant. A toy and candy shopping spree awarded to the one who won. Dozens of little girls entered to try and win, they would perform in there nice dresses and smile, allowing there cute little dimples to impress the judges. They all tried valiantly for the top spot and after it was all said and done they awarded a first place, a second place, and a third place. Wich brings me back to the four girls in a row. My sisters and I.”
Her fists clench and she starts to rock herself back and forth.
“My sister Diane couldn’t stop staring at the first prize in her hands. My other sister Lisa, she wore the silver medal around her neck with pride, and my other sister Michelle, she showed off her bronze ribbon in her hair to anybody that would walk past and I couldn’t be happier for them. I congratulated my beautiful sisters and complimented them on a job well done. I couldn’t be more proud. We talked about the pageant and what we would do with the prize money and we laughed and laughed.”
Her bottom jaw contorts and her mouth form into something that might look like a twisted grin and she throws her head back and laughs. But as she continues to recall her past her grin disappears and fades into a look of terror.
“But then our mother walked in…”
She stares off into her memory.
“Tall, sleek, pretty and cold. A cigarette in her right hand and the smoke bellowed out of it as if she were holding a smoking gun. Our laughter stopped. Our happy thoughts put on hold and all we could do was stay quiet and stand at attention. She glared at us as he took drag after drag from her cigarette. Then she smiled….yellow and fake….but a smile. We all took a deep breath of relief. “I’m so proud of you” she said to us as she walked down the line like a Drill Sergeant during basic training. “My beautiful little girls….” she said in between puffs of smoke. “You showed this dirty little Podunk town what real beauty is. Today is the first step in the direction that gets us out of here. I knew entering you in this Pageant was the right idea, and you’ve all made me proud.”
Tears begin to gather up in her brown eyes.
“But then she walked down to the end of the line, where I stood. She….cringed…when she looked at me. She took a hit of her cigarette and leaned down in front of me. She exhaled her smoke and blew in it my face. As I choked I could see the evil in her eyes as she spoke her next sentence…..”
She almost didn’t want to finish the sentence. She begins to breathe heavy, her rocking picks up in speed.
“…”…except you!” She said it with such hatred, with such disgust in her voice it stole the air from my lungs and I couldn’t breathe. “You failed! Just like I thought you would. Your not good enough to win this low level beauty contest just like your not good enough to be part of this family. You’ve never been pretty enough to be a part of this family. Your just dead weight, holding your sisters down.” My voice was gone….maybe because the fear held it captive or I just didn’t know what to say. My sisters tried to speak up for me but my mother just told them shut up with a vicious growl. Photographers came in asked my mother if they could get a couple photos of the winner and she told me to wait there while they took pictures. As soon as they left…I cried. I cried for a long time. And once I was done, it was dark outside. My mother….wasn’t coming back for me.”
The Cat Lady reaches up and pulls at the tattered mane on her head.
“She left me alone to rot because I wasn’t pretty! Because I WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH! Do you know what that’s like Joanne? HUH!? DO YOU!? To be a lost little girl with no friends, no life, because you didn’t look like the other girls? YOU HAVE NO IDEA JOANNE! Your some Italian queen of the mafia! Some type of cultural stereotype. You don’t just fit the mold Joanne, they CREATED IT AFTER YOUR F***ING LIKENESS YOU EGOTISTICAL WHORE! First my mother, then nCw. They’ve left me alone to rot in this old house because I wasn’t like the other girls. I’m not pretty like Ayla, or likeable like Zelda. They have no idea what to do with me, so they keep me off the air. I sit here for months on end waiting for a chance and when it finally comes I have to deal with someone like you calling me a scrub? Because your on the internet show? Maybe its because you lost on the other internet show. Well I’m going to tell you something Joanne……NO MORE!”
She pounds the wall with a clubbing fist. Dry wall dust flies everywhere and a hole the size of a fist sits in its place.
“NO MORE! NO MORE! NO MORE! I’m tired of it! I’m tired of being shoved away into a deep dark corner. I’m tired of being told by uppity company owners that I need to change who I am before I’m allowed to compete in there company. I’m sick and *** damn tired of people like you JoAnne. I’m going to show my mother, I’m going to show that stupid owner of ROB, I’m going to show all the people who have ever looked at me funny…..that I can be good. That I can be dangerous.”
Her eyes flint with dementia.
“…and it all starts by showing you JoAnne. You get paid to kick ass? Well I sure as hell hope your job comes with health benefits! He He ha ha ha he he he he ha ha ha ha…..Here Kitty Kitty…..AH HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!
Static.
The male, Tommy The Cat, purr-ennial jobber to the stars, sat in a old wooden chair at a stained up rickety card table. All around him were all the cats, sitting all over the furniture and shelves. They all loom in the shadows and watch Tommy with there deep yellow eyes. With a pair of reading glasses over his wrestling mask, he focuses diligently on balancing the check book and looking over the daily mail.
“Hmmm…..that’s one hundred and fifty for cat food. We spent a good sixty when we went to see The Revenge of Kitty Galore…..”
Tommy trails off and starts licking the back of his hand and then uses it to clean a smudge of the side of his mask. Then goes back to his checkbook.
“What else…ah oh….um….two hundred for my ounce of cat nip….”
He looks over at a black cat to his immediate right.
“Don’t judge me Frank. I’m going to quit after this I swear.”
Suddenly a brown and white cat with a red collar and a bell attached to it comes jingling up and leaps onto the table where Tommy was working. It brushes up against Tommy and he purrs along with it.
“Tom Tom, you just ate. Your going to get fat if you keep eating like this.”
The cat then scampers off in what almost seemed like anger, shuffling Tommy’s whole stack in the process.
“Awh, sunova….”
He was about to finish when suddenly, something on the table catches his eye. He picks up and the label on the front of it read, nCw. He tears the top and pulls the letter from the envelope. His eyes light up in excitement as he reads the words off the page.
“Somebody go get her…..”
A smile creeps onto his mouth.
“…She’s going to want to see this.”
She sat on a huge crate in a dark part of the hallway. She was hunched over, her arms held in and wrapped over each other, her matted down and twisted hair covered her face but the pain in her eyes was more then obvious. They never look directly into the camera but you could feel the pain they’ve seen. The pain they caused.
“Four little girls stand in the backstage of a local bingo hall.”
Her voice was shaky as she began to speak.
“The Pittsburgh’s Prettiest Little Girl Pageant. A toy and candy shopping spree awarded to the one who won. Dozens of little girls entered to try and win, they would perform in there nice dresses and smile, allowing there cute little dimples to impress the judges. They all tried valiantly for the top spot and after it was all said and done they awarded a first place, a second place, and a third place. Wich brings me back to the four girls in a row. My sisters and I.”
Her fists clench and she starts to rock herself back and forth.
“My sister Diane couldn’t stop staring at the first prize in her hands. My other sister Lisa, she wore the silver medal around her neck with pride, and my other sister Michelle, she showed off her bronze ribbon in her hair to anybody that would walk past and I couldn’t be happier for them. I congratulated my beautiful sisters and complimented them on a job well done. I couldn’t be more proud. We talked about the pageant and what we would do with the prize money and we laughed and laughed.”
Her bottom jaw contorts and her mouth form into something that might look like a twisted grin and she throws her head back and laughs. But as she continues to recall her past her grin disappears and fades into a look of terror.
“But then our mother walked in…”
She stares off into her memory.
“Tall, sleek, pretty and cold. A cigarette in her right hand and the smoke bellowed out of it as if she were holding a smoking gun. Our laughter stopped. Our happy thoughts put on hold and all we could do was stay quiet and stand at attention. She glared at us as he took drag after drag from her cigarette. Then she smiled….yellow and fake….but a smile. We all took a deep breath of relief. “I’m so proud of you” she said to us as she walked down the line like a Drill Sergeant during basic training. “My beautiful little girls….” she said in between puffs of smoke. “You showed this dirty little Podunk town what real beauty is. Today is the first step in the direction that gets us out of here. I knew entering you in this Pageant was the right idea, and you’ve all made me proud.”
Tears begin to gather up in her brown eyes.
“But then she walked down to the end of the line, where I stood. She….cringed…when she looked at me. She took a hit of her cigarette and leaned down in front of me. She exhaled her smoke and blew in it my face. As I choked I could see the evil in her eyes as she spoke her next sentence…..”
She almost didn’t want to finish the sentence. She begins to breathe heavy, her rocking picks up in speed.
“…”…except you!” She said it with such hatred, with such disgust in her voice it stole the air from my lungs and I couldn’t breathe. “You failed! Just like I thought you would. Your not good enough to win this low level beauty contest just like your not good enough to be part of this family. You’ve never been pretty enough to be a part of this family. Your just dead weight, holding your sisters down.” My voice was gone….maybe because the fear held it captive or I just didn’t know what to say. My sisters tried to speak up for me but my mother just told them shut up with a vicious growl. Photographers came in asked my mother if they could get a couple photos of the winner and she told me to wait there while they took pictures. As soon as they left…I cried. I cried for a long time. And once I was done, it was dark outside. My mother….wasn’t coming back for me.”
The Cat Lady reaches up and pulls at the tattered mane on her head.
“She left me alone to rot because I wasn’t pretty! Because I WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH! Do you know what that’s like Joanne? HUH!? DO YOU!? To be a lost little girl with no friends, no life, because you didn’t look like the other girls? YOU HAVE NO IDEA JOANNE! Your some Italian queen of the mafia! Some type of cultural stereotype. You don’t just fit the mold Joanne, they CREATED IT AFTER YOUR F***ING LIKENESS YOU EGOTISTICAL WHORE! First my mother, then nCw. They’ve left me alone to rot in this old house because I wasn’t like the other girls. I’m not pretty like Ayla, or likeable like Zelda. They have no idea what to do with me, so they keep me off the air. I sit here for months on end waiting for a chance and when it finally comes I have to deal with someone like you calling me a scrub? Because your on the internet show? Maybe its because you lost on the other internet show. Well I’m going to tell you something Joanne……NO MORE!”
She pounds the wall with a clubbing fist. Dry wall dust flies everywhere and a hole the size of a fist sits in its place.
“NO MORE! NO MORE! NO MORE! I’m tired of it! I’m tired of being shoved away into a deep dark corner. I’m tired of being told by uppity company owners that I need to change who I am before I’m allowed to compete in there company. I’m sick and *** damn tired of people like you JoAnne. I’m going to show my mother, I’m going to show that stupid owner of ROB, I’m going to show all the people who have ever looked at me funny…..that I can be good. That I can be dangerous.”
Her eyes flint with dementia.
“…and it all starts by showing you JoAnne. You get paid to kick ass? Well I sure as hell hope your job comes with health benefits! He He ha ha ha he he he he ha ha ha ha…..Here Kitty Kitty…..AH HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!
Static.