The Wicked Cat Read online

  “You can come with me,” Bum said to Cindy. “I’m going bowling.”

  “But doesn’t it cost money to bowl?” Cindy asked.

  Bum smiled. “That’s why I want you to come along.”

  Adam and Watch did find Ann Templeton at the Tomb. She was in the middle of getting some clothes altered and didn’t appear to be happy about being interrupted. But when she saw the cat they had brought, she immediately took a break to talk to them. As always, with her long dark hair and bewitching eyes, she was beautiful. She spoke to them in the reception area away from the mannequins and the weird shop owner, who was dressed like a thirsty vampire with had “taste.

  “Where did you get this cat?” Ann Templeton demanded.

  “We think it’s Sally,” Adam said. He, then proceeded to tell her the whole story. Ann Templeton listened closely. When Adam was done she picked up the cat and stared deeply into its eyes. The animal growled at her but this didn’t seem to bother her. Finally she set the cat down:

  “This is definitely your friend Sally,” Ann Templeton said. “I remember Jessie now. She was a familiar of my great-great-great-great grandmother’s—Madeline Templeton. They were childhood friends, actually, but in the end I think Madeline must have been mad at her.”

  “Why?” Watch asked.

  “Because she turned her into a cat,” Ann Templeton said simply. “You don’t turn people you like into cats.”

  “That makes sense,” Watch said.

  “Can you turn Sally back into a person?” Adam asked.

  “No,” Ann Templeton said. “Not without the cooperation of Jessie.”

  “But you are such a powerful witch,” Watch said. “I thought you could do anything.”

  Ann Templeton smiled. “Thank you, Watch. But Madeline was more powerful than I am, and it was she who first set this spell in motion. The only way I can reverse it is if Jessie agrees to become a cat again.” She paused. “But I think Sally is better off as a cat than as a human. She’s less trouble.”

  “That’s what Cindy said,” Watch remarked.

  “I know Sally,” Adam said. “She probably hates being a cat. She can’t talk, and that’s pretty much all Sally ever does.”

  “Then you have to get Jessie to cooperate,” Ann Templeton said.

  “But she seems happy to be a human again,” Watch said. “I don’t think she’s going to help us.”

  Ann Templeton stood. “You might try convincing her that being a human being isn’t so great. She’s been a cat for hundreds of years. I imagine the transition could be hard on her.”

  “But what if we can’t convince her?” Adam asked.

  Ann Templeton smiled. “Then that’s your problem. Now if you will excuse me, I am being fitted for a new dress. Oh, how is your eyesight, Watch?”

  “Better, ma’am,” Watch said. “The blurring is gone. If I wear my glasses, I have no problem.”

  Ann Templeton was pleased. “You will go far, Watch, as will you, Adam. If this town doesn’t kill you first. Goodbye.”

  “Goodbye,” Adam and Watch said as she disappeared back into the depths of the Tomb. “At least she gave us some clues as to what to do,” Watch said.

  “I don’t know,” Adam said, depressed the witch hadn’t just zapped Sally back into human form again. “What are we supposed to do next?”

  “The question is what are you supposed to do next,” Watch said. “You have to convince Jessie how lousy it is to be human.”

  “Why me?”

  “Because she obviously likes you. But she doesn’t like Cindy and me.”

  “She never said she likes me,” Adam protested.

  “She said you were cute, it’s the same thing.”

  “But you said it yourself,” Adam said. “She seems happy being human again.”

  “Yes. But she doesn’t know how cruel our modern society can be. You have to point out to her the horrors of the twentieth century.”

  “How do I do that?” Adam asked.

  “I don’t know.” Watch knelt and picked up the cat. “But you’ll figure it out. Look, I’ll take care of Sally and you take care of Jessie. Give me a call when Jessie is tired of being human.”

  “You might wait a long time for that call,” Adam said gloomily.

  8

  At the arcade Adam caught up with Jessie, who was playing a game where she shot wolves that were trying to attack her. Adam stood and watched for a few minutes before speaking. He noticed that she just had to look at a machine to get to play another game. She didn’t have to put in any quarters.

  “She must still have magical powers,” Adam said to himself. “I better be careful.”

  “Adam walked over and said hello. She seemed happy to see him.

  “Adam,” she said. “Where are your annoying friends?”

  “Oh, they’re out doing stuff.” He paused. “I was wondering if you wanted to spend the day with me?”

  Her eyes widened and she turned away from the game. “That sounds like fun. What do you want to do?”

  “We could go down to the school,” he said. “You know it starts soon? You really should sign up.

  She looked excited. “I haven’t gone to school in a long time. What do I need to do to sign up?”

  “You just have to write your name on some papers. We can buy a few of our books while we’re there.”

  Jessie frowned. “You have to buy your own books?”

  “Not most of them. Just a few. At least that’s what Watch says. Come on, I have some extra cash.”

  They walked toward the school. Along the way Jessie almost got run over twice by cars.

  “They come so fast,” she complained. “I don’t know how you stay out of their way.”

  “You have to watch the lights. You only go when they’re green.”

  “I know that,” Jessie said stiffly.

  Adam had to sign up for school anyway. He’d been meaning to drop by for the last couple of days. They were sent to the gym, where some teachers were sitting behind tables. If you wanted to be in a teacher’s class, you had to get in his or her line. They signed up for science, math, history, and English. For physical education Adam signed up for swimming, and put Jessie’s name down as well. Jessie wasn’t sure if she liked that choice.

  “I don’t know how to swim,” she said.

  “You’ll learn,” he said. “I’ll give you a lesson this afternoon.”

  Jessie nodded but seemed uneasy.

  Next they went to the book table. Adam really only had to buy one book but he bought a whole bunch to make it look as if school was harder than it was. He showed Jessie all the subjects they’d be studying.

  “Algebra is hard,” he said darkly. “You’re going to have to study every night to keep up in that class.”

  Jessie was distressed. “But the last time I went to school all we did in math was add and subtract. Where did all this other stuff come from?”

  “People invented it,” Adam said. “And if someone invents something we all have to learn it. Let’s go back to the coffee shop and have something to eat and I’ll give you a few lessons.”

  Jessie was interested. “Can we get a fish sandwich?”

  “We can try,” Adam said.

  But when they were seated in the coffee shop, Adam excused himself for a moment. He sneaked over and spoke to the waitress who was going to serve them. She was the same waitress they’d had that morning, and she looked at him a bit apprehensively. Big and fat, she wore tons of makeup and was chewing gum. Her name was Claire, and Adam knew her pretty well from all the times he came in.

  “Claire,” he said, “I know I have that rude girl with me again and I’m sorry. But I want you to do me a favor. She’s going to try to order something with fish in it and I want you to tell her that you don’t have any. No chicken either. Then if she asks for milk tell her you don’t have any of that. You see, she’s allergic to those foods and she tries to eat them even though they make her sick.”

  Cl
aire gave him a shrewd glance. She wasn’t as stupid as she looked.

  “You’re not just trying to make her mad, are you, Adam?”

  He smiled. “Well, maybe. But if you do what I say I’ll give you a big tip.”

  Claire laughed. “You kids. You kill me. Sure, whatever you want. I didn’t like her anyway.”

  “I understand,” Adam said.

  He returned to his seat. Jessie was browsing through a math textbook and frowning.

  “I don’t understand any of this stuff,” she said. “What are x and y?”

  “They are unknowns in algebra. In most equations you have to figure out what they are. In fact, you have to first figure out how to construct the equations, usually from a word problem.” Adam took the book and skipped to a page where there were word problems. “OK, say Farmer John has four horses. When he drives to town in his truck without towing his horses it takes him one hour. But if he takes his four horses the extra weight causes him to drive slower so he needs twenty minutes extra to get to town. Now how long will it take him to get to town if he brings only two horses?”

  Jessie stared at him. “How am I supposed to know that?”

  “That’s what you have to figure out. You write it out as an equation.” Adam picked up a pencil and began to scribble on a napkin in front of Jessie. “OK, four horses slow down Farmer John twenty minutes. We can say that four x equals twenty.”

  “What is four x?” Jessie asked.

  “The four horses.”

  “Why don’t you call it four h?”

  “It doesn’t matter what you call it. But the most common symbols are x and y What matters is that four of these things equal twenty minutes.”

  “I thought four of these things were equal to four horses? Now you are saying they are minutes.”

  “The problem is about how the horses relate to the minutes lost,” Adam explained, pleased she was getting annoyed. “If four x equals twenty minutes, what does x equal?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t care. I don’t want to do this anymore.”

  “This is what you’ll be doing all year, every night for five or six hours.”

  She was shocked. “You’re kidding?”

  “I told you algebra was hard. When school is on, you don’t do anything but study.”

  “But what if you don’t want to take algebra?”

  Adam shook his head. “Then you’ve got to take calculus, which is a real killer. When you take calculus you don’t even have the weekends free. You sleep and eat calculus,” Adam lied.

  Jessie was upset. “But we didn’t used to have all these hard subjects.”

  Adam shrugged. “It’s tough being a kid these days. And if you should flunk algebra, or any class for that matter, then they make you go to summer school. And that runs from six in the morning till ten at night—three months in a row.”

  Claire, their waitress, arrived She had her pen and pad ready.

  “May I take your order, please?” she asked.

  Jessie grabbed the menu and quickly studied it. “Yes. I’ll have your fish sandwich. Cooked lightly, no mayonnaise.”

  “I’m sorry,” Claire said. “We have no fish sandwiches today.”

  Jessie was annoyed again. “Why not?”

  Claire shrugged. “We just don’t have any. What can I say?”

  Jessie studied the menu some more. “Then I’ll have your halibut steak. Cooked rare with no sauce.”

  Claire shook her head. “We’re out of halibut.”

  Jessie blinked. “You’re kidding?”

  “I don’t kid, miss. Is there something else you would like?”

  “How about the swordfish?” Jessie asked.

  “How about it?” Claire asked, clearly enjoying her role.

  “Do you have it?” Jessie growled.

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll have it with—”

  “But it’s old,” Claire interrupted. “We’re about to throw it out.”

  Jessie looked ready to kill. “Are you saying you have no fish at all?

  “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you say that as soon as you walked up to the table?” Jessie yelled.

  Claire smiled. “You didn’t ask. May I get you something else?”

  Jessie threw the menu down. “I’ll have the chicken.”

  “I’m sorry, we just ran out of chicken five minutes ago.”

  Jessie was livid. “What do you have to eat then?”

  Claire frowned. “Not much. Would you like a banana?”

  Jessie turned to Adam. “I want to go somewhere else and eat.”

  “This is the best place in town,” Adam said. “If they don’t have fish or chicken here, you won’t find it within a hundred miles of this town.”

  Jessie fumed. “I’ll have a bowl of milk then.”

  “You can have the bowl,” Claire said. “But we’re out of milk as well.”

  “How can you be out of milk?” Jessie screamed.

  Claire put her hands on her hips. “Really, young lady, if you’re going to carry on like this I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

  Jessie jumped up. “We are leaving. There’s nothing here for me to eat.”

  Adam stood. “You’re just going to have to learn to eat new things.” He added, “Or else you’re going to starve to death.”

  9

  Adam took her to the community swimming pool next, the last place he figured Jessie would want to go. He knew how much cats hated the water. And Jessie did in fact look pretty miserable on the walk over.

  “You can’t go to school unless you take PE,” Adam said. “And the only PE class offered this year is swimming.”

  Jessie was aghast. “For the whole year?”

  “Yeah. Well have to swim every morning for an hour. And I’ve heard the pool at school is worse than the community pool. It’s not heated In the winter you have to break the ice before you can jump in.”

  Jessie was worried. “But I’ve never been able to swim. I’ve always been afraid of the water. Do we have to do this today?”

  “Believe me, you want a lesson first. The swimming teacher will pick you up and throw you in the water. And if you try to get out of the pool before the hour is up, he’ll grab you and hold you underwater until you turn blue. The guy is tough—he used to be a Navy Seal.”

  Jessie shook her head. “I don’t know if I can handle this.”

  Adam pointed her toward the girls’ locker room. “You go in there and change. If you don’t have a suit you can check one out. When you’re through changing, meet me out at the water.” He patted her on the shoulder and added, “Don’t worry, I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

  Looking miserable, Jessie went into the girls’ locker room. Thinking he was doing a good job on her, Adam went into the boys’ room and quickly got into a suit. A few minutes later he was waiting out by the water for Jessie to emerge. When she did, she kept glancing nervously at the water.

  “Can we just start in the shallow end?” she asked.

  “Sure. But we’ll have to work our way into the deep end, if you really want to learn to swim.”

  “But I don’t want to learn to swim. I told you that.”

  “Fine. But you’ll probably drown in PE then. I heard a couple of kids drowned last year. But, like I said, it’s a tough PE class.”

  Jessie was anxious. “Things sure weren’t like this when I went to school.”

  “Times have changed, Jessie,” Adam said.

  They got in the water, in the shallow end, which was only two and a half feet deep. Just getting Jessie that far took all of Adam’s persuasive abilities. Jessie treated the water as if it were boiling acid. But once she was in, and she saw the water was only up a little past her waist, she began to relax. But Adam didn’t let her get too comfortable. He pulled her toward the deep end.

  “The first day of PE,” he said, “the teacher makes you jump off the diving board.”

  Jessie was horrified. “What? Ther
e’s no way I’m doing that. I would sink right to the bottom. How deep does this pool get anyway?”

  “Twelve feet. But you’ve got to do it today before you do it in PE.”

  She shook her head. “No way!”

  Adam spoke in a reasonable voice. “We can jump off together. You can hold my hand. If you begin to sink I’ll pull you up. I’m an excellent swimmer. You’ll be in no danger, and once you get over your fear you’ll be able to swim laps. You’ll love it; you might even start training for the Olympics.”

  Jessie stared at him suspiciously. “Why are you making me do all this?”

  Adam shrugged. “I’m just trying to help you out.” He added, although it was forced, “Because I like you.”

  That pleased her. “Really?”

  “Sure. I wouldn’t say it unless I meant it.”

  “Do you think I’m cute?”

  Adam had never told a girl that she was cute, especially one who had been a cat for the last couple hundred years. But for Sally, he felt he had to stretch his limits.

  “Yeah,” he said. “You’re a kitty, I mean, a cutie.”

  She hugged him and beamed. “If it means that much to you, Adam, I’ll go off the diving board with you.”

  But a minute later she wasn’t so sure. Standing on the diving board beside him, she shook like, well, a cat that was about to be thrown into a swimming pool. She was holding on to him so tight he started to wonder if they were both going to drown. He had to untangle her arms from his.

  “Just hold my hand,” he said. “That’s all you have to do.”

  She looked at him with her big green eyes.

  “You promise not to let go?” she asked.

  Of course that was exactly what he intended to do. He needed to scare her so bad that she’d want to be a cat again.

  “Don’t worry,” he said, turning toward the water, four feet below them. “We’ll jump on the count of three. One . . . two . . . three!”

  In reality she did not jump. She must have lost her nerve at the last second, and he ended up pulling her off the diving board. The moment they hit the water, he let go of her hand. Even though she had stolen his friend’s body and was a pain in the neck, he felt awful for betraying her trust in him. He knew how terrified she must be.