{"id":30660,"date":"2024-10-27T21:29:55","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T01:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/?p=30660"},"modified":"2024-10-27T21:29:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T01:29:55","slug":"cats-in-the-crisper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2024\/10\/27\/cats-in-the-crisper\/","title":{"rendered":"Cat’s in the Crisper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cat’s in the Crisper<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Weyland Smith<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Syn flew back from the Halloween Convention in Massachusetts straight to Mom’s apartment.\u00a0 She’d been watching Syn’s old cat, Midnight, while she was gone, and Syn was anxious to retrieve him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mom’s words of greeting were, “The cat’s in the crisper.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It took Syn a second tocatchon: “What?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Your cat.\u00a0 He didn’t wake up yesterday.\u00a0 I didn’t want to spoil your party, so I put him in the freezer until you got back.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Oh.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Can you take him tonight?\u00a0 He’s kind of creeping me out there in the fridge next to my food.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Uh, sure.”\u00a0 Syn blinked, then firmed up.\u00a0 She and her sister had always buried their pets in a field at the edge of town.\u00a0 It was like a tradition.\u00a0 Syn glanced at her wrist.\u00a0 Late enough so as not to attract unwanted attention.\u00a0 The field was on the way home.\u00a0 It was doable.\u00a0 “I’ll take him right now.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Thanks.”\u00a0 Mom stepped aside to let her in.\u00a0 “So, how was your party?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Uneventful.”<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Syn groaned, “Houston, we have a problem.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The field was gone.\u00a0 Or more precisely, replaced with a large parking lot occupied by a small apartment building.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Her eyes scanned the area darkly, then lit up.\u00a0 A small garden decorated with flowers and saplings was planted where the old burial plot had been.\u00a0 She and Midnight could still do business.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Syn tucked the black-wrapped bundle under her arm and hurried over to the garden.\u00a0 She held a shovel in her other hand.\u00a0 This wouldn’t take long…<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

It didn’t.\u00a0 In a moment she was down far enough to safely place Midnight’s remains.\u00a0 Syn closed her eyes to bid her friend goodbye.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Lady, what are you doing?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Syn looked over her shoulder.\u00a0 A security guard, hands on hips, looking mean.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“I’m burying my cat.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Here<\/em>? This is private property!”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“It’s like a tradition.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Lady, I don’t care\u00a0what<\/em> you call this, it’s illegal as frack!”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Great verdict, Matlock.\u00a0 By the way, your uniform’s dirty.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Thanks for noticing.\u00a0 Aren’t you a little old for costumes?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“This isn’t a costume.”\u00a0 Syn raised a hand and snapped her fingers.\u00a0 The guard froze.\u00a0 “I just got here.\u00a0 How’d you find me?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Saw you in the cameras.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Anybody else see me?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Just me.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Go back, erase the video, then forget this ever happened.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Okay.”\u00a0 He turned on his heel and went back toward the building.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Syn pointed at the tiny gravesite and snapped her fingers again.\u00a0 It filled itself in with dirt.\u00a0 She tamped it down with her shovel, then shook the blade off and changed the shovel back into a broomstick.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Goodbye, old friend,” she murmured, and flew back home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Weyland Smith is an eclectic wytch who writes the column “Weyland’s Whey” for the Pagan Pages blog.\u00a0 Wey can be reached at weylandsmith@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cat’s in the Crisper by Weyland Smith   Syn flew back from the Halloween Convention in Massachusetts straight to Mom’s apartment.\u00a0 She’d been watching Syn’s old cat, Midnight, while she was gone, and Syn was anxious to retrieve him.   Mom’s words of greeting were, “The cat’s in the crisper.”   It took Syn a second tocatchon: “What?”   “Your cat.\u00a0 He didn’t wake up yesterday.\u00a0 I didn’t want to spoil your party, so I put him in the freezer until you got back.”   “Oh.”   “Can you take him tonight?\u00a0 He’s kind of creeping me out there in the fridge next to my food.”   “Uh, sure.”\u00a0 Syn blinked, then firmed up.\u00a0 She and her sister had always buried their pets in a field at the edge of town.\u00a0 It was like a tradition.\u00a0 Syn glanced at her wrist.\u00a0 Late enough so as not to attract unwanted attention.\u00a0 The field was on the way home.\u00a0 It was doable.\u00a0 “I’ll take him right now.”   “Thanks.”\u00a0 Mom stepped aside to let her in.\u00a0 “So, how was your party?”   “Uneventful.” *** Syn groaned, “Houston, we have a problem.”   The field was gone.\u00a0 Or more precisely, replaced with a large parking lot occupied by a small apartment building.   Her eyes scanned the area darkly, then lit up.\u00a0 A small garden decorated with flowers and saplings was planted where the old burial plot had been.\u00a0 She and Midnight could still do business.   Syn tucked the black-wrapped bundle under her arm and hurried over to the garden.\u00a0 She held a shovel in her other hand.\u00a0 This wouldn’t take long… *** It didn’t.\u00a0 In a moment she was down far enough to safely place Midnight’s remains.\u00a0 Syn closed her eyes to bid her friend goodbye.   “Lady, what are you doing?”   Syn looked over her shoulder.\u00a0 A security guard, hands on hips, looking mean.   “I’m burying my cat.”   “Here? This is private property!”   “It’s like a tradition.”   “Lady, I don’t care\u00a0what you call this, it’s illegal as frack!”   “Great verdict, Matlock.\u00a0 By the way, your uniform’s dirty.”   “Thanks for noticing.\u00a0 Aren’t you a little old for costumes?”   “This isn’t a costume.”\u00a0 Syn raised a hand and snapped her fingers.\u00a0 The guard froze.\u00a0 “I just got here.\u00a0 How’d you find me?”   “Saw you in the cameras.”   “Anybody else see me?”   “Just me.”   “Go back, erase the video, then forget this ever happened.”   “Okay.”\u00a0 He turned on his heel and went back toward the building.   Syn pointed at the tiny gravesite and snapped her fingers again.\u00a0 It filled itself in with dirt.\u00a0 She tamped it down with her shovel, then shook the blade off and changed the shovel back into a broomstick.   “Goodbye, old friend,” she murmured, and flew back home. About the Author   Weyland Smith is an eclectic wytch who writes the column “Weyland’s Whey” for the Pagan Pages blog.\u00a0 Wey can be reached at weylandsmith@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":284,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14958],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30661,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30660\/revisions\/30661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}