The First Nine Lives of Isabella LaFelini

by Harvey, Rhonda

  “I got 138,000 hits,” he said proudly. “So there.”

  “And I’ll bet they’re all about kids’ storybooks or stupid fantasy movies, right?” Isabella hissed at him.

  “Dude, you just hissed at me. Hissed at me. Not cool,” Ty told her.

  Isabella sighed deeply, which sounded like another hiss. “Wait,” she implored as Ty tried to leave the room. “I’m sorry. In a way, I couldn’t help it, but I guess I was rude. Sorry,” she said sheepishly. “I’m just frustrated, Ty, ya know?” In a small voice she added, “…and a little bit scared.”

  Ty fought the urge to pet his friend to calm her down. “I understand, Isabella. I’m afraid for you. So what do we do? It’s too bad we can’t call your mom—she’d probably know what to do…I mean, she is a nurse.”

  “Are you kidding?” Isabella interrupted. “My mom? She’d go more crazy than I have. No…can’t call her. Any other ideas?”

  “Um…in Batman, the woman who turned into a cat fell…and had a bunch of cats crawl all over her, licking her and stuff. Did you fall recently?”

  “Oh-em-gee!” Isabella screeched. “Ty, I know you’re trying, but…geez!”

  Ty shrugged as if to say, ‘I’m just trying to help’ and said, “Hey, you’ve always talked about your ‘Eye-talian’ grandmother—could she be any help?”

  “It-alian,” Isabella corrected him, then squealed, “Yes, Ty! That’s the smartest thing you’ve said all day. Nonna Rose. She’ll know what to do. She knows everything!

  Get the kitchen phone. Her number’s in my mom’s little phone book in the drawer next to the sink. Under ‘LaFelini’. Quick! Bring the phone in here!”

  Ty ran into the kitchen, grabbed the phone and shuffled through the drawer before he found the little wire-bound book. He dashed back to Isabella’s room. There on the bed was Isabella, the girl Isabella, looking sleepy but otherwise unscathed from her time as a furry creature.

  “Ohmigosh,” Ty blurted. “You’re you again!”

  “What?” Isabella’s voice was hoarse. “What do you mean, I’m me again?”

  “Holy cow! You’ve got amnesia!”

  “Ty, you are so stupid sometimes. I do not have amnesia. I always was me. I’m just back to being a human me.”

  “You know, you don’t have to be mean to me.”

  Isabella let out a long breath. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Ty.” She sighed, coughed a little and then cleared her throat. “Ahhhhem! I think I have something in my throat…”

  Ty smirked and said, “Yeah, a hairball!”

  Isabella started giggling and the two friends soon were doubled over with laughter. “Gotta give you that one, Ty. That was funny!” She was suddenly serious. “We still don’t know what happened to me, though. Or if it’s gonna happen again. But it was super freaky. I mean, Ty, if you hadn’t seen it, you wouldn’t have believed it, right?”

  He shook his head. “Are you kidding? I saw it and I’m not sure I believe it! But tell me—what do we do next?”

  Now it was Isabella’s turn to shake her head. “Dunno. No clue. I still think it was a good idea to call Nonna Rose, but maybe I shouldn’t worry her. She’s old, you know? Like 90.”

  “Maybe you want to wait until it happens again?” Tyson suggested, brushing some cat hair off the bed.

  “Ah…ah…ah…choo! Oh, Ty, I wish I knew for sure. Hand me a tissue, would ya?” She blew her nose loudly. “Phew. At least I can do that.” She shook her head. “You’re right. I’m gonna wait until—if—it happens again before I worry Nonna.”

  Ty had a frightening thought. “What if…Isabella, what…” he dropped his voice to a horrified whisper, “what if it happens at school?”

  Isabella’s bright green eyes widened. “Oh, crap, Ty. I didn’t even think of that! We have to figure this out—we have to, Ty. We’ve got about nine weeks to figure this out!”

  Three: The Family Secret

  FOR THREE DAYS, Isabella and Ty waited, nearly breathless, expecting that at any time she’d start craving tuna and catnip. And for three days, nothing happened. “I am so bored,” Isabella announced to her mother on the fourth day. She couldn’t believe she had said it—after all, wasn’t it just three days ago that she was a cat?

  Her mother, Luci looked up from her book and laughed. “Bored? School’s been out what? A week? Isabella, what are you going to be like in early August if you’re bored now? Where’s Ty?”

  Isabella shrugged. “Eh, he’s off having a ‘merry time’ at some dumb museum.”

  “‘Merry time’? You mean ‘maritime’? He went to a maritime museum?”

  “I dunno. Wasn’t really listening, to tell you the truth. We were supposed to go fishing or to Bonner’s Point or something. His uncle calls and bam! He completely forgets our plans and goes off to see shipwrecked stuff or something.”

  Luci laughed again. “Yes, Isabella—you meant ‘maritime’. It’s a word that’s used when talking about the sea—like ships, shipwrecks, things like that. There’s a maritime museum in Beaufort, which isn’t far. I think it’s about two hours from here. Maybe on one of my days off you’d like to go?”

  Isabella crinkled her nose in disgust. “God, no, Mom. Sheesh. Why on earth would I want to do that? Better yet, why would you want to give up one of your rare days off to go look at old ship crap?”

  “Isabella! Haven’t we talked about the importance of keeping an open mind? You really should show interest in that—um, as you so eloquently put it—’old ship crap’. You are descended from sailors on your father’s side, Isabella. The LaFelinis have been seafaring people for hundreds of years. You know, someone told me that the museum in Beaufort has artifacts from one of Blackbeard’s ships.”

  “And? I’m supposed to care about some old pirate’s stuff?” Isabella asked a bit impatiently.

  “And one of these days, you’ll have to talk to Nonno Arturo or Nonna Rose about your dad’s great-great-great-great-grandfather—which would be your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Giovanni LaFelini. I think that’s the right amount of ‘greats’…he was Nonno Arturo’s great-great-great-grandfather, so that would make him your dad’s great-great-great-great-grandfather. So, actually, he would be your…” she drifted off while counting on her fingers, then continued, “great-great-great-great-great grandfather. Great times five. Five? Yeah, that’s right.” Luci lowered her voice and winked conspiratorially, “Nonna Rose, the self-appointed family historian, could fill you in on all this, but it’s said that he sailed with Blackbeard and that he stole something from the old pirate. And as a result, Blackbeard had a Gypsy woman put a curse on the LaFelini family.”

  “Curse?” Isabella’s ears perked up at this.

  “Yes, curse,” Luci told her, laughing as she did. “As if there really were such things! Oops, do not,” she warned, suddenly serious, “and I mean this—do not tell Nonna Rose I said that! I love your father’s grandmother, but she is a superstitious old woman! She’ll think I’m cursed just because I don’t believe in such things! Of course, Nonno Arturo is much wiser about the entire thing. He humors your Nonna but doesn’t believe in the curse himself.”

  “Mom,” Isabella chose her words and tone of voice carefully because she didn’t want to seem too anxious, “can I call Nonna Rose?”

  “Izzy, I…” her mother started, saw Isabella cringe and corrected herself, “Isabella, I told you, didn’t I? I’m sure I did. Grandma LaFelini called last week; Nonna Rose went to Italy to visit family. She won’t be back until the middle of July. Of course, Nonno Arturo could help you, I suppose…”

  “Italy? She went all the way to Italy? By herself? Nonno didn’t go, too? Mom, she’s like 90 years old!”

  Luci smiled. “Um, no, she’s 76. And you know Nonna—the woman won’t take help from anyone. Nonno Arturo offered to go with her, but Nonna said she was ‘totally capable…’—Luci captured Nonna’s accent perfectly—’of takin-a-care-a’ herself!”

  “Crap!” Isabella mutt
ered under her breath, but not so softly that her mother didn’t hear.

  “‘Crap’? What’s wrong?”

  Isabella shrugged, trying to act casual. “Um, I just wanted to talk to her about my great-times-five-grampa, that’s all.”

  Luci laughed. “Isabella Rose LaFelini! You are too funny! Suddenly you’re interested in your family history? I guess you are bored! Either that or you’re worried you have inherited the ‘LaFelini Curse’!” Her mother laughed again, as if she’d just told a great joke.

  If you only knew, Mom, Isabella thought sardonically. If you only knew.

  TY GOT HOME from the museum around five o’clock, and he called Isabella as soon as he did. “Hey,” he said when she finally answered, “I thought I was going to have to leave a message. I had a great day! That museum was really cool.”

  Isabella’s reply was cool, too—but not the way Ty meant. “That’s nice.”

  Ty immediately recognized he was in trouble. “What did I do?”

  “Excuse me?” Isabella wasn’t going to let him off easy.

  “Isabella, it’s obvious that you’re ticked. What did I do?”

  She let out a sigh that was clearly a sigh of exasperation. Stupid boy. You know what’s wrong, she thought. At least you should.

  Ty took a stab at why she was angry. “Sorry I didn’t call you from the museum. I left my cell at home.”

  Isabella replied, “Not like I sat around waiting for ya, Tyson.”

  “Oh. Well, then, um…what did I do?” He had a thought. “Oh, no. You catted without me.”

  “No,” Isabella said, gritting her teeth. “And I really don’t appreciate that word—’catted’. It’s crude—and I don’t think it’s even a word.”

  Dang! “Isabella, please. Just tell me why you’re so ticked at me. Please?”

  She paused a moment for effect and then answered him, “We had plans, Ty. We. Had. Plans.”

  Oh, crap. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap! “Oh, Isabella, I am so sorry. Really. I totally forgot. When Uncle Bill called, I jumped at the chance to go to the maritime museum. I’ve wanted to go for a long time. My dad always says we’re going to go—and then he doesn’t show…”

  Isabella had heard many times about Ty’s absent father. She knew how hurt Ty was when his dad didn’t come around when he promised he would. In the six months that Ty and she had been friends, Mr. Briggs hadn’t shown up at least ten times.

  “It’s okay, Ty,” she acquiesced. “I know you’ve really wanted to go to that museum for a really long time.”

  “Isabella, you’d love it over there. It was really cool! Stuff recovered from Blackbeard’s ships. They even had a lobster that was like 21 pounds…” Sensing Isabella’s disinterest, he quickly changed the subject. “So, what’d you do all day?”

  “Well, to tell you the truth, I found out something pretty interesting, but my mom is home tonight, so it’ll have to wait until tomorrow. It might just explain things, Ty…”

  “Explain why you turned into a cat? Seriously?”

  “Might explain, I said, Ty. It might explain it. But I really can’t talk more now. My mom and I are going to go for a bike ride. You know she loves doing that kinda stuff on her days off. Talk to you in the morning, k? Maybe you can come over early? Like ten or so?”

  “Sure.”

  “Ty, we’re gonna need to do some research on Blackbeard, so if you got anything at that museum, bring it, k?”

  Ty was happy that he could help her. “Blackbeard? What does that old pirate have to do with anything?”

  “Can’t say just now, Ty. Did you get anything on him at the museum?”

  “Yeah, we have some handouts—and I know there’s a lot of information online. Plus there was a guy there who told Uncle Bill and me some stuff, too!”

  Isabella smiled for the first time that day. “Great, Ty. Bring everything you’ve got. And I’ll explain tomorrow. G’bye!” She hung up the phone, excited that she might be able to find out about the curse without Nonna Rose’s help. “C’mon, Mom,” she called, “Race ya to the end of Main Street. Betcha I win!”

  TRUE TO HIS word, Ty was knocking at the sun porch door promptly at ten o’clock the next morning. “Hey, Isabella, I’m here…”

  “And so am I,” replied Isabella in a small, sad voice. “Down here. Again.”

  Tyson looked down. Sure enough, Isabella had transformed into a cat again. “Um, Iz…I mean, Isabella, does it…does it hurt to change?” His voice wavered as he asked.

  “Um, I don’t think so…I don’t actually know. I’ve been sleeping when it’s happened—every time.” She sighed and then looked up at him with her cat-slanted eyes full of hope. “Ty, do you think that might be a clue or something? Maybe there’s a pattern? Maybe we can figure out what’s happening and why?”

  Ty nodded excitedly and took a small notebook out of his pocket. “I know that people use computers for everything, but I kinda like the idea of writing on paper, ya know? So I brought this notebook…thought we could keep track of everything that happens. Thought if we kept track, we might be able to find out why this has happened to you!”

  “Thank you, Ty. You’re a great friend—I don’t know what I’d do down here without you. I wonder if this would’ve happened in New York…” her voice trailed off, and Ty knew that talking about New York was just too painful for her, so he quickly changed the subject.

  “So…what do you wanna do today? Want to go to Bonner Point like we planned?” For just a moment, Ty thought about how strange it was that he was talking to a cat—but only for a moment. Regardless of her form, Isabella was his friend, and he was committed to helping her.

  “How can I go out like this?” Isabella sighed a tiny sigh. “How can I go anywhere?”

  “Well, why can’t you?” Isabella looked at him as if he was crazy. “Seriously. I can carry you,” he suggested, then quickly said, “I mean, if you’d let me. Or you could just walk with me. No one’s gonna look at a cat on the streets, Isabella. Right?”

  “Well,” she thought a little about it. “Yeah, I guess it would be okay…It’s not like we can do any research today, anyway. But you are not gonna carry me…”

  “Um,” Ty interrupted, blushing with embarrassment as he did, “what about…um…what about clothes? I mean…” he became even redder. “Um, the other day—did you wake up naked or…”

  “Ohhhh, Ty!” It came out like a tiny growl. “Please! You were in the kitchen for what? Fifteen seconds? How would I have had time to put clothes back on? I don’t know how, but what I was wearing when I took my nap is what I woke up with. So I guess I’ll have my pajamas on when and if this wears off.”

  “Hmm,” Ty said while writing industriously in the little notebook. “Seems like an important clue. But I guess that it also means we can go to the Point. Do you need to bring clothes in case you do transform while we’re gone?”

  “Ty, it’s not like I’m gonna be naked. I was wearing pajamas, remember? Get that blue bag outta my closet. We’ll need a blanket or beach towel. Mom keeps them in the hall closet.” She was silent for a minute. “Ty, dontcha think it’s weird?”

  “What?”

  “That we’re just talking about this like we’d be talking about homework or something. Like it’s something that happens all the time. Ah…ah…ah…choo!”

  “Bless you! You know, I thought about that, too. It’s funny, huh?”

  “Yeah.” She was silent for a minute. “But truth is, I like it. I mean…I don’t like turning into a cat, but I like that I can talk to you about anything. It’s great to have you around.”

  “Cool,” Ty said, a little embarrassed, “I like being here. But I’d like to be at the Point more!” He grinned. “I’ll get your stuff…and let’s go! By the way,” he added with a smile, “I brought a bunch of print-outs from online; we can work at the Point! So, get a move on those little cat feet!”

  And no one in historic Bath, North Carolina thought it odd that Tyson B
riggs was walking alone down Main Street, apparently talking to himself as a little reddish-orange cat trotted by his side.

  Four: The Investigation Begins

  “SO, A CURSE, huh?” Isabella had filled him in on the walk. “Sounds kinda cool—a little scary, maybe but cool. But does that mean other people in your family have been…um…have been cats?” Before Isabella had a chance to answer, he changed the subject, “My mom was good enough to pack a lunch,” Ty told her as they sat on the little hill overlooking the water. “You want ham and cheese or turkey?”

  “Um, Ty, no offense or anything, but how would I eat a sandwich? Paws, remember?” She lifted one in the air to show him.

  Ty grinned and opened the cooler. He pulled out two small covered dishes. With a bigger grin, he took the lids off and said, “Ta da!” Inside the first small dish was shredded turkey. The second held shredded ham and cheese. “I wanted to be prepared—just in case. I made these after my mom left for work—just so you know. I think she’d have freaked if I’d said “Mom, I need Isabella’s lunch shredded—she’s a cat on and off these days.”

  Isabella grinned a cute toothy cat grin. “Um, yeah, that wouldn’t have gone over very well! Thanks, Ty. I think turkey sounds good.”

  Ty placed the little cup in front of her, and she bent to eat. “Mmm,” she said, but it came out as a little purr.

  Ty started laughing. “Ha, ha, you purred. You did. You just purred!”

  “Oh, shut up, Ty!” Isabella said, although her tone told him she didn’t really mean it, and she continued eating, purring softly as she did.

  “I think,” Ty said between bites, “that we are on the right path here. Keeping track of when this happens and for how long is gonna help us figure it out, Isabella. I just know it. We didn’t find any information about your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather yet, but I believe we will.”

  Isabella yawned widely, showing long, white, and very sharp teeth. “I dunno, Ty. If Grampa Giovanni was a pirate, he might be in a history book somewhere. Then again, if he was good at it, he might’ve been able to keep his name outta the books!” She yawned again. “Sorry, Ty, maybe it’s the sun, but I am so tired. Is it okay if I stretch out here and take a…”