The Great Cat Caper (14 page)

V
eelie, I want to take you to breakfast for brain food before your test, not spend the time looking at cats.” Dad stood by the tail end of the SUV. Vee stood on the senior center steps. She’d been up early enough to see everyone else still sprawled in sleep around the auditorium. Mrs. Sissy had told her she’d set her watch for the others to wake, so Vee wouldn’t have to.

“I just want you to see what I’ve been doing. Are you coming later then?”

He hesitated. Vee knew that meant he had no intention of coming to the Helpful City Festival. She wanted to feel mad so she wouldn’t cry, but decided instead to look at the treasure of Dad here now.

“Since you won’t be back later, please come in now.”

Another long moment. Dad looked at his watch then flicked the remote at the SUV. “We’ll have to do a drive-thru for your breakfast. And we have to hurry, Vee.”

“Right, Dad.” She turned with him as he came up the steps.

“We have twenty cats that are ready for adopting. We’ve done the cutest Cat Kits for everyone who adopts a cat. Then people can buy other things for their cats or people they know who have cats.” She made sure to mention that the
Everything Animal
show, a
national
TV show, would be rolling their cameras at the start of the Great Cat Caper Adoption Event.

He grunted and looked at his watch. “We have to be sure to get you a water bottle for the test. It helps your brain to have plenty of water. You’ve worked hard for this, Vee. I’m sure you’ll do well.”

Oh. Dad was in a different “room.” He probably wouldn’t even see the cats when he was standing in front of them. She took a deep breath. Was there the tiniest whiff of mouthwash? She did a quick scan. Nobody in the hall. “Sure, then I won’t ever have to see Math Man again.”

“Vee.”

“Sorry, Dad. Here’s the Cat Room. Prepare for some awesome catness.” She flung open the door with a grand gesture of her arm. “Ta-dah!”

The Cat Room was still decorated, but there was not a cat in sight. The carriers stood empty, doors swinging wide.

I
can’t think,” Esther said, clutching her head.

“Too many people giving dumb advice,” Sunny complained, looking again in the Cat Room like she might find all the cats magically there again.

“We must find them.” Aneta had been saying that since Vee ran to awaken the girls after finding the cats missing.

Vee’s brain was whirling. She couldn’t get the smell of mouthwash out of her mind. Right before she opened the door, she’d smelled that mouthwash and thought it odd that weird lady’s smell would still be around so long after the senior center closed. If only Vee had done something then. But what?

“Vee, time to go. You’ll be late for the retest.” Dad was standing by the senior center door, stepping aside every time someone else ran in or out yelling, “The cats are gone!”

“Dad, I can’t go. I have to help find the cats,” Vee said, swallowing hard. What if it had been Buzz still in one of those carriers?

“Vee.”

“Dad, please. It’s important.”

“School is more important than cats. Let’s go.” He stepped toward the door. “If you’re not in the SUV in five minutes, I’m leaving. And you’re headed back to regular sixth grade. Is that what you want?”

“Dad—” What could she say? “My want-to has been ramped up for weeks. It’s just, well—”

Dad’s face looked like he couldn’t decide whether to yell or cry. It scared Vee.

“I guess—” he paused. “Heather’s been telling me—” He shook his head. “I give up.”

The lump in her throat made it impossible to reply. Dad left.

The girls encircled her with hugs.

“Okay, what do we do now?” She had to get a list going in her head or she would explode. For so many weeks, the retest had been the most important thing. Not anymore. Tomorrow she would have to think about life in the regular sixth grade. But not today.

1. Look by the Dumpster.

2. Look by the lake.

3. Look for loose cats.

4. Look for someone carrying cats?

“Time to head outside,” Esther said.

Vee and Aneta nodded.

“Skates.” Sunny dashed off toward the auditorium. She returned, skates and helmets hanging over both arms. “We can cover more ground faster on skates.”

Wordless, they yanked on skates and helmets. After checking to make sure each other’s skates and helmets were securely fastened, they skated to the entrance of the senior center.

“Last night was perfect. The Cat Room looked perfect. The seniors’ surprise was perfect. It was a perfect night,” Sunny said, her voice trembling.

“Right. Now it’s not perfect.” Esther sounded fierce, her hands on her hips. Sunny reached for the crash bar so they could plunge through the doorway, cling to the rail to get down the steps, and start their search in the great outdoors. Instead, as she leaned on the bar, it opened suddenly and she fell forward. Right into Ginger, the producer for
Everything Animal.
The two fell over, and the camera crew tossed their cameras to their shoulders and began filming.

“Not
now
, guys,” Ginger cried, struggling to push Sunny off her.

In the disaster, Vee had completely forgotten about
Everything Animal.

“Dumpster first.” Vee pulled Sunny to her feet, greeted Ginger with, “Hello, welcome to the Great Cat Caper,” and rolled down the handicap ramp.
How do you have a Great Cat Caper with no cats?

“I want all this on video!” Ginger directed her crew to follow the girls.

What? Not only were they failing their project, but it was going to be recorded for national TV?
Beetle.
That was simply it.
Beetle, beetle, beetle.
The girls rolled their eyes at each other then shrugged. No time to waste.

A young couple in running clothes had paused to catch their breath.

“Have you seen anyone carrying a lot of cats?” Aneta asked.

The couple looked puzzled. “Nope, just a lady with a baby stroller,” the man said, and the two ran off.

In a straight line across, the Squad rolled toward the bushes Vee remembered so well. She thought of Buzz, safe and probably still asleep at her house. She felt guilty being glad he had been adopted early and wasn’t in the Cat Room when the unthinkable happened. The missing cats were pets, not Dumpster cats. They would be afraid to be out in what to them was the wild. Who could—
how
could—they have gotten out?

No cats in the bushes or around the Dumpster. Not even the cat condo dwellers. The crew swarmed around their disappointed faces.

“The lake,” Sunny said, turning away from one camera only to find another in her face. “Fast,” she added with a bit of a grin. Without a word to one another, they turned and took off out of the parking lot, leaving the camera crew behind. Squatting down on their heels and wrapping their arms around their knees, they rode the paved road to the gravel where they tipped over. After brushing each other off, they carefully stepped down the gravel road, holding on to each other. Calling the cat names they remembered, they peeked under bushes and even looked under the dock where it sat on the sand. No cats.

“The park.” Aneta turned and led the way back up the road.

When they hit the paved, steep road again, Sunny dropped to the ground, pulling off her skates. “Skate’s off. Hill’s too steep to get going on skates.” The other three obeyed. Then they ran up the road, where the crew stood filming their approach.

“Wave and look happy,” Esther ordered. The girls pasted big smiles on their faces and sat down to put on their skates and helmets.

“Aneta and I will go one way,” Vee said, lacing her skates quickly and jamming the helmet on her head, fastening it snugly under her chin.

“We’ll meet you from the other side,” Sunny said. Esther bobbed her head in agreement.

Vee and Aneta held hands as they skated along the parkway. The crew had wised up and had sprinted for their truck, driving along Park Street with one camera operator leaning out the window. Vee looked to the left and Aneta toward the wide expanse of the park. She was getting close to crying. Dad was mad at her. Heather would smile and tell her she loved her heart. Mom would say she’d gone overboard on cats and had lost perspective. Bill? What would Bill say?
Great day for treasure.
They were looking for treasure, all right. But would they find it?

“When you look for treasure,” Vee muttered, her eyes scanning back and forth, “you have to follow a map, some sort of guide.” Beside her, she could hear Aneta softly whispering and knew she was praying. A spring of comfort washed up her spine. What would she do without the S.A.V.E. Squad as friends?

“You are my Treasure,” Vee prayed, too. “Be our Guide. Um, please?”

The two girls met up with Sunny and Esther who also had nothing to report. They crossed the street to The Sweet Stuff and asked if anyone had seen cats running around. No one had, but everyone expressed concern about the upcoming adoption event.

“Now what?” Esther asked when they were back on the opposite side of the street and looking at the community center that revealed no cats.

Having cameras standing around a person was kinda distracting. Vee wished she’d never contacted
Everything Animal.
Who took the cats? Mouthwash lady? Why? And what would she do with them if she did take them? Who
was
she?

The park was rapidly filling with booths and a sound stage. Kids from every school in the city roamed the park, some carrying signs, laptops, and materials for their final service-learning presentation. Vee felt tears prick the back of her eyes, and as she dashed them away, she noticed Aneta was quietly crying and Esther’s face was red, blotchy like Frank’s, but Esther was holding back tears. Sunny had the red-rimmed rabbit eyes. Nobody had a plan. They were in big trouble.

The lead camera operator lowered her camera and said, “‘Kay, guys, let’s cut it. Nothing here.”

The lady was right.

V
ee spotted a familiar tail coming across the park. “That’s not Flick, is it?” she asked the girls, narrowing her eyes to get a better look in the morning sun. Flick never came out in the open like that.

“Sure looks like him, the way he scoots along with his black tail up straight like he’s leading a parade,” Sunny said, also shading her eyes.

The cat stopped a safe distance from the group on the path. Out of the corner of her eye, Vee noticed the camera people slip the cameras back up on their shoulders. The cat’s tail quirked near the top so it turned the whole tail into a question mark. That was the question for sure, Vee thought.
Where are the cats?

Flick turned half away and then turned his head. The tail questioned.
Good day for treasure
came suddenly to Vee. She and the cat locked gazes.
You can’t be doing what I think you’re doing.

Flick
went the tail.

The cat moved a few glide-y steps onto the sidewalk and looked back again.
Sometimes you don’t have to know what you don’t know to know it.
It made no sense and all kinds of sense. Vee’s skates were moving. “I might be crazy,” she said to the girls as she slowly approached the suddenly still flick-tailed cat. “But I think Flick is trying to tell us something.”

“Crazy is all we’ve got,” Sunny said. The other two agreed. The girls joined Vee, and in a flash, Flick had flipped around and was down the sidewalk, weaving in and out of people.

“C’mon!” Esther said to the camera crew. “Keep up!”

The cat kept up an easy trot. The difficult part for the girls was keeping Flick in sight with all the commotion of setting up for the festival. Trucks were backing across the sidewalk. People were carrying cartons and wheeling hand trucks of boxes.

“Where did he go?”

“Oh, look, I see his tail!”

“For pizza sake, Flick, quit ducking behind stuff!”

At the edge of the park, Flick seemed determined to keep going. But where? There was nothing except the side of the community center, and it was clear of cats.

“Guys, I think he’s leading us on a merry cat chase.” Sunny’s voice was discouraged. She stopped by the Van Go Meals booth and the free blood pressure check table. Three girls younger than the Squad were setting out piles of handouts and setting a can of vegetables on each pile to keep them from blowing away.

A little girl who, Vee thought, was probably supposed to be attached to one of the older girls, had wandered away and spied Flick. Although Vee wasn’t a good judge of kids’ ages, she looked a lot younger than the Twin Terrors.

“Uh-oh,” she said. Once Flick saw her, the flighty flick-tailed feline would vanish up a tree or around the building and they’d be back to no plan. And lots of trouble.

“Stay away from the kitty,” Esther said to the little girl, sounding very friendly. She walked toward the girl with her hands out. Flick saw the little girl. His tail stiffened, and he puffed up.

Vee held her breath. Would he bolt?

“Yes, little girl,” Aneta chimed in, stepping to Esther’s side to further block her view of the feline.

The little girl stopped, stuck her index finger in her mouth, and stared. Aneta and Esther took a step toward her. The finger came out of the mouth. “Stranger danger! Stranger danger!” the little girl shrieked, pointing the finger toward the two girls. “Stranger danger. Stranger danger!”

Then everyone on the planet was looking at them. The girls at the table glared, the sister grabbed her little sister. The adults at the table pulled out cell phones. Passersby halted and began to form a menacing circle around the S.A.V.E. Squad.
Big trouble,
Vee thought, still keeping an eye on Flick. The Dumpster cat had amazingly not moved. He didn’t look scared anymore. He’d curled his tail around his body and appeared to be enjoying the show.

Stalemate.
It was a language-arts vocabulary word that fit right now. Can’t go forward, can’t go back. If they followed Flick, people would probably chase them and call the police. If they stayed, Flick would take off and they’d never know if he
was
leading them to the catnapped cats.

“Vhat you kids doing?” It was Hermann. Vee had never been so glad to see the gruff old man.

“The cats are stolen!”

“Flick is leading us to them!”

“These people think we’re creepy!”

Hermann stood unfazed by the words hurled at him. He spoke to the adults manning the tables and assured them, indeed, the girls were crazy but harmless and dispersed the crowd. Then he looked at Flick. Flick looked at Hermann. “Vell, den, show de kids de kots!” he said.

Flick stood, stretched each vertebra from the tail to his neck in a slow, sinuous arc, and took off running, tail straight up.

“Go! Go! Go!” Sunny was the first to follow with Vee, Aneta, and Esther stringing out behind.

Flick led them across the street and down the side of the community center. At the end of the community center stood a fence that surrounded the emergency generators and other mechanical equipment. Vee could see it through the slats. While it was taller than the girls, Flick dug in his claws and was up and over the top. The girls lined up and peered through the slats.

“I see machinery.”

“I see Flick.”

“I see a stroller. Weird. Flick climbed in, and the whole thing is shaking.”

“There’s a stroller in there?” Vee flashed back to when they first burst out of the senior center. Vee had asked a couple in running clothes if they had seen cats.
“Nope,”
she remembered their reply.
“Just a woman pushing a baby stroller.”

Mouthwash lady.

“How are we going to get over the fence?” Aneta stretched up and dug her sneakered toes into the slats. She slipped back and rubbed her hands together. “Ouch.” Sounds of meowing came from the stroller. Aneta peeked in. “They’re beginning to crawl out of the stroller!” She looked at the camera crew, who kept their eyeballs locked to their cameras. “Help?”

“Sorry,” one said. “We’re observers, not participators.”

Esther gave them the stink eye and said, “I’ll go get Frank. He’s got to have keys!” She ran off.

Aneta’s eye was glued to a space between the slats and chain link. “If they all get out, they’ll start climbing the fence and we’ll never get them back for the Great Cat Caper.”

Vee thought fast. “We can’t wait till Esther gets back with Frank. We don’t even know if Frank is at the senior center yet.” They hadn’t come this far to have their project disappear over the wall. Those cats needed to be someone’s treasure.

“Shoulders!” Sunny pointed to Aneta. “You’re the tallest. Except we’re all too tall. What we need is someone—”

“—who’s a shrimp.” C. P.’s scratchy voice jumped in. He had appeared, finishing off a maple bar. Wiping his hands on his cargo shorts, he inquired, “What is it with you girls and fences?”

Sunny squatted and cupped her hands. “Put your foot in there, and I’ll shoot you up to Aneta’s shoulders.”

C. P. stepped forward, placed his left foot in Sunny’s cupped hands and his hands on her shoulders. “Ready.”

Sunny sniffed. “C. P., did you just put sticky maple bar stuff on my shirt?” Grunting, Sunny staggered to her feet, and C. P. flew up toward Aneta. He landed on his knees, thudding on her shoulders.

“C. P.!” Aneta wailed. “Hurry! You are short but you are
heavy.
“

He struggled to get his balance. “Quit moving! Hey!” He looked down at Vee. “Get your hand off my shorts!”

The camera crew would love that sound bite. “Don’t be creepy. I’m trying to keep you from falling,” Vee said.

C. P. got up on one foot and then the other. Aneta groaned and wobbled. The boy placed his hands on the fence. He took a deep breath, leaned forward, and did a slow roll over the fence—head first, his short, bare legs tucked in tightly to his body.

“CEEEEEPEEEEEE!” shrieked Vee and Sunny. They ran to the fence and peered through. “Are you dead?”