“Get that thing out of my house!” mother screamed at me. “GETTITOUT! “
“Mama, it’s just a cat, “I said, holding up the animal.
Mother grabbed a broom and came at me. The cat let out a frightened meow. I backed away, slipping out the door.
I was walking from school, people were chasing after the cat, hurling stones and sticks. It was tiny, but it moved fast.
I was fast, too, faster than even my older brothers. Father said I'd grow up to become like Bolt, but I want to be Messi.
I sprinted after the cat, it ran into an alley, I followed and tackled it when it tried to dive under an old car rusting in the sun.
That night, mother told father I brought an olongbo into the house. Father shouted at me. Did I want to bring bad luck to his house? Don’t I know witches turn into cats?
That night, my parents made me kneel while they prayed for me, their words filling my heart with terror.
That night, my nightmares started:
The cat in my dreams was bigger, far bigger than me. His paws tore at my face and he didn’t meow as he stood over me, he roared.
I woke up screaming.
“I told you, “father said in the morning.
**
Returning from school the next afternoon, I carried stones in my bag. The cat started meowing when he saw me approaching, and lunging against the rope I used to tie him.
Maybe he was only happy to see me. Maybe he was scared. Maybe father was right, there was a beast hidden beneath the yellowish eyes lunging for my throat.
I threw the first stone.
It caught the cat mid lunge. The second missed, but caught the bowl of stolen fish, toppling it.
The third and fourth didn’t miss.
