The Lost Days (7 page)

People are still giving me suspicious glares. Wish I knew why. Wonder if it was because I had four black cats following me.

Some lady tried to hand me a flyer encouraging Blackrock
citizens to have their phones charged up for St. Clare’s Day. Told her no thanks since I have no phone. Her face showed Pure Horror.

Happened to be walking by the junk-mail factory in time to see Sizzle, Petal, and Grapey ending their day shift, to be replaced by HamHawk, Hurk, and Steve beginning the evening shift.

Am noticing that no one else in Blackrock looks like the people in the medicine show. Why do they even come here?

No one else in ANY small town looks like Raven. What’s she doing here?

DITTO ME.

Later—back at the minipark, AGAIN

Found another cat collar like the one that said “Miles,” this one for “NeeChee.” It was under the bench at the minipark, snagged on the bottom of the seat, and impossible to see unless you were actually lying on your back under the bench, pretending it was an antigravity machine, which I kind of happened to be doing. Will see if Nitzer, Cabbage, or McFreely answers to “NeeChee.”

Later

Back at the El Dungeon. Am still grinning (inside) about the funny stuff that just went down.

Attikol came to pick up Raven for her date—reeking of the same brutal cologne Ümlaut wears. He was all “Raven, dahling…” and I
was all snorting, and Raven was all silent and pointing at me. So I told him his challenge, nice and loud in front of everyone, how he would have to move all the buildings in Blackrock one inch to the east before she would go out with him. You should have seen his face. It got all fake-sad and understanding, but you could tell he was irked. “You’ve been listening to Ümlaut,” he said. “Don’t listen to Ümlaut, he’s jealous of his own codpiece! He’s just a boy, Raven. You need a man. You need ME.”

But Raven shook her head and crouched down under her cape, and Attikol took off to go lean on buildings, or something. Then we could laugh at him all we wanted.

Later

I have the four black cats to thank for helping me come up with that challenge while I slept. Here’s what I dreamed: I was hanging out with the cats in the alley. One of them—Nitzer, the one with six toes and the white stripes on his tail—was staring at me really strangely, and then he put his front paws up on my refrigerator box and shoved it
over an inch. Then he meowed, and I understood him! He was telling me to look underneath. I lifted it up a bit, and all this black hair came up from a hole in the ground under my lean-to. It was pretty gross, but I wasn’t scared; I knew it was just Raven’s wig. Then we walked around town and the cats did the same thing to a bunch of other buildings. All of them had different stuff under them: squid ink, crude oil, chocolate pudding, espresso, molasses…Finally we ended up right back at the El Dungeon. But they didn’t move it, and that’s how I knew what the challenge had to be. Pretty cool, actually, that Attikol really went for it. When he’s done, I want to walk around town to see what was under all those buildings.

The lean--to as I dreamed it. Raven’s wig.

Later

You know, that Curls is kind of a rapscallion. He followed me out back to the alley and stood around chatting about nothing and preventing me from going peacefully into my refrigerator box. Luckily it’s well disguised, so I don’t think he knows I live in it.

Eventually, since Curls clearly wasn’t going anywhere, I left. For lack of anywhere better to go, I ended up at Jakey’s trailer. First thing he said, after “Hi,” was “Baby cat? Kitten.” Had to slap my forehead in disgust and relief.

Weird, huh?

Anyway. Played some video games, taught Jakey’s parrot some new words, and entertained each other swapping gossip about Ümlaut and Attikol. Yeah, the kid is all right, I guess. As long as there’s nothing embarrassing in my mind.

Very Much Later

I’m finally back in my lean-to. And man, things may be tough right now, but in a way, I got it good. I got cats everywhere, a sandwich, a black cherry soda, my notebook. I got a skylight I can see the stars through, and the night air is perfect.

Belgium, I just realized I call soda soda and not pop. And haven’t I heard the Blackrock locals asking Raven for pop? I could be way off—but I think people usually say one OR the other, depending on
where they’re from. And it definitely sounds hilarious to me to hear the Blackrock folk asking for pop.

Man, I must be desperate for clues. But still.

Later

I JUST remembered the cat collar I found earlier today at the minipark. I took it out and showed it to the cats. “NeeChee?” I said, and one of them (the one I called Nitzer) stepped up and meowed! I put it on him. Fit really well. What do you know.

NeeChee

Still Later

Went out for a late-late-late-night walk and guess what? I WAS FOLLOWED. This is amazing. The guy tailed me and the cats for about six blocks. Then we doubled back, got behind him, waited until he was lost, snuck back around in front of him, and popped out in his face in a dark alley, making him scream like a little boy.

Here’s what he had to say for himself: