Calico-girl first came to me while listening to “The Girl with the Red Balloon” by The Civil Wars. My mind’s eye conjured up a beautiful image of a creole girl in a patchwork dress leaning against an old wood fence row with her hands behind her back. She held a red balloon in one of her hidden hands and had crazy multicolored hair blowing in the wind. Her face held a Mona Lisa grin, her yellow-green eyes looking up from under her wild hair spoke of secrets she’d never tell. Since then, she has been my friend. If weird paranormal things are what you want, Calico is your girl. Her whole life has been one big paranormal experience to another.

Cali’s mother works out of state and makes a two-hour commute. To make her mother’s day run smoothly, Cali gets up at 4 am and makes her mom breakfast, lunch, and coffee. Her cats, whom she calls mini tigers, know her schedule and aren’t afraid to let her know they are hungry too. The following is one night that she will never forget.

Merow, mer, merow, merow! Rubbing her eyes, Cali rolls over to look at the glaring neon blue clock on the bedside table next to her. “It’s 3:50 am. This tiger knows I don’t get up till 4am,” she mumbled to herself. Rolling over and trying to go back to sleep, she hears a knocking at the back door. Cali dismisses it as the cat called Walnuts. “Merow, Merow,” said the cat again.

She pulls herself up in bed, carefully as to not wake her sleeping mother beside her, and sighs, “I know you are hungry child, but I don’t get up for ten more minutes.” Suddenly, just as the words leave her lips, she feels her full bladder and realizes that she couldn’t go back to sleep. Gently and serpentine-like she slid out of bed, the knotty carpet messaging her stiff feet. Walking on the balls of her feet, she tip-toed her way towards the door. Impressed by her stealth, she passes through the sliver of space between the bed and dresser without knocking anything off. The unavoidable creaking that came from the partially closed door made her cringe slightly. She hated loud noises this early in the morning. The last thing she wanted was to wake her mom up early. Rising back onto her toes, she tip-toed down the hallway to the bathroom. Her footfall was more of a dance than a walk. Two steps on the right side of the hall, one step to the left, and one giant step over the loose board in front of the bathroom door.

BANG!

“Walnuts,” she cursed,” I must’ve left the screen door unlocked.” Walnuts is an outside cat. At least Cali tried to make him an outside cat. Her grandmother had hand raised him inside, but he refused to use a litterbox. A cat that doesn’t use the litter box has no place in the house. He made a habit of climbing the screen door, ripping open the upper left corner of it, and then crawling between the door and screen to knock until someone opened the door. If Cali didn’t barricade the door at night, he would eventually push hard enough against the faulty lock that it would open. Sighing, she continued on her mission to the bathroom.

She looks into the mirror above the sink as she washed her hands and could tell that today was going to be a bad hair day. The chestnut bits were wavy, the auburn bits were curly, and the caramel bits were a kind of frizzy she had never seen before. She began to wonder what happened in her genetics to make it….

BANG!

The Cali jumped out of her skin, and about three feet in the air, at the loud noise. She sighed as she left the bathroom and turned towards the kitchen with the mindset to give the cat a piece of her mind. She began the second half of the dance down the hallway with one big step over the loose board. Another three steps down the right side of the hall. She took two more steps down the left side and finally three down the center. She poked her head around the corner to see if she could see the outline of the cat in the window. No shadow. She must have also forgotten to turn on the carport light again.

Cali went to the door and said to the cat she presumed was on the other side,” I have ten more minutes till I get up for the day, and by damnit, I plan on getting those forty winks. Just wait till momma leaves and I’ll feed you.” She didn’t expect a reply, but a meow back would have been nice.

When she turned around to go back to bed, she saw that all five of her house tigers were sitting by their favorite bowls waiting to be fed. Penny the golden tabby was by her rouge bowl. Mayya the grey and black traditional tabby was by the silver-grey bowl. Buggs who was both tabby and calico was by the white bowl, and Lulu the diluted calico was by the blue bowl. ”Merow, Merow,” Lulu squalled. “Ten. More. Minutes,” she said, slightly exasperated. Still, she couldn’t help but grin at their organization. Normally she couldn’t get them in that straight of a line if she begged.

Cali rolled her eyes and turned left into the living room. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, she never did, but she hoped the shadow man in the corner wasn’t there tonight. The illumination from the carport light showed no abnormal shadows. The way back down the hallway looked like a clumsy ballet. Two steps here, three steps there, tripping on her own feet, losing her balance, and then steadying herself in a low plie. By the time she made it back, she had only five minutes left.

BANG!

“Is Walnuts stuck in the door again,” her mother mumbled groggily as she began to rise from bed.

“I think so,” Cali replied,” the tigers woke me up a few minutes ago and it sounds like him banging against the door.” Her mother shuffled to the bathroom to get ready for work as the Cali trudged her way down the hall, this time not caring what boards she hit.

She fed her indoor tigers and set herself on making coffee. She loved the smell of it. She loved the taste. She loved the ritual of it. First, she dumps out the old coffee into the sink and swishes some water around to rinse the carafe. Then she pulls out the filter basket and dumps the old grounds into the trashcan., cursing herself each time for not having a composter. She hums “Amazing Grace” as she walks towards the refrigerator to retrieve the coffee ground she stored there.

BANG!

She nearly dropped the coffee grounds on the floor. The bang was much louder this time. It seemed more forceful. Cali makes it back to the coffee pot where she finishes making coffee before another three bangs, BANG, BANG, BANG, comes from the door. Feeling nervous and irritated, Cali grabs a roll of paper towels and prepares to beat Walnuts with it.

It takes ten steps to get to the door from the coffee pot. With every step she takes he heart beats faster and faster in her chest. When she finally reaches the door, she moves the yellow curtain to peek outside. Growing up in superstitious Louisiana, she was taught from a young age to never open a door to empty space. She always looks through the window or peephole first. If there isn’t a physical thing there, you could let evil spirits into your house. Not realizing she had closed her eyes Cali opened them and saw nothing between the door and screen door. Walnuts wasn’t there, the screen door was locked, and the screen on the top left corner of the screen door was still stapled. The carport light was on, and the normal twenty-something hungry barn cats were nowhere to be seen.

“Whatcha looking at,” her mother said suddenly from behind her, “Has walnuts given up yet?” Calico, still frizzled from the realization that nothing was there to make the banging sounds, turned slowly and looked at her mom. She shook her head and said, “Not Walnuts. I think you better use the front door this morning. It still has its salt line intact.”

By Calico Girl

From: United States

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