RDP Tuesday: Universe

When I was little my Filipina Grandmother told me about the Batibat- she also told me that the only way to keep Batibat out of your home was to have a cat for protection.

The cat wasn’t a part of the traditional folklore- on the other hand we never had trouble with Batibat when other people did so maybe she was on to something,

Anita

Let’s talk about the shadow that the cat saw on the door just after sunset.

The cat heard, from it’s uncomfortable but necessary perch in the drafty part of the kitchen, the black oily shadow  slither out from inside of the dead tree that had fallen over night in the storm.

The cat smelled dead mice and bird innards as it slid up the walkway to the backdoor.

He watched the shadow’s figure grow taller and fuller against the door and he even heard the floorboards under the shadow groan and creak.

The Cat didn’t twitch a single whisker, he didn’t blink and eye, he kept his tail quiet and still.

He saw the shadow waver, as if it were about to knock and ask to be let in, but it stepped back from the door and then it moved forward, just a little again.

The cat held it’s breath, the shadow filled the doorway and then it raised it’s dark hand in front of it’s face and just before it was about to step in, the cat opened it’s mouth and it hissed.

The shadow at the door turned towards the cat, and it hissed back at the cat and then it growled at the cat and in a puff of smoke it was gone, flying as if the Devil himself were after it,  to the dead tree in the backyard.

The cat blinked his eyes, he moved his ears from front to back, he let his tail stretch and curl around his body and then

from down the hall his human came, her face lit up when she saw him sitting at the table.

” What have you been doing all day? ” she asked ” Have you been waiting for me to come home and give you dinner?”

There was no way for his Human to know this, but when she smiled at him the darkest corners of the Cat’s world sparkled with sunlight.

She swept him up in her arms and he rubbed his face against her chin and when she turned around and he was facing the door, he looked for the shadow and dared for it to come in.

” I love you more then there are stars and moons in the entire universe. ” she told him.

He fell against her chest, he looked up into her eyes and if he could have said ” and I would make a meal out of anything that tried to take you away from me. ”

But he supposed she knew

he was right, she did

And now the Batibat in their backyard

knew it too.