"Strange"
"Weird"
"Unnatural"
These are the words she hears from other parents as she walks home from school. One little paw holding tightly onto her father's, the other paw with equal firmness clutching her second father's.
Victoria has two dads, and no mother. Apparently that's a bad thing. "How can she grow up without a mother's influence?" "An unstable household such as that must be terrible for her" "how can they give her the love she needs?"
The wild flirt and the magic freak that's what they call them, an unnatural couple. Raising a kitten who isn't theirs. Victoria knows they aren't her real fathers, but she doesn't mind because they love her anyway. "We found you one day outside the junkyard, you reached out your arms to us" says Uncle Tugger (she calls them both Uncle)"
"and then you became ours" finishes Uncle Misto without any hesitation. They're her guardians, her fathers. She has no doubt about it, together they're a family
"But it's the wrong sort if family" they say. When she asks some of the older kittens to explain they tell her "two toms can't love each other, it's not right, it's not real love." That's what she hears. Victoria doesn't really understand what's right love and what's not. She isn't even entirely certain of what love is.
She thinks it might have something to do with the snowy winter evenings when they can't go outside. Uncle Misto will pick her up and say "do you want to dance little princess?" She purrs and nods eagerly; dancing is one of her favorite things to do. So together they dance round their small den (uncle Misto and Uncle Tugger weren't allowed anything bigger) to Uncle Misto's soft voice singing "Jellicle cats come out tonight."
"But Mist you and I came out many nights ago" chuckles Uncle Tugger, although she doesn't understand how it's funny and apparently Uncle Misto doesn't either.
"Tug NOT in front of the kit" he scolds while trying to hide a smile 'what is it that's so funny?' she thinks. Uncle Tugger pouts and pretends to be upset. So Uncle Misto has to go over and gives him a kiss to say sorry.
One time she woke up in the middle of the night hearing quiet music playing. She got up and padded to the front of the den where the music was coming from. Poking her head round the corner she saw Uncle Tugger and Uncle Misto dancing together. They were holding each other close and she could see their eyes glowing in the firelight. As they spun in slow circles she caught sight of Uncle Tugger smile and gently nuzzle Uncle Misto. In response Uncle Misto raised his head so their lips could meet "Is that good or bad love?" she wondered as she crept back to bed.
She still wasn't sure about what good and bad love when they talked about it in school. The others said things like "my mother says two toms or two queens mating weren't allowed once, if they got caught they were punished." "Why is that?" "Because it's weird" "because it's unnatural" "because it's queer". She hears those words over and over again, weird, unnatural, bad. Sometimes the others call her names or they avoid her like she has a disease, as if living with "queer parents" was contagious.
Eventually even her friends started moving away when she sat down with them to eat her lunch. Her break times were increasingly spent alone underneath a special tree that she liked. No because she wanted to be alone but because whenever she tried to play with the other kittens they pushed her away.
One day the teasing became unbearable. Almost everywhere she went she heard the words 'bad family, bad parents, bad love, bad bad bad' it was almost like a chant now 'bad bad bad'. When she opened her lunch box she found that her sandwich had been thrown away and replaced with mud and pebbles. And to crown it all off the other kittens hid her scarf so she couldn't wear it when she went outside. She really liked her scarf; it had a pink ballet dancer on it. Uncle Tugger had chosen it especially for her for when she started school. Scrunching her nose up she tried really hard not to cry. Crying meant red and puffy eyes which would make her fathers worried.
She spent the day shivering and when she woke up next morning her head felt warm and her nose was all drippy and sneezy.
Uncle Tugger and Uncle Misto stayed at home that day to look after her. Uncle Tugger let her sit on his lap and cuddle into his nice warm mane. When she asked if this would make him sick too he pulled a face. "The Rum Tum Tugger never gets sick because he has a super immune system"
"A super duper immune system?" she giggled
"A super duper immune system" agreed Uncle Tugger
Uncle Misto coaxed her to take some medicine, promising some magic tricks if she drank it all. He even took a spoonful himself to prove that it wasn't poison. After watching him very closely to make sure he wasn't poisoned she swallowed the horrible tasting stuff, followed quickly by some hot chocolate to take the taste away.
That evening after Uncle Misto had read to her a story about a cat called Slinky Malinki and kissed her goodnight Victoria lay waiting for the sandman to come (she really wanted to meet him but always fell asleep before he came). Suddenly she heard a tapping from the window. Sitting up in bed she pulled back the curtains. Taped to the window was a sign saying…
Your family is full of BAD LOVE
Soon it will receive BAD LUCK
Victoria shivered, her small ears pressed against her head with fear. Being as quiet as possible she opened the window inwards and took the sign down, she didn't want her fathers to see this. She hid the sign very carefully at the bottom of her clothes draw and crawled back into bed. Victoria wished the sick feeling in her stomach would disappear like the sign had.
'Maybe' Victoria thought 'maybe if my father's don't know about bad love the bad luck won't get them'. Curling up tight underneath the blankets two question spin round and round her head.
What it good love?
What is bad love?
Fins