Prompt 43 [Part 6]

Cashew didn't really sleep [the dead don't technically sleep] but he did dream.  His dreams were always played out like little vignettes from when he was alive.  The first few dreams were about his childhood on the rough streets of Wackyworld.  One day he woke up and Mother was just gone.  There was a little blood behind the dumpster where she stayed, but that was nothing new.  It tasted old and dry anyway. It wasn't like Mother to leave without saying why, but Cashew never saw her again.  

He remembered the first time he killed. He went as long as he could without it, but he just got so hungry.  Enough hunger can make anyone kill.  Cashew had caught a rat earlier that day but guilt got the better of him and he let it go.  Now, he was berating himself for his mistake.  His vision was getting blurry and he was getting sleepy in a way that made him think he would never wake up again.  Luckily, this new rat was wounded and slow.  He was barely crawling.  A snail could probably outrun him! [Well, probably not but you get the idea]

Cashew ate and his fuzzy vision became crisp and his thoughts became more sophisticated and then a flood of guilt filled him from ears to tail.  He had murdered and eaten a wounded animal.  He felt so bad about it.

Cashew decided this life was not for him.  He simply didn't have it in him to do what it took to survive.  Dog may eat dog, but Cashew couldn't even eat a plump, tasty rat without getting the vapors [Cashew felt even worse that he found it so scrumptious].

He found a comfortable patch of grass near a very tall, official looking building and decided he would lie down and die.  Maybe he would see Mother again once he perished - who knows these sorts of things?  Not Cashew.  Cashew knew very little.

And so Cashew closed his eyes and waited to see if there was an afterlife.  He did not feel the young princess pick up his weak, liquid-like body.  He did not hear her beg to keep him at the palace.  He did not know that he would wake up warm, comfortable and alive.  When he did, it took him a long time to realize that this wasn't Heaven.  Someone had saved him.

Mama was smaller than the other two and looked nothing like the attendants [who all seemed to be the same to Cashew].  Mama fiercely loved Cashew and Cashew had no idea why.  And no matter what Cashew did, Mama just seemed to love him more.  

Cashew and Mama became inseparable and Cashew was eventually afforded the privilege of growing up.  It turned out that Mama was heir to the throne and would eventually be Queen of all Wackyworld [Could you believe it?  What are the odds?].  The two bigger ones were the King and Queen.  All the attendants still looked alike to Cashew and all seemed to be named Jack.  Cashew didn't like the attendants and wasn't very fond of the Queen either.  He didn't like how they looked at Mama.  He didn't like how upset they would often make her.  The way Cashew saw it, this was his second Mama and he wasn’t about to let anything bad happen to her.  Why, she had saved his life!  It was only right that he protect her.

Cashew was fully grown now and understood a lot of what was going on around him [most cats do].  He understood that Mama was part of the royal family.  He understood that as the royal cat, he should be patriotic.  And so Cashew became the most proud citizen that Wackyworld had ever known [and likely will know].  Cashew considered himself upper-class, as well.  Afterall, if Mama was royalty that made him royalty.  This meant Cashew generally did what he wanted, ignoring the Jacks completely and conveniently ‘not hearing’ the King and Queen when they addressed him.  But he always listened to Mama - and he always would.

One day, Cashew was playing with a ball of thick yellow yarn [his favorite] when the ball rolled down the stairs into the Royal Dungeons.  Cashew gave chase, but stopped short when he heard the Queen's voice in the darkness.

She was speaking to an old hag.  Cashew listened very carefully, staying out of sight by sticking to the dungeons shadows.  Although he wasn't a black cat, his nutty color didn't draw the eye.  He had stumbled onto a private council with The Queen and an old hag named Yack.  Yack looked oddly familiar and sounded an awful like a man [specifically, any one of the palace guards] but Cashew knew hags were strange creatures [he remembered that from a podcast he once listened to with Mama].

Yack was telling the Queen that her heir was a threat.  That she needed to be “dealt with” soon.  That the Queen was losing the land’s favor to her daughter.  That she herself was no longer the King's pride and joy, and the little girl had replaced her.  You see, Mama wasn't the Queen's daughter - she came with the King - they were a package deal.  And while Mama and the Queen weren't exactly bosom buddies, they got along well enough [so Cashew thought].

Things weren’t good with the King and Queen.  The King was always working and the Queen was always thirsty.  Always quenching her thirst, day and night.  Cashew didn't understand how she held all the wine inside her body.  She had even developed a certain odor.  She smelled of it now. There was a lot of yelling in those days.

Cashew saw Yack hand the Queen a dagger.   He heard that ‘tonight's the night’ and he saw the Queen sadly grab the blade by the handle and hide it on her person.  Cashew could not believe what he was seeing.  Cashew needed to protect Mama.

But something must have gone horribly wrong.  When Mama woke up and saw the Queen with her throat ripped out on the floor of her bedchamber, she hollered for the guards.  When the King examined the body, he comprised a task force of Jack, Jack, Jack [and even Jack!] to hunt for Cashew. 

What had he done wrong?

Cashew waited until Mama was alone again before he ventured into the open.  When she saw the red on his fur, she began to weep.  

“Oh, Cashew!  They're going to find you!  They're going to find you and take your head!  You can't leave me, Cashew.  You can't die - I won't allow it.  By all the power I have, I won't allow it!”

But Jack was outside the chamber door [classic Jack] and rushed in to take Cashew away.  The next day, Cashew's head was removed from his body.  If things went as they were supposed to, Cashew should have never seen Mama again. 

But you've been paying attention, you smart cookie you!  Cashew was incredibly patriotic and loyal.  Patriotism is a very strong belief to have.  If you believe in it hard enough, you can carve out your place in history and become immortal [Cashew heard this in a podcast]

And since he was explicitly told not to do so- Cashew did not die that day.  In fact, Cashew felt better than ever in many ways.  For one thing, he could speak now!  The language of Mama and the [deceased] King and the [deceased] Queen and all the Jacks was finally accessible to him!  And without a body he could float anywhere he wanted to.  Up in the clouds, below the earth, through any door or stone wall.  He didn’t miss his feet or his tail one bit!  Cashew was free to do whatever he pleased!  So he did what he always wanted to do - protect Mama from those conniving Jacks.

By the time Cashew made it back to the palace, the King had already succumbed to the poison in his coffee.  Mama hadn't even woken up yet, it was so early.  Jack and Jack were debating who would go into Mama's room when Cashew found them at the top of the stairs.  This was it - his big chance!  He would save Mama!  He would finally repay her!  He could feel the smile forming from ear to ear.  He felt so many teeth in his mouth.  Rows and rows of large, glistening teeth.  His smile felt so good as it grew.  His eyes could barely stay open and the corners of his mouth spread wider and higher on his face.  Jack was the first to notice.

“My God - what in heaven is that!  It's horrible!”

He tried to turn but his gaze was fixed.  His eyes were locked on Cashew’s disturbing, enticing grin.  Jack told his head to turn but his head didn't listen and he missed the first step.  His neck didn't survive the fall.

It was Jack's turn to notice the smile.  When he saw the grotesque mouth he fell to his knees and began to grovel. 

“Please, please I never wanted to go along with this - it was all Jack, I swear it was all Jack!”

And in a voice he never used before. Cashew whispered,

If she dies… you die

It was all going so well.  He was a hero!  Somehow, Cashew felt his smile growing EVEN BIGGER into a full circle.  He saw the horror in Jack's eyes and he knew he was doing the right thing.   It made Cashew so happy to know that Mama would be safe.  It made him so happy to know that Jack was afraid.  Cashew had never felt such glee.  Cashew had discovered that he loved being dead almost as much as he loved being alive.

That's the sort of thing Cashew dreamed about. 

Of course, it wouldn't work out with Jack.  Cashew quickly learned that his smile had a certain quality that… upset people.  Knowing this, he would never risk meeting Mama.  He knew if he ever saw her face to face again he would be so very happy - too happy to control his emotions.  He would smile the biggest smile he ever smilt, and who knew how that would make Mama feel [pretty horrible, according to the data]. 

And so Cashew scoured the Wackylands and finally found two buffoons who didn't seem to care about his smile at all.  In fact, they rather liked it when Cashew spoke to them.  Sure, they were cruel and stupid.   Sure, they were hardly more than thugs and villains.  But they were simple creatures and Cashew knew how to talk to simple creatures.  Cashew was, himself, a very simple creature.  Besides, most people just ran when they saw the twins. They responded well to a little discipline and structure.  Cashew’s smile seemed to calm them [which is great, because nothing else did].

Cashew made a new family to protect what was left of his old family. When Dumbass and Idiot came back with his yarn, he would tell them which Jacks needed to be weeded out.  It’s so easy to be sneaky when you’re dead.  It’s so easy to spy.  

All you need to do is pick a spot where they won’t see you smile and listen very, very carefully.  You can go very far if you just listen and smile, oh yes you can.

Cashew heard a knock on the door.

“Okay, now I’ve knocked so you know what to do, Dumbass.  OR DO YOU?”