The Spotted Tail

“Tired. Thirsty,” she said, thinking about a kungfu babysitter.

Her mom and grandma smiled. Paxine guessed that was a good sign.

“Excellent. I think tonight you are going to stay at grandmas, and perhaps in a day or two meet your new nanny,” her grandma said, giving her hand a squeeze.

Paxine managed a weak smile. “If she makes me eat vegetables, I am gonna sic Tache on her.”

“That’s my girl,” her grandma said, releasing her hand and stepping out.

Her mom blew her nose, rising to give her a hug. “You better practice more with Tache,” her mom said, keeping her voice to a whisper.

“Yes, Mom,” She found that she didn’t mind her mom’s hug at all.

“I love you. Oh you gave me a scare,” her mom said.

It was light out. Tache’s eyes were staring at her. Where was she? Oh, grandma’s guest bedroom. Why she was still wearing her clothes from yesterday? A bandage on her arm. The IV. The hospital. The soup.

Tache kept staring at her.

“I’m okay,” Paxine said, slipping out of bed.

Tache followed her with his tail curled around her leg.

“Really, I’m okay,” she said, surprised that she wasn’t weak or sore. Her stomach gurgled. She hoped she could eat some breakfast, guessing what little soup she had eaten last night had been pumped out.

She felt grungy, eyeing the shower. Could she get the bandage wet? She peeled the bandage back to see a single red spot on her arm.

“Meow,” Tache said, saying she didn’t need the bandage.

“Yes, I agree. Was expecting something bigger or…I don’t know.” She threw away the bandage.

The shower felt wonderful. Tache stood just inside the shower curtain.

“Ya think I’m gonna drown?” She said, spraying him with water.

Tache smacked her with his wet tail.

There were clean clothes in an overnight bag on the floor of the bedroom. She felt refreshed, heading down to the kitchen, hopeful for some breakfast.

Her mom was on the phone, her eyes glued to a computer screen, but she jumped up when Paxine entered to give her a hug.

“Good morning,” her mom said, holding her an extra second or two longer than usual.

“Morning,” Paxine said. “Real-estate agent?”

Her mom nodded, talking into the phone, “Yes, that will work fine. Thank you. Bye.” Her mom put the phone away. “How you feeling?”

“Hungry,” she said, opening a tin of blueberry muffins.

Her mom smiled. “Help yourself.”

Paxine checked the refrigerator. “Score,” she said, pulling out a brand new unopened carton of chocolate milk. Her grandma always seemed to know what she needed. She didn’t even bother looking to see if Tache had food, hearing him crunching away on the other side of the counter. Her grandma always had food out for Tinder.

“I didn’t know chocolate milk and blueberry muffins tasted good together,” her mom said from behind her computer screen.

“Try one?” She offered a glass.

“No thanks. I already had my muffin with coffee,” her mom said, not really watching the computer screen, but Paxine.

She knew her mom was making sure she was really okay from last night’s ordeal. Her mom must have decided she was okay, returning to looking at houses.

Paxine set her empty dishes in the sink, looking around for Tache. He was nowhere in sight, which surprised her since he seemed glued to her earlier. She wandered into the living room, finding him playing chess. Of course, he was playing cat chess, which involved batting chess pieces off the chessboard and seeing how quickly he could lose them under the sofa.

She retrieved a handful of pieces, resetting the chessboard as if she was going to play. Tache watched, looking like he was thinking out the strategy for his next move. He reached up, pretending to stretch, batting the rook off the board.

“Excuse me,” she said, picking up the piece. “I do believe you have to start off with a pawn.” She tapped the appropriate pieces.

Tache ignore her, walking by the chessboard as if done playing, but just at the last moment, his tail knocked off a pawn to the floor. He whipped around, batting it across the floor. She rolled on the floor laughing.

The pawn rolled into a patch of sunlight, and Tache flopped down.

“What? A laser light beam got a hold of you and knocked you down?” she said, laughing.

Tache licked a paw, squinting in the sunlight, and settled down for a nap. She crawled over to him and tried to interest him in another piece, but he just rolled over to sun his belly.

“I win by default,” she said, trying to tease him. Tache ignored her.

“The revenge of the rook,” she said in a deep voice, walking the piece back and forth, but that got boring fast with Tache not playing any more. A nap with Tache would have been nice, but she had enough sleep. There was the mouse from Greta, but with her mom around and Tache sleeping, she decided it wouldn’t be wise to reveal it. There was nothing to do.

“Time to search for secret passageways.” She headed toward her grandma’s bookcases.

Paxine was on the second shelf from the top, thinking logically that the lever for the passageway would be more at her grandma’s height then hers.

“Paxine?” her mom said, causing Paxine to jump.

“Yeah?” she said, wondering why she felt guilty moving the books.

“Let’s go look at a house.” Her mom stepped into the living room.

“Okay.” She slid the book she had out back onto the shelf.

“And there are no secret passageways,” her mom said as if reading her mind. “I’ve already looked.”

The cube area was in the living room. She followed her mom into the cube. When the cube door opened, Paxine saw an empty street that ended in a cul-de-sac. There was a For Sale sign in front of a modest white two-story house. A bright yellow electric car pulled up and a woman, the realtor, stepped out.

“Oh, you are going to love this house…” the realtor said, jangling her jewelry with every syllable. “The kitchen is updated…”

Paxine lagged behind to escape the realtor’s banter, knowing the kitchen was the first place her mom and the woman would head. She decided to go upstairs.

There were three bedrooms and a bathroom. Every wall was painted white, something Paxine knew her mom would change. They both liked color. Downstairs there was a living room, a dining room, a study and the kitchen. She saw more boring white walls.

The realtor seemed to think the kitchen was all her mom was interested in, but her mom, tired of the banter of how wonderful the kitchen was, drifted into the dining room, forcing the realtor to follow. Paxine took the opportunity to slip past them, down the back hallway that ended at the back door. There was a small porch with steps leading down into the back yard.

A tall wooden privacy fence ran down both sides of the yard, but stopped at the back, which opened to another road. The yard was very long. One side of the fence ended sooner than the other did because of a ditch. The longer side, though, had a gate midway. The gate was unlatched and swinging with the breeze. Beyond the gate were some trees and an empty lot.

The front yard was small. The nearest neighbor was across the way. It was very quiet, which was what her mom liked. Paxine thought quiet was nice sometimes and wondered if other kids lived on the street.

Tache stirred from within the backpack and stuck his head out, blinking in the sunlight.

“Well, what do you think? We have trees and room to play. Lots of places to hide or escape, but…there’s easy access to the place from front and back due to the roads. That can be both good and bad,” she said.

Tache blinked, yawned, and sunk down into the backpack.

“Well, thank you very much for your input,” she said, pretending to be snobbish, knowing he needed his sleep. She knew, if he had been more awake, he would have liked to explore.

Her mom and the realtor were back in the kitchen.

“I’ll have my interior decorator take a look and I’ll let you know as soon as possible,” her mom said.

Paxine knew this meant Kirt had to do a security check of the place and give his blessing.

She was glad when the realtor left. Her mom seemed glad too, more relaxed when she walked down the street. Paxine knew her mom was getting a taste of the neighborhood. What that meant and what her mom was looking for, Paxine had no idea.

“Don’t tell your dad we went without an escort,” her mom said, tossing out her cube at the end of the block.

Paxine hadn’t even realized.

“Sometimes I think having an escort just invites trouble,” her mom said when the cube door shut.

“We have Tache,” Paxine said.

The cube dinged and they were back in her grandma’s living room.

“Yes, but I don’t think your dad would think the same as we do,” her mom said, shrinking the cube.

Paxine lowered the backpack so Tache could hop out. He disappeared as soon as he did.

“New homework arrived,” her mom said from the kitchen.

“How does it find me?” she said, grabbing the packets.

“Do you really want to know?” her mom said.

Paxine had the feeling her mom was thinking it was obvious. The only obvious way homework could find her all the time was through her dad. Oh, yeah, that was probably it. She rolled her eyes.

“No.” She trudged off to the living room as if this was the last thing on earth she wanted to do, but really, she was glad to have something to do. Especially since she could combine speed-reading techniques with her homework reading.

She found herself hardly able to wait to tell her grandma about combining schoolwork with grandma work, but her grandma didn’t come home for dinner. Neither did her dad. They still weren’t home when she went to bed.

“Morning,” Paxine said, looking for cereal in her grandma’s kitchen. “Did grandma leave for work already?”

“Morning. Yes, she did,” her mom said, sitting at the kitchen table with her computer.

“Darn. I thought she’d at least leave later since she got in so late,” Paxine said with disappointment.

“She’s really busy with the Gala stuff.”

“Are you going to look at houses all day?”

“Not too long. I really liked that last one. It may do. Although it’s not as nice as the other one. I still wish they could solve the security thing. I don’t think moving from house to house is the solution,” her mom said.

Paxine crunched through her cereal, nodding in agreement with her mom.

“Done with all your homework?”Her mom pushed the computer away.

“Yes. I’m reading a book on speed-reading and it’s helping me get my homework done faster,” she said in between bites.

“So what do you have planned for today?” Her mom was watching her.

“Planned?” She left her last spoonful of milk hanging in the air. “I didn’t know I had to plan anything.” She finished the milk, rising to rinse her bowl.

“What would you like to plan?”

“Well, I think I’ll steal a cube and head over to dad’s to play in the Room,” she said, wondering what her mom was getting at.

“Think again,” her mom said.

“Look for secret passage ways or read a book,” She decided to be more realistic, realizing her mom just wanted to know what she was going to do.

“Good plan,” her mom said, rising to get more coffee.

Paxine wondered how Paulie was doing? Grounded for life maybe. She wondered when she would see the rest of the gang again. With all the stupid security problems, she expected she wouldn’t see anyone until the next school year. She headed toward the living room with a sigh.

Tache was sleeping in the sun in the same spot as yesterday. She wasn’t going to bother him since he needed his sleep. There wasn’t any more homework, which also meant no more speed-reading practice.

Why did her grandma have to work so much? Why couldn’t she go with her? Why? Why? Why?

Secret passageways, that’s why. Her grandma’s house had to have one. Yeah, that’s why her mom wasn’t against her looking, because she was meant to find one. But where else other than the living room? Her grandma’s office.

There was one bookcase in the office. Paxine examined the top shelf. A book about nineteenth century actors and actresses caught her eye. The people pictured wore goofy looking costumes.

“Want to go with me? I have a couple of errands to run,” her mom said, sticking her head into the office. “No secret passage ways?”

“Nineteenth century actors,” she said, showing the book, thinking about accompanying her mom. Running errands with her mom was one of her least favorite activities, but today, it sounded like the most wonderful thing to do.

“Can we get ice cream?” She replaced the book.

“I think we can manage that,” her mom said.

“I’m in. Where are my shoes?” She ran to the kitchen, knowing that was where she last left them.

Her mom waited in the living room. “Here’s you backpack.”

Tache was already inside.

“Thanks mom,” she said, tying her last shoelace.

“We have to pick up an escort. Hopefully, this one is better than the last one.” Her mom didn’t sound too enthusiastic about it.

The cube door opened, revealing her dad’s office reception area. An escort stood there waiting.

“Mrs. Cushing? I’m Dwayne,” Dwayne said.

“Good morning,” her mom said in a flat voice, but Vera, her dad’s receptionist waved and her mom said, with more cheer, “Hi Vera.” The cube door shut.

The parking lot to the department store was almost empty, not being the prime shopping time. The store wasn’t Paxine’s favorite, but she felt good getting out, skipping behind her mom until she felt Tache stir. He poked his head out, but then slide back down into the backpack. Her mom stopped and she almost ran into her.

There was a rack of socks. On the other side, were toe rings.

“Ooh, can I get one of these?” She skipped around to take a closer look.

“Ahem,” Dwayne said, motioning her back to stand beside her mom.

“What?” She couldn’t believe he was going to make her stand right beside her mom the whole time. She glared at her mom in frustration. This wasn’t going to be as much fun as she thought.

“What color socks do you want?” her mom said with a smile, looking at socks.

“Depends on what I’m wearing,” She picked out a pair of bright socks with cartoon characters on them.

“Neutral tones are better. They go with anything,” her mom said, taking the colorful socks and putting them back.

Paxine picked out three pairs of tan socks, and then attempted to juggle them. They fell to the floor. Her backpack bumped against her when she bent to pick them up. Then it whacked her. She stood upright, looking around. There was a softer whack and she realized it was Tache. He wasn’t happy about her bumping him around in the backpack, he wasn’t getting any sleep.

“Sorry, Tache.” She put the socks back. Her mom moved over to check out some shirts and sweaters.

Paxine signed, wondering if she would be better off at home reading. This was really boring. Dwayne ignored her glare, scanning the area around them. He seemed to get more and more nervous as the store filled with shoppers.

“Okay,” Dwayne said. “We should leave immediately.”

Her mom rolled her eyes, looking around. “I need a gift certificate from Customer Service, and we can go,” she said, turning toward Customer Service, but pausing at perfumes.

“Ahem,” Dwayne said, sounding as if he was clearing his throat.

Now her mom wasn’t looking that happy. Paxine didn’t understand why Dwayne was nervous. Tache wasn’t worried and there weren’t that many more customers than when they arrived. The store looked like it was ramping up for the summer season and carts with new dresses lined the aisles. The few people she did see were rummaging through the carts, trying to get the new styles ahead of everyone else.

Thud.

Dwayne, who was following behind her, was nowhere in sight.

“Mo…” Paxine said, catching her breath. Her mom, who had been in front of her, was gone in the confusion of carts now moving in around her.

“Mom?” she said in a quiet voice.

The carts stopped and from around a cart stepped a woman. She was wearing a smock like that worn in the store, but there was no nametag. Beneath the smock, she wore gray slacks and a white top, which reminded Paxine of a security guard.

“Can I help you dear?” the woman said in a voice that was a little too high and sweet.

Paxine pretended to look at a rack with dresses, putting her back to the woman, acting as if she hadn’t heard.

Tache exploded out of her backpack, pushing her into the rack. He dropped in front of the woman. Paxine untangled herself, wondering what good that did, jumping in front of the woman.

“Yeooowww,” the woman said, shrieking as four angry slash marks grew red across her cheek.

Tache spun, dodging into the rack of clothes, whacking her with his tail to follow.

“Where did that come from? Look what it’s done,” the woman said, shrieking to someone Paxine couldn’t see

Paxine knew to follow Tache while he led her through another rack. The woman came into view pointing bloody fingers in the direction Tache and she had gone.

“They went that way,” the woman said.