by Tom Watson
“Why not?”
“The cable we used to slide—umm, to parachute—our way over here goes up, not down. It’s the only cable running between the buildings.”
“It doesn’t go down anymore?”
“Umm, no.”
“It went down before.”
“I know,” Stick Cat said slowly.
“Somebody must have moved it, I guess.”
Stick Cat really didn’t want to explain anything to Edith right now. He had to figure this out. He had to think of something—fast. So he simply said to Edith, “Yes, I guess somebody moved it.”
“We’re stuck?” Edith didn’t quite seem to believe it.
“Stuck,” Stick Cat confirmed.
“Hmm,” Edith said, and paused. “Can I ask you a question?”
Stick Cat didn’t answer. He scanned the room again—but he already knew what was there. There was a long table, the block with big knives, the sink, the hose. Even the bagel sign was gone. Hazel was still using it as a life preserver. There was absolutely nothing they could use to get across the alley—to get home to Goose and Tiffany.
Edith repeated, “Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course,” Stick Cat answered, but he sounded distracted. He looked out the window—left and right, up and down, across the alley.
Nothing.
Left and right he saw the corners of this building. The sky was up. The alley was down—twenty-two floors down. Across the alley, Stick Cat saw his and Edith’s building. It seemed so far away now—now that he knew he couldn’t reach it. There were window ledges, the fire escape, the black cable—going up.
Nothing else.
Stick Cat sighed. He turned to Edith and said, “What is it that you want to ask me?”
“We’re stuck here, right?” Edith asked.
“Right.”
“Maybe for the rest of our lives?”
“Maybe,” Stick Cat said. A hint of sadness leaked into his voice. “So, what’s your question?”
“I was just wondering about something.”
“Yes?”
“Where do you think Hazel keeps those lox?”
Stick Cat stared straight into Edith’s eyes. She looked completely unconcerned with their predicament. All of her attention was currently focused on finding lox.
“Edith,” Stick Cat said. He smiled at her. To him, there was just something funny about her question. “If we are stuck here for the rest of our lives, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather be stuck with.”
Edith cocked her head in curiosity. She seemed to think very deeply about Stick Cat’s words. She closed her eyes slowly and then opened them again just as slowly.
She said, “So, you don’t know where the lox might be? Is that what you’re saying?”
Stick Cat almost laughed, but he didn’t. He loved her perspective, but he didn’t laugh—and he didn’t speak.
At that precise moment, the bright red cardinal he had seen earlier caught his attention from the corner of his eye.
The flash of red made him turn his head. He stared at that bird as it fluttered down from the garden above and landed in the middle of the thick black cable that stretched between the two buildings. It perched there. It tweeted. The cable swung a bit.
“Do you see that bird?” Edith asked.
“I do,” Stick Cat answered, and continued to stare at it.
Edith said, “I sure would like to eat it.”
Stick Cat watched the cardinal. It dropped off the cable, fluttered, and flew to the fire escape on his and Edith’s building.
Edith watched some more too.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” she said. “I bet that’s one tasty bird.”
Stick Cat smiled at the comment. He didn’t know why, but Edith was making him feel better about the impossible situation they found themselves in.
The cardinal flew from the fire escape back to the cable. It perched there for seven seconds. Then it glided over to the fire escape.
“Cable to fire escape. Then back,” Edith said, providing play-by-play commentary to the cardinal’s movements. “Cable to fire escape. Then back. What a birdbrain.”
“What?” Stick Cat asked. “What did you say?”
“‘Birdbrain’?”
“No.”
“‘Cable to fire escape’?”
The cardinal flew up and out of sight—probably to the garden on the roof again, Stick Cat figured.
“Cable to fire escape,” he repeated quietly.
Then Stick Cat jerked his head around. He looked at the knife block on the long table. As he leaped off the ledge and back into the room, he called, “I’ll be right back!”
Stick Cat made it to the table in three long bounds. He jumped to the tabletop and pulled all the knives from the block. They clattered and clanged onto the table. When they were all out before him, Stick Cat chose the biggest, heaviest, and sharpest knife. He picked it up.
He pushed the knife off the table to the floor and waited for it to settle. Then he jumped to the floor himself. He pushed the knife carefully across the room to the ledge, picked it up, and placed it next to Edith.
After he hopped to the ledge to join Edith, she asked, “What’s with the knife? Is it in case the red bird comes back?”
“Umm, no.”
“Good. Because I think I can handle that little red gliding bird, no problem,” she said with absolute confidence. Then she asked, “What’s the knife for then?”
“We’re going to use it to get across the alley.”
“We are? How?”
Stick Cat thought about his answer for a moment. He wasn’t quite sure what to say to Edith. What he was about to propose would be incredibly dangerous. It had a slim chance of working—but it was their only hope. In the end, he decided the truth was the best way to go.
“We’re going to hold on as tight as we can to the cable. I’m going to cut it with this big knife. We’ll swing across the alley. When we get really close to our building, we’ll let go and land on the fire escape. We’ll walk up to your apartment.”
Edith said nothing for an entire minute. Stick Cat knew she was probably totally scared by the idea. He was totally scared by the idea. Any right-minded cat would be.
Finally, Edith spoke.
“Do you think we should take one more look around for some lox before we go?”
“No,” answered Stick Cat as he smiled. “I don’t think there’s time. We need to get back. So, you like my idea?”
“Well, it’s not very clever,” Edith said. “It’s certainly not as clever as my parachute plan, which worked to absolute perfection.”
“I remember,” said Stick Cat.
“But it does sound totally fun!” Edith exclaimed. “Let’s do it!”
Chapter 14
ALMOST THERE
“Seriously?”
“Sure. Why not?” Edith asked.
“Well, it’s a pretty dangerous idea.”
Edith shrugged. “Dangerous schm-angerous. Let’s do this thing!”
And with that, Edith wrapped herself around the thick black cable. Stick Cat did the same thing with his back legs and picked the heavy knife up with his front legs.
Before he lifted the knife, Stick Cat made sure of two things. He looked over at the bagel batter pot. It was now nearly full. He could see Hazel’s hair and forehead. He could see part of her arm and the bagel sign. She was almost out. Then he turned to look at Edith. She was wrapped around the cable, her claws dug into its thick rubber casing. She had an excellent grip.
“What are you waiting for?” Edith asked.
And with that, Stick Cat dug his own back claws into the cable.
He raised the knife above his head.
He brought it down as fast and as hard as he could.
He hit the cable perfectly.
SLASH!
There was a half second—or maybe even less—between the time the cable was cut and the time it began to fall. Stick Cat used al
l of that little bit of time.
He dropped the knife onto the ledge, snatched the now-loose cable with his front claws, closed his eyes—and held on.
The cable fell instantly from the building. They dropped straight down at first and then began to swing toward their own building.
Edith’s and Stick Cat’s claws dug into the cable’s black rubber.
Edith screamed as they fell and swung.
It was not a scream of terror.
It was a scream of delight.
“Wa-hoo!”
Stick Cat opened his eyes.
He had to. Their building approached quickly. Stick Cat didn’t look down. He kept his eyes fixed on the fire escape attached to their building.
“Get ready!” he yelled.
“For what?” Edith yelled back.
“To let go!”
“Do we have to?!”
“Yes!”
Stick Cat knew they only had one chance. If they didn’t let go at exactly the right time—when the downward arc of the cable was nearest the fire escape—they might get really hurt crashing into the fire escape over and over again.
And they couldn’t let go too early. If they did, there was nothing—absolutely nothing—between them and the alley far down below.
He watched as they swung closer and closer to their building.
“Almost there!” he yelled.
The cable lost speed as it reached the end of its arc. It would start swinging back in the other direction after it hit the fire escape. He didn’t want to hold on any longer than he had to.
“Now!” he screamed.
They let go.
Stick Cat and Edith were suspended in the air.
Until they landed.
On the fire escape platform.
Edith skidded a bit and then jumped to the edge of the platform. She put her front paws up on the railing.
“Let’s go again!” she exclaimed.
Stick Cat pressed against the building’s wall as closely as he could. He took comfort in knowing the cable would not be able to swing across again—and he wouldn’t need to stop Edith from jumping for it.
The cable smacked against the fire escape, swung back out a little ways and then slapped against it with less and less force a few more times. It quickly settled to stillness.
Edith saw this happen and muttered in genuine disappointment, “Bummer.”
She then looked up the fire escape steps to find her apartment. While she looked for the window way up above, Stick Cat looked at the alley way down below.
“How many floors down from my apartment are we?” asked Edith.
“Eight or ten, I think,” Stick Cat answered. He had not moved from the wall yet.
“Race you!” Edith yelled, and took off.
Now, fire escape stairs and landings are not like the stairs and landings in our houses and schools.
They’re made out of metal—in this case, rusty metal. They’re rickety and shaky. The fire escape metal has holes in it so rainwater will drain through it. You can see right through them. They are as much air as they are metal.
None of this mattered to Edith. She leaped and jumped and ran up each set of steps as if it was as simple as jumping up to the kitchen sink. She wanted to win the race.
The fire escape’s condition did matter a great deal to Stick Cat, however.
He counted and calculated.
There were ten steps up to each landing. They were about ten floors below Edith’s apartment.
“You can do one hundred steps,” he whispered to himself. “Don’t look down. Just look at the next step. And count. Concentrate on counting.”
Edith yelled from above, “I’m going to beat you!”
“One, two,” Stick Cat whispered as he started his perilous journey.
After a little while, Edith yelled, “I’m getting closer!”
“Fifteen, sixteen . . .”
There was another period of silence, then, “I can see my window!”
“Thirty-two, thirty-three . . .”
Silence.
“I’m almost there!”
“Forty-eight, forty-nine . . .”
Silence.
“I made it! I win!”
“Sixty-one, sixty-two . . .”
“Stick Cat?”
“Seventy, seventy-one . . .”
“Are you listening to me?”
“Seventy-six, seventy-seven . . .”
“Well, are you?”
“Eighty-three, eighty-four . . .”
“Oh, there you are!”
“Eighty-nine, ninety.”
Stick Cat made it. There were nine floors to climb, not ten.
Stick Cat hopped to the ledge next to Edith. He couldn’t wait to get inside Edith’s apartment—to get on firmer, safer footing. But he didn’t go in.
He knew better.
“Edith?” he asked.
“Yes, Stick Cat?”
“Can I come in?”
“How thoughtful of you to ask,” she answered graciously. “Please do.”
“After you,” he said, and waved a paw at the open window.
Then Edith and Stick Cat went in.
Chapter 15
“WHY’S SHE SO WET?”
Edith asked Stick Cat, “What took you so long?”
He’d been inside Edith’s apartment a couple of minutes. Stick Cat’s heart was just now slowing its pace. He started to breathe normally too.
He answered, “I was just, umm, enjoying the view.”
“Oh, good idea,” Edith said. “I hung my head over the edge twice. It made me so dizzy! Did you do that?”
“I felt dizzy, yes.”
“It’s fun, isn’t it?”
“That’s one word for it,” Stick Cat answered quietly.
Edith was distracted by something out the window. She rose up on her back paws and placed her front paws on the windowsill.
“Hey, look!” she exclaimed. “It’s Hazel.”
Stick Cat hurried over to the window and stretched to see out as well. He was confident Hazel had made it out of the pot. She had nearly floated to the top before they swung across the alley. Still, Stick Cat wanted to make sure.
“Why’s she so wet?” asked Edith.
Stick Cat turned to see if Edith was joking.
She wasn’t.
“She was in the bagel pot, remember?”
“Oh, right,” Edith said. “She went for a swim. I forgot.”
“She fell into the pot, Edith,” Stick Cat said. “That’s why we had to rescue her.”
“I know we had to rescue her,” Edith said. “But I still think she could have been swimming. Look at that inner tube lying by the pot. People always take inner tubes when they go swimming.”
Stick Cat stared at Edith with great intensity.
She still wasn’t kidding.
“That’s the bagel sign, Edith,” he said.
“Hmm,” she said. “People will use anything for inner tubes, I guess.”
Stick Cat decided to look at Hazel instead of Edith. He thought it would be less confusing.
Hazel stood at the window on the twenty-second floor of the building across the alley. Her clothes hung heavily on her—soaked with bagel batter and water. Her gray hair was matted against her head. She looked tired and uncomfortable.
And she also looked relieved—happy even. For a moment—a brief second only—she seemed to stare at Edith and him. She was too far away for Stick Cat to tell for sure.
“What’s she doing now?” asked Edith.
Hazel pointed at the corner of their building and shifted her finger in little jerks toward Edith’s apartment. Then she made the same kind of movement from the roof down to Edith’s apartment.
“I have no idea,” answered Stick Cat after a moment of observation. “It looks like she’s counting or something.”
Edith didn’t respond.
There was a good reason for that.
She was asleep right ther
e on the floor beneath the window. Stick Cat had not even seen her drop down.
He hopped up to the window, closed it, and then came back down to the floor.
He looked at Edith.
She looked perfectly at peace. Seeing her so comfortable and still made Stick Cat feel suddenly sleepy too.
It had been a long, scary, invigorating day. He thought about going home through their hole to his apartment, but tiredness swept over him like a warm breeze.
Stick Cat settled down next to Edith.
He fell quickly—and deeply—asleep.
Chapter 16
LOX
“Stick Cat!”
It was Edith.
“Someone’s at the door!” she said in an emphatic whisper. “It must be Tiffany!”
Stick Cat was up and on his feet instantaneously. It took him just a few seconds to get his bearings. They had been asleep for some time. He could tell it was late in the day—the fading brightness outside told him that. Goose would get home soon too.
“Okay!” Stick Cat said. He hustled to the bathroom and Edith followed him. She would need to close the cabinet door behind him once he got through the hole.
They got there fast and Stick Cat climbed into the cabinet.
“See you Monday,” Stick Cat said.
But Edith didn’t answer. She turned her head around to look back through the bathroom door out to the living room.
“Wait here a sec,” Edith said.
She left the bathroom and was gone for less than a minute.
“It wasn’t Tiffany,” Edith said to Stick Cat when she got back. “It must have been a neighbor or something.”
“Oh,” said Stick Cat.
“You can stay a little longer if you’d like.”
Stick Cat smiled at the invitation. “I’d like to,” he answered. “But it’s been a busy day. And Goose and Tiffany will be home soon anyway.”
Right then they both heard keys jingle and the lock turn to Edith’s apartment door.
“That’s her,” Stick Cat said.