DREAMTIME

I was being reared in the grand tradition of a religion of my mother and her mother and her mother before her, and strangely enough most of Southern California seemed to follow this path. One was born under the auspices of either an angel or a demon, and upon that day every year, you set out an offering to said angel or demon, and if you did, either he would bless you (IF ANGELIC) or simply NOT DRAG YOU TO HELL (if demonic).

My dad was born on an angel day, and his onus was to put out a cookie on a plate. The angel usually ate the cookie, and then he had good luck all year.

I was born the day after my dad, and that was the day of the cat-demon. The requirements for people born on September 19th were to put a teapot on the special shelf, and if we did so, the demon couldn't take us and bat us around with his paw, or whatever.

So anyway, I was living with my parents again, and I was being all 3dgy, and I decided that I wasn't going to put out that teapot. Then I chickened out because my mom looked scared so I put out a CHIPPED teapot.

Every hour, I would look up, and some random cat would be looking in the window. Not doing anything - just cat-looking, the way they do.

And at eleven o'clock, the cat was the size OF A HORSE.

So I got scared, and ran out to go buy a new shiny teapot to put on the shelf, and all the tea-stores were closed, and I was so angry that this was supposed to be a religious town and yet the tea-stores were closed on THIS DAY? wtf.