The Search for Shiny Things: Part 14

"Scissors!" cursed the teddy, and yelled for help. Luckily the river was not far, and brave plushie soldiers came running and grabbed the cat and tossed it into the river. Such luck that it could swim, the teddy thought.

The melted candles and the burned wreath carried away in the streams, the cat struggled to land, and shook the water and soot out of its body. The clear river water had cleaned away the black color, and there stood indeed a white cat with blue eyes.

"I am so very terribly sorry," said the teddy. "I seem to have forgotten that the candy cane candles were candy canes and not candles."

"You must be the teddy bear," said the cat.

"I am this," said the teddy, wondering if the shock of being on fire had perhaps made the cat forget. "Today is the day before Christmas, and you are the white cat with blue eyes," it added, in case the cat had forgotten that too.

"I have never seen a teddy bear before," said the cat, and stared quite creepily at the teddy. "Or soldiers." And it stared some more at the soldiers.

"You can see?" asked the teddy.

"Oh, it seems it was my long fur that got in the way of my eyes," said the cat. "I assumed it was because white cats with blue eyes often are blind, but I was too hasty. Now that the fur is burned away, I can see perfectly well again. You shall have my thanks, teddy bear."

The teddy thought perhaps it was being thanked for something that was not quite to its credit, but all the same the kind words made it happy.

"I shall look carefully for a tree and shiny decorations," said the cat, "and bring them to you should I find any. I am of good breeding, and cats of good breeding always repay their debts."

"That would be most awesome," the teddy responded. "Perhaps we could be friends, so you could stay in my white and drab house and do fun things, when you come with what you have found."

"Perhaps," said the cat, "I am not fond of commitment, because cats are rarely so, so I say we shall see, and that will be the end of that."

Cats were apparently very decisive too. The teddy had to be satisfied with that. So they parted on good terms, and the white cat with blue eyes hung around the soldiers some more, but said it was moving on later to see the world with its new eyes.

Shivering as it remembered the fwoosh as the cat caught fire, the teddy comforted itself by saying "I helped," but in this one case, it left a not entirely positive feeling. To atone, it left the box of matches by the side of the road, vowing to never light any more candles, or candies, or anything that could possibly be either or both.