Muse: A Cat's Story

By Joanna Franklin Bell

Muse is a young cat whose mind has a special power, but she feels trapped living her life as a stray in the big city. With no memories of her kittenhood, she is haunted by dreams of the countryside, and she begins to wonder if the country is her real home.

Two other stray city cats befriend Muse, and each of them has its own journey to make as well. Together, they embark on an adventure to discover what it means to be home, to find peace, to experience joy, love, loss, and acceptance, and to experience a wild ride along the way.

Will Muse's unique abilities help or hinder her on her quest? Will she find the dream she's looking for?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joanna Franklin Bell
• Release date: May 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476427980

Joanna Franklin Bell

Joanna Franklin Bell is a writer and mother of three living in rural Maryland with her husband and family. "Muse: A Cat's Story" is her first and only chapter book for young readers. Her contemporary fiction novels for adults are the Amazon bestsellers "Take a Load Off, Mona Jamborski" and "That Birds Would Sing." She is also the author of the children's picture book "Mrs. Just-So," which is currently seeking its illustrator. She is an occasional contributor to "Baltimore Magazine." Many of her articles can be found on various Patch.com news sites, and her award-winning short story can be found on the blog "Single Dad Laughing."

Book preview

Muse: A Cat's Story

by Joanna Franklin Bell

Smashwords Edition

Muse: A Cat's Story

Copyright: Joanna Franklin Bell

Published: May 17, 2012

Smashwords Edition

The right of Joanna Franklin Bell to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

Cover credits:

© Helea | Shutterstock.com | Illustrated Cityscape

© Stephen Chung | Shutterstock.com | Curious Cat

Design by Danielle Camorlinga | DanielleCamorlinga.com

for Robyn

and her mom

Chapter 1

Muse lapped a puddle of old rainwater from the cracked sidewalk. The puddle had a familiar, sweet taste underneath the grainier taste of dirty water. A nearby wine bottle lay cracked in two halves, having rolled away from a dumpster outside a restaurant. Its glass neck was separated from the body by a jagged slash, draining old, gummy drops of wine into the puddles, but to Muse's tongue it had a well-known fruity taste; a sudden taste, usually shocking and pungent, but diluted in the rain puddle it was simply sugary. Muse drank until she was finished, then picked her way across the curb, tail in the air, with the careful gait of a cat. Cars whisked by in the street and the air was filled with afternoon voices, laughs and lunch-hour footsteps, busy high heels and briefcases. Muse stayed near the curb to avoid people's hurried feet.

She could smell frying fish coming from the end of the city block. Moving slowly, trying to maintain her sense of direction, Muse made her way in the direction of the wonderful smell, her stomach empty. She waited until there was a break in the flow of people and darted across the sidewalk and around to the back of a restaurant, and watched a man in a stained apron dump a pail of fish heads into a dumpster, in the alley, before he went back inside. When the back door of the restaurant banged shut behind him, Muse leapt to the dumpster, hungrier than she ever remembered, and devoured the fish and their glassy dead eyes. Then, relaxed for a moment, she licked her paws and cleaned her small, striped face and watched the sun from her perch on top of the dumpster.

Afternoon became evening and the constant roar of cars settled down into silence, broken only occasionally by the intermittent delivery truck, doing its rounds after rush hour. The sky darkened to a dismal grey and then to a heavy muted black through which no stars could shine. Lamp posts kept the streets well-lit, but Muse didn't need them to see. She felt her eyes adjust to the darkness and she jumped down from the dumpster and stayed in the shadows, alert. The city looked different at night, and she took a moment to get her bearings.

Muse sought a breeze which she could feel coming in over the harbor. It ruffled her whiskers and she lifted her head, smelling water and open space. The shadows by the dumpster had become oppressive. She made her way down empty sidewalks towards the pier, the night air feeling fresh as she got closer to the water and further from the dreary cluster of buildings. Muse's step became lighter.

Here, kitty kitty, said a quiet voice sarcastically from the shadows. Muse froze in her tracks, frightened. Her eyes stared wildly into the darkness, seeing nothing. Then she began to discern a pair of eyes, as bright and slanted as her own, emerge yellowly into the light.

I don't believe I've seen you before, continued the voice, raspily, still reverberating with the singsong cadence of scorn. The voice was deep, but feminine. "And I know I've seen everyone."

Muse's eyes widened as another cat stepped fully onto the sidewalk. It was a long-haired cat, tangled and dirty, who stared as unblinkingly at Muse as she stared at it, but there was no fear in the other cat's state.

The cat laughed, a raspy old laugh, and Muse saw a collar of dirty pearls on a knotted string around its neck, as it circled where Muse stood silently.

What's your name little cat? it continued in its deep, taunting voice as