“Come here, kitty. You don’t like it up there,” Chloe said as she looked up at the evergreen tree that was planted in her front yard.
The black cat meowed back at the twelve-year old but stayed firmly in place.
Chloe shoved her hands deeper into the pockets of the jacket she wore and pouted. How was she going to get the cat to climb out of that tree? She already tried carefully throwing little pebbles at him! And she even tried luring him down with some of the dog treats she had in her pocket—okay, that plan was never going to work, but she has been trying so many different things for half an hour. And it was getting cold.
With a frustrated gesture, she stepped back and accidentally stomped on a passerby’s foot.
“Oops,” she said as she looked at the man. It was Luke, her neighbour. She tried for a feeble wave. “Hi, Luke…”
Luke was wearing his usual dark suit and tie, holding his ever-present briefcase. In his other hand was a cell phone. His face sported a frown as he saw who bumped into him.
His wife had been Chloe’s babysitter ever since she was six and they were all on a first-name basis, unlike how they were with their other neighbour, the intimidating Mrs. Bollai.
“Chloe,” Luke said with a sigh. He glanced at his shoes and noted the dirt and the scratches it received from the stomp. He asked, “What are you doing out in the cold, kid?” He pressed the send button on his phone.
“I’m trying to get the cat down,” Chloe explained with a wince as she too looked at his shoes. “I’m really sorry…”
Luke shrugged jerkily and tilted his head to see the cat. “Maybe it just likes it up there,” he said. His phone beeped and he glanced at the screen.
“Have you ever been on a tree that prickly?” Chloe asked and snapped one of the tree’s pines off as if to prove her point. “I bet the cat doesn’t like it.”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Luke said. “Anyway, I have to—”
“He’s totally not fine,” Chloe exclaimed. “His fur is covered by those pines! The tree’s treating him like a pin cushion.”
Luke pocketed his phone and finally looked at the girl who was three or four heads shorter than he was. “The cat is a stray and it has definitely been stuck in situations more prickly than an evergreen. It’s fine.”
“But you’re not a cat. How would you know?”
“Because—well, because cats always get stuck in trees,” Luke said with no conviction.
“But this cat doesn’t like it,” Chloe said.
Luke frowned. “If it doesn’t want to come down it’s going to stay there until someone climbs up to get it. And no, you’re not going up there. Your mother will set your pet on me if I let you. Where is she anyway?”
“Mom’s still at the daycare,” Chloe said. “And Ossie’s not just any pet, he’s a bulldog! And he’s at home. And he probably wants to go walking with mom when she comes back.”
Luke clamped his mouth shut so he wouldn’t voice his annoyance at her use of the word ‘and’ so many times. “You should go home now. Forget the cat.”
She stared wide-eyed at him. “I can’t forget the cat. He’s right there!”
“He’s fine there,” Luke repeated.
“No he isn’t.”
“Yes, he is.”
“You’re not a cat!”
That statement caught him off guard. “So?” he asked.
“So how—how do you know?” Chloe demanded.
In irritation, Luke answered back with his own question. “You’re not a cat either, so how do you know that it doesn’t want to stay up there?”
“But you don’t know if I used to be a cat, so you can’t say that I don’t know that the cat wants to come down,” Chloe countered with a victorious grin.
Luke stared at her. What sort of logic was this?
“COME DOWN NOW, YOU STUPID CAT! YOUR PESKY YOWLS ARE RUINING MY SLEEP.”
Luke and Chloe looked at the screaming woman. It was Mrs. Bollai, standing on her front port in her old leather jacket that looked like it was made in the 60s. She was wearing it over a matching set of pink button-up pyjamas and a baby blue night gown. Her face was flushed from the short exclsmation but she wasn’t out of breath yet; Chloe had first-hand experience with an exhausted Mrs. Bollai who suffered from too much shouting.
Chloe looked up at the tree. To her amazement, the black cat was scrambling down. Before she could say anything, a large dog that reached her hips jumped out of the bushes and barked ferociously. Chloe screamed and yanked Luke’s arm hard enough to make him stumble forward, almost falling face first onto the pavement. The dog ignored them and chased after the cat that was halfway across the street. A truck zoomed by, honking as it missed the dog by a tail-length.
When the chaotic moment passed, Chloe asked the old woman, “Mrs. Bollai, how did you do that?”
Mrs. Bollai was looking very pleased with herself when she answered. “You just have to be strict with them, missy. Not those little cooing sounds you were making for the past hour. And you, Mr. Benson, should not be encouraging her. Shouldn’t you be going home now? The two of you together will wake the whole neighbourhood!”
“O-Okay!” Chloe stuttered.
“Ah…you’re right. It’s getting late,” Luke said even though it was only six. “Good day to you, Mrs. Bollai.” With Chloe a good two seconds ahead of him, he walked home.
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