by Susha Golomb
Since there were phones but no phone booths around, I went into the nearest Women’s Room. Good. It was empty. I took off my fern coat and emerged from the bathroom a la Superman.
Positive that everyone was looking at me, I discovered a new definition for the word naked as I walked self-consciously over to the information desk.
There were three clerks behind the desk. One was a bored-looking woman with her jacket hanging open and an `I don’t care’ look on her face. The second was a man who reminded me of Mr. Bergman, the strictest teacher in school. No way, Jose. The last clerk was kind of young looking with reddish hair and a nice face. He looked okay. I stood in front of him and waited until I had his attention.
“Excuse me,” I said. “My dad is getting our luggage. He asked me to find out what bus to take to Bigwater Beach.” There was a scary empty moment while he looked me over. Then he reached behind the counter and pulled out a bunch of bus schedules. He smiled at me, so I knew it was all right.
“Where in Bigwater do you want to go?” he asked.
“To Nightsbridge Road,” I answered. He started to flip through a big book.
“Here it is,” he said. “Let’s see, you need number 271. You can get that at the airport bus terminal in about twenty minutes. Then you transfer to 68, then… Here,” he said handing me a bunch of leaflets. “You’d better take the schedules. You’re going to need four different buses. I’ll write it down for you. You know how to get to the bus terminal?” he asked when he was done.
“My dad knows,” I lied.
“Tell him to just follow the signs,” he said handing me the paper he had written the directions on.
“Thanks,” I replied and headed for the bathroom. The sooner I was invisible again, the safer I would feel.
I put on my fern coat and walked out. Sure enough, there was the redheaded man. He was standing right outside the bathroom door talking to an airport security guard.
“She may have been telling the truth,” he was telling the guard, “But she looked like a runaway to me. I thought it would be better to check, just in case.”
Phew. I thought, tiptoeing carefully past them. That bathroom doesn’t have any windows. They are going to be totally freaked when I don’t show up. That settles it. This is the last time I go visible until I get to Grandma and Grandpa’s.
It took me over three hours to get to Nightsbridge Road. Except for one close call when I forgot that I could see cars but that they couldn’t see me, they were three extremely long, boring hours.
It was almost dark, and the lights were on in Grandma and Grandpa’s house. It was easy to see inside. I walked around the house peeking in every window until I found them.
They were in the den, reading. So I snuck in the unlocked kitchen door at the opposite end of the house and headed straight for the guest room. They didn’t use this room for anything but company. I could probably live here for days without being discovered.
Pulling the bedroom door quietly closed behind me, I flopped down on the bed. I’ll start looking for my sister tomorrow, I thought, closing my eyes.
“What do you mean, she’s gone?” Farthingale said.
As the unofficial feline seventh member of the Six, I had called an emergency conference. We were in our usual meeting place on the roof of Miriam’s tree house.
“I’m afraid my little conversation with Miriam didn’t go as well as I had hoped,” I said to them. “It seems that she felt just a tad manipulated. I really don’t know why she should. I let her know in no uncertain terms that the final choice was completely up to her.”
“Tefnut,” Dragonbreath said from his perch on an overhanging branch. “You’ve been planning this for her whole life. She is being manipulated.” Lately, he’s been sounding more and more like a junior version of his mother.
“Hey, I’m under a lot of pressure here, too,” I said. “All of catdom is expecting to see their new queen this summer. If Miriam won’t go, then I’ll have some heavy explaining to do and I’ll have to go there to do it.”
I refrained from mentioning the small detail that if I did go, I wouldn’t be coming back. There’s nothing more pitiful than a desperate cat.
CHAPTER 24
THE SISTER SEARCH
I didn’t wake up until late the next morning. Grandma was outside weeding the garden. Grandpa must have been at work. Going into the kitchen, I sat at the table and took an egg salad sandwich and a Sprite out of my sampo. While I ate, I looked over the bus schedules to figure out how to get to the library.
After breakfast I changed into clean clothes. I was dying to shower and wash my hair, but I didn’t want Grandma and Grandpa to know I was here yet, so I settled for brushing my teeth and taking fresh underwear and a T-shirt out of the sampo, hiding the dirty stuff under the bed. I put my cloak back on, grabbed the sampo and headed out to the bus stop.
I walked up the steps to the library feeling pretty good about myself. I had come all this way without anyone’s help, and now I was about to start doing something that was really important. Not just for me, but for my whole family. When I was done, there would be no more secrets and we would all be much happier. Especially me.
I ducked behind a bookshelf and took off my fern coat. Whatever it was made of was so thin that I could crumple it up to the size of a ping-pong ball. If I folded it neatly it was even smaller. But that took forever. I stuffed it in my pocket and went over to the reference desk.
“Excuse me,” I said to the librarian. “Can you tell me how to look something up in the newspaper?” Flicking an imaginary speck off her pink jacket, she bent her head to smile at me over the top her glasses.
“The newspapers are all over there,” she said pointing. “Anything in particular you’re looking for?”
I looked along her arm to a table covered with papers and magazines. There were a few people sitting in big soft chairs reading magazines.
“I mean really old papers,” I said.
“Well… we keep back issues of newspapers on the shelves for a month,” she replied, warming up to her subject. “The last seven years are digital, but before that, they are on microfiche. How far back did you need to go?”
“About ten years, I think.” My guess was that whatever happened was just before Mom and Dad moved away
The librarian showed me how to use the microfiche machine and where to find the microfiche filmstrips. One month of newspapers was stored on each roll of film. I decided to start from the time Mom and Dad left town and work backwards.
Twenty-four rolls of film later, I had nothing. My shoulders ached and my eyes watered.
It has to be here somewhere. I must have misjudged the time. The story was probably older than I thought. I can’t believe a missing kid didn’t make it to the local newspaper.
Or maybe it was there, but I missed it. Should I go back over the same films again? Or should I keep working backwards? My head hurt. I went outside to eat my lunch. Later. I would look more later.
Later turned out to be another twenty-four rolls of film with no results plus a brain and body that were even achier than before. Not only that, but now I could add depressed, which is what I was, to the list.
My whole plan depended on finding a newspaper article. It would have given me names of people to talk to and a date to talk about. I had no idea what to do next. I just wanted to go home.
I rolled out of the library and over to the bus stop. I was so spacey from staring at filmstrips all day that I forgot to put on Poppy’s coat. Fortunately, the sampo provided me with the bus fare. But there was no way I could put the coat on now without causing a riot on the bus. I guess I’ll have to sneak into Grandma and Grandpa’s house without it. Oh, well, I thought dully, staring out of the bus window. I’ll deal with that when I get there.
By the time the bus turned onto Grandma and Grandpa’s street, I knew what to do next, but I didn’t like it. Tomorrow I would go to the police station to ask about missing people. I’m going to need a
really good story for this one.
Uh oh. I sucked in my breath hard. Pulling the bell cord, I jumped out of my seat as the bus passed Grandma and Grandpa’s house.
Looks like I won’t have to go to the police station tomorrow, after all. They were already here.
“I believe I know what’s happened to Miriam,” I said quietly. It took exactly one second for my words to penetrate the desperate quarreling among The Six. Heads turned. Words were left hanging in the air.
CHAPTER 25
UNCLOAKED
There was a police car parked in front of Grandma and Grandpa’s house. I raced down the aisle and was out of the bus the moment the door opened. Before the driver had a chance to close it up again, I had shaken out my fern coat and thrown it around me. I could see him staring wide-eyed at where I wasn’t as he automatically shut the doors and began to drive off.
Running as fast as I could, across the street and up the walk, I got to the front door just as Grandpa opened it. Standing next to the policeman, and trying not to breathe too loud, I listened.
“We’re looking for a runaway who may have been headed for this neighborhood,” the officer said. “She was at the airport yesterday afternoon asking for directions to Nightsbridge Road.”
I didn’t have to concentrate on not moving anymore. I was frozen. I can’t believe that that guy at the airport actually called the police.
“A missing kid, huh,” Grandpa said. “That’s too bad. What did she look like?”
“Eight or nine years old…”
What! He must have been a real jerk. Anyone can see that I’m at least ten.
“…about four and a half feet tall,” he continued, “and about sixty pounds. Light brown hair, dark eyes, medium skin, and, oh yeah,” he squinted down at the note pad he was holding, “…and a nice smile,” he read.
“I haven’t seen any extra kids around, officer. But I’ll tell my wife and we’ll keep our eyes open.”
“Please call us if you see any children you don’t know in the neighborhood,” the officer said. “These descriptions aren’t always accurate. Thank you for your help.” He turned and cut across the grass to the next house.
I sucked in my stomach and squeezed through the door before it shut. Grandma was sitting on the recliner with a basket of laundry on her lap. She was on the phone, nodding and uh-humming.
Whoever was at the other end was doing all the talking, and from Grandma’s expression, they were not telling jokes.
“Now calm down, Rose,” she said. “I’m sure she’s all right.”
Oh, my god! It’s Mom.
“What was she wearing?” Grandma said.” …New Orleans?” Grandma picked up a shirt from the top of the basket. It was my New Orleans T-shirt.
“It’s okay,” Grandma said. “She’s with us. …No I haven’t, but I’ve seen her T-shirt. ...Uh-hum. Under the bed in the guest room together with her socks and underwear. …No, dear, I’m sure she’s not naked.” Grandma looked up at Grandpa and mouthed the words, `she’s hysterical,’ at him.
“Doesn’t she have that invisible coat thing with her? …Well, that explains it. She’s a sensible child. She’ll let us know when she’s ready. Trust her, Rose. She’s a good kid.”
Thanks, Grandma, I thought, collapsing on the couch and letting my fern coat fall away so they could see me.
“How many of you,” I asked, “How many of you have had Miriam ask you about other humans living in Ardu?”
It turned out that everyone had heard some version of the same question. I already knew this, because I had been in hearing range for most of them. I lifted my right front paw in preparation for a little face washing. I could see from her expression that Farthingale was ready to pick up the ball.
“Just because she didn’t find who she was looking for in Ardu,” Farthingale said, “doesn’t mean that she gave up looking. If she asked her parents, then they either didn’t know or wouldn’t tell her,” Farthingale said, still speaking quietly.
“She’s gone to look for a missing family member. And I’m pretty sure,” I said, thinking about her special game, “that the missing person is a sister.”
“But, Tefnut,” Poppy protested. “There are no missing sisters, are there?”
“None that I’ve heard of,” I replied.
CHAPTER 26
DECEIT AND DENIAL
“Hi, Grandma. Hi, Grandpa. Thanks for covering for me,”
“You look tired, honey,” Grandma said, without batting an eyelash. “How about something to eat?”
My skinny frame always sends Grandma into a feeding frenzy. In my family, tired equals hungry, sad equals hungry, and happy equals a feast. We subscribed to the “food is love” philosophy of life.
“Thanks, Grandma. I’m starved.” Two glasses of milk and a large piece of chocolate cake later, I was ready to talk. Grandma and Grandpa listened quietly while I told them who I was looking for and why I thought this was the right place to look.
I kept expecting them to interrupt me, but Grandma and Grandpa were almost unbearably silent. They were staring at each other across the kitchen table. Grandma was crying softly.
“Sweetheart,” Grandpa finally said. “You never had a sister.”
Was I surprised? No, shocked was more like it. That was absolutely the last thing I expected him to say. Mom and Dad, yes. Grandma and Grandpa, no. These were the two people in my family who have always been completely honest with me.
I looked at Grandpa. His face was frozen, just like mine got when I was totally embarrassed by the size of the whopper I was telling. I felt like such a jerk. I trusted them. Now I would get sent home. With nothing. No, not nothing, I would get sent home with a major punishment.
“You can’t fool me, you know,” I said evenly. “I saw her picture on a milk carton. She looks just like me. You promised Mom and Dad you wouldn’t tell me, didn’t you?” I lashed out. “You’re part of the secret, aren’t you?”
“Nobody ever kept any secrets from you, Miriam,” Grandpa said. “That picture looks like you, because it’s your mother.”
“No!” I gagged on my own spit and started to cough. Grandpa pounded me on the back. Grandma just sat there quietly dripping. The front of her shirt was getting wet from all the tears.
Lies. All lies. I could feel the anger rising up through my chest, my neck, my face, till it felt like bursting out of the top of my head.
Words failed me. I left.
We found Miriam sprawled across the bed in a dimly-lit room at the back of the house. She was crying her eyes out. Poppy flew over to the pillow to comfort her. Miriam, however, was not in the mood.
CHAPTER 27
MAGIC SUCKS
“Go away,” I said to the bug on my pillow. “You’re not real .You don’t exist.”
“Don’t be silly,” Poppy said. “How can I not be real? I’m a mother. Here, touch me.” She held out her hand. “I’m as real as you are.” I shrank back from her touch with a shiver.
“This is crazy. You’re a fairy. Straight out of a picture book. Somebody invented you. They drew you. Like a `Toon’.” Poppy’s face fell. She looked shattered.
“Oh, Miriam…” she started.
“Go back to the TV set where you belong. You’re a figment of my imagination. That’s why no one else can see you.
“My sister is real,” I announced. “I just have to find her.” I buried my face in the pillow. Maybe if I shut Poppy out of my sight I could shut her out of existence as well.
I tilted my head just a touch and peeked. The little fairy looked so dejected that for a minute I thought she was going to pull a Tinkerbell on me and start to fade away.
“Miriam? May I come in?” came a gentle voice from the other side of the door.
“Go away,” I gurgled, without taking my face out of the pillow. I guess my response was muffled enough to be a yes or a no, so the door opened and Grandpa came in. He sat down next to me at the foot of the bed and scratched Tefnut under the c
hin. She stretched her neck out to help him find the right spot.
“I didn’t know you brought Tefnut with you,” he said to Miriam.
“I didn’t. She came with Poppy.”
“Poppy? Isn’t she one of The Six?”
“Yes, but you can’t see her because she doesn’t exist.”
“Nonsense. Of course, she does. Just wait a second for my eyes to adjust. Where is she?”
“She isn’t on the pillow,” I said, raising my head and pointing with my chin. Grandpa stared at the pillow and squinted.
“Oh, there she is. I can almost see her. How do you do, Poppy?”
“Nice to meet you, too,” Poppy said with a wan smile.
“Come on, Grandpa. Cut it out. You know you can’t see anything.”
“That’s a lovely red dress you’re not wearing,” he said to Poppy.
“Thank you,” she said, perking up. “It’s my favorite color.”
“Okay. Okay. So you can see her. But you shouldn’t be able to. If there really was magic in the world, I would be able to find my sister.”
“Listen, Miriam,” he said, stroking Tefnut’s fur absently. “I have something more important to talk about than my eyesight.”
“Yeah, like when you’re sending me to the loony bin.”
“No. Stop acting up and listen for a minute. This isn’t easy for me to talk about.”
“You just don’t understand. I couldn’t feel this way about someone who doesn’t exist. I love her. How can she not be out there somewhere?”
“I don’t know, dear. What you say makes sense. But the picture that you saw…it’s a picture of your mother, not your sister. I just can’t believe that they never told you.”
I sat up and folded my arms in front of my chest daring him to prove it.
“Grandma’s lying down and resting. She was too upset to come in. I must say that I’m surprised. I always thought your parents had told you about the time that Rose was missing for six years. Grandma and I, well, we never talked about it, not because it was secret, it was just too painful.”