The Search for Shiny Things: Part 13

The teddy had just left the river behind when it stumbled over something soft and black. Tumbling to the ground, the teddy and the thing both yelled with surprise. They went on a little longer than they needed to, because yelling turned out to be fun. Then they greeted.

"Very nice to stumble upon you," said the teddy. "I am the teddy bear, and who might you be?"

"I am the white cat with blue eyes," said the fluffy black. It was perhaps a cat, the teddy thought, under all that fur. It had so much fur all over, even in its face, that one only really saw a fluffy thing. But it was most decidedly black.

"I am looking for a tree, and shiny decorations," said the teddy. "Have you mayhaps seen some?"

"I have not seen anything," said the white cat. "I am a white cat with blue eyes. You see, white cats with blue eyes are often blind, and just so I cannot see a thing, it is pitch dark where I am."

The teddy looked up at the bright and shiny sun above and thought the place they were at was most decidedly not dark.

"It may be rude but could I ask," said the teddy, "it seems to be you are black, and the day is bright. Are you perchance somewhere else, really?"

"Not quite," said the cat. "I thought, if I was not white, I might not be blind, so I asked to have my fur colored black. But it did not help. If anything, I see even worse now."

"What are you doing out on the road?" asked the teddy, for it seemed to him that it might be difficult if one could not see.

"One must not be limited by one's disability," said the cat bravely. "I have made my way all the way from that part of the road to this part of the road today, and am quite happy with the progress."

The teddy looked at that part of the road, and this part of the road, and thought about the distance it had traveled today. "Where are you going then?"

"I do not know," said the cat, "I cannot see what is ahead."

"There is a river, further on," said the teddy. "Watch out... I mean be careful so you don't fall in."

"That should be fine, I can swim quite well. It is this blasted darkness that bothers me. If only I had light."

The teddy thought that if the cat wanted light, it should have light, even if it seemed light enough from where it stood. And then it remembered that it had some candles, and a box of matches.

"I will help!" said the teddy, and took the wreath of leaves that the squirrel had put on its head, and set the candy cane candles in it, and set the whole thing on the cat's head, and lit the candles with the matches.

And with a big and frightening fwooosh, the candles melted, and the cat caught fire.