Advanced Fiction Writing Assignment 6

This is my sixth assignment for my Advanced Fiction Writing class. And while no alcohol touched my lips while I wrote this story, I decided to include this meme because I thought it was funny:

(One should only take writing suggestions from Ernest Hemingway if they want to produce works like "Old Man and the Sea," which I hope to God I never do!)

Assignment 6

Author’s Note:  This is the third in my short story assignments, the adventure story. The lesson covering adventure stories stated that there are two basic types of adventure stories, one where the protagonist (main character) goes on an adventure and either purposefully or inadvertently learns some deep-seated truth about him/herself, and the other, where the protagonist goes on an adventure for the sake of an adventure and doesn’t learn anything of any consequence. I chose to write about the latter when the idea of writing about the antics of a mischievous kitten came to mind. The parts where my protagonist (Tennessee the kitten) speaks are only heard by the humans in the story as the various meows, chirps, purrs, etc. that a cat makes and not as human-like dialogue, which provides the genesis for the reason for the adventure. I get the name for the feral cat in my story from T. S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” which was the inspiration for the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical “Cats.” The character of Duke (“Dukey”), the schnauzer, from real life. My old neighbor lady at the first house that I lived in as a child had a really mean, obnoxious schnauzer named Duke, whom everyone just called Dukey, who scared the bejeezus out of me because he would charge the fence separating  his owner’s property from our driveway every time I got out of the car. I hated that dog! So, yes, “Be careful or you’ll end up in my novel,” is a very viable threat from a writer to any being, living or dead.

Grade Received:  A, with a lot of positive comments from my classmates and professors, who thought the story was cute and amusing

Tennessee’s Big Day

A knock came on the bedroom door. The sky was a lovely artists’ palette of pinks, reds, yellows, and oranges dotted with fluffy purplish clouds.

A tall, heavyset woman in her mid-forties with dark hair and eyes opened the door and said gently:

“Kayleigh! Wake up, honey! Time to get ready for school!”

At this, Tennessee, who’d been lying on the bed next to Kayleigh, sprung to life. He walked up to the little girl’s head and began to nuzzle her face.

“Kayleigh! My Kayleigh! Wake up!” he mewed softly.

At the sound of his meows, the seven-year-old girl opened her brown, doe-like eyes.

“Hi Tennessee!” she said sleepily as she scratched his head, which made him purr loudly. She then sat up and leaned over and planted a big kiss on the three-month-old kitten. He continued to purr. I love my Kayleigh, he mused happily.

The little girl then got out of bed and went about her normal school morning routine, with the precocious gray and white kitten with piercing blue eyes following at her heels. She snuck him a small piece of scrambled eggs under the table when her mother wasn’t looking, brushed him softly with her own hairbrush after she brushed her hair out, covered him playfully with her blankets and wrestled with him as she made her bed, and dangled her shoestrings at him before she put her shoes on.

Tennessee absolutely loved the game with the shoestrings, but it made him feel bittersweet. When they played the shoestring game, he knew it was almost time for his Kayleigh to leave the house for the day and go to school. He didn’t understand why she had to go there all of the time—she lived at the big Queen Anne style house with him, so why did she have to go away all the time?

Kayleigh reached down, picked Tennessee up, and hugged him so tightly he couldn’t breathe.

“Oh! Honey! Don’t hug the kitty so tight!” Kayleigh’s mother scolded. “He doesn’t like that!”

“But Tennessee likes the hugs!” insisted the girl. It was true. He didn’t like the hugs. He loved the hugs. He loved his Kayleigh:  she was perfect in every way.

“Don’t argue,” said Kayleigh’s mother gently. “Now, let’s go! We’ll be late!”

The little girl and her mother then walked out of the house and locked the door behind them. Tennessee jumped up on an end table that was in front of one of the living room’s large, wavy-paned windows and watched the pair walk down the street and out of sight. He then leapt down into the chair next to the end table and curled into a ball. He put his head down, but he did not close his eyes. He was watching, listening, and waiting. Soon, but not soon enough, Kayleigh’s mother would come back without her, and Tennessee had a bone to pick with her. He wanted to know where Kayleigh’s school was located so he could go there and spend the whole day with her. He was tired of being bored and alone all day. He’d had enough of Kayleigh-free days.

When Kayleigh’s mother finally got back from taking her daughter to school, Tennessee jumped out of the recliner and ran to meet her at the door.

“Hello Tennessee!” she said playfully. He looked at her imploringly and mewed loudly. “What do you want?”

“Where is Kayleigh’s school?” he demanded loudly.

“Kitty, did Kayleigh forget to give you some breakfast before she left?” she asked as she made her way towards the kitchen to check his food dish.

“No! Where is Kayleigh’s school?” he cried as he ran in front of her to stop her from an unnecessary, time-wasting trip. There was plenty of kitten kibble in his dish because Kayleigh had filled it before she had started to eat her own breakfast. Kayleigh’s mother stepped around him and continued towards the kitchen. He ran after her.

“No!” he said with annoyance. “You are wasting time! Where is Kayleigh’s school?”

When Kayleigh’s mother arrived in the kitchen and saw that Tennessee’s food dish was sufficiently full, she turned and faced him with a puzzled look.

“What do you want, kitty?” she asked him. “Do you want to play?”

She picked up one of his favorite toys, a catnip-filled mouse, and tossed it towards him. He watched it as it landed in front of him. He gave her an irritated look.

“You are impossible!” he cried. “I am going to have to solve this mystery myself!”

Kayleigh’s mother continued to look at Tennessee quizzically.

“Well, kitty, I don’t know what you want then. I have to go to work now, so I can’t help you with whatever you want.”

She then walked further into the kitchen and poured some coffee into a travel mug. She then went into her bedroom, retrieved her purse and shoes, and walked out the back door, locking it behind her. Tennessee heard the familiar sound of a starting car engine and then watched Kayleigh’s mother back the family sedan out of the driveway. He began to meditatively lick his front paw and wash his face while he tried to think of some way to get to Kayleigh.

Suddenly, inspiration hit him. I’ll try that loose back screen by the back door, he thought.

He walked up to the window with the loose screen and leapt up onto the window sill. Thankfully, the window had been left open slightly to let in the fresh spring breeze that had been sweeping through the city for the past week.

He stuck his head under the open window frame and used his nose to nudge the screen. Perfect!, he thought as the screen gave way slightly.

He pushed harder. The screen clattered loudly to the ground below. Startled, he jumped out of the window and back into the kitchen.

When he calmed down a bit, he realized what he had done. Freedom!, he thought excitedly. Now I can go see my Kayleigh!

He hopped back up onto the window sill and looked down at the ground beneath the window. Seeing that the distance to the alley below was not insurmountable, he took a deep breath, paused for a moment, steadied himself, then jumped.

He hit the ground with a soft thud. Slightly rattled, he shook himself off a bit, then began to sniff the air. He looked around the alley in order to determine what direction he should start off in when a noise behind him caught his attention. He turned around to face the source of the sound.

Two pairs of black beady eyes stared at him in a hungry, menacing way from two incredibly large, greasy brown bodies. Tennessee had heard of these things—rats—but he never knew they were so large. These aren’t rats, he thought, these are Ratzillas!

“Well, lookee here, lookee here, now what do we have, Vince?” said the larger of the two rats with smug amusement.

“Looks like we’ve got ourselves a kitten, Mike!” said the other rat with a malicious twinkle in his eyes. “And you know how I love kittens! So tasty!”

At this, Tennessee arched his back, fluffed up his long fur, and hissed as loudly as he could.

“Aww! What’s the matter, poor baby? You scared?” snickered Mike dismissively. “Let’s get him, Vince!”

The rats began to run rapidly towards Tennessee. He panicked and began to run down the creepy, dirty alley away from them.

Suddenly, the rat called Vince ran behind a precariously-full dumpster and cut Tennessee off. Tennessee, not knowing what else to do at the moment, leapt straight into the dumpster and knocked some of its contents to the ground with a loud clang and clatter. The rats were nonplussed and began to jump on some boxes that were stacked along one side of the dumpster.

“Get him, Mike!” cried Vince.

Tennessee, sensing he was trapped, began to look for a way out of the dumpster. He ran to a dark back corner and began to dig furiously into the garbage, trying to make a hiding spot for himself, when he was met by another set of bloodthirsty black eyes.

“Well, well, well, looks like dinner came to me today!” sneered yet another large, aggressive rat.

“Hands off, Joe! He’s ours!” hissed Mike and Vince, who were now looking into the open dumpster.

“Not if I get him first!” snapped Joe in response as he began to back Tennessee further into the dark corner. A sonorous rumble and squealing of heavily-used automotive brakes interrupted the precarious tête-à-tête.

“Run! Truck!” squeaked all of the rats in unison as they scampered frantically out of the dumpster.

Tennessee, not understanding what “Truck!” meant, burrowed into the dumpster’s fetid contents. Suddenly, there was a loud crash that shook the container violently. Tennessee dug down even more deeply into the trash as he felt the dumpster being lifted into the air.

The contents of the container then began to slide out of the opening at the top of the dumpster and into the bed of a large municipal trash compacting truck. Tennessee held onto the inside of the container as long as he could, but its contents were slimy and slippery, and he soon began to fall towards the truck’s open bed.

Sensing that falling into the trash truck would mean certain doom, he twisted and writhed until he landed on all fours on the outside lip of the truck’s bed. He then quickly launched himself towards the relative safety of the ground below.

When he hit the ground, he began to run as fast as he could towards what he guessed was the direction of Kayleigh’s school. He soon came upon a large road full of noon-hour traffic and began to run across it.

Several large cars and trucks swerved to avoid him and honked their horns in annoyance. Tennessee kept running. As he reached the corner of the block, a lumbering yellow taxi came barreling towards him. Tennessee froze in fear as the cab made no effort to slow its pace towards him.

A woman who had been walking her dog on the sidewalk nearest to the taxi began to yell and gesticulate wildly about the kitten in the road at the vehicle’s driver like he could’ve heard her above the din of the traffic. She finally picked up a decent-sized rock from the sidewalk and hurled it at the cab.

The rock hit its mark impressively and cracked the taxi’s windshield. The cabbie brought the cab to a screeching half in the middle of the street, got out of the car, and proceeded to start screaming obscenities at Tennessee’s savior. Tennessee ran towards her to thank her.

As he approached the kind-hearted woman, he noticed that the dog she had been walking, a small silver schnauzer, was growing increasingly agitated as the woman and the cabbie argued furiously. The dog was snapping aggressively at the cabbie and pulling wildly at his leash. But then the dog saw Tennessee.

“Cat! I hate cats!” he barked angrily. “I’m gonna get you cat!”

At that, he gave his lead one last violent tug and broke it. He then began to run feverishly after Tennessee, who had rapidly proceeded towards the opposite side of the street when the schnauzer broke his leash.

“Duke! Dukey! No! Bad dog!” yelled the woman as she began to chase after the mean little canine.

Tennessee ran for his life. He knew that the creepy little dog was serious about getting him and hurting him, so he frantically looked for a place to hide.

He rounded another corner and spotted a dark alley to his right. He quickly darted down it and took refuge behind a large metal trash can.

Dukey turned down the alley and began to frantically sniff around.

“Cat! Where are you? I’m gonna get you!” he barked in frustration.

A large clang came from further down the alley as another trash can fell noisily to the ground. A lanky ginger tabby stood face to face with the schnauzer.

“Hey dog! What in the hell are you doing in my alley?” he hissed angrily.

“I’ll get you, too, orange cat!” the dog growled as he charged towards the tabby.

“Do your best!” spat the feral cat as he leapt towards the dog.

The two made direct contact and began to violently tussle and roll around. The fight was bitter, noisy, and bloody. There were some growls, a deep hiss, and then a sharp yelp as the tabby sank his teeth and claws deep into the dog’s fleshy nose. The schnauzer broke free and quickly ran back out to the street, his stumpy docked tail tucked between his legs. The tabby sat down, shook himself off, and began to lick his front paw nonchalantly.

Tennessee came out from his hiding spot.

“Hey, thanks, man!” he said with grateful relief.

The tabby looked up at him skeptically.

“The name’s Macavity, kid.”

“Well, thanks, Macavity! You really did a number on that dog and I just wanted to say thanks for—”

At this, Macavity cut him off.

“I didn’t do it for you, kid. I did it because I hate dogs in my alley! Now scram!”

“But don’t you want to be friends?”

“No! Now get out of my alley, you little snot-nosed punk!” spat Macavity with a viscous gleam in his eyes as he charged Tennessee.

Tennessee ran out of the alley as fast as his legs could carry him. He did not want to fight with Macavity after witnessing the can of economy-sized can of whoop-ass he opened up on the dog.

After several block, he began to grow winded. He turned around to see if Macavity was still following him. Since the coast was clear, he sat and rested for a moment.

A noise soon made his ears perk up. That’s the sound of children playing, he thought excitedly. He quickly looked around to ascertain the direction the noise was coming from. When he saw the bustling school playground, Tennessee quickly began to make his way towards it.

As he approached the playground, he began to look for Kayleigh.

“Kayleigh! Kayleigh!” he cried out as he looked for the little girl. However, given the number of children on the playground and their boisterousness, he soon abandoned this tactic.

“How am I going to find my Kayleigh?” he wondered as he looked around.

“I know, I’ll climb up high,” he said to himself as he spotted a large oak tree in the center of the playground.

He made his way expertly up the tree and stopped about halfway up the tree’s trunk. He deftly made his way out to one of the sturdier branches. Now I’ll be able to find my Kayleigh, he thought. He looked around and spotted her playing on a nearby swing set.

“Kayleigh! Kayleigh!” he cried as he tried to get the little girl’s attention. Unfortunately, she was busy laughing and playing with two other little girls and didn’t hear him.

Suddenly, a noise from the base of the tree caught his attention. It was two little boys about Kayleigh’s age and they were staring at him. Tennessee fell silent for a moment.

“What is it, Micah?” said one of the little boys to the other.

“I think it’s a kitten,” said the other.

“Hey! Go get Kayleigh!” Tennessee mewed at them.

“What should we do?”

“I don’t know. I think he’s stuck. Let’s go get Mrs. MacMillen. She’ll know what to do.”

The little boys ran off in the direction of the nearest adult. Tennessee was annoyed. He wanted Kayleigh, not this Mrs. MacMillen lady, whoever she was.

The boys quickly reappeared with their teacher. She adjusted her glasses and looked up into the tree.

“I think he’s stuck, too, boys. I’ll call the fire department to get him down.”

She then quickly rounded up all of the children and herded them inside the school building. At this, Tennessee became extremely frustrated.

“This is hopeless!” he thought. “I’m going inside, too!”

He then proceeded to walk along the length of the branch he had perched on in the direction of the tree’s trunk. That’s when he looked down. His heart and mind filled with panic.

“They’re right! I’m too high up! I’m stuck!” he cried aloud to himself.

“Help!” he began to bellow at the empty playground. “Help!”

After what seemed to be an interminable period of time, a big red truck pulled up next to the playground and two large men in fire department uniforms got out and began to unload a ladder. They then proceeded to walk towards the tree.

“Damn, Ted! This one’s at least ten feet up!” said one of the men to the other as he spotted the kitten. He then began to steady the ladder against the base of the tree. “Gimmie the gloves.”

Ted handed his partner some thick gloves and held onto the ladder as the man gingerly made his way up into the branches.

“Here, kitty kitty!” he called out gently as he began to slowly reach Tennessee’s level. Tennessee sat frozen in fear.

Suddenly, the large gloved hands latched onto him. He screamed and peed in abject terror.

“Sick! He just pissed all over me!” cried the firefighter to his partner.

“Did you get him, though?” said Ted.

“Yeah, I got him, but I’m gonna need a shower when we get back to the station!”

The firefighter made his way down the ladder with Tennessee, who was shaking in terror. The teacher and her students had gathered nearby to watch the rescue and applauded when the man reached the ground with the kitten in his hands.

“You got a radio into Animal Control?” the firefighter asked Ted as he began to walk back to the fire truck. Tennessee looked around again and spotted Kayleigh. He tried to wriggle free of the strong man with the large gloved hands, but the man’s grasp was too firm, so Tennessee sank his teeth into the exposed part of the firefighter’s arm to make his escape.

The firefighter swore and dropped Tennessee, who bolted towards the group of children.

“Kayleigh! Kayleigh!” he cried happily.

The little girl recognized his tiny mews.

“Tennessee!” she cried as she scooped him up. He purred loudly when he was finally in her arms.

“Honey, is this your kitty?” the firefighter asked Kayleigh with mild annoyance.

“Yes! His name is Tennessee!” she began excitedly. Mrs. MacMillen gently cut her off.

“Kayleigh, we’ll call your mommy to come pick Tennessee up and take him home, O. K.?”

“O. K.!” the little girl agreed. “He’s really stinky, too!”

“Yes, he probably needs a bath,” said Mrs. MacMillen as she led the little girl and her kitten back to the school building after thanking the firefighters.

Tennessee was relieved to be with his Kayleigh and was happy to be going back home again, but he couldn’t help but wonder what the word “bath” meant.