“Heidi, wake up!!!” Ms. Glinda yells in her scratchy voice. Her morning call is not something unusual; I hear it daily. However, today is different; stepmother is louder. As I start to walk to the bathroom, the house feels different, bigger in fact. Realizing something, I look down at my feet and see four orange paws. I rush over to the mirror, and I topple to the ground as I get used to my new feet. Instead of my freckled face and orange hair, I discover a cat with orange fur and white whiskers. I gasp aghast: I have turned into a cat! Will anyone recognize me?!
I swagger into stepsister’s room, but she stares with disgust. Her eyebrow scrunches and she screams, terrorized, “Mother, get the cat out!”
Glinda picks me up and throws me outside. I fall and the world falls into a dark silence.
I wake up to the sound of two arguing voices. “Milo, I told you that you shouldn’t eat that many mice!”
“Hello?” I call.
“Oh, Heidi, you’re awake!” I hear a familiar voice.
I turn and jump as I see two cats staring at me. One is white and has brown stripes. The other, very chubby and gray coated.
“Brothers, where were you?”
“Stepmom turned us into cats and cast a spell that prevented me from entering the house. Milo never was cursed away, but he was too distracted to ever break my spell.”
“Oliver, you know how to reverse it?”
“You first go to the basement and find the green gem that witch Glinda hides in her jar. I will be outside the window; angle the gem so that when the sunlight hits, its reflected beam is directed towards us. The gem will bring us back to our original forms… and break any other spells.” Milo spits out the plan; we all agree and disperse.
Milo and I quietly enter the house again; the soft pads on the bottom of my paws make no noise as I sneak to the basement. Milo opens the rusty jar, and I seize the gem. I hear a voice unexpectedly.
“Thought it would be that easy?”
I spin and see Glinda; her nose twitches like always. She lunges towards the gem, and I quickly angle it, but I pause. Ever since I became a cat, wonderful things have happened. I finally left home and found my brothers; imagine what else could happen.
I angle the gem towards Glinda; it hits her and even hits Oliver through the window. Oliver suddenly appears in front of us: half of the spell broke! We all try to find Glinda, and instead, there is a small gray mouse with a twitching nose. Glinda was a mouse! “MOUSE!” Milo yells and gulps Glinda down.
We all break into laughter. “I am glad we stayed cats,” I say!
“Yeah, let’s go search for mice!”
Written by Saanvi Kondoju
According to my research, Heidi and Milo are frequent rescue cat names.
