ISECAS The Dream Cat and The New Day

First draft

ISECAS

The Dream Cat

And The New Day

By Preston Squire

Carter (a young African-American boy) woke up with a start.  He had been having the dream again.  Sweat dripped from his forehead and his pajama’s were soaking wet.   Still he laid there, waiting for his heart to slow and reminding himself it was all just a dream.  Only a dream.

Unable to fall back to sleep, Carter crawled out of bed and walked to the kitchen for a drink.  He warmed some milk slightly in the microwave as his mother had shown him.  It helped him to relax.  As he walked back into his room something brushed against his foot.

Carter hopped back a step, spilling some of his milk on the floor.  Quickly he flicked on the lights to see what was there.   It was only the stuffed mummified cat that his friend Hank had given him.  It was such a strange thing.  Mummies were usually creepy but this one looked cute with bits of fur poking out from the bandaging.  

He picked it up and looked at it.   How had it ended up there?  Had he knocked it off the dresser in his sleep?  Had he been thrashing around?  He wished that horrible dream would stop coming.  That’s when the most amazing thing ever happened.

The stuffed cat opened its eyes and looked at him.   Scared, Carter tossed the cat away.  As it flew, the cat twisted in mid-air.   It’s bandaging became loose and it landing softly on it’s feet , on the bed.

Most of the bandaging fell away, with only little bits clinging to the tip of its tail and hind leg.  The cat had strange eyes, that looked like those in a hieroglyph and a broad necklace with many coloured stones around its neck.  Otherwise it looked like any other ordinary cat.   The cat hopped down and began lapping up the spilt milk.

“I must be dreaming,” said Carter.

In his mind he heard a gentle voice like a soft breeze, “No master, you are not dreaming.  I am real.”

“Did you just talk?” Carter asked the cat, looking at it amazed.

The cat sat upright and looked at Carter, “In a way, yes.  I am Isecas, the Dream Cat.”

“Then I am dreaming.”

Isecas scratched at her right ear with her back paw as she replied, “No, you are awake master.   I am really here with you.”

“Then how can you be a ‘Dream Cat’?”

“I make dreams come true,” Isecas replied as if it was nothing special.

“I don’t want my dream to come true!” Carter screamed.

“Are you okay honey?” came the tired voice of his mother from down the hall.

“That is not the dream I speak of,” said Isecas.

“When what?”

“You wished for your bad dream to stop.  That wish is what has awoken me.”

Carter looked at the cat.

“You okay honey?” asked his mother again.

“Yeah, mom, I’m fine.  Sorry, bad dream again.  I’m good. It’s okay.  Go back to sleep.”

 “You can do that?  You can make the nightmares stop?” Carter asked Isecas.

“No Master; but you can.  I will teach you how.”