Nora’s Babies

 

Nora’s Babies

Nora stood on her weathered porch, calling for her babies. All twenty four of them. Or was it twenty five? None the less, they were all her babies, and it was time to eat. In another hour it would be twilight, and that’s when the coyotes come out. She had lost several of her babies to those damn coyotes. But soon a stray would come along, and add to her family.

“Here, puss puss puss puss,” Nora called, “here, puss puss puss puss.” An entourage of cats came running up the stoop, past Nora, and into the old farmhouse. She tried to count them all as they ran past, but couldn’t. After the last cat ran by her, she turned and shut the door.

 

The kitchen was probably the only room that had some floor space. Nora collected everything from old clothes to newspapers, and stacked all her belongings throughout her house. Most of the house was a maze, but somehow Nora believed she knew where everything was. She counted the cats. Twenty two, twenty three, twenty four. Yep, they were all here. No, there’s twenty five now. Where did that last one go to. She scanned the group of cats for Sebastian. He was always the one to be late for dinner, so it had to be him. He was probably still going after some poor dumb animal. That fat cat actually killed a gopher once and brought it home. He was always going after the big ones.

Nora fed the cats, then opened the outside door. “Sebassssstian! Here, puss puss puss puss…” she called.

Sebastian came running around the corner of the house and flew threw the door. Nope, no dead animals in his mouth this time. Nora closed the door.

…………………………………………………………………….

Billy and Sam watched the cat lady from the woods as she called her cats into the house.

“See,” said Billy, “I told you she was a freak. She must have bought that dress at Old Maid’s Incorporated. There must be fifty cats living in that house. I betcha it stinks in there! Better hold your nose once we get inside.”

“Gee Billy, I don’t know if I want to do this,” replied Sam, not giving eye contact.

“Come on Sam. She’s all alone on top of this hill. And from what I heard, she’s a major nut job. She used to work up at the hospital, before she retired. And I heard some stories about her.”

“Yeah I know. Nutty Nurse Nora. But she was never prosecuted for anything.”

“That doesn’t mean she never did anything. My mom said she killed someone. And then the hospital made her retire.”

“Your mom’s a big gossip. All she does is talk about people at her hair salon.”

Billy slapped Sam on the side of his head. “Don’t talk about my mom!”

…………………………………………………….

Nora sat in her kitchen, sipping a cup of tea and reading the newspaper. She didn’t notice the dead fly fall off the No Pest Strip hanging from the ceiling, and into her cup. She slowly sipped as the fly flowed into her mouth. She didn’t notice the lump in her mouth, and she swallowed.

She heard a thump from the cellar. Probably one of the cats knocked over a box. She went to the open cellar door.

“Here, puss puss puss puss.”

Nothing. No, not nothing. She felt something was down there. She didn’t hear anything, just a feeling.

“Here, puss puss puss puss.”

Sebastian ran up the stairs, and started rubbing against her orthopedic shoes.

“Ah Sebastian, You naughty boy! Always getting into trouble. Did you find any mice down there?” She picked Sebastian up and rubbed her face on his. He gave her a slight bite on the nose. She dropped Sebastian, and he ran around the corner.

“Ow Sebastian, that hurt. If I didn’t know how playful you were, I would have thought you did that on purpose.”

……………………………………………………

Billy and Sam watched in the dark of the cellar. She was still in the kitchen. But Billy staked out the house before, and knew Nora would go to bed shortly. Then the kitchen light went out.

“Billy,” whispered Sam, “There’s nothing but junk in here. And the place smells like cat piss and…something else. Let’s just get out of here.”

“Are you kidding?” answered Billy, “There must be a gold mine in here. She keeps everything. And her mother owned the house before her. Can you imagine how much shit we can find after two generations of hoarders?”

“Okay, but I’m taking off the first sign of trouble. We take what we can quickly, and get the Hell out!”

Billy turned on his flashlight, and started first. They could see the junk was piled to the ceiling.

“Fuck Billy, we can’t go through all this! Besides, most of it is just old furniture.”

“Okay we’ll try upstairs.” Billy pointed his flashlight and started toward the cellar stairs.

“Don’t you think we should shut this window,” said Sam as he walked in the dark to it.

“No. We may need to get out quickly. Leave it alone.”

“Shit, that hurt!” yelled Sam, as he put his hand to his mouth.

“Shut up, asshole!” whispered Billy as he swung his flashlight around to Sam. Sam had cut himself, but not to bad. Just enough to bleed.

“Point your flashlight over here,” said Sam. The light shown an old hospital bed, slightly askew because of the junk it was lying on. A large piece of plastic had broken away, leaving a large sharp piece sticking out.

“I told you to bring a flashlight.”

“I did! I dropped it when I climbed through the window.”

“Well, we can’t look for it now. Stay close to me so you won’t hurt yourself again,” whispered Billy.

They ascended the stairs slowly, stopping when a step creaked. Sam made sure not to step where Billy’s stance made noise. They entered the kitchen. There were old tuna fish and cat food cans lying in corners, covered in shedded cat hair. Mostly there were unwashed pots, pans, and dishes cluttering the counters and table. All the chairs, but one, had boxes piled on them. Billy checked the boxes and found only old utensils and kitchen gadgets. They decided to try the living room.

The room was filled with newspapers. They found their way around to an area with a rocking chair and television. Sam felt something sandy and wet on his hand. He let out a slight scream, and saw it was a cat. A cat that had been licking the blood from his cut.

“Shut up asshole,” whispered Billy, “do you want to wake her?”

“Billy, there are cats all over.”

Billy slowly scanned the tops of the newspapers, and the nooks and crannies in between. Sam was right. There were cats watching them all over. Their red eyes reflecting with the light of the flashlight.

“They’re not going to hurt you,” answered Billy, “Let’s go upstairs. She must have some money or something up there.”

“She’s up there!”

“Yeah, do you hear her snoring? Nurse Nora the snora. She won’t hear a thing if we don’t bang into anything.”

There was a night light in the upstairs hall, so Billy shut off his light. They walked past the clutter on the sides toward the room with the snores. Billy looked in the room, and could make out the silhouette of Nora’s large derrière under the covers. Billy turned back on his light and flashed it into the room. There was a lamp sitting on a nightstand by the bed. No, not a nightstand. A safe. And it was open. Billy could see money, many bills.

“I’m not going in there,” said Sam.

“Don’t worry. If she wakes, I’ve got this.” Billy shown his light on a switchblade, and the blade popped out.”

“Oh no, Billy. No way. I can’t be a part of that!” Sam said, raising his voice.

The lamp turned on in the room.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE!” screamed Nora.

Billy jumped. A strange smile started to spread across his face. An insane smile. He quickly ran toward Nora.

A cat ran from beneath the bed and into Billy’s legs. He fell forward, and tried to catch himself by putting his hands out. The knife stuck straight up and rammed his right eye and into his brain. His body convulsed as the flashlight spun round and round on the floor, giving off eerie shadows on the walls.

Sam turned and ran down the hall and tripped over a cat that had just made his bed at the top of the stairs. He tumbled down in the dark, and broke his neck. Another cat came and rubbed itself against Sam’s face, and across his still staring eyes.

……………………………………………………

Nora got out of bed and checked the pulse of the young man on the floor. No pulse. She would have to call the police. She hated doing that. Having strangers prancing around in her house. She walked out into the hall and down the stairs. She saw the other young man lying at the bottom. She limberly walked over his body. She had gotten very good at that. She hardly ever fell, except for that time back in 74′ when she sprained her ankle. But she knew where everything was now. Her own little world.

She checked the young man’s pulse. Again none. And his eyes were staring at her. Accusing her. But she didn’t do anything wrong. She remembered back at the hospital. Another young man. Same staring accusing eyes. Not her fault.

Suddenly she thought of something. How did they get in? Could her babies get out? What if one of them already did? The coyotes might get them. Tear them up and eat them. She couldn’t let that happen again to one of her babies. Since the young man tried to go downstairs, she decided to check any access out on the first floor. She found none. They must have come in through the cellar window.

She turned on the cellar light. Sebastian startled her when he started to rub against her legs. She picked him up and and petted him. And then she had an awful idea. Sebastian loved to eat larger animals. What if she were to feed the young men to the cats? Then she wouldn’t have to call the police and she wouldn’t have to let anyone in. She set Sebastian down, and descended the stairs.

Sure enough, the cellar window was open. Not broken, which was good. She would shut the window, and then call out the back stoop for any of her babies that might have gotten out.

………………………………………………………………..

Two weeks had passed. Sebastian had enough to eat for the day. The other cat’s chewed on the rotting flesh of the young man in the bedroom. The eating wasn’t very good anymore. Sebastian walked down the stairs to the other body. He had been the first to eat the eyes, leaving deep dark sockets. But again, the flesh was pretty much gone and most of the inner organs as well. Sebastian went to the kitchen and sat at the slightly open cellar door. And guarded it. He knew he couldn’t keep all the others away forever, but just for a while.

Sebastian had seen the woman close the window down in the cellar. And then she turned and tripped on a flashlight. The sharp corner of the bed had gone directly through her heart. Sebastian stood and guarded his private stash, for as long as he could.

Written September 6, 2010