Chapter 4

Rainy Day

Felix peered out his small window at the gray sky above. The sun was completely obscured by dark gray clouds that promised rain. Gusts of wind occasionally rattled the window pane and made the trees branches bend and wave. The leaves that were still attached to the trees were faded yellows and pale browns. The streets were blanketed with fallen leaves that were dry and shriveled. With each gust of wind these leaves rasped over the cobblestones so loudly that Felix could faintly hear it through his window. Basically it was a miserable late September day.

It had been exactly one week since old Anna had requested a visit from him and he had yet to go see her. At first he had considered going to visit with her. It might be interesting, and truly interesting things are a rarity in Winzeldorf. But so far, fear had won out over curiosity. Very few people had ever been inside Anna's house and fewer spoke of what they saw. Anna had no relatives and no true friends so no one really knew her. And no one wanted to either. She lived alone with an unknown number of cats leaving her house only to go to Church and buy supplies. He remembered the black, green-eyed cat that he'd seen with her and shivered.

He turned away from the dreary view and sank down onto his bed. Wolfie had caught the flu two days ago leaving Felix temporarily friendless. There were a few other boys like Heinrich, Axel, and Arnold that he considered friends, but he wasn't nearly as close to them as he was with Wolfie. Wolfie might not believe everything that he said, but he would never tell another soul. No one else would do that for him. If they heard something that they thought was interesting or might be true they would add his words to the rumor mill and he would gain more attention and possible trouble than he wanted. Right now Felix didn't feel quite desperate enough to seek out another friend to hang out with.

With a sigh Felix rolled off his bed and trudged downstairs. He entered the kitchen and began fixing himself a few sandwiches. As he filled the space between the pieces of bread he pondered the odd changes that life had decided to hit him with recently. He was always tired and irritable now and it didn't seem like mild sleep deprivation and odd nightmares could account for all of it. While he'd had no sudden migraines after the episode in the woods, he'd had strange aches and pains throughout his body. Sometimes his hands, feet, and ankles would stiffen up or become sore. Most mornings he woke up with a painfully stiff lower back that took extra time and effort to loosen up. And he was hungry all the time, which was why he was making himself several sandwiches.

After completing the final sandwich he wrapped two in napkins and placed them in his coat pockets and began to eat the third one. Felix pulled on his coat, left a note on his family's ancient refrigerator, and walked out the door. He was sick of contemplating the half-naked trees outside his window. He felt inexplicably restless and decided to go on a walk to try and clear his mind. The cold blast of wind that hit him as he stepped out of his home made him pause until he became a bit number to the cooler temperature. Felix took a bite out of his sandwich and wandered off towards the heart of town. Hopefully an hour or two out here would relieve his mysterious restlessness.

Felix ambled along the narrow streets of Winzeldorf on autopilot. He was peripherally aware of his surroundings so that he didn't do something stupid like walk into a light pole or get hit by the rare car, but his higher brain functions were not really functioning. He simply put one foot in front of the other and kept moving, sometimes following one street for several blocks before turning and other times he turned at every crossroads. The brown shriveled husks of old leaves crunched loudly under his feet but he barely heard them. The only time during his aimless wanderings that he was aware of his location was when he finished his first sandwich and stopped to unwrap a second. After starting the second sandwich he blanked out again until he almost stepped on a gray and white cat.

This jolted Felix back to the present and he froze. There was only one person who let their cat wander loose like this. Slowly he raised his eyes from the sidewalk and scanned the nearby buildings. He found himself on the edge of town were the houses were more spread out. He saw only a few houses, and one of them was Anna's. Her house looked the same as it always did. Her lawn and garden were simple, but well kept. All her shutters were firmly shut and the paint was peeling all over. The roof had several bare patches where the tiles were missing and the gutters were horribly rusted. The fence that had once surrounded the property had almost vanished with only a few posts still standing in some places. The building itself looked like it was sagging somehow and if he didn't know better he would say that it was abandoned.

The gray cat sudden darted from where it had sat in front of his feet towards the half-rotted porch of Anna's house. Silently he watched as the gray and white feline race across the leaf-littered lawn and into the shadows of the porch. The dim shadows swallowed the pale cat and he moved closer to Anna's house to try and see where the cat had gone. Just as he finished up his second sandwich the dark wooden door abruptly creaked open to reveal Anna herself. Her hair was in its customary sloppy ponytail and she had her signature flower, this one was a purple silk rose, tucked behind her ear. The grayish cat suddenly reappeared as it darted out from behind some empty flower pots and went into the house. Anna was closing the door when she spotted him and smiled.

"Guten Tag Felix! I never thought you'd come." She greeted warmly. "Please come in and I'll make you some tea."

Without really thinking about it Felix did as he was told. He crossed the lawn and entered into old crazy Anna's house before he even realized that he'd moved. What probably surprised him the most about Anna's house was the smell. The smallest number of cats she was said to have was ten and it certainly didn't smell like ten cats lived here. It didn't smell like any cats lived here at all. Cautiously he followed Anna into a small parlor room and sat down on the couch while she bustled off to make some tea. While he waited, Felix started on his final sandwich and glanced around the room.

The furniture was old, worn, and scratched, but still serviceable. The carpet was worn flat and discolored from hundreds of cat feet treading on it. The wallpaper was old, faded, and discolored in a few places, but it didn't look ugly. The walls were covered with old pictures in simple wooden frames. They mostly depicted various cats in different poses and settings. Some of the pictures looked professionally taken while others were more amateurish. There were pictures of kittens playing with yarn and cats hiding under baskets. The few pictures that weren't of cats looked like old family photos. They were all faded black-and-white snapshots of people that could be relatives or friends. Felix was so busy looking at the pictures he missed Anna's return to the room.

"You like my pictures Felix?" She asked pleasantly making Felix jump a bit.

"Um, yes, very nice. Who took them?" He asked a bit nervously.

"An old friend of mine took most of them for me. Unfortunately she died several years ago so I cannot tell her that you like them." Anna quietly replied pouring two cups of some sort of herbal tea.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He apologized.

"Don't worry about it. Julia was very old, much older than I. She went peacefully in her sleep and now is in a better place." Anna sighed sadly. A black cat, the same one from before he thought, leapt up into her lap and began to purr and snuggle against her.

"Well, um, why did you want to see me?" Felix wondered anxiously.

"Hm? Oh yes, I wished to know more about your dream in private. Are you still experiencing it?" Anna asked sipping her tea.

"Yes, I'm still suffering through it." He admitted.

"Describe to me exactly what you see in it." She commanded.

"Well, it starts out dark, I can't see anything or hear anything. I can't really remember who I am and I feel a bit panicky. Then suddenly I see a scene out in the woods. It only lasts a few seconds and then I see another scene in town. It's raining really hard and no one else is around. Next it changes to a really blurry image of a campfire. There are other people around but I can't see their faces or hear if they are saying anything. Then finally it changes to the last scene, but it's so fuzzy that I can't really see anything at all. All I hear are people screaming. It goes black and…and…" Felix paused.

"Go on." Anna gently urged.

"And this word comes to me. The word it 'death' I think, and it scares me. Then I wake up." Felix finished. Anna sat back and looked to be deep in thought for a while. The only time she moved was to pet the black cat or take a sip of tea.

"Have you ever seen any of these places that were in your dream?" She asked finally.

"Yes, I found the place in the woods last week and I think the place in town is outside Herr Brunner's bookstore." Felix replied after thinking for a moment.

"Did anything strange happen to you in those places recently?" Anna asked.

"Um, well in the woods I got this weird headache that left me feeling awful." He reluctantly admitted. Anna and her black cat studied him hard for a few minutes that made Felix squirm.

"Has anything else strange happened to you since that headache?" She inquired, her voice was grave.

"I haven't been sleeping well from the nightmares and I wake up with a really sore back now. Sometimes my hands and feet hurt and I've been really hungry lately." Felix sighed. Anna returned to studying him and Felix sought to ignore her by tasting her tea. He found it to be surprisingly sweet and it was flavored with a trace of peppermint.

"Well Felix, I'm not sure what to tell you." Anna admitted. "I could tell you some secrets and warn you, or I could just warn you. Which would you prefer?" She asked looking quite serious.

"I think I'll take the first option." Felix decided. He was quite curious to see what secrets the rumored witch of Winzeldorf had to tell him.

"Every once and in a while a special individual is born. At first they start out the same as everyone else. They are the same as everyone else except for one tiny difference deep in their essence. And when that special individual gets to a certain age that one special part of their essence comes alive and changes them completely." Anna began, she took a sip from her teacup before resuming.

"I am one of these special people. When I was young I suffered through headaches and visions. As what I saw in my visions began coming true I was frightened. I saw people who I'd never met before die then I would hear about it later in the news. There was a point in time when I considered taking my own life so that I wouldn't have to see anything else that I didn't want to see. I had decided to use a knife and was seconds away from plunging it into my chest when I had another vision." Again Anna paused to take a sip of tea. Felix sat on the edge of the couch mesmerized by her oddly compelling tale.

"This time I did not see the future, but the past. I saw a scene from the war. Two men jumped from a low-flying plane without parachutes and stormed a Nazi concentration camp. Together they destroyed it and saved several prisoners in an army truck. I watched one boy deflect a flying grenade in mid-air seemingly by magic. One of the men wore a Canadian army uniform. The other wore a strange suit that resembled the American's flag and he carried a round shield." Anna paused to study Felix's reaction to this. He didn't know what to think, but continued to listen nonetheless.

"This vision stopped me from ending my life. It was then that I learned that there were other special people out there somewhere, that I wasn't losing my mind. So I put aside the knife and did my best to go on living as best I could. In time I found that cats helped keep me calm so that the visions were easier to take and even control to an extent. And now I live here with as many cats as I can take care of waiting for the day when others like me come and pay me a visit. I know they will, just not when it will be." Anna said, finishing her tale. She poured herself a new cup of tea before she spoke again.

"And now for the warning. From what you have told me and the murky visions that I have seen I cannot tell you anything for certain. All I know is that you are a special person like I am and that your change is at hand. It will be painful and your life will change, but the details remain hidden from my sight." Anna declared.

"Well, what should I do then?" Felix asked unsure of how to take this news.

"Just be careful and take care of yourself." She said sadly. Felix looked at her blankly before he looked down at his watch.

"It's getting late, I have to go home." Felix muttered. His finished the last of his tea and stood up. "Tchâ, and thank you for the tea."

"You are welcome Felix. Feel free to come back anytime." Anna replied quietly.

As Felix walked out of the room and out of the house a few more of Anna's cats padded into the room. Cleopatra the white and gray cat flopped down on the back of the couch that the young German teen had just vacated. Agatha a white and brown spotted cat curled around Anna's ankles. Maxi the black cat began to purr loudly in her lap. Gustav the dark gray tom cat seated himself regally on the arm of her chair. When Anna heard the door rattle shut she closed her eyes and sighed sadly.

"God please have mercy on that poor boy." Anna whispered and crossed herself with the Lord's sign.


Felix pulled his coat tightly shut as he trudged down the narrow cobblestone streets back to this home. While he'd been in Anna's house it had started to rain lightly and now it had worsened into a heavy downpour. It was nearly as dark as night now even though it was barely four o'clock. If it had been cold before it was freezing now and made worse by the icy rain that hammered down from the black heavens above. The weather was absolutely miserable and he was the only person out in it as far as he could see. By the time he reached Herr Brunner's bookstore he was soaked and stepped under the store's awning to gain some respite from the torrential downpour.

When he turned back to look out at the rain he realized something. This was exactly what he saw in the second scene from his dream. Then the migraine returned out of nowhere. He instantly fell to his knees clutching his exploding head. All the pains that he had experienced form before hit him all at once. His head was in immeasurable agony, his hands and feet felt like a steamroller was going over them. His lower back spasmed and locked up leaving him temporarily paralyzed. His vision blurred and swam as he struggled not to throw up. But through the pain he had only one thought. Anna could actually be right. Verdammt!