Keri Tarr: Cat Detective - Softcover

Wendy Lement is an Associate Professor and Chair the Theatre Department at Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts. She also serves as Artistic Director of Theatre Espresso, a Theatre-in-Education company that tours to schools, courthouses and museums with five of her historical plays. Her theatrical version of Keri Tarr: Cat Detective was produced in theatres on Cape Cod and in North Carolina; the play won the 2002 American Alliance for Theatre and Education's Unpublished Playreading Project and received a reading at the Minneapolis Children's Theatre. Wendy holds a Ph.D. in Theatre from New York University. Jeffrey Scott Burrows is an illustrator and freelance costume designer living in Boston, Massachusetts. He is currently on staff at the Huntington Theatre Company in residence at Boston University and teaches at Emerson College. Jeffrey has worked with Wendy Lement on many theatrical projects in the Boston area. This is their first collaboration as writer and illustrator.

1.
The Birth of Mew

Sally was in a panic. She had been mewing for over an hour. Not a regular mew like when she was hungry, but the kind of clamor she only made in the car when they drove her to the vet—an unearthly wail that made the entire family feel as if they were torturing her. They deserve to feel that way, she always thought on those agonizing trips to the vet. After all, the traumatic car ride was followed by pinching and prodding in and around every part of her body. No place was sacred. On those occasions, Keri would hold her and pet her, and tell her how beautiful she was, which was true. Sally was an outstanding cat and she knew it.

But tonight, Sally wasn’t in the car. She was alone in the basement. It was three o’clock in the morning, and the family was sound asleep two flights above. No one heard her cries for help. In truth, she wasn’t completely alone, and that was the reason for her desperate calls. Just one hour earlier, Sally did something she had never done before, something she didn’t know she could do. Sally had given birth to a tiny black kitten with white markings. Without thinking, she had licked and cleaned it. Now the black ball of fur—no bigger than the mouse she had caught and played with two days before—lay fast asleep, nestled beside her.

Sally was not just proud of her achievement, she was ecstatic. That was the reason for all the racket. The birth itself had been painless. But Sally had accomplished an amazing feat, and she wanted to show off, especially to Keri, who was her best friend. "What to do?" she fretted. All that mewing had exhausted her, and still no one stirred. She couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her offspring alone while she made the trip upstairs. No, there was only one solution.

Sally wrapped her mouth tightly around the back of her kitten’s neck and began the long trek up the basement stairs. She made her way through the kitchen and into the living room, where she carefully dropped the baby cat onto the soft blue carpet so they both could rest. "Just one more flight," Sally moaned as she licked her kitten. But the second flight took even longer. Sally was unusually small for an adult cat, and she felt weak from the ordeal. Once she made it, she knew Keri would hold her and kiss her, and tell her how special she was.

Sally turned right at the top of the stairs into Keri’s room and gently placed her kitten in the center of the round cotton rug that lay beside Keri’s bed. It took every bit of strength that Sally could muster, but she jumped up onto the bed with one not-so-graceful leap. This was serious business, so she skipped the ritual nudging at Keri’s arm and licking of her toes, and went straight for her head. "Mew, mew, mew," she cried as she crawled back and forth through Keri’s black hair.

"Cut it out," Keri complained, still half asleep. But Sally persisted. "Stop it!" Keri ordered, but Sally only mewed louder and jumped full force back on her head.

This battle continued for several minutes until Sally, exasperated, performed her second miraculous act of the evening. In a raspy voice, she pleaded, "Keri, wake up. You have to see what I did!" At this, Keri opened one eye. I must be dreaming, she thought as her head fell back on the pillow.

"Please Keri. This is urgent!"

"Mom?" Keri whispered, opening both her eyes wide.

"It’s me, Sally. Would ya get up already?"

Keri did get up. In fact, she bolted to the light switch on the wall, almost crushing Sally’s kitten beneath her feet.

"Careful, you idiot!" Sally shouted.

"I’m not an idiot." Keri switched on the light and surveyed the room, but to her surprise, no one was there. "Mom!"

"It’s me! Me!" Sally insisted. Keri stared at her up-till-now ordinary black cat. "Now can I show you what I did?"

"Sally?" Keri replied, still convinced she must be dreaming.

"Yeah, it’s me, Sally. I’ve been trying to wake you up forever. Look at this." She jumped off the bed onto the rug. Keri took a step toward her. "Careful!" Sally hissed.

"What?"

"You’ll step on him."

"Who?"

"Look!"

Now, for the first time, Keri noticed the tiny black ball in the center of her rug. "Did you kill another mouse?"

Insulted, Sally picked up her kitten and started toward the door. "A mouse," she muttered. "She thinks it’s a mouse."

"Wait." Keri inspected the black squirming object dangling from Sally’s mouth. Her eyes grew even wider. "It’s a kitten."

"You think I’d give birth to an orangutan? Of course it’s a kitten."

"But how? When? What happened?" Keri asked a thousand questions, to which Sally gave long, mostly exaggerated answers. The birth took hours. She thought she would die. Every detail was embellished—the long trip up the stairs, thinking each step would be her last.

Keri listened intently as if it were perfectly natural to be conversing with a cat. "Then what happened?" "Oh you poor thing." And so on. For the next hour and a half they sat on the rug, poring over the evening’s events. "What’s his name?" Keri finally asked.

"Mew."

"No, I mean in English."

"I told you: Mew. It’s the same in Human and in Cat."

"Mew." Keri laughed. And so it was.