Ann Templeton laughed. “The answer to that question would fill books. But I’ll give you a hint. The answer lies in the stars and in the past and in the future.”
“I don’t understand.”
“If I told you, it would ruin the mystery of Spooksville for you, and I won’t do that. You have to discover the truth for yourself. But to do that you’re going to have to look in all three places that I have described.”
“Your daughter Mireen said your husband was from the star cluster the Pleiades.” Watch paused. “Is Mireen around? I haven’t talked to her in a while.”
“She is busy with her studies. You may see her another time.” She sharpened her tone. “And as far as my husband is concerned, I never speak of him. And you shouldn’t either.”
Watch nodded quickly. “I didn’t mean to pry. I’m sorry.”
Ann Templeton tapped the pages of the diary. “Something about this cave intrigues me. I feel there may be something there. Where did you find the cat yesterday?”
“Up behind the cemetery.” He paused. “Near the cave, I suppose.”
“Interesting. Jessica must have liked to stay close to Jack.”
“You know Adam is supposed to be with Jessie now. He’s trying to show her that being a human isn’t so great after all.”
“Did he tell Jessie that he was on to her secret?”
“He didn’t plan to tell her.” Watch added, “But he’s been gone a long time. I’m worried about him.”
Ann Templeton paused and closed her eyes and put a hand to her head, near her forehead. For a moment she breathed funny, sort of rapidly. Then she became very still and Watch felt a strange power move through the room. Then she opened her eyes and stood.
“We will go up to this cave together,” she said.
Watch jumped. “Now?”
“Not this minute. I have to speak to my trolls. Once a week I lecture them on good manners and civic responsibility. If I don’t, they get all excited and want to burn and pillage the town. But we can go in half an hour. While you’re waiting you can read in my library. I have many interesting books you might enjoy, a few even from the time of Atlantis and Lemuria.”
“But is Adam at the cave? He might be in danger.”
She laughed. “Adam enjoys a little danger.”
11
Cindy was trying to interest Sally in a can of tuna when there was a knock at the door. Cindy hoped it was Adam as she hurried to the door. But when she opened it, she froze solid. Jessie, her green eyes blazing, stood on the burned porch.
“You seem surprised to see me,” Jessie said. “May I come in?”
Cindy glanced over her shoulder. The cat—Sally—had come into the living room and was standing behind her now.
“N-now is not a good time,” Cindy stuttered. “I have company.”
Jessie peered around. “I see you do. But that’s all right. I didn’t want to come into your lousy house yesterday and I don’t want to come into it this evening.” She paused and her face darkened. “I was just wondering if you wanted me to take you to Adam.”
“Where is he?”
“Come with me and I’ll show you. Bring your cat, I don’t mind.”
Cindy was worried. “What have you done to him?”
Jessie shrugged. “Nothing. He’s perfectly well. I was just on my way back to him. But then I got to thinking about you, and how much you like him. How you would like to spend more time with him. And I thought I should invite you along.”
Cindy knew Jessie was up to no good but she felt she had no choice but to follow her. Of course she suspected Jessie had somehow trapped Adam, and that Jessie intended to capture her along with him. Jessie clearly hated her, and obviously knew that Cindy knew about her little black cat secret.
Cindy bent down and picked up Sally.
“All right, Jessie,” she said. “We’ll go with you.”
“That’s good.” Jessie grinned. “You can help me carry the cement.”
As it grew dark outside, it became almost pitch-black in the cave. Still Adam could make out some shapes. Not that there was much to see. His aching arms and hands were already beginning to occupy most of his attention. Jessie had pinned them above his head, and his heart was having trouble pumping the blood to his fingertips. The cramping in his muscles was extraordinary. He wondered how long he could last before he would begin to cry out in pain. Of course he knew no one would hear him, with or without the brick wall. He wondered if Jessie really was coming back, or if she would wait until he was dead to wall him in. Neither alternative sounded pleasant.
Adam glanced around.
“I hate this place,” he muttered.
“You get used to it,” a soft voice replied.
Adam would have jumped out of his skin if he hadn’t been chained.
“Who’s there?” he gasped.
“Just me,” the voice replied.
Adam had to take a breath. “Who is me?”
“Jack. I’m right here.”
Adam blinked and stared at the skeleton on his right. He thought he noticed a faint movement.
“Jack,” he whispered. “Are you Jack the skeleton?”
There was definite movement on his right. A bony hand raised up.
Adam did scream.
“Shh,” Jack said. “Don’t get excited. I know I’ve lost weight, but I’m not that bad looking.”
Adam bit his lip and tried to catch his breath.
“You’re alive?” Adam whispered.
“Sure. But I only wake up at night. What’s your name?”
“Adam.”
A bony hand brushed Adam’s side and Adam screamed again.
“I just wanted to shake,” Jack said, quickly withdrawing his bony fingers.
Adam was still trying to get a handle on the situation. A talking skeleton in a black cave was not his idea of fun company. He closed his eyes for a moment and took several long, deep breaths. When he opened his eyes again, Jack was still there, still staring at him with his empty eye sockets.
“Jack,” Adam said carefully, “do you know you’re a skeleton?”
Jack sounded offended. “Well, you’d be a skeleton, too, if you’d hung here as long as I have with nothing to eat.”
Adam nodded, his heart still pounding in his chest.
“I understand that,” he said. “But because you are a skeleton, you’re not supposed to be alive.”
Now Jack was definitely insulted. “Are you saying I should be dead? Is that what you mean?”
“Yes. Most skeletons are dead. All the ones I know about have been.”
Jack sighed. “You don’t like me. Here we’re chained together in the same cave and you don’t even want to be friends. You know it gets lonely in here without anyone to talk to.”
“Jack,” Adam said patiently. “My reaction to you has nothing to do with whether I like you or not. I’m just stunned that you can talk at all.”
“Well, get over it then and we can talk about something. I haven’t had anyone to talk to in a long time.”
“How about Jessie?”
“What about her?”
“Hasn’t she been coming to talk to you over the years?”
“No. She was a cat. Cats can’t talk. You should know that.”
“I suppose I should,” Adam said dryly.
Jack continued. “Besides, she only knocked down the wall this morning. That was the first time I saw her as a human in I don’t know how long. I did hear her purring outside the wall, if she happened by at night, which didn’t happen too often. Usually she would come in the day when I couldn’t move or talk.”
“Why do you sleep during the day?”
“I don’t know. I just got on a late schedule and found it hard to break.”
“So what you’re saying is that Jessie doesn’t even know you’re alive?”
“That’s right. As a cat she couldn’t break in here. I’m looking forward to talking to her.” He paused. “I hope she doesn’
t mind that I’m not as handsome as I used to be. Do you think I’ll have a problem there?”
Adam nodded reluctantly. “I’m afraid so, Jack. The girls I know are not really into dead people.”
“But I’m not dead,” Jack said briskly. “I thought I made that clear. I’m just malnourished. No offense, but you won’t look much better if you hang around here long enough.”
Adam sighed. “I guess. But I would like to get out of here. When Jessie returns can you talk her into letting me go?”
“I hope so. She used to be my friend. But I don’t know how she’s changed over the last two hundred years.”
“I hate to say this, Jack, but she’s not the nicest girl in the world. She stole my friend’s body and turned her into a cat. She was the one who chained me here.”
“Oh my,” Jack said, shocked. “That doesn’t sound like the Jessie I knew. I wonder why she changed so much?”
“Maybe it was being a cat so long.”
“That’s no excuse,” Jack said. “I’ve been stuck in here all this time and I haven’t lost my manners.”
Adam frowned. “How did you pass the time?”
“I whistle to myself mainly. Would you like to hear me whistle? The more flesh you lose the better you can whistle. The air seems to blow through my whole body these days.”
Adam heard a sound at the mouth of the cave.
“You can whistle for me later,” Adam said. “I think someone’s coming.”
12
Jessie appeared a moment later, pushing Cindy in front of her and holding a flashlight. Cindy had her arms full. In one hand she carried the cat—Sally—and in the other she had a bag of cement. The cement looked heavy and Cindy appeared weary. But when Cindy saw Adam chained to the wall, she dropped both the cat and the cement and ran to his side.
“What has she done to you?” Cindy cried.
“Hung me up for decoration, I think,” Adam said.
Cindy turned on Jessie. “You are a horrible creature! You let him go this instant!”
Jessie laughed loudly. “You fool! No one is leaving this cave except me. Even Sally, this old cat, is staying. I’m going to wall you all in here and let you die in darkness.”
Cindy stepped forward and tried to push her out of the way. But Jessie still had a cat’s reflexes and struck Cindy across the face. The blow was strong, and Cindy landed in a heap at Adam’s feet.
“Hey!” Adam shouted. “You don’t have to get rough. We can talk about the situation.”
Jessie sneered. “Talk about what? How I suffered the last two hundred years? How you tried to drown me the day after I finally freed myself? I trusted you, Adam, and you tried to trick me.”
“I tried to trick you because you tricked Sally. You stole her body.”
The cat growled angrily.
“I deserve a human body!” Jessie snapped. “I earned it!”
“Right,” Adam said sarcastically. “You earned the right to torture and kill people. What if Jack was here today? What would he say about his sweet Jessie?”
Jessie strode right up to Adam and drew her hand back to slap him. She almost stepped on Cindy, who was slowly regaining her wits and sitting up.
“Don’t talk about Jack!” Jessie cried. “Jack belonged to me! If he was here now he’d understand what I’ve gone through! He wouldn’t blame me!”
There was a long pause.
Adam hoped Jack would say something soon.
He had set the situation up for Jack to speak.
“I don’t understand why you are hurting these people,” Jack said softly.
Jessie leapt back as if she had been shot. Her head twisted left and right. Her breath came in a sharp pant. In the light of her flashlight, her skin was the color of snow.
“Who’s there?” she demanded.
The skeleton moved slightly. “It’s me. It’s Jack.”
Jessie put a hand to her horrified face and backed into the wall of the cave. “No!” she cried. “It can’t be! You died two hundred years ago!”
Jack lifted a bony arm and his skull rocked to the side. He seemed to be looking down at his own hand. Adam understood he hadn’t had any light to see himself in all this time.
“I admit I don’t look too good,” Jack said quietly. “But as I was telling Adam here, I’m not dead. You just don’t get much to eat walled up in a Mack cave. But I’m not the main issue here. I’m concerned about you, Jessie. You seem to have gotten as bad tempered as Madeline.”
Jessie stared at him as if in disbelief. But she recovered remarkably fast and it must have been her training as a familiar. “Madeline was the one who locked you in here. How can you call her something as simple as bad tempered?”
“Because I’ve forgiven her,” Jack said simply. “I’ve had a lot of time to think and forgive. I suggest you do the same, especially now that you have your body back. Really, Jessie, you don’t have much to complain about. You’ve still got your figure while mine has gone to pieces.”
“Literally,” Adam muttered.
Jessie shook her head. “No. I can’t let it go. I suffered so long.”
“I suffered, too,” Jack said. “At least as much as you. But it won’t ease either of our suffering to hurt other people. Now let Adam go and help this nice girl up and give that cat back her human body. Then maybe we can talk about old times.”
Jessie was stunned. “You won’t talk to me unless I do these things?”
The skeleton shook his bony head. “No. You are wrong here and you know it. So Madeline harmed us? We don’t have to follow her example.”
Jessie was not convinced. Apparently her bitterness went deep.
“But I want my life back!” she complained. “It was stolen from me and I deserve it back!”
“You can have a life,” a voice said from the direction of the entrance. “But not the one you have stolen.”
Adam stared in amazement as Ann Templeton and Watch stepped into the cave. The witch wore a long black coat and carried in her right hand a green jewel that lit the way better than any flashlight. Watch hung close to her as if they were old friends. Ann Templeton surveyed the scene and then offered Cindy a hand and helped her to her feet. Cindy brushed off her pants and retreated to the wall closest to Adam, who was still stuck to the wall.
“Thank you,” Cindy muttered to Ann Templeton, although she continued to watch the witch and Jessie with fear.
Ann Templeton nodded and turned to Jessie.
“I am sorry for what Madeline did to you,” the witch said. “I have just come from my castle. I have been reading her diary. I know that Madeline had a temper and that she acted rashly in regard to you and Jack. On her behalf, I ask for your forgiveness.”
Jessie stared at her. “You look like her.”
Ann Templeton nodded. “Except I have dark hair and she had red hair. Do you accept my apology?”
“I do,” Jack said brightly.
But Jessie slowly shook her head.
“I will accept it when you give Jack back his body,” she said. “Not until then.”
“Now that sounds like a good idea,” Jack said.
But Ann Templeton shook her head. “Madeline cast this spell. I cannot fully reverse it. If I am to restore Sally to her normal body, I cannot create two new human bodies. That would be beyond my powers. But I can create an extra cat body if you wish, for Jack.”
“I have always liked Siamese cats,” Jack remarked.
Jessie was confused. “What are you saying?”
“Isn’t it clear?” Ann Templeton said. “You are free to leave here with Jack. But as cats, not people. You have to give Sally back the body you stole from her.”
“Madeline stole my body!” Jessie said bitterly.
“Yes, she did,” Ann Templeton said patiently. “But that was long ago. This is now. You have these choices, none other.”
Jessie considered. “If I want, I can leave here? In this body?”
“I won’t stop you,” Ann
Templeton said. “And I don’t think anybody else here would be capable of stopping you.”
“But I might try,” Watch muttered.
Jessie played with her hair, her thoughts far away. “I could stay human.”
“But then you would begin to age,” Ann Templeton warned. “But as a cat, both of you can be made immortal. If that’s what you want.”
“I like all the things cats do,” Jack mused. “Chicken, all kinds of fish. I . . .”
“Quiet, Jack,” Jessie said. “I’m thinking.”
“You might want to think about Jack while you’re deciding,” Adam suggested.
Jessie jerked her head up and stored at the skeleton. “Has it been hard for you, too?” she asked in a gentle voice.”
Jack sighed. “You know I don’t like to complain, but, yeah, it’s, been lonely hanging all by myself in this cave for two hundred years. I’d like to get outside and stretch, even if it’s in a cat’s body. At least everybody wouldn’t be looking at my bones like right now.” He paused. “We can have fun together, Jessie. It might even be like old times.”
Jessie smiled faintly. “Do you remember the old times, Jack?”
“Sure I do,” he said. “I remember that you were always the one to think of other people first.”
Jessie shook her head. “No. That was you.”
Jack nodded his head. “Both of us were good people. And these seem like good people, too. Don’t hurt them, Jessie, not when you don’t have to.”
Jessie finally broke into a real smile. “All right, Jack, for you I will give up being a girl. Just don’t ask me to chase after birds with you. I got tired of that a century ago.”
“We’ll just chase squirrels,” Jack promised.
Jessie turned to Adam. “Is algebra really that bad?”
“It can be pretty bad,” Adam said. “Unless you’re as smart as Watch.”
“Or you have last year’s test papers,” Watch said, kidding.
Jessie laughed and turned back to Ann Templeton.
“I accept your apology,” she said. “But make me a white cat this time. Please?”
“And me a Siamese,” Jack added.
Ann Templeton raised her magical green stone.
“Everybody close your eyes,” she said. “This is a magical moment.”
The Wicked Cat Page 6