A ginger tom with long claws was slowly walking down the streets of London, moving away from the junkyard. How could he ever return to that place? He couldn't. There was no way for him to return there. If he did he would only be thrown out anyway or get killed himself. He sighed and leaned against a lamp post. He looked up at the sky. The Jellicle moon was shining brightly down at him. He looked at his hand. The lightning from before… he could still feel it tingling. He sighed and looked up at the moon again. He slowly started talking to her, the moon and the Everlasting Cat herself.
"How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in Cardiff by providence, impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?" He sighed and then gasped when he heard someone reply to him.
"The protecting founding father without a father got a lot farther by working a lot harder, by being a lot smarter, by being a self-starter", the person replied and the ginger tom felt tears threaten to spill as he saw the shadow of a black and white tom dance all over the road as he talked. "By fourteen, they placed him in charge of a trading charter." The ginger tom reached out towards the black and white tom, but the tom just smiled and jumped into the shadows and disappeared. The other tom sighed and turned around. He had heard another voice behind him.
"And every day while slaves were being slaughtered and carted away across the town, he struggled and kept his guard up", this cat said. It was a small mostly brown tom. He had some lighter fur on his, but he was mostly brown. He had a slight accent. "Inside, he was longing for something to be a part of, the brother was ready to beg, steal, borrow or barter."
"Then a hurricane came, and devastation reigned", another voice said. this time it was a grey tom, taller than the Ginger tom, with broader shoulders as well. "Our man saw his future drip, dripping down the drain. Put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain, and he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain." The tom looked at the ginger tom before running off with the grey tom. The ginger tom looked at the moon again.
"Well, the word got around, they said, 'This kid is insane, man'" he told the moon. "Took up a collection just to send him to the neighboring land. Get your education, don't forget from whence you came, and the world is gonna know your name. What was your name, man?" The ginger tom turned back to face the road he had just walked down. He gasped when he saw the shadow of a silver tabby standing right behind him.
"Munkustrap", the silver tabby said. "My name is Munkustrap. And there's a million things I haven't done, but just you wait, just you wait..." The ginger tom could not face him so he turned away again, only to get face to face with a black and gold tabby queen. She looked at him sadly.
"When he was ten his father split, full of it, debt-ridden, two years later, see Munk and his mother bed-ridden, half-dead sittin' in their own sick, the scent thick", she said softly.
"And Munk got better but his mother went quick", many voices whispered from the darkness around him. The ginger tom backed away and collided with something. He turned around and noticed a rather large and mostly grey tom. The tom was looking up towards the moon as well.
"Moved in with a cousin, the cousin committed suicide", the old tom told the moon. "Left him with nothin' but ruined pride, something new inside, a voice saying: 'You gotta fend for yourself.'"
"Munk, you gotta fend for yourself", many voices whispered from the shadows.
"He started retreatin' and readin' every treatise on the shelf", the old tom continued and the ginger tom stood beside him and looked at the moon as well.
"There would have been nothin' left to do for someone less astute", the ginger tom said. "He woulda been dead or destitute without a cent of restitution. He started workin', clerkin' for his late mother's landlord, tradin' all the things he can't afford. Scammin' for every book he can get his hands on. Plannin' for the future see him now as he stands at the back of a train headed for a new land, in London you can be a new man!" He could see the silver tabby in front of him. The tom was much younger than the last time he saw him and he was standing at the back of the luggage wagon on the train to London.
"Just you wait!" the silver tabby purred excitedly. "Just you wait!"
"Munkustrap!" many voices called from the shadows around the ginger tom and the grey tom at his side. "We are waiting in the wings for you. You could never back down, you never learned to take your time! Oh, Munkustrap when London sings for you will they know what you overcame? Will they know you rewrote the game? The world will never be the same… Munkustrap we are waiting in the wings for you… You never learned to take your time! Munkustrap London sings for you. Will they know what you overcame? Will they know you rewrote the game? The world will never be the same!"
"The train is at the station now", the ginger tom said and pointed at the hallucination in front of him and the grey tom looked at him and then to where he was pointing. "See if you can spot him. Another immigrant, comin' up from the bottom. His enemies destroyed his rep, London forgot him."
Suddenly the grey tom from before and the smaller brown tom appeared.
"We fought with him", they said. The ginger tom looked up at a rooftop nearby and saw the shadow of a black and white patched tom look down at the group of cats below.
"Me?" he said and many eyes turned to him, some even gasped. "I died for him."
"Me?" the grey tom at the ginger cat's side asked. "I trusted him."
"Me? I loved him." It was said by three voices at the same time. From the shadows appeared a scarlet queen and by her side was the black and gold queen from before. A bit away from them was a sleek Abyssinian queen, moving elegantly in the light.
"And me?" the ginger tom asked as everyone looked at him. "I'm the damn fool that shot him." He looked at his paw again, static electricity still dancing around there. He looked ahead of him and saw the shadow of the silver tabby again.
"What's your name, man?" he wailed.
"Munkustrap!" everyone around him called. The ginger tom clutched his head and crouched on the ground. Why would they not leave him alone!? He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and looked up at the big grey tom next to him. The tom smiled soothingly.
"Tell me what happened", he said.
"Where should I start?"
"I find the beginning is always best."
The ginger tom sighed and sat down on the curb, the grey tom watched him. He knew other cats were watching him from the shadows.
"It began in 1976", he said. "Downton London…"
Whoa I have not written any CATS stuff in years! But this one just hit me. I am pretty sure someone has already done this, but this is my take on it.