That Dam Black Cat

  ' 'Scott... what have you just done?'' cried his mother. The knife was still in his shakened hand.The kill  was an old man, who claimed to be Scott's father.What it all boils down to, is a father wouldn't creep calmly into your bedroom when the house was hushed. While the shadows sneaked past the curtains to shame you.

, . Scott was an only child. His Mum couldn't have anymore children.She did become pregnant at one time. Scott would have been about nine, but it wasn't mean't to be. A few months into the pregnancy she awoke screaming to her husband Tom,'' help I'm bleeding'' as she laid there unrobed on the blood soaked bed clutching her rounded belly.

. They moved soon after that night. They  moved to the country into a ramshackle farm house. Pot plants hanging off rusted steel hooks swayed back and forth against the wind. A rocking chair rocked, a sleeping black cat. When Scott saw that black cat, he just new dred would be stalking him like a lion to an antelope. The paint was peeling off the gate that creaked on entering the narrow pathway.

  Scott eyed his mother with despair; she had the same look she always had since the black night she bled all the way to the hospital in the ambulance after she expelled his baby brother.


  ''Mum which is my room,  can I choose?'' he asked, tugging on the end of her cardigan.
  She didn't respond straight away. She was gazing out the  stained window at what their future crops will look like. The corn crop was withered from the recent drought, the sheep and cattle  were in need of a good feedm water as well. She looked down at Scott in a turn of her head and spoke softly with a slight quiver of her lip.
'' Scott you can have the room you first come to, but not the room next door. That is the spare room... your father has asked that this room be kept locked. He is the only one with a key.''

' 'Why Mum?''

' 'He requested that room to be locked... that is all I know!.''

  Father made his entrance known. A bag in each of his scrawny hands and announced gruffly, 'come on woman, move that squishy backside of yours and take these bags off my hands up to the upstairs bedroom. If that's not too hard woman.'

  Scott thought his Mum didn't have a squishy backside. It was rounded, not squishy- so he told his Father That is and when the day of shame ocurred..

  Scott went to bed that night, not at his usual bed time. It was 7PM,he had bread crumbs from the kitchen table in his blue jacket pocket; his only meal. A mouse scuttled along the floor, it stopped to make sharp clawing noises at the wooden floor. Scott wished he could be that mouse- not a care in the world except a pounce of a cat. Perhaps that black cat might be his down fall or a mouse trap set in a dark corner At least it had a morsel of a chance to escape- unlike Scott who was tied to his bed- unknown to his mother. She didn't get to know much that was going on his bedroom or the adjoining room that was locked. The locked room had a hole drilled into the wall, so his father could watch him get undressed- unknown to his mother who slept while his father crept across the hall into the locked room. Sometimes, after peeping in on Scott he would enter Scott's room and put his scrawny hands over Scott's  young body, Scott would go limp. He couldn't tell his Mother- the stress would kill her! Her heart pounded, panic attacks took over her black world since his baby brother 


Scott with every tooth in his small mouth gnawed at the rope that entwined his wrists. It was hard bending over and twisting and turning to gnaw on the length of rope that imprisoned him. He heard a noise at the enclosed darkened door, it was a meiow. A cat- it must be that dam black cat- it must be sniffing out the mouse and hearing the clawing sound it makes. Scott knew the black cat wouldn't be of any help. He was black and Scott already had enough bad luck clouding him. He knew from the first time he saw the black cat on the rocking chair that once the black cat passed across his path that the dark side would cross his path. He heard another sound; it was a sound he'd never heard before. A noise coming from the wall- he couldn't see anything- it was dark- shadows cascading along the wall and he felt drained as he was still tied to the bed. All that gnawing was a waist of time because after all his efforts were failed, his Father was standing over him in the darkness.

Scott didn't remember the first time he thought his Father had turned to the dark side. He just remembered the still calm days until recently now and before the move to the farm. The next morning was like nothing wayward had happened. He layed in his bed under duress out of his entwinement. He had... had few nightmares in his short life, but this nightmare was still there even as he awoke. He sobbed quietly under his stained sheets as not to draw attention to his mother. His body was tarnished... so he decided to get up to make his way to the bathroom. He crept out to the hallway; before facing his Father holding that dam black cat!

His father Tom whispered in his ear -breathing heavily. ''You better keep quiet about last night or the same dilemma that happened to your  brother could happen to you.''

Scott tried to speak but was struck speechless. That dam black cat glared at him with peering green eyes before swiping his claw out at Scotts pale face before disappearing down the end of the hall.

''Let that be a warning to you boy'', his father hissed,' before entering the locked room again.

Scott looked in on his mum-the door was ajar. Kate still had the same look- a blank stare.'' I'll look after you Mum,'' he said as he hugged her.

''Thanks son, you're a good boy. But there's nothing you can do-we're stuck here at the farm under your Father's roof... under his control,''

Scott went to the bathroom and after he cleaned himself up he stepped outside to explore the farm without prying eyes. He came across the barn and sat down for a spell on a hay bail. His thoughts turned to what he could do to help his mother and himself in the process. He decided to hatch a plan,.but the plan he was plotting was way too evil, even out of character for him. He thought some more about the plot he was planning and he got up and went inside into the kitchen. Enough was enough; he wasn't going to endure another night like last night.  His mother wasn't going to have that grave stare on her face ever again.

Scott and his Mother decided to head up to the local church. Golng to church some how soothed his Mother after her loss. They used to go when they lived at the old house. His father didn't used to go with them; he said it was a waste of time. Scott dressed up in his new clothes His mother had new shoes on and off they went on the two kilometer drive.

After the drive back his father was waiting at the entrance to his bedroom.'' Where have you been boy I've been waiting ever so patiently?''

Scott pushed past him into his bedroom. His heart pounded against his chest. He looked under his bed for the knife he had grabbed from the kitchen. He heard his father behind him holding that dam cat again. So he ran past him to the outside barn. His mother had just put the car away. His father entered the barn! Scott put his finger to his lips to hush his mother. Scott stepped out of the shadows and with one lunge- he plunged the blade deep into his fathers back...