Tyed in Tangles
(PART I)
A Cats Don’t
Dance Short Story
written by Clay
He flipped it about in his hand. It was a 1923 penny, yet it looked brand new. He smiled and said, “Well, things can’t possibly get better than this! I guess I won’t need you anymore, lucky penny.” As he walked by the fountain, he tossed it away nonchalantly behind him, not bothering to look to see where in the fountain it landed.
Now, just to find Studio 15. This was a task in itself. Mammoth Studios was quite a maze of buildings. After a few minutes of walking around and absorbing the sites, he found Studio 15 and went in. He had never been in a real studio before. He looked up as he walked, eyeing all of the light fixtures of many colors and shapes. He imagined himself being under one of those lights, being the main attraction, the star. His thoughts were disrupted as he bumped into something and fell down. He soon found out it wasn’t a something at all, but a female cat.
“I really have got to stop meeting people this way,” the white cat moaned.
The grey tabby quickly got up and rushed to her side. “Oh, I’m so sorry! I…It…I didn’t…Let me help you up.”
He offered his hand, and she took it gratefully. As he pulled her up, they came face to face. Her brown eyes shined with life; her fur seemed more vibrant than it should’ve been; her lips…
“You….You’re so beautiful!” the tabby stammered out uncontrollably.
The white cat blushed, “Well…umm…thank you. So what’s your name? And what are you here for?”
“Name’s Tyger, but everyone calls me Ty. I’m here for a role in the musical they’re supposed to be making here.”
The white cat nodded, “Nice to meet you, Ty. I’m Sawyer. Hey Danny! Danny!”
Ty’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Could it be? A thin orange cat strolled up next to Sawyer, and tipped his hat to the newcomer. “Hi! I’m Danny.” He offered his hand. Ty shook it firmly.
“Are you…you two…the cats that…You got animals in the pictures, right?”
Danny smiled, “Well, I guess that’s us. We couldn’t have done it without our friends, though.”
As if on cue, a large female hippo bounced up behind Sawyer and Danny and gave them a big hug, “Oh, isn’t he so modest? He refuses to take credit for his own idea! If it wasn’t for him, we’d still be saying one-liners in that horrid little girl’s movies.” She giggles and squeezes the two cats tighter, bringing them closer together. “Don’t they make the cutest couple?”
Sawyer exclaimed, “Tilly!”
The hippo just giggled some more, followed by a snort. “Oh, sorry.” She then made her way to somewhere else in the studio.
Couple? Ty sighed inwardly. But why would it matter to him if they were a couple? Could he have…fallen in love? No, he couldn’t have, and it wouldn’t matter if he did. Sawyer was already taken, it seems. But she did seem slightly upset at being called a “couple”. Maybe…
Ty’s thoughts were disrupted by the return of Tilly. She was followed by a vast assortment of animals. She did another giggle-snort before talking, “I just wanted to introduce you to everyone. Cranston, Ty. Ty, Cranston. Wooly, Ty. Ty…” Although he thought he was shaking their hands individually at first, as Tilly introduced then faster and faster, it seemed like he was shaking them all at once. After a full minute of this, Tilly was done, and Ty was left dizzy and confused. He was brought back to the real world by a soft orange paw on his right shoulder. Danny smiled at him, “I’m gonna look forward to working with you, Ty. See ya later!”
As he and the other animals walked off, Ty caught himself giving Danny a glare and was quite shocked by it. Why would he do that? Danny seemed nice, and Ty was definitely not one to be ill-natured for no reason. He shrugged it off and went to get his script.
The first day of the film went well. Ty’s character wasn’t very important, and all of his scenes would probably be done by tomorrow. Despite that, he still felt great being a part of this motion-picture. When not acting his few lines, he found his gaze attracted to the form of Sawyer. She was so graceful. Ty examined her every step as if each were a work of art. No, not as if they were; they were. A grin crept onto his face as they got to one of Sawyer’s first singing parts. It was a happy song about how beautiful a new day was, but Ty wasn’t paying attention to the lyrics. All he could listen to was the exquisite tone of her voice. Beautiful like her dancing; beautiful like her. As soon as her song was over, the director called it a night.
Ty found himself going in circles. He wanted to go talk to her, but as soon as he’d take a few steps forward, he’d quickly turn around and end up farther away than before. Ty took a deep breath as an attempt to build up his courage, then he slowly but surely made his way over to Sawyer. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a vase with flowers in it and neatly nabbed a daisy from it. The pretty white cat was facing away from him. Ty hid the flower behind his back while he tapped Sawyer on the shoulder. She turned around quickly. “Oh, Hi there, Ty. You did a pretty good job today!”
Ty blushed and briefly considered running away again, but he soon thought better of it. “Th-thank you, S-Sawyer. You did g-great yourself. Um…” The grey tabby gulped and handed her the flower. “Would you like to go to dinner with me?”
It was Sawyer’s turn to blush. “Oh…well…” She stood there in thought for a moment before looking at Ty with a smile. “Sure, I’d love to.”
“R-Really?”
She shrugged, the smile still firmly entrenched in her face, “Yeah, why not? It’s not like I have anything pressing to do tonight.” She chuckled.
Ty chuckled with her for lack of thoughts on anything to say next.
She laid a paw on his shoulder, “How’s seven? I have a few things I need to get done, but there’s a nice place a few blocks down the road from my apartment.” Her touch was electrifying.
Ty gulped and nodded, “S-sure, that’d be- be great!”
She winked at him. “All right, Tyger. See you then.”
Then she walked away. Ty wordlessly watched her go. He watched her until the studio door shut behind her. At that, Ty suddenly jumped into the air with an exclamation of “YES!” blasting out from between his lips. Then he looked around him. Everyone had left by now, which he was glad of. His little presentation would have been sure to get prodding a-plenty tomorrow if they hadn’t. With a silly smile on his face, Ty proceeded to shut off the few remaining lights and left outside.