A Kat's (GOD AWFUL!!!) Blessing (5)

“A cat god?” Maria asked.

Kat nodded.

Maria had brought Charles Bark-ly into the house so that Kat could safely climb down the tree. The two of them then walked away from the house so that nobody could see her new calico-colored features.

With the two of them alone, Kat explained what had happened to her. From the wild dogs that exploded into confetti when she kicked them, to the small kitten she saved transforming into a talking cat wearing gold jewelry, and ultimately her being changed into a giant calico cat.

“Fascinating,” Maria said, walking around Kat to study her features. She got a close look at Kat’s face, causing Kat to blush from embarrassment. She then held onto Kat’s hands, pressing her fingers into the paw-like pads.

When Maria yanked Kat’s tail, she jumped from the pain it caused.

“H-hey! Don’t do that!” she yelled, grabbing her tail with her arms.

“I’m sorry,” Maria apologized. “To think such a god exists and was in our neck of the woods.” She giggled, “and that of all people to be blessed with its gift, it was you.”

“Yeah, yeah. How ironic. It’s more of a curse than a blessing, though! It sucks! I hate it!” pouted Kat.

Maria refrained from correcting Kat’s misuse of the word “ironic”. “Oh, I don’t think it’s so bad. I think you look super cute as a cat. Plus your fur is so soft. I’m kind of jealous.”

As Maria talked, she began stroking the top of Kat’s back, who instinctively relaxed and squinted with joy from the back scritches. She was surprised by how enjoyable they were. Soon after, Maria was scratching under Kat’s chin, and then her ears. It wasn’t long before Kat was lying on her back as she swatted a piece of grass Maria plucked out of the ground, making cute meowing noises and purrs.

“Ah!” Kat’s eyes widened when she realized Maria was playing with her like a common house cat. “Knock it off!” she hissed.

“I’m sorry. It just looked like you were enjoying yourself.”

“I was not!”

Maria held the piece of grass to the ground, where Kat started swatting it with a smile.

Realizing she once again let her cat instincts get to her, she grabbed the grass and tore it up, throwing the pieces into the air. “Aaargh!” she whined, stomping her feet as she pulled her hair in frustration. “This sucks! Being a cat sucks! I hate it! I want to go back to being a regular human!”

Kat grabbed Maria’s hand and looked up at her. “Please, Maria! I need your help!”

Maria could not withstand the power of Kat’s adorable feline face combined with her puppy-dog-like eyes. Not that she had any plan to refuse. “I’ll help you,” she said, stroking Kat’s hair.

Once again, Kat lost herself to Maria’s pats. She then swatted Maria’s hand away.

“Sorry,” Maria sincerely apologized. “Reflex that time.”

***

After Maria quickly informed her parents that she was going out to help Kat find her phone that she “accidentally dropped” in the darkness, the two of them made their way to where Kat had her run-in with the cat god.

“This was the place, huh?” Maria said.

“Mhm,” Kat answered.

Maria shone her flashlight onto the ground around the area, looking for any sort of clues. “I don’t see any of that confetti you talked about.”

“I didn’t make it up,” Kat pouted.

“You could tell me you saw a giant UFO right now and I’d believe you. Kinda hard to doubt you considering you’re walking evidence that something happened. So, where did you say it ran off to?”

Kat pointed down the road. “That way.”

“Have you tried looking for it?” Maria asked.

“Nnh nnh,” she answered with a shake of her head. “By the time I thought to chase it, it was long gone.”

“I see. How about we walk down the road to see if maybe we can find something?”

“Alright.”

The two walked side by side as Maria shone her flashlight back and forth between the brush on one side of the dirt road and the cornfield on the other. They kept mostly silent as Kat continued to think about her condition, while Maria focused intently on trying to find anything that could help give a lead. A few times Maria would lag behind for a moment to inspect something, only for Kat to absentmindedly keep walking forward. When Kat noticed, she’d quickly look around to find Maria, then go back to her as not to be alone.

When a truck drove by, Kat hid in the brush again while Maria would stay on the road. The driver asked Maria if anything was wrong, only for Maria to reply that things were fine and that she was just on an evening walk to get fresh air. After being warned about the wild dogs spotted in the area recently, the truck drove off.

“I’m sorry for dragging you out here so late,” Kat said as she climbed out from the brush, picking off stray leaves and twigs from her fur.

“Don’t apologize,” Maria responded, plucking out a leaf from the top of Kat’s head. “I’m out here because I want to help you.”

It wasn’t long after that they reached Mainstreet, where Kat’s mom’s shop was.

“We made it all the way into town,” Maria said. “And still not a clue in sight.”

As Maria began to walk into town to continue her search, Kat grabbed the back of her pajama shirt.

“Um… Is it okay if we stop here?” Kat asked.

“Hm?”

“It’s just, well, there’s a lot of windows here and chances for people to see me, and, um… Yeah,” she explained, averting her eyes from Maria.

“I understand. How about we head back the way we came? Maybe we missed something while—”

Kat’s phone vibrated in her pocket, causing her to jump in surprise. When she pulled it out, she saw a text notification from her mom, telling her it’s getting late.

“Your mom?” Maria asked.

Kat nodded. “Looks like she’s telling me to come home.”

“Are you?”

“Course not!” Kat yelled, covering her mouth with her hands after realizing how loud she was. There was a high chance that her mom could’ve heard her just now if she happened to be outside the shop. “I can’t go home looking like this!”

“Why not?” Maria asked.

“Because! She told me specifically not to fight any wild dogs, and I did! And now look at me!”

“Maybe you should’ve heeded your mom’s warning.”

Kat slumped her shoulders. “Yeah. I know. Though I don’t think she expected an outcome like this to happen. Could you text my mom and lie for me?”

Maria crossed her arms and squinted her eyes. “Nnnngh. I don’t feel comfortable lying to your mom.”

“Please, I’m begging you!”

“If you want to lie to your family, do it yourself. You know how I don’t like it when my siblings lie to me.”

“I can’t!” Kat said.

“Why not?”

“I can’t unlock my phone.”

Maria was silent for a moment before raising an eyebrow. “Huh?”

“My finger scanner can’t recognize these… whatever they are!” she said, pointing to the pads on the bottom of her fingers. “And I forgot my passcode because I barely ever used it! I only have three more tries before my phone locks up.”

Maria hung her head back in frustration as she sighed.

“Tell her anything! I don’t care!” Kat said.

“Anything?”

“Anything except for the whole cat situation.”

After internally debating with herself, as this went against her code of ethics, Maria sighed. “Okay. Fine,” she said, handing Kat the flashlight. “You lead the way while I come up with something.”

“You’re the best!” Kat cheered as she was ready to hug Maria.

“Also,” Maria said.

Kat’s arms stopped just short of wrapping around Maria. “Also?”

Maria held up three fingers. “Give me thirty seconds to scratch the back of your ears.”

Kat squinted in annoyance by Maria’s demand. Some friend she is, she thought. Despite her reluctance, she couldn’t deny that she immensely enjoyed those thirty seconds of scratches.

Once Maria was finished with her fun, Kat led the way back to where she had first encountered the cat god. As she did, Maria held her phone up as she thought about what excuse to give.

“So what did you wind up telling my mom?” she asked.

“I told her you had a bad case of diarrhea from eating one of the entire cakes you brought over to my house and then passed out while sitting on the toilet.”

“YOU WROTE WHAT?!” Kat yelled. She then struggled with Maria to steal her phone away. “Gimme your phone! I’m calling my mom and telling her you lied!”

Maria laughed while she held the phone up so Kat couldn’t reach it. “But you wanted me to lie to her.”

“Not some disgusting story like that! I meant something like ‘I decided to stay at your place for the night!’”

“Relax! Relax! I didn’t tell her that,” Maria admitted after she had her fill of fun messing with Kat. “All I said was that I had asked you to stay over for the night and that you had accidentally dropped your phone in the sink while the water was running and short-circuited your phone.”

Kat calmed down but kept her frown. “That’s better, but you still didn’t have to add the part about me breaking my phone. Now she’s gonna get mad later about that.”

“How else was I supposed to explain why I was the one who texted her, while also giving her a reason not to try and call your phone for the foreseeable future?”

“...Okay. Fine,” Kat replied. She kept silent as Maria followed behind.

“How long do you plan to hide this from your mom?” Maria asked.

Kat was hesitant to answer. “I dunno. I’m hoping that we can fix this as soon as possible so she won’t ever have to find out.”

“I see.”

The two fell silent.

“It’s just…” Kat spoke up, trying to find the words.

Maria kept silent as she allowed Kat to speak.

“My mom is working hard all the time. Y’know? I don’t want her feeling like she has to worry about me on top of everything else… If those dogs were real, I probably would’ve been seriously hurt. Or worse. I just felt so bad for that tiny kitten getting mauled. I wanted to help it. But now… Well, look at me. I’m a cat. ‘Blessed’ by a cat god. She doesn’t deserve the added stress from my idiotic decisions.”

Maria hugged Kat from behind, resting her head atop Kat’s. “You may make dumb and rash decisions, but your heart is always in the right place. Your mom knows that better than anyone else in the world. Trust me.”

Since her transformation earlier that evening, a sense of worry and fear had filled the back of her mind. Fear of what others would think of her now. Fear of worrying her mother. Fear of rejection and hatred.

But at that moment, when Maria wrapped her arms around her, it vanished. She was overflowing with the feeling of warmth and love. Tears filled the corner of her eyes as she grew emotional. Her nose sniffled as she wiped the tears away.

They kept like that, listening to the sound of the chirping bugs and the rustling brush and trees in the summer night’s breeze.

When Kat found it in herself to keep going, she made an effort to move, but found herself pinned in place.

“Uh… Maria? You can stop hugging me, now. I’m fine.”

“Alright.”

She didn’t let go.

“Maria!”

“But you’re so soft…”