Cat Fancierby Jennifer Brock A lonely man, a cat, a goddess, a wish A former Stardust exclusive

Once again, Elliott Witherspoon trudged home alone after painfully striking out at the bar. And just as usual, he sat in the tiny apartment behind his antique shop and wept pathetically. He picked up his cat, a longhaired black Persian mix, and stroked her fur. Ever since his mother died, Scheherazade was the only female in the world who understood him. He sighed and thought that if only she could speak, she could tell him what it was about him that women found so unappealing. He wasn’t sleepy enough, so he thought he’d get some work done before bed. There was a box of things he’d recently acquired at an estate sale that he needed to inventory. The set of silver Art Nouveau combs that he’d bought the box for had turned out to be plated reproductions when he got a good look at them, and he hoped the rest of it wasn’t all junk too. One piece that seemed promising was a bronze hand mirror in an Egyptian revival style. The handle was in the form of a nude woman with the head of a cat standing tall, her arms spread wide above her to hold the large reflecting disc. It was in very good condition and only required a bit of polishing. Elliott couldn’t find a maker’s mark on it anywhere, so he had no way to authenticate it. For a fleeting moment, he wondered if it could possibly be an actual relic that he’d have to turn over to the proper authorities, but it was far better shape than anything he’d ever seen in a museum.

As he dusted the mirror with a tack rag, he noticed that Scheherazade was watching him intently, and paying attention to something. It puzzled him until he saw that every so often the shiny surface was catching the image of the full moon coming in from his window and bouncing it onto the wall where she kept looking. He decided to play with her, and figured out how to hold it so it shone a bright spot on the floor, which he slowly moved back and forth to catch her interest. She sneakily crept up and pretended not to be watching her prey, but the instant the spot stopped moving, she pounced on it. He was planning on tilting the mirror and teasing her by making the light go away, but she moved too fast and caught him off guard. Then something impossible happened — the instant the reflected moonbeam hit the cat, she disappeared. And not by running away; he watched as she slowly lost substance and became transparent before vanishing completely.

This could not be happening! It had to be some kind of hallucination, or maybe he’d fallen asleep while working and this was all a dream, or maybe he’d had the nervous breakdown his mother had always warned him about. Elliott tried to bring his mind to a calm, rational place and keep from getting hysterical. His brain told him that she couldn’t possibly have evaporated and must have just run out of the room. He made some kissing noises with his mouth and tried calling his kitty to make her come out from wherever she was hiding. He didn’t even realize that he was still holding the mirror until he caught a glimpse and noticed it in the corner of his eye.

Scheherazade was disoriented. The power of the reflected full moon had caused her to be shunted to the spiritual realm, where she hovered on the edges of reality. Her senses hadn’t adjusted to their new environment yet, and her mind was being expanded in ways her tiny physical brain could never have understood. But somewhere just out of reach she thought she could hear the sound that usually came before she got a treat, and she headed in the direction of the bright circle that seemed to be making the sound.

Elliott took another good look at the mirror, and wondered if the feline figure on the handle had anything to do with his cat’s disappearance. But that was a crazy thought. He looked into his reflection and it almost seemed as if the mirror’s surface was shinier than it had been a moment ago, and it might even have been glowing.

Scheherazade leaped out of the mirror and right into Elliott’s eyes, the gateway to his soul. All of her senses seemed to be reduced — there were some familiar smells but there was a lot of texture missing and everything seemed far away, she could hear a few sounds that weren’t quite loud enough but had difficulty orienting her ears at them, and it seemed darker than it should be although colors were more varied and intense. When everything finally came into focus, she could see the face of the man who brings the food, looking up at her from some round thing that was held in her paw, only it wasn’t her paw. Even though the goddess had told her it would happen it was still very confusing.

Elliott could feel that something was different, but he didn’t understand what. Then he heard an odd voice in his head that was not his own. It seemed to be that of a foreign woman who wasn’t quite human. “I am here for you,” it said. He panicked, wondering why his mind had chosen this particular moment in time to go insane. “You wished that I could guide you, and my goddess answered your prayer.”

It took a while, but gradually he came to accept the bizarre reality that this ancient Egyptian mirror was magical, and through its power the priestesses were able to communicate with their goddess. She ruled over felines, and when Elliott expressed a desire for Scheherazade to help him understand women, divine intervention brought her soul into his body to guide him. The mirror could be used every time the moon was full to call the goddess and ask a favor of her. The whole mind-blowing conversation left him both physically and emotionally exhausted, so he went to bed early.

He woke up to find himself lying on the kitchen floor, with his face in a bowl of milk, lapping at it. Scheherazade was not used to sleeping for as long a stretch as he was, so she was able to take control of his body to get up and get a snack. He had a funny aftertaste in his mouth and saw something horrifying. She must have figured out how to work the pull tabs on the cat food cans, because there was a brown lump in the dish beside him with a human-sized bite taken out of it. He wanted to throw up.

“It didn’t smell the same with your nose, but I tried it anyway.” She was reading his mind or something, it was weird! He tried to stand up and go rinse out his mouth, but he couldn’t make himself move — her will was stronger than his, so he just had to watch himself going through the motions of eating like a cat. He had to ride along and watch until she got tired and went to sleep again.

He had to keep the shop closed the next day, as they spent all day learning how to co-exist. He was grateful that she took frequent naps, but she reacted with abject fear when he went to take a shower, and they had to fight for control of the body. Lunch was a compromise of some turkey sandwich meat eaten without bread. By the time evening came they were cooperating fairly well, and she brought up the topic that brought her there: “You asked for me to help you find a mate. Let us go find one for you.” She let him have control of the body to get dressed up and drive out to his usual bar, but once there she took over.

According to her, the first step was to find an appropriate partner. She looked around the room for the biggest and most powerful male. Elliott was powerless to act as his body gracefully slinked across the bar and sidled up to this big blond stud covered in muscles, but then turned and walked a few feet away, then stuck his butt out and looked back over his left shoulder at the slab of beef. He shouted in his mind for Scheherazade to stop, but she ignored him. Muscles didn’t seem interested, so she walked Elliott’s body over to her prey again. Elliott felt his hand reach out and lightly stroke the manly man’s chest.

That was too much for the guy. “Hey! Buzz off, you pansy!”

The horny cat wouldn’t take the hint. She made Elliott’s voice answer him, “I am showing you that I am ready for mating. Are you?” The last straw for Studly was when Elliott leaned down to sniff his crotch. He clenched a ham-sized fist and swung it at the little fruit. Scheherazade tried to extend her claws and scratch him, but the net effect was only a limp slapping across his face. The larger man got in two more good shots before the bartender broke it up and threw Elliott out, telling him that this wasn’t a gay bar and he should try the Pink Parrot down the street.

She released control and let Elliott stagger to his car and drive home. During the couple of days he was recovering from his injuries, they had several arguments about her behavior in the bar. She said she’d tried to show him how to get a mate and did nothing wrong, but he said he didn’t want to know how to pick up guys! She got angry and said that since his people had been the ones who took her babies away and prevented her body from ever knowing a tom again, so it was only fair that he allow her to use his body to be able to do so. He argued that the people at the shelter where he rescued her had been the ones to sell her kittens and get her spayed, so it wasn’t his fault. He wasn’t gay and didn’t want to mate with a male. Her revenge was to influence his body into producing the hormone levels of a female cat in heat, which made it difficult for Elliott. It gave him bizarre dreams, and started making some physical changes in his body.

He was able to hold out for a week, but then it got too much for him. She threatened to find a way for someone else to take them to a place to meet a male for mating the next time he fell asleep, and he just caved in and dressed up as nicely as he could and drove off to the Pink Parrot. None of the beefy guys that Scheherazade flirted with seemed interested in Elliott, though. He was too old. Driving home after an evening of getting shot down at a gay club was the most depressing thing he’d ever done. They were both sexually frustrated, and his altered blood chemistry wouldn’t even let him get erect enough to masturbate. He tried to convince her to stop and let him go back to trying to find a female mate, but she wouldn’t hear it. She increased the level of her assault on his metabolism and decided to lower her standards the next time they went out to seek a man.

By the time the next full moon arrived, his genitals had shrunken significantly, it seemed like he was starting to sprout tiny breasts, and he had been anally violated at least a dozen times. He caught a moonbeam and looked in the mirror, and wasn’t quite prepared for what happened next. He seemed to be simultaneously sitting in his living room and in a grand ethereal palace. A soothingly powerful female voice filled his ears, “Greetings, my child. How are you getting along with your spiritual advisor?”

He wasn’t sure how to reply. “Your majesty, I am grateful that you tried to give me what I asked for, but there is a small problem. She is giving me the sex drive of a female cat in her prime, but it just isn’t working in my male human body. Is there something you could do to fix this?”

“I understand. The incompatibility can be corrected, that you may work together more fluidly.”

Elliott’s body was wracked in pain and he passed out. When he came to, his room seemed a little larger. He asked the voice in his head what happened. She told him that the goddess in her wisdom bestowed upon them a body that was more up to the task. He picked up the mirror and looked at his reflection. He saw a cute face framed in dark black hair that was longer than his had been. It was a feminine face. He looked down at the delicate hand holding the mirror and then at the perfect breasts poking up at the shirt which hung loosely on his body. The goddess had turned him into a woman, and a significantly younger one at that! He was confused, but at the same time curious. She had said that the mirror would work for every full moon, so what would be the harm in exploring what life would be as a sexy girl for a month?

Elliott took a long bath, using some of the bath oil that Mother used to love. She let her fingers explore all the exciting new crevices and contours of her body. Scheherazade even enjoyed it, despite being covered in water. After getting out of the tub it didn’t seem right to put on her old male pajamas, so she snuck into Mother’s room and picked out a nightgown. In the morning, she spent some time going through her wardrobe for something to wear. She found some big white cotton panties and an industrial strength bra that didn’t quite fit, but the size was close. She pulled on a blue dress that she had always looked nice in and tried on a few pairs of shoes until finding some sandals that fit the best. But looking in Mother’s full-length mirror showed a very frumpy looking girl. She would need help in getting the right look.

She ran through the phone book until she found a beauty salon that was available for a full makeover, giving her name as “Ellie” when asked. She took all the money from the cash register and put it in one of Mother’s old pocketbooks, and withdrew the limit with her ATM card. The ladies at the salon agreed that she needed a lot of help and asked if she was a runaway nun. Ellie just said that her mother hadn’t raised her as very girly and it was time to step out from under her thumb. Scheherazade chimed in and asked if they could make her desirable to a male. The experts looked her over and decided that it would be possible. She had to strip off all her clothes and put on a short pink kimono. Her makeover began with a full waxing of her legs, underarms, and “bikini area.” It was so painful that kitty wanted to scratch the girl’s eyes out and Ellie had to exert her will to calm her down. Her hair was washed and styled next, and given a slight perm for body. It was a short style, but looked really cute. While her hair was drying, they gave her a full mani/pedi treatment, giving all her nails a bright red lacquer finish. A facial treatment followed, and a cosmetician did her face with soft, sultry makeup. There was more pain as her eyebrows were plucked and shaped. When they were done working on her, she was gorgeous! She thanked them all, but realized that her hot little self shouldn’t put her old lady clothes back on.

The solution presented itself. On the same block was a trendy boutique. An assistant came over from there with a tape measure and figured out all of Ellie’s sizes. She came back with an exciting outfit for her to wear, starting with beautiful lingerie and ending with a short, tight red dress that would make her the star of any nightclub. The shoes they gave her had a tiny spike heel that scared her, but she had no problem walking in them, easily crossing the room with a catlike grace and a sexy sway in her hips. She went over to the boutique and picked out a few more outfits, as much as her budget could afford.

Elliott’s old regular bar wasn’t good enough for her, so she went downtown to an upscale dance club, where she had no trouble finding tasty hunks to rub up against. When the time came to pick one to go home with, it was a tricky decision, but she let the moistening in her panties decide. The nicely tanned specimen she went to bed with was impressed by the things she could do with her tongue, and didn’t even mind the scratches she left on his back. He asked for her number, but she wasn’t really ready to be tied down.

She spent the next few days enjoying a different man every night, letting her inner cat take over sometimes, but sometimes doing it herself. She wore some of her mother’s things to work in the shop in the daytime, (introducing herself as Elliott’s cousin to some of his regular customers) but all new clubwear at night. The first couple weeks were easy, as she seemed to have the stamina of two, but after a while Scheherazade wasn’t taking control very often, so Ellie had to cut back to dating only every other night. It was incredible. She was enjoying life a thousand times more than she ever had as an old depressed man, and made the decision that she didn’t want to have to go back.

Ellie was nervous as she got ready to greet the rising moon. She dressed as carefully as she would for a big date, but in a more conservative and respectful style in a new white silk blouse and a charcoal pinstriped pencil skirt. She wore more makeup than for a date though, emulating the elaborately painted faces she found in a catalog of Egyptian art. She really hoped that the goddess would appreciate it. She’d placed a chair by the window where it would be sure to catch the moonlight, and checked an online almanac to be sure of the exact time of moonrise. On her lap she clutched a large manila envelope in which she’d placed every legal or official document of Elliott’s she could find: birth certificate, passport, driver’s license, credit cards, car registration, insurance papers, and all the paperwork for the store. She held the mirror in her right hand, and had to struggle to keep it from shaking. When the first glint of moonlight appeared, she took a deep breath and held out the mirror to catch it, enjoying the sexy feel of her lace bra against the swell of her bosom.

When the moment struck and she was filled with the presence of the goddess, it was even more overwhelming than the last time. It was as though being in the most loving maternal embrace while at the same time being aware of the awesome power of a hungry Bengal tiger in the room. She felt truly humbled before it. “I thank you for this audience, My Lady. I sincerely appreciate all that you have done for me, and ask but one more favor of you.”

“What do you seek, my child?” The voice that might have been in her ear or might have been in her head was exotic yet familiar, extremely feminine yet not sexual.

“This body you have given me is wonderful, but I have trouble proving that it belongs to me. All of my documents are for a 48-year-old male, and not a 24-year-old female, and I don’t want to lose my home or my livelihood. So if it’s at all possible, could you change these things that I’m holding to reflect my new identity? I apologize if I’m asking too much of you.”

“That can be done, although it is not within my power to do so. I shall ask my brother, he who gave writing to your people, to change all record and history of who you were to become who you are, in those things you hold and in any others. But I shall not be able to grant you another boon again after this — there are limits on how many times we may interfere in the lives of any mortal. Are you certain you do not wish to return?”

“No, ma’am, I feel as though I you have given me a second chance at a complete life, something I had never been able to find when I was a man.” Ellie thought for a while and added, “I can never thank you enough. I am concerned that Scheherazade has gone away. I haven’t felt her spirit or heard her voice in my head for some time. If something’s happened to her and I only get one more miracle, I’d rather use it to save my kitty.”

“Fear not, my child. She is safe. Her soul is still with you, but it is no longer sharing space with yours, so the connection is not as strong as it was. You will see her again when three seasons have passed and her new body is ready. She will recognize you and know you without understanding why, and will need your help learning how to get around in the world. But she will love you unconditionally, and you will both be better for it. Even though I can grant you no more favors, you are welcome to use the mirror to seek my counsel at each moon.”

“Thank you so much for all you have done.”

When the feeling of being surrounded by greatness passed, Ellie smiled to herself and peeked in the envelope. Her driver’s license still gave her name as “Elliott J Witherspoon,” but her sex and birthdate had changed, and her picture now showed the right face. It was a few days later that Ellie finally understood what the goddess had told her, when she realized that she’d been a woman for over a month and had never endured that most womanly of experiences. She felt nervous and a little scared by all that would be happening to her and everything that needed to be done, but she also knew that it would be wonderful and amazing and the most incredible thing to happen to her. She had no regrets, and looked forward to the new course her life would be taking.