Simon

Анастасия Шистовская
 
   When I was a child, there were many houses on the street where we lived. All of them were the most ordinary ones. However, at the end of the street there was a very unusual house. Hardly anyone ever entered it, even less leave it. The local black cat Simon loved to visit it too. I mean he lived there, but you know cats are everywhere by themselves, so you could often meet him somewhere on a walk too.
   
   One summer, sitting in the raspberry bushes my friend Ben and I heard an unusual story from the locals. Well, it didn’t seem to be a story… It was something like gossip that the cat Simon on the eve of Samhain turned into a huge black panther and ate all the naughty people in its path. We thought about it carefully and of course, didn't believe it. But anyway we decided to stay away from Simon just in case.
   
   Fall came and this fall, like any other, our family, celebrated Samhain. The late evening was chilly and the wind blew more and more leaves from the trees. There were many sweets. The games were boring. Therefore, after eating the stewed apples and pumpkin porridge, armed with flashlights, we went up to the attic. We stayed there for some time in search of bats, not finding a single one, we were about to go downstairs when we heard an incomprehensible noise from the street similar to smashing dishes and a roar. The wind seemed to howl deliberately stronger, and at that very moment, when we ran to the window, a woman's scream was heard, and the street light went off. The scream seemed like it was Mrs. Po’s scream, who was the wife of our neighbor, Mr. Po. Ben and I started running around in the attic in horror and yelling until my dad got up and took us out. That evening Ben stayed with us for the night. They tried to put us to bed, but it was not so easy. In the morning, as we ate some pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast, we noticed that the adults were constantly whispering something to each other. It was weird. Having finished quickly, Ben and I rushed into the street. There, on our fence, Simon was obviously very pleased with something. His golden eyes were mysterious; extremely mysterious ... He slowly cleaned himself by licking his front paws. Ben and I glanced at each other at once. We knew very well what this could mean; he must have recently eaten a heavy meal. The thought gave us goosebumps, but we tried our best not to show our fear. We realized from each other's faces that both Ben and I simultaneously remembered what we had heard once, sitting in the raspberry bushes on a hot summer day.
   
   As for Mrs. Po, no one has never ever seen her again.