Frisky's Tail (conclusion)

What to do, what to do? I wish I could talk to my brothers. Maybe they’d know what to do. Just as he thought it, before him stood four young men, all in colorful swim trunks, looking confused.

Frisky stood up, brushed the sand from his hands and sighed. Oh well, let’s see what happens.

“Hello brothers.”

They all turned to look at him, and the one in the yellow trunks stepped forward carefully, “Frisk, is that you?”

“Yea Moe, its me. And yes, you are all human. Here’s what happened.” He began, and recapped what had happened in the last ten minutes to change him, and now their lives forever.

At the conclusion of the explanation, Eenie, the oldest by a few seconds said, “Ok, so where’s this genie?”

Looking around, Frisky noticed he was gone. On his left hand was the gold band he had found. He rubbed it and Poof! The genie appeared before them.

“Your bidding, my master,” the genie said bowing his head toward Frisky.

“Genie, allow me to formally introduce my brothers, Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe and of course, I’m Frisky.”

The genie blinked but once, and said nothing.

“Those are the names Little Master calls us.”

The genie shrugged. He’d heard stranger names in his thousands of years in the ring.
“Okay, I have a wish for you. I wish that Little Master and our mother were also grown up humans and could talk with us.”

Poof. Now standing before the group of brothers was man wearing swim trunks and a t-shirt carrying a yellow plastic sand pail, and a small, aged woman with white hair and wrinkles dressed in a salmon colored robe. They looked around.

Frisky tentatively stepped forward.

“Mother? Little Master?”

The man looked at him.

“My name is Jim.”

Frisky smiled. While that was his name, he would always be Little Master to them.

“Boys, what have you done?” The woman asked.

Frisky went into his story again; by now he was getting used to telling it. When finished, Little Master walked up the water’s edge and looked out. Eenie, Meenie, Miney and Moe were clustered around their mother, talking excitedly. Frisky walked over to where the boy-turned-man stood. He still carried the yellow pail in his hand.

“Well Frisky, what are you going to do?”

Looking out over the Atlantic Ocean, he knew about the different types of fish living in it, it’s currents, navigation and ships-all thanks to a wish to be really smart.

“Little Master,” he began.

“Jim. My name is Jim”

Frisky smiled. “I know, but you will always be Little Master to me. Remember momma took us to you so you could name us. She said you were our Little Master because that’s what your momma calls you.”

With that last part, Jim turned to look back along the beach. In the distance, he could see his mom and dad. He sighed.

“That’s why I’m going to keep my name that you gave me as my human name,” Frisky concluded.

He looked at Frisky. Not twenty minutes ago he was a little boy with a mother cat and five kittens. Now he was a man talking to another man, which happened to be a kitten changed into a man by a genie.

“It’s just that, with the knowledge I have, there is so much I could do.” Frisky couldn’t look at him without feeling like he had betrayed Jim.

“Not too mention all the fun or trouble you could get into. Remember,” And he grinned at the former kitten, “I named you ‘Frisky’ for a reason. You were never like your brothers. You were the one always going out and exploring and getting into trouble. You got lots a couple of couple of time and me and queen Bee had to find you. You never did cry out, so we had a time.”

“As I recall, you got lost too and had to be found by your father with some help from Fireball.”

They both laughed at the memory. Then Jim said, “Fireball’s gonna miss you. Although he never will admit it; he loves you too.”

“Well I can fix that. I can turn Fireball into a human also. Then we could all live together and have fun and…”

“No.”

At that one word, Frisky turned to look at him. “Why?”

“I want you to turn me back into a little boy. I can’t speak for you or mother Queen Bee, but I’d rather grow up at my own pace than jump right into it. I’ve seen what being an adult has done to my mom and dad and I want to put it off as long as I can.”

“But…” Frisky started to plead.

“Now Frisk,” Jim begin and cocked his head, “you know I’m right. At least for me. For you and the others, who knows?” Silence. Smiling a wide smile, he put his hand on Frisky’s shoulder, “You know I’m right.”

Yeah, he did. “How’d you get so smart?” Frisky asked when he found his voice.

Laughing, he slid his arm around his shoulder and started to walk back to the group, “I had this kitten once...”

As they walked, Frisky sighed. He had hoped that Little Master would want to be a man. He had never even considered that perhaps there was more to this growing up and one’s own pace than he has imagined. But he would respect his wishes; after all, he was Little Master.
When they got back to the others, “Little Master wants to go back to the way he was.”

Eenie, Meenie, Miney and Moe looked him. “We want to stay with Frisky as a human,” Eenie said, as spokesman for the other brothers.

“Turn me back to the way I was,” exclaimed Queen Bee. All her sons turned to look at her. “I was weaning you boys to go out own. I just never imagined it would be this.

“But mom, who’ll take care of us?” Miney asked.

“Sweetheart, you take care of yourself and one another. Remember, you’re family. Watch out for one another. Besides,” and she turned bright green eyes onto Jim, “someone has to watch out for Little Master.” With that they all chuckled.

Frisky rubbed the ring and the genie appeared.

“Always know that we will be there for you if you need us,” Frisky said a little sadly.

“I know,” Little Master said. “Right now I just want to be a little boy who loves cats.”

With that, the man was gone, replaced by a small boy with a plastic yellow sand pail, an old tabby cat beside him. The five men looked at their former master. They were older and smarter than he was now, and they loved and revered this small boy who had given them so much love and attention in their short feline lives. The little boy looked up at them.

“Don’t forget us on the farm.”

He turned and started back down the beach toward his parents. The old female cat looked at each man with those bright green eyes, flicked her tail twice, and then scampered down the beach after the boy.

Frisky looked at his brothers. They all wore swimming trucks of different color and that was it. They were starting their lives with literally the clothes on their back.

“Genie,” Frisky said.

“Master.”

“I wish for a very nice house here on the beach, big enough for all of us to live in.”

Poof. They were now standing in front of a large, lovely house with a wooden deck than had a stairway running down, and ended right in front of them.

Frisky smiled as they made their way up the stairs of their new home. Perhaps this won’t be so bad after all, he thought.