The moon rose from the clouds and the stars came rushing towards her, they loved to groom her and hide the cracks on her face, the stars started to sing as they covered up the moon, they sang-
' Twinkle, twinkle, little moon!
How we wonder how you look!
High above the violet sky,
Pretty as the diamond shines.'
When the stars were singing their songs, Maria had crossed the gravel path and had come across a series of fences arranged around the reddish-brown bush, and above was a lark roosting in her nest, Maria went towards her and asked for Hoggie.
"OOO! WOO! And what do we have here?" the lark replied.
Maria cleared her throat and said, " I am looking for Hoggie, now if you could be so kind to show me where he is,"
The lark scratched her head, trying to remember if she can recall any memories about Hoggies and Hogs and dogs and frogs and orcs after some time she flapped her wings and flew around Maria.
"little…? Sorry, what was your name again?" the lark asked her.
"Again?" Maria replied, "but I haven't told you my name yet, how can I say my name again, my name is Maria by the way."
The lark flew much higher, " well it's better to say twice than once, after all, two is better than one or three maybe.."
She came closer to Maria and started singing-
'Little Maria has lost her pet
And don't know where to find them,
Leave them alone and they'll come home
So, don't you worry my dear child,'
Maria giggled, as the lark roosted back in her nest.
"correction," Maria said, "It is only 'he' and not 'them' nor 'they'." But the lark was already snoozing in her nest not hearing a word what Maria had said.
After the moon's face had been covered she shone brightly, so brightly that the stars had to cover her up again.
Maria went down the hills and jumped across the fence, she heard the sound of a guitar and went there because she was curious but instead, she found a brown cat strumming the guitar, he had no arms and legs but was playing the guitar.
"Mister cat," Maria said " do you know where I can find my brown hedgehog? I have come a long way just to find him, if you may please tell me where he is."
The cat looked at her and twitched his whiskers and he sang a song to her with his deep voice-
'String, string, string; Pussy in the garden,
Who plays the banjo; Pussy in the garden,
Who has no arms and legs; Pussy in the garden,
What a strange thing for a cat to strum the banjo.'
" I believe it's a guitar that you're holding and not a banjo." Said Maria rather timidly.
"Guitar, Banjo… they're the same thing, as long as it has strings, hollows, pipes and can play…" replied the cat.
" Guitars don't have pipes," Maria said triumphantly.
" well, pianos too, don't have keys, but we call those black and white keys, don't we?" replied the cat.
Maria couldn't find an answer to beat the answer so, she just stood there rubbing her hands and stayed silent for some time, the cat broke the silence and said, " and what were you looking for?"
" Oh! Yes, my brown hedgehog." She replied, " he jumped over our garden wall and has disappeared and I am looking for him so-.."
"ok ok ok stop!." The cat interrupted, Maria stopped at once.
" Now look here little girl, there have been lots of brown hedgehogs here lately, so I think one of them must be yours." He said while giving a strum on his guitar.
" His name is Hoggie," Maria said. The cat looked away from her, " go search in the forest there will be lots of brown hedgehogs, bet one of them is yours." He said and continued playing his guitar.
Now Maria was very curious about the cat, he had no arms and legs yet, he was playing the guitar so, she asked him. "Mister cat, how do you play the guitar without arms and legs?"
The cat twitched his whiskers and said. " I have been playing for ages and now I can play without using my arms and legs."
"That's very curious," Maria replied
"Have you ever seen a cat play the banjo?" the cat said.
" well, I'm afraid not," she replied, " you are the first cat…no, the first creature I saw playing the guitar without their arms and legs."
The cat giggled, " you know very little about cats," he said, " perhaps you are not familiar with us."
"well, I do." Maria said, " except in our world the cats don't talk, all they do is purr, sleep, and lick, nothing amusing."
"Haha!" the cat laughed, " you see my dear, cats are very solitude creatures, you never know what they are thinking or what they are doing, like those Siamese cats, they love to dance around the moonlight and those lazy Persian cats, who sleep around and plays the flute, the Bengal cats who love playing their own Olympics and not forgetting those little Ragdoll cats who loves to play house and doctors with ragdolls, you never know dear, you never know."
Maria got lost in deep thoughts, imagining, what the cats would look like if they sing, maybe a choir of cats, a duet, or what if they were a band, and what would be the name- a clowder? Or a clutter?
"My grandma had a cat too when she was a little girl," Maria said after she could no longer imagine about cats and songs, "her name was Dinah, and all she did was bite her little ones, lick them, and would always purr, never did she dance or played the flute or participated in the Olympics or played house with the dolls- wait! That would be great if cats played house with dolls, I will have more friends to play with, maybe there will be more room for the uncle and aunty parts or maybe even great aunt and uncle or maybe even the dead ones-…"
'STRING!!!' the sound of the strumming of guitar made Maria to pause and the cat began playing his guitar, Maria sat beside him and listened to the song he was singing-
' Maria had a little pet,
Little pet, little pet
Maria had a little pet,
But she lost him.'
"Ahem! Mister cat, I did not lose him, he ran away." Maria said
The cat looked at her and said, " perhaps you know this?" he started strumming on his strings and stopped then looked at her and said, " Ring-around-the-daisies?"
"Oh! I love that song." Maria said and she sang along with him.
' Ring-around-the-daisies,
A pocket full of fairies;
A-tishoo!, A-tishoo!
We all fly up.'
The daisies around them bloomed leaves from their backs and flew up to the heavens laughing, like little children going to heaven.
Maria laughed after finishing the song, " Oh! That was wonderful!." She said the cat purred before her and said " I love singing."
Maria thought it was time for her to go, so, she stood up and brushed off the dust from her dress and waved at the cat, " goodbye Mister cat, goodbye." She said as she walked away from him, but the cat only played his guitar, no one knew if he did say goodbye.