Abbernathy and the Cat Kingdom

BONUS - OG DRAFT

Hi all! Long time no see! This isn't an important chapter to this story, as it is complete, much like one of its two sequels, but I thought this might be nice. As the title states, below is the original draft of Abbernathy. Back ten years ago, when I spelled her name with one 'b' and the story was called, "A Girl and Two Cats," and I'd never written a novel and my dad had recently passed away and I thought about getting back into writing because I remembered loving doing it and desperately wanted to love it again. So here it is folks. A writer-hopeful's attempt at a novel. It's not great. But it definitely has the trademarks of what the story would eventually become - like Lucy's (though he's called Lulu here) vanity. Guess some things never change. :-) Hope you will all enjoy this glimpse into my writing journey and please don't mind how cringe it is. First drafts, and first attempts at novels, always are.

***

Our story begins with a little girl named Abernathy. But first, lets get something out of the way - Abernathy hated her name. And not just her first name, but her middle, second middle and last names.

She was an unlucky girl born into a wealthy family where long, ostentatious names were given as displays of wealth. So for our budding protagonist, that meant the curse of a bloated, overly complicated series of names.

Abnernathy Eustice Celeste Tallis.

What a frightful, awful name. So bad was it shortening it did not make it better. A jerk in Abby's class, having grown tired of her winning their games of kick ball, christened her Nat.

She hated the nickname almost as much as her full name.

A "Nat" was a bug. A disgusting, annoying bug that got squished beneath plenty of shoes in the summer rainy season. Abby was no such bug, she'd declared. And after making her disdain for the nickname known, the same boy that had given her the name, taunted her with it. So she gave him a swift, hard kick between the legs wiping forever the stain of that smug smile off his face.

This incident made the kids her age weary of her, and she, at only eleven, had grown equally wearisome of them. She had only two friends to speak of, a pair of twin black cats - Sebbi and Lulu. They, of course, weren't their full names, but abbreviations of them, as Abby had been six when the kittens appeared beneath the kitchen one stormy evening, and deciding that names like Sebastian and Lucien were too complicated, especially with her two front teeth gone, she gave them new, easier names.

Lulu loved his shortened name, while his younger brother very much so abhorred Sebbi, perhaps even as much as Abby hated being called Abernathy. But the cats couldn't communicate their approval or disdain to Abby, as barriers between humans and cats prevented such casual conversation, so Abby went around oblivious to why Sebbi thumped his tail whenever she called for him.

From the start, Lulu adored Abby. She had deep set big blue eyes and long silky brown hair and was well-mannered, all things considered. Most importantly, she showered Lulu with all her love, taking him in her arms for hours to brush his coat and adorn his fur with silk bows. He loved those bows. They emphasized his good looks and brought out his innate regality, and, if you asked his brother, also gave his innate vanity a chance to shine. In the mornings, he was served creamed chicken and milk for breakfast. Fish stew, sans onions, for lunch. And succulent spit-roasted turkeys for dinner. Every night, he had the honor of sleeping beside Abby in a pillow she had tailor-made for him. His life was, in every way, bliss.

Sebbi did not like Abby. She had taken his name and replaced it with nonsensical babble. A two-syllable name could hardly be considered a name, let alone one befitting the noble feline. she attacked him with frilly, slinky things like bows and collars and things he ripped to shreds with his claws. She chased him down with that awful bristled creature and attempt to dig it along his spine and down his tail. He was not allowed to knock vases off from where they stood, or slash the curtains, or dig up the vegetable gardens. And the roundest of the household maids always chased him with brooms and threatened him with bath!