"Home"
Kate Hao
Oak Hill Elementary School PTA
Oak Hill, VA

I sat on the staircase outside the front door. Breathing in the cold night air, I let my thoughts float off to a time in the past when there was a big disaster and my family lived as a stray. Even though I'm not a good storyteller, but I'll try to tell you my story....

It was a rainy summer day. I was having quite some fun with my brother and sister. We were tumbling and jumbling on the smooth, wooden floor. Heavy raindrops were splashing against the windows. My mother had told me it was a hurricane. I asked her what a hurricane was, but she did not answer. My masters were watching the weather channel on their television. I couldn't understand what it was saying, but I had a horrible feeling, all because of the tension in the atmosphere. Suddenly my mother and father herded us down the stairs into the basement. I could hear screams of terror coming from my owners from upstairs. "What is happening? Why are we down here?" My father looked down on me and said one word. "Tornado." I shuddered at the thought, even though I didn't know what a tornado was. I knew it was something bad, something I would not like. I just listened to the howling wind accompanied by the cries of terror and crashes and rumbles. Then there came faint and distant sirens sounding in the air. And all I could do was huddle close to my mother.

Soon, the rumbling died away and my family climbed our way upstairs. My brother, sister and I squealed at the sight. The chairs were broken or overturned, the roof had collapsed, and the tiles were everywhere. My masters were nowhere to be found. We searched under all the piles of debris that had once served us as a home. We looked through everything...once...twice...but we found nothing.

We waited for hours in what was left of our house. The hurricane was over. Everything was quiet except for some distant rumbling of thunder. We were getting hungry and tired. At last my father decided that the best thing to do was to go out into the wild.

My little paws touched the cold cement, still slick from the rain. None of us dared to look up, but we knew what it was like around us. Trees were fallen with their roots torn up, houses were destroyed, and cars were smashed. We didn't say a single word as we walked out of the town and into the outlying country.

Silently, my mother gathered us into an old badger set that we had found. There we slept for the night.

In the morning when I woke up, my father had just gotten back from hunting. After eating my fill, I asked my mother what we would do now. "I don't know," she said, "But we'll manage."

It took us a few days to get over the nightmares and the sorrow. My father taught us how to hunt. There was plenty of prey in the area and I made many new exciting discoveries. There were so many wonders in the country - so many different creatures and so many different plants. I personally thought the place was fabulous! But soon I remembered that summer didn't last forever. Slowly the leaves changed their colors from green to golden-brown and began to fall. These days, hunting was not much fun anymore - there wasn't much prey. The air was getting colder, the days getting shorter, and everything getting quieter. My mood also changed with the weather. No longer was I that silly, carefree cat that I was in the summer.

With each passing day, the weather became gloomier. The forest was bare - there was no more fun to explore. The wind started to come and the days grew chillier. The prey became scarce and we were all hungry. There was barely anything to feed the whole family! Even worse, the badger set in which we had called home for the summer could no longer keep us warm. The days went on like this. Hunt, eat, and sleep. Hunt, eat and sleep. No more time for fun. No time at all.

One day, I woke to find tiny white flakes dancing down from the sky towards us. Winter had come. I gazed at the snowflakes in horror- this would mean even less prey. But then I thought of when I was little. I would jump around in the snow and hop and twirl and try to catch every snowflake before it touched the ground. My body seemed to mimic my thoughts. I suddenly began to dance in the flakes, as happy and joyful as I was in the summer. Soon, my brother and sister joined in, and my parents couldn't resist purring at the kittens' happiness. Right then I had no feelings of sorrow.

The following day I woke up to find the sky light blue and the golden face of the sun shining brightly in the morning. I could hear songbirds singing their greetings, and the snow was glistening like silver. What a beautiful day, I thought, it couldn't be any better. I dabbed at the perfect, smooth snow with the tip of my paw and abruptly began to roll widly in it. But the snow didn't feel the same anymore. It was freezing cold. I stopped rolling and playing and thought of the warm, comfortable home I had had. I never had to worry if I had enough to eat and drink. I never had to worry about the cold. My masters were always there for me and my family. I missed those days.

"Your mother and I have decided that we should go back to the town. This place here will no longer be able keep us alive through the winter." announced my father, "We'll be going very soon." Later my family marched off in the snow. I knew what everyone was thinking. What if no one was there? What if our house was nowhere to be found? That's what I was thinking. I'm sure that's what they were thinking, too. Suddenly, the day didn't seem nice and bright anymore. The snow didn't seem to be sparkling anymore. My feelings had drowned my sight, and I thought the day looked like was a day all gloomy and dark. A day where it threatened to set off another hurricane and tornado to take us. All of sudden, I didn't like my life anymore.

Arriving in the town, we found that it had been rebuilt. The houses stood everywhere, and the trees were upright again. The town was once again filled with people. My family was sparked by a bit of hope. Maybe, just maybe... I thought. Maybe our home is back too and our owners sitting in their chairs, waiting for us to come home. Soon we came to where my house had stood before. There it was, shiny and bright and as good as new. I perked up even more. We scratched on the door wildly and yowled with all our might. Slowly, the door opened, and we were embraced with hugs and kisses. We had our first good meal that we had had in months! As I sat by the warm fire, I thought of a statement I had told myself in the summer. This is my favorite place, I had thought. But now I disagreed. Now I knew where my favorite place was. That was home. Home, my favorite place.