Arrow's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Arrow wanted to be the best spirit cat in the whole universe. That was hard when he was dead. He was a black and white cat with an arrow on his forehead and paws as wide as catcher's mitts. He had lived fourteen years beside Mommy. Now he watched her from the other side, and she could not see him at all. He floated above the tall wooden cat house, the one stacked with soft beds and bowls of treats. Cutie curled beside him. She was calico and fluffy, and she had been his sister on the living side. She missed Mommy too. "She thinks about us every day," Cutie said. "She just doesn't know we're still here." "Then we tell her," Arrow said. "We tell her we love her. We tell her we miss her." But Mommy couldn't hear them. Only one cat could carry their words across the veil. Pepper. Pepper sat below in the treat house. She was small and black, with bright yellow eyes. She licked a paw and pretended not to notice them. She noticed everything. "Pepper," Arrow called. "You can hear us. You can talk to Mommy. Please tell her how much we love her." Pepper stopped licking. Her yellow eyes lifted to the two glowing spirits above her. "I can hear you," she said. "I've heard you all morning." "Then help us," Cutie said. "Just tell her." Pepper stretched. She looked at the bowls of treats around her, then back at the ghosts. "I'll do it," she said. "But what's in it for me?" Arrow blinked. He had not expected a price. "You want a deal?" "I always want a deal," Pepper said. "You're asking me to be your voice. That's real work." Arrow looked at Cutie. Cutie looked at the treat house. Then Arrow looked at the bowls stacked along every shelf, more food than one small cat could eat in a year. "The treats," Arrow said. "All of them. They're not ours anymore. Take every bowl in this house. Carry our words, and it's yours." Pepper's whiskers twitched. She jumped onto the shelf and pressed her nose to a bowl of crunchy bites. Her paws began to glow blue. "Deal," she said. A bright light burst from Pepper's paws. Arrow felt it pull at him, warm and strong. He pushed his message into it with everything he had. *We love you. We miss you. We are right here.* Across the room, near the window, a woman with long brown hair stood up fast. Mommy pressed her hand to her chest. Her blue eyes went wide, and she stared straight at the glowing cat. "Arrow?" she whispered. "Cutie? Is that you?" Pepper's fur stood up. The light did not fade the way it should. Something on the other side pulled back, holding the door open. "That's strange," Pepper said. "I can't close it."