Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to present to you Chapter Twenty-Six, the final chapter of Catzilla. My novelist and I will be taking a couple of weeks off so I can prepare to begin work on my next story. This has been a long tale and I for one am exhausted. For the next couple of weeks, my novelist and I will be focusing on two of our favorite subjects: movies and television. I am spending my free time these days preparing for Halloween. I love barking at trick-or-treaters. Little gives me more joy than running to the door when the moppets come knocking and barking at them as if they were villainous monsters. It is the absolute most fun. My novelist loves giving out treats to these miniature costumed creatures. It is one of the highlights for her of the holiday season. The Maltese on the other hand could not care less. He lies in his special bed that I didn’t get and enjoys It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Garfield in Disguise, The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, and Butt-o-ween. He is an absolute couch potato. Perhaps I should stick a lit candle in his mouth and make him sit outside the door. And with that thought, here is chapter twenty-six, the final chapter of Catzilla.   

Catzilla

by

Gigi the parti poodle

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Dad?” I said desperate to see.

“That van should be slowing down in three…two…one…” I heard tires screech to a halt before the vehicle slammed into something. “Stay here.”

I heard my dad’s feet pound off into the distance. I sat there feeling trapped in space hoping the damp cloth would help my eyes to open soon. A twig snapped behind me. I whipped around thinking it was a teenager on their way home. And then I felt the horrible sensation of hot breath against my face. A whisper of something brushed across my hair and then the unmistakable sound of a soft purring motor.

I jumped forwards not knowing where I was heading, engulfed in darkness. I landed softly on the grass and teetered. The horrible weight of a paw pressed against me and held me fast to the ground. I screeched and turned on my side trying to gain leverage with my foot. “Dad!” I yelled. “Dad!” I twisted in the other direction and tried to get back on my feet. The cat leaned in and licked me with its gigantic sandpaper tongue. “Augh! Get off me!” I grabbed the kitten’s fur on its front paw and yanked. The kitten did not take kindly to this. She leaned in and hissed in my face like a cobra. I gave her fur another yank and she swatted at me, her claws grazing my cheek. I grabbed onto one of the overgrown talons and bent it backwards. The kitten screeched and pulled back. In the distance I heard the scrambling of feet heading in my direction.

“Briar!” my mom yelled.

She rushed up, stepped over me and climbed onto the kitten. “Mom!” A second pair of feet came pounding up. I felt someone grab me and drag me out from under the cat’s paw. “Dad?” It became apparent it was not my dad. I sensed my vision starting to return. Through the blurry haze I started to make out my surroundings. I could see Dr. Groser standing beside me looking up at my mother.

“Gagnon,” Dr. Grosser yelled. “Come down here or I will be forced to harm your daughter!”

“Touch her and I’ll destroy you!” my mom yelled back.

“Put down my antidote or I’ll sic my guards on her!”

The person who grabbed me from behind lifted me off the ground. I yelped and panicked but then I heard my mom shout, “Wrap your leg! Wrap your leg!” It was at that point I remembered my mom making me go to self-defense class and what I learned on those six Saturdays. I wrapped my left ankle around my captor’s left ankle. He started to lose balance and I turned and struck him in the groin with the heel of my hand one, two, three times. The thug let go of me and I palm heeled him in the face one, two, three times. Then I started to run towards my mother. Dr. Grosser grabbed my arm, but I made a fist, grabbed it with the other hand, pulled my hand out, and broke loose from her grip and palm-heeled her in the face one, two, three times as well.

I made a dash for the kitten, grabbed onto its fur, and started climbing up towards my mother as fast as I could. I saw her lift her arm and stab the kitten with a syringe. She pushed down the plunger. The kitten let out a loud howl twisting and turning trying to get us off her.

Dr. Grosser slipped her hand into her pocket and produced a small case. She unzipped it around its perimeter and began advancing towards us. I looked down below and saw my dad fist-fighting with the thug who’d grabbed me.

“Dad!” I yelled. “Dr. Grosser’s got a syringe!”

My dad tried to dodge the thug, but the thug took a swing and clocked my dad in the jaw.

“Dad!”

Dr. Grosser kicked off her jet-black heels and began climbing the kitten, the syringe dripping with venom.

“Mom, she’s coming!”

My mom turned and saw the professor advancing on us. The kitten, not liking a third person on it thrashed its long furry tail around like a windshield wiper.

“You’re going to have to kick the syringe out of her hand,” my mom told me.

“I can’t do that.”

“Yes, you can.”

“Gagnon,” the professor said closing in on us. “You’ve interfered with my work for the last time.”

“On the count of three,” my mom said. “One…”

Dr. Grosser grabbed my arm.

“Two…”

Dr. Grosser took the cap off the syringe.

“Three!”

I kicked Dr. Grosser’s hand as hard as I could. She yelped and let go of the syringe which became airborne. My mom reached out and caught it.

“No!” Dr. Grosser yelled as my mom plunged the syringe into the kitten and pushed the plunger.

The kitten howled and bucked causing my mom to lose her balance and slip. I reached out and grabbed her hand just as she was about to fall. She pulled herself back into a stable position as the professor, her eyes filled with fire, watched the kitten shrink before her eyes like an air balloon deflating. As we sank slowly to the ground, I could see my dad rush over to my mom and me. “Briar,” he said as he hugged me. Then he hugged mom. I have only seen my mom cry once. But when my dad took her in his arms, I saw tears well in her eyes.

Lyle came home from the hospital Monday. I was heading home from school and saw him playing tetherball in his yard.

“Lyle,” I called running over to him. “You’re home.”

“I’ll be back in school tomorrow,” he said beaming.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too…would you like to play tetherball with me?”

“Sure,” I said and set down my backpack.

Lyle grabbed the ball and handed it to me. “You serve.”

“Okay.”

I put the tetherball in my hand and started to wind up.

“Meow.”

Lyle and I both turned around to see a white cat with dark accents.

“That’s a Balinese,” Lyle said.

The kitten which appeared malnourished looked at us with anxious eyes.

I turned to look towards Ellery’s house. In the driveway I could see him and Quincy sitting there on their electric bikes watching us. Waiting.

MY BOOKS

You can check out my books Chicane and all five installments of the Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!, Musicology: Volume Two, Kid!, Musicology: Volume Three, Twist!, Musicology: Volume Four, Sweetie! and Musicology: The Epiquad on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s web site at www.musicologyrocks.com and vote for who you think will win Musicology!

STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE SHINING (1980)-HBO MAX

Continuing with my list of Halloween movies to watch I decided to pick this masterpiece from one of my all-time favorite directors Stanley Kubrick. One of the major problems with films of the current day is they don’t take time to ramp up their story. They also have a terrible habit of starting at the top of the third act and then whipping back around to the first scene. This is often (not always such as in the case of Pulp Fiction) a sign that the story is less than stellar. Part of the problem is the audience. They are not as mature or as patient as audiences were in 1980. They walk into a theatre and need action right off the bat instead of allowing the story to unfold. I have mentioned before I had a fantastic scene study teacher when I attended my PATP program who gave us life lessons when he directed us in scenes. One lesson which has always stood out for me was about extended adolescence. Each generation reaches adulthood at a later and later point. So, now we have come to a disturbing era in history where we are stuck with a slew of inane superhero movies which at one time were thought to be for grade school students. And sadly, most of them still are, save for perhaps films like Unbreakable. But the audience contains a disproportionate number of adults who eat fast food, wear fast fashion, and are constantly fixed to a hand-held screen. Mike Judge was right. We are heading towards Idiocracy.

Stanley Kubrick started out as a successful chess hustler and a photographer for LOOK magazine before he took on film direction. He had an extraordinary eye for film, the mind of a genius, and was way ahead of his time. He once said he didn’t have good enough grades to get into a university which says volumes about the American education system. He was also an INTJ and those of us who are NTs (10% of the population) do not think like others. Stephen King is an INTP which makes this film even more remarkable. The story has a great deal to do with loneliness and isolation which is something introverted NT’s struggle with. We need our alone time but when we want the company of others we are often misunderstood. If you are in a world where only 2-4% of the population thinks like you, it is a dark, gloomy, and unfriendly place indeed.

So, why is it important for a story to be able to start at the beginning and not rely on time manipulation? Set up, set up, set up…and suspense. The opening shot of the little yellow Volkswagen on the curves is reminiscent of a treacherous maze. The teddy bear on David’s bed comes back in a disturbing vision his mother has in the third act. The use of red throughout is a spectacular warning and gives us clues to what is coming, especially at the precise point Jack starts wearing that jacket. The seemingly innocuous outdoor play at the hotel between mother and son pays off hugely and what a great edit from Jack’s perspective to them. One of the most important early scenes is between Wendy (Shelly Duval) and the pediatrician where they discuss when Danny started talking to Tony. That is the gun on the mantle. If you start at the top of the third act with this story, the payoff is dampened.

It isn’t always bad to start a story somewhere other than its actual beginning like the fantastic Memento (Christopher Nolen is also an INTJ) which begins at the end and moves towards the beginning, but so many stories try to cover their flaws and capture the audience’s attention by starting at a place where action is in full swing. In other words, they make up for their mediocrity by cheating and much like synthesizers in 80’s music or rap in the middle of a modern song it grows repetitive and annoying fast.  

One of the best things Kubrick instills in his work is a sense of humor. I found myself laughing out loud on several occasions as I rewatched this. It’s hilarious because it’s both serious and absurd. Films and shows that seem strange to others seem perfectly normal and rational to me.

The Shining was nominated for two Razzie Awards, one for Shelly Duval for Worst Actress and Stanley Kubrick for Worst Director, which goes to show once again how shortsighted people can be when a new take on the art form is introduced and how far ahead Kubrick was. Duval’s nomination was retracted in 2022. She should have never been nominated for a Razzie in the first place. The performance Kubrick got out of her was stunning.  I have no idea why Kubrick’s nomination wasn’t retracted. I guess because Kubrick remains eons ahead of the rest.