It was night again and like every month the meeting for the yearly Jellicle Ball had begun. What could they offer Old Deuteronomy this time? The younger cats yawned because the elder cats often tried to ignore their ideas and so they were not concerned with the conversation. They knew, they were not able to enforce their plans. Just the younger kids who had never passed a Jellicle Ball did not know about that and tried to persuade the grown cats from their ideas. The older cats themselves thought they had to ignore the younger ones. Their ideas were often strange and one could not relate to them.
"Well," said Munkustrap "we should have a great tale like 'the Pekes and the Pollicles' we had last year. Old Deuteronomy seemed to like that." Munkustrap looked around and waited for reactions. The first reaction was surprising: "Tale?" asked Caricopat's voice from behind. "I thought it happened?!" Caricopat rose the same time Tantomile rose.
"Tale or not tale, nobody knows it and nobody cares about!" answered Munkustrap, a kind of hissing in his voice. "We should have a story like that!" snared the grey cat and added "Even if we had some - um...- dogs who did not like to act as we had stipulated." He looked over to the younger boys and took a deep breath as he thought of Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer who were again not at the meeting. It was always the same with them: They appeared when and where they liked to. With a sigh, Munkustrap added: "We had also some persons who had no idea about the acting and where to appear." He grinned at the Rumpus cat's basement flat. He could not be angry with Rumpus, the fellow was just very occupied with his dog-work. 'Yes, it is really hard to keep those dogs under control. It's even hard enough for Rumpus to keep them away from our Ball. Pollicles are all of the same kind. They bark and bite and Pekes are not less annoying...'
"Hey, Munkus, you seem to leave our theme." smiled Rum Tum Tugger who was busy with Bombalurina who sat with him on an old dish-washer. "what was it again? Something like ball? Jelly ball? Football?" He kicked an old ball through the junkyard with his paw that nearly felled Mr. Mistoffelees. It crashed into some old cartons and made a terrible noise. "Sorry!" he said to the cartons and seemed not to be concerned about his black friend. Misto just yawned and did not care about the Rum Tum Tugger, his jokes were boring and sometimes so boring they weren't even worth mentioning.
"Sometimes you behave like a young child!" Skimbleshanks declared to Tugger. "It would be very interesting to see you doing anything serious!" he screamed. "...to see you doing anything serious!" imitated Tumblebrutus behind the older orange cat. Skimbleshanks wanted to jump over Tumble but Mistoffelees stopped him: "Aye, Skimble you do not like to come to a child's behaviour, do you? Keep relaxed." Skimbleshanks shrugged about himself while he heard Mistoffelees advice. How could he behave like a child in front of all the other Jellicles? Looking around he noticed - for his luck - that they did not care about his anger.
"Back to our conversation!" Munkustrap had difficulties to keep the Jellicles reasonable. "What is about the next-year Jellicle Ball?" he said. Sillabub stretched and purred: "Why so hysterical, Munky? We have a lot of time to prepare the ball. And in the end it will all change and nothing will be like we had planned it." Sillabub had grown during the last ball. She was still a kitten, but an aura of experience surrounded her. Perhaps she herself did not notice.
"Don't call me Munky! And in fact it was our fault that nothing was like we had planned it in the end. We did not plan properly! And it was also Macavity's fault." Munkustrap seemed not to be in a good mood that night. The meeting would certainly last very long. The Jellicles had not the brave and somehow also not the right to leave as long as Munkus did not wish them to. And of course they knew what the conversation was good for.
"What about the Heavyside Layer?' asked a voice from the background. It was a coloured kitten, called Shen-Shen, sitting on Mistoffelees' and Alonzo's side. Since the last ball several young kittens had joined the tribe. At the rate they were appearing, it would seem the junkyard would burst before the next Ball.
Jennyanydots sat on Munkus side and said: "Good question. One takes it serious here. Well, does anyone know whether there are any aspirants who really should go through the Heavyside Layer? I mean aspirants that have a real reason to enter heaven."
"Gus is still an aspirant!" Jellylorum was upset - how could someone forget her poor old geezer? "Yes, but how can we show him this time, we can't make the same show like last year and his conditions become worse." Tantomile who was always concerned and friendly knew that "Growltiger" would not be able to act in anyway next year if he was still living. "I know." replied Jellylorum sadly.
"Hey, we'll find a way." Misto'line, another of the new youngster's and with little magical facilities, tried to put her tail around Jellylorum but the female jumped up:
"I have an idea for the Ball!" she chortled.
"What idea?" asked Victoria.
"Couldn't we make a Heavyside Layer remember-show?" Jellylorum was as pleased with her idea as a kitten was with catnip.
"How do you want to do this." Demeter was a bit sceptical. No wonder- It was a challenge to prepare a Heavyside-Layer-Show without scoffing the Layer in front of Old Deuteronomy. He was not the cat for modern jokes.
"Don't you think it is a bit exaggerated or overdone to copy something that is only made by the great Heavyside Layer's godsend cat?" This time it was Jennyanydots who interjected.
"I do not want to compete with the godsend cat - beware. How could you be so...so...guess what you want, to believe me to think of that! I head the idea to show all the characters again who were chosen for Heavyside Layer in the last years." Jellylorum kept control although she felt terribly misunderstood.
"I understand your ideas." Pouncival raised and walked over to Jellylorum. "You mean, someone could play Grizabella and someone else Felinema who was announced two years ago and someone could play-- could play...his voice failed him.
"...Etromal, your father." added Shen-Shen softly as she saw Pouncival's little tears. Pouncival turned away: "Yes", he whined quietly and did not want to be seen by the others. Alonzo, one of his best friends came over to help Pouncival out of his embarrassing moment.
Now, all the Jellicles around understood the idea and were secretly rapturous. "But...but this will perhaps be very very emotional. I thought - as I was told - Jellicles should rejoice." Misto'line hoped her words were not too rough to the others, she had disturbed the thoughtful moment. But in fact, she was right and she was young, so her interjection was spontaneous. Her magical teacher, Mr. Mistoffelees, tried to safe the situation: "Yes, the rules say so, Jellicle ball is the ball of rejoicing and should be a happy night for everybody."
"I think if we think of all this poor old fellows, we will all cry and never have a rejoicing ball." interrupted Rum Tum Tugger.
"I suggest", Mistoffelees proceeded, "to take this part to the end of the ball and before that we can rejoice." his eyes flashed as he always did when he had to say something important.
"But we have to offer Old Deuteronomy something when he joins the ball. We do that always!" meowed Munkustrap sitting straight up.
"Oh, we'll tell him he has to wait that night." Bombalurina's word was a bit rude, for she was frustrated with Tugger's antics concerning her. He just played with her. How she hated that!
"Please, that is not a way to speak with our Jellicle leader!" Munkustrap gave a stern look to Bombalurina.
"We could say this also friendly. Today, Munky... um... Munkustrap, you are not in a good mood, are you? You know that Bombalurina would never say that to Old Deuteronomy in this manner!" Sillabub came over to Munkustrap and circled around him as if she were a judge.
Munkustrap felt strange when she did it. It looked as if she was his guardian. Somehow Munkustrap was not angry about that, perhaps because her strange aura took completely hold of him. Munkustrap recognized his fault and admitted: "Okay. I am not in a good mood today and you're right, Silla! You know those human family problems..." That was something new from Munkustrap he hardly said a word about his human family, there must have been happened something strange. Munkustrap was really not in a good mood, everybody could see it and now, after Sillabub had said it, everybody recognized the sad look in Munkustrap's eyes. The glowing passion in his eyes was absent.
"We should stop the meeting now, we will not come to a result today." Tugger felt uncomfortable, which was not a popular feeling for the energetic tom. Munkustrap's melancholy made him want to scream, for he could do nothing about it.
Jennyanydots laughed. She tried to lower the tension by laughing with success: "Yes, Munkustrap, he's right, you should give up for tonight. Your soulful condition is not in a good form." And because Jenny was right, he accepted to wait to the next meeting in a month. Or to talk a bit the next time some Jellicles where assembled on the yard. So they all left the yard to go home or to find something to eat. Only Munkustrap remained sitting and stared at the moon.