Olivia Taiwo

Maroon

and  Me

By: Jessica and Olivia

Maroon and Me

By: Jessica and Olivia Taiwo

Maroon Narrated by: Jessica Hall

Eva Narrated by: Olivia Taiwo

Chapter One

My name is Maroon. I am a proud cat, descended from the mighty beasts that once roamed an Earth without humans, though the name I was given does not exactly show it. Well, at least it’s better than “Fluffy” or “Bunny-boo”.

Eva says that I’m her cat, but she doesn’t know half of it. Doesn’t she know that mighty beasts own it all? Anyway, Eva is my partner. I try to tell her that everyday. I say, “We are partners and we are not owned by anything.” But, of course, ignorant humans just don’t understand a cat’s perfect English. They always say that they wish cats could talk and not meow. Well, if anyone had a problem with speaking, it’s humans! I mean, they even go to school to learn how to talk proper! We great and mighty beasts detest school, although sometimes it’s a good way to escape being smothered to death by too many pats.

Ken, Eva’s little brother, is mainly the human I was talking about when I said that humans don’t know proper English. He is already almost one year old and he can’t walk or talk right! He’s always tottering around saying, “Kiddy-cad, swichy, wichy, kiddy-cad tail.” You see what I mean right? He doesn’t even make sense!

Well, at least Ken is taking a catnap right now. That is mainly the only thing humans and mighty beasts have in common: We both enjoy the loveliness of catnaps.

\* \* \*

I see the yellow monster come down the sleek black road. Rain is thundering on the metallic orangey surface of the monster. I guess you could say that the thunder was thundering, too, but you get the point: it was raining really hard. I saw Eva get out of the monster’s side, wearing her unnaturally colored purple pelt.

As she runs up the path towards the house, I run up to the door to greet her. I’m just sitting down directly in front of the doorway when Eva opens the door. A blast of cold, wet air blasts in my face.

“Arg!!” I yelp as I get sprayed with rainwater.

“Oh, hello, Maroon. Did you have a good day?” Eva asks, obviously oblivious to the damage done to my precious fur.

‘No,’ I told myself, ‘Mighty beasts do not think of their fur as delicate and precious. We have more important things to worry about in our lives.’

I look up at Eva with my defiant, maroon-colored eyes, then I hold my head and tail high and turn with my back to her. I strut away, trying to keep an unruly air about me but then I accidentally trip over one of Ken’s kit-toys.

‘Great going, Maroon,’ I tell myself.

Eva chuckles.

Chapter Two

As soon as Eva heard the bell ring for school to end she rushed to get her purple jacket on. Stepping onto the bus, her best friend, Ashland, called to her from the back of the bus where she was saving Eva a seat. Sliding into the seat, Ashland moved her backpack to save a seat for their other friend, Logan.                                         While they were waiting for Logan to get on, Ashland and Eva started their Math homework: dividing fractions. Just as Eva was finishing a problem, Logan appeared and made her break her pencil.

“Hey guys. Sorry, Mrs. Banks kept the whole class in the room until we quieted down,” he said.

“It’s okay, we weren’t doing anything that important just homework, right Eve,” Ashland replied.

“Oh yeah, nothing that important, but you sorta ruined it by scaring me, and making me break my pencil, which, by the way, was my last one,” Eva taunted.

“Here, how about you can have my pencil; I have extras. By the way, what page are you working on?” asked Logan.

“Thanks for the pencil.” said Eva with a smile.

Soon the two girls had finished their homework and were talking about hanging out on Sunday afternoon.

“How about you come over to my house, if that is ok with you?” suggested Eva.

“I’ll have to check with my mom but, I’m cool with it.” replied Ashland.

Before long Eva’s stop on the bus came and as she was walking down the bus steps Logan called back to her asking what the homework was but, she hopped down the last step giggling and  smiling at the prank they pulled on him. Coming to her doorstep Eva went inside and reached down to pat maroon on the head.

Chapter Three

Oh, why, oh why must humans not understand us cats? It’s Saturday and I’ve spent the whole morning trying to talk to Eva. I even tried to read a dictionary to see how humans pronounced all of their silly words, but of course when I pulled the giant book off the shelf, it was so heavy that it fell on top of me and smashed me half to death. How humiliating. And then, Eva, as always, said that my mind wasn’t on track.

“Well, yours isn’t always in the right state either,” I retort. “It may have not even ever been in the right state!”

But, as usual, she replies: “I’m not entirely sure what ‘Meow meow mew-mew’ means.”

Humans are so frustrating!

\* \* \*

I’m fleeing for my life now because Killer-Ken is on the loose. Apparently his ‘kwooky’ just fell on the floor and broke into ‘gazillion peecez’. And now he thinks it’s okay to rage on me by cat-hunting me. Aren’t beasts supposed to be the ones hunting down humans?

Suddenly, Eva joined the chase.

“Stop!” I cry, “Eva, I thought we were partners! Please don’t chase me too! Just get Killer-Ken away from me! Give him another ‘kwooky’! Do something!” By then, Ken had cornered me on the stairs, and Eva was nowhere in sight. Then, a big shadow towered over us. It was Eva.

“Get away from my Maroon!” Eva says. “Just go back to the kitchen and I’ll get you another cookie.”

So that’s what a ‘kwooky’ was.

Ken’s red blotched face faded and returned to his regular ugly fleshy color. “You gonna ged me a kwooky?” Ken asks, tilting his head as if he were trying to figure out why dogs turned in circles before they went to sleep.

Eva nodded nervously.

Ken suddenly jumps up in the air. I am afraid of what might happen next. Apparently nothing bad.

“Hoopay!!” Killer-Ken shouts.

Right then and there, I dart through his legs while he is distracted. I scramble up the stairs and into Eva’s room—my sanctuary.

\* \* \*

I lay on top of the bookshelf, where my bed is. I see one of my pillows on Eva’s bed.

“Eva!!” I say aloud angrily. I get off my comfy perch to drag the pillow back across the room to my bed. Thankfully, the pillow isn’t gigantic and heavy like the dictionary. Ever since that incident, I despise dictionaries. I wish those terrible things wouldn’t be right beneath me. I never know when they could strike next. At least I’m at the advantage point.

Just then, Eva walks in. She sees me dragging the super-soft pillow—which she thinks is hers but I claimed it before her—by my teeth and exclaims, “Oh, Maroon! Silly boy! That pillow’s mine, silly-willy!”

“Stop calling me silly!” I seeth through the pillow. Then I think, Hey, maybe I should try a different angle of things?

I let go of the pillow and sit on it. I look up at Eva with the saddest, maroon-colored eyes look I could muster.

“Oh, alright, Maroon. But still, you are the silliest cat ever,” Eva agrees.

Yes! Wait, did she call me silly again? Really?

Chapter Four

Brrrring Brrrring Brrrring, Eva groaned as she got up in bed thinking Here goes another boring day of boring school. Reaching over to turn off her alarm clock Eva did a double take wait it's saturday, that means no school.  Jumping out of bed She ran to the stairs to be greeted by the smell of  pancakes on the griddle. Heading down the stairs jumping every other step to rush into the kitchen to get pancakes before Ken.

“Whoa slow down their kiddo,” said Dad.

“Can’t stop I have to get food before Ken gets here and touches all the pancakes with his germy hands,” replied Eva.

“Well you are gonna have to stop because we  all eat as a family here” interrupted Mon coming in from getting the mail. Sitting at the table Eva heard the thumping sound of someone coming down the stairs

Chapter Five

“Can I go out hunting? Let me out!” I say on Sunday morning, pawing at the door. Eva’s mom walks in the room. I put on my sad face again. ‘Wow, this face is hard to keep straight!’ I think, hoping I wouldn’t need it for a while.

Eva’s mom sighed and says, “Oh, you funny boy, acting like a dog.”

I get so frustrated at being called ‘funny’ and ‘silly’, I start running as fast as I could around the kitchen in circles, yelping, “Stop it, stop it, stop it!”

Eva walks into the room. Upon seeing me, she looks up at her mom.

“I think your cat needs to be let out, missy,” Eva’s mom says, chuckling.

“Yes, yes, yes!” I exclaim quickly, running to sit at the front of the door, impatient to be let out.

“Oh alright, you silly—” I interrupt Eva by running in circles again.

“Oh, just stop it already!” I screech.

“Hmm…” says Eva’s mom. “I think your cat is being driven mad by the words ‘silly’ and ‘funny’.”

“Is that true, bud?” Eva asks. “Are you driven mad by the sound of ‘funny’ and ‘silly’.”

I quickly stop running around. Did I just hear what I’ve been waiting to hear for a long time? An understanding? Yes! Whoo-hoo! “Yes, you’ve finally understood me! Now—back to more important matters: Let me out, please!”

“I guess it is true. Well, out you go Maroon.” Eva opens the door and I shoot out like a mouse running from a cat.

I run on the hard black stone over to the dewy grass. The soft green blades touch my paws delicately as I bound to forest. I glance over my shoulder to see a dark blue monster pulling in onto the black stone. I decide to investigate later and enjoy my freedom while I have it.

Suddenly, my whiskers start tingling. I’ve never had this feeling before, but I can sense electricity in the air. I look up; the sky is a dark grey, not the normal pinkish blue that the morning sky usually contains. Out of nowhere, a long, jagged stick of light crashes down from the heavens, striking behind me, followed by a deafening boom. The atmosphere is silent for a couple heartbeats, then broken by a crack. I spin quickly around, hoping it isn’t the jagged light again. It isn’t. A large tree behind me was seemingly struck by the light. I scramble through the mud to get out of the way as the tree groans and falls.

\* \* \*

My back aches. Where am I?

I feel a sudden blazing pain in my leg. I look up to find that the giant tree had fallen on my back leg  and one of it’s branches had flattened my back for - wait, how long have I been here?

Just then I realized that more lightning was raining down. Other trees were being pelted by the light and more and more were falling down. I realized that one more tree could finish me off.

I started calling for help, but if there were other animals in the forest, they’d probably be evacuating or finding shelter. I’m getting desperate, my calls getting coarser and weaker. When I had just about given up hope, I saw a looming shadow through the trees. The shadow was growing larger and larger as it’s details grew more precise. I started doubting that - it? - was here to help me. I heard the crunching of twigs underneath the figures gigantic four feet.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the thing emerged at last.

‘What is that?’ I thought. The figure was a giant. It’s four legs, though wet and muddy, was white yet streaked with shimmering streaks of gold. The back of the creature was all white making it seem to glow in the brisk flashes of lightning.

“What are you?” I asked shakily, fearing the worst.

“I am a horse, cousin to the zebra and donkey,” it replied. The creature’s voice sounded like a female’s voice. I had no idea what a ‘zeebra’ or a ‘ dongkee’ was but I have heard of a horse before. Eva used to ask Mom all the time for a horse to ride.

“I am wild and I belong to no one. It would hurt my dignity greatly to have a human sit on my back.” the mare said, as if guessing my thoughts.

“I - I never said you did . . . belong to anyone,” I stuttered.

Glancing up to the sky, the horse said, “We don’t have much time and I believe you are in a spot of trouble.”

“Um . . . yeah.” I just realized how fast the mud was thickening in the rain. The feel of it reminded me of Eva’s great grandmother’s chicken and beef stew. Mmm . . . that broth was sooo good.

I felt a tug on my ear. “If you don’t stop day dreaming, you’ll drown in the mud,” the horse said. I looked down. Where the mud used to be barely touching my chest fur, it now had creeped up to my neck.

“Can you pull me out?” I said in hesitation.

The mare looked at me scornfully. “You obviously doubt my strength.”

I didn’t say anything.

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

The process of getting the log off me was a quick but painful one. The mare - as I learned her name was Majesty - started by using her muscular legs to kick off the branches surrounding me. Next, she start pushing the log off of my leg, during which was providing me with excruciating agony.

When the tree was finally rolled off of me, I breathed a sigh of relief, hardly noting that I could barely feel my leg.

“I don’t think you’ll be able to walk for a while. Let me give you a lift,” Majesty said, walking over.

I wish I could have said no, that I could manage on my own, but I knew she was right.