Up past the Russell Hotel, Grizabella trudged through the hazy streets of Edwardian London, the silvery-looking tiara clutched in her stained teeth. I'll give the crown to Macavity and he'll let me leave with Demeter, she said to herself, making her plans. We'll go back to the vicarage. I don't know why she left in the first place, with Munkustrap there to take care of her, but that's where she belongs.
She recalled taking her small black and gold ball of fur to the village, where she'd heard her friend was living, then returning to the city much relieved, knowing that Demeter would be safe. Though younger than she, Munk had always been the responsible one, ensuring a warm place to sleep and food to eat when she'd returned from one of her tears.
Who'd have ever supposed that...that Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, would have such a taste for ale and trouble, she lamented with a shiver, her ragged taupe coat providing poor protection from the morning chill.
All of those low resorts she'd haunted, all of those toms, Macavity being the worst of the lot. Gus had apologized so many times over the years for introducing her and the other stage mollies to Griddlebones's fascinating trio.
Munkustrap had been the youngest and most endearing, Rumpuscat infuriating, teasing her like a little brother would, and Macavity...
She sighed. There's no one like Macavity—outwardly respectable but depraved. He'd at first been dazzled by me but then, I became as tarnished in his eyes as this old crown, and then I saw his cruel side. That was around the time that Munk left. I suppose he took out that anger on me. But to threaten me with the big dogs...What did I have after that, but even lower resorts, more toms, then Demeter.
Up, up, up, Grizabella climbed. My kitten is so lovely now, she continued. Beautiful as I was, but I could tell from the way she acted that she won't fall into the traps that I did. She wants to go home, to Old Deuteronomy, Jenny Anydots and...
"Grizabella? Is that you?" she heard from a voice to her side. Her breath caught as she discerned through the fog and faint light, Munkustrap, Scat and two toms that she didn't know running toward her.
"Munk!" she exclaimed, quickly dropping the crown and running her paw over her face and coat in a futile attempt to improve her appearance. "What are you doing here?"
His grey eyes were hard with determination, like granite. "I've come to bring Demeter home," he said, his voice having the same stony quality. "She came to town with a friend. I'm afraid that they might have found Mac—"
Grizabella nodded and tried to whip her limp, formerly plume-like tail in her anxiousness. "He has her. He said she's been safe, but if I don't give him my crown, that...that could change." She choked on her last words, and her thin shoulders shook, as she gave in to the sobs for her daughter that she'd contained for years.
Rumpuscat went to stand beside her and nuzzle the frayed fur to comfort her, avoiding the watery but dull ochre eyes of the once most beautiful queen.
She could feel his repulse in the tension of his muscled neck, but it was nothing compared to the disdain she could sense from the other two. The wiry one flounced his great, shaggy scruff and turned away from her. The small black and white just sat quietly, eyeing her until she felt that she preferred the rebuff of the other to that silent inquisition.
She directed herself to the only one who didn't show disgust. "I've got the crown and I'm on my way back to his lair. Oh, Munkustrap, I don't know what I'll do if he won't give her to me!"
Suddenly the sky seemed to reverberate with a cat's screech. The humans walking along the lightening street and around the cats' confabulation seemed not to notice, but all five felines fell to the ground and covered their heads with their paws at the piercing sound.
Mister Mistoffelees was the first to recover. He lifted his head and his black eyes widened in wonder. The Jellicle cats had to be gathered under the Jellicle moon for one to be chosen for the Heaviside layer. He was magical and he'd never heard of it just happening. But there was no denying the giant black claw that was extending from the heavens, directed at the mollie. He scurried over to the Tugger and communicated all.
"Misto says she's being called because she's done all she can here and she was willing to sacrifice everything to save her daughter," Tugger reported, his scratchy yowl carrying a touch of disbelief. "She's shown the best of our kind and earned her place with the Heaviside cats."
Misto nodded then raised his head to his friend's ear again. Still shaking his head, Tugger translated, "If she doesn't go now, something terrible could happen to her, or to us, since we've witnessed the summons."
Grizabella looked up at the claw and beneficent cat's face that only she could in the clouds, then back at the four toms who surrounded her. "But, Demeter..."
Munkustrap placed her crown over her greying, blunted ears. "Demeter is my responsibility now. "I'll make sure she knows that you loved her and would have done anything for her."
The knuckles of the claw now rested on the ground, the arm angled like a ramp for the Glamour Cat's ascension. The humans milling around them still seemed inexplicably oblivious to the remarkable event.
Grizabelled looked in the face of the only cat that she would have trusted with what was most precious to her. The old friends nodded in understanding and the claw carrying her whooshed back into the heavens. The people continued in their ignorance and Munkustrap and his bank resumed their quest for love, adventure and, as they now understood, the betterment of cats everywhere.