LOST: BLACK & WHITE CAT WITH GREEN EYES
ANSWERS TO THE NAME GYPSY
REWARD OF $25 IF FOUND
CALL 555-2287
The sign hung on the announcement board of the Fountain Square Library between notices about an adult book club meeting and a cartoon contest for children. Crouched beneath the words written in big red letters was a child’s picture of a black and white cat with a puffy tail, extra long whiskers, and big green eyes.
Two blocks away, Sandy sat in her bedroom crying. Two empty food dishes lay in the corner. A wicker basket lined with a sky blue blanket stood next to the bed. The basket had been vacant for two weeks now. Sandy always let Gypsy out in the mornings before she left for school. Then, when she returned home in the afternoon, Gypsy would be waiting for her, back humped like a camel and tail held high, purring happily.
***
Sandy had found Gypsy last summer when he was still a kitten. Sandy loved to sit beneath the fountain, which stood in the middle of a busy intersection not far from downtown Indianapolis. At the top of the fountain stood a sculpture of a pioneer family: a father, mother, big brother, and little sister. They reminded Sandy of her own family, except for the big brother. She was an only child, which wasn’t too bad. Most of her friends fought with their brothers and sisters, which didn’t seem like a whole lot of fun. Still, it was kind of lonely playing by herself.
Sandy liked to visit the library every Saturday morning. Now that she was ten years old, she could walk there by herself. The librarians all knew her by name and would say hello and smile at Sandy whenever she walked through the door. Sandy would then browse the stacks, pick out a few books, curl up in a wooden rocking chair next to the window facing the street, and read the morning away. Sometimes she would cuddle with one of the stuffed animals scattered throughout the children’s area. Her favorite was a large tan horse that she named Peanut Butter.
Sandy loved to read and secretly hoped to become a writer when she grew up. On the day she found Gypsy, Sandy had been reading a story about some cats from outer space that could talk to each other with their minds. Sandy wondered whether there could really be alien cats on a faraway planet that didn’t meow or purr or even hiss the way cats on Earth do. How strange that would be, Sandy thought.
Sandy finished her book, closed her eyes, and tried to imagine what cat aliens would look like. Would they have shiny silver fur and iridescent eyes that danced like stars? Or would they have no fur at all, kind of like those wrinkly Sphinx cats, and skin the color of smashed peas? Sandy opened her eyes and glanced out the window toward the fountain. That’s when she spotted a small black and white kitten curled up in a fuzzy ball on the bench below the fountain. Sandy had wanted a cat for as long as she could remember. A burst of hope and excitement rose up inside her. Sandy walked out the front door of the library, her heart hammering wildly. She crossed the street, remembering to look both ways, and crept up to the slumbering kitten.
“Hi there, little fella,” Sandy said softly. The kitten lifted his head, blinked his big emerald green eyes, and yawned. Sandy fell in love instantly. The kitten wore no collar, so Sandy suspected he was a stray. He was so skinny that Sandy could see tiny ribs through his fur. “I bet you’re hungry, huh?” Sandy asked. The kitten purred loudly as Sandy scratched him behind his ears. “I’m going to take you home.”
Sandy scooped the kitten up in her arms and headed home. Along the way, she tried to think of a name for her new friend. Well, she thought, Blackie or Snowy won’t work because you’re black and white. Then she remembered that her class had been studying gypsies. “That’s it! I'll call you Gypsy. Do you like that name, little guy?” Gypsy meowed in reply. His green eyes, closed into small crescent moons, seemed to say, “Oh yes, Gypsy is a wonderful name.”
When she arrived home, Sandy showed Gypsy to her parents. She had a feeling they might let her keep the kitten. After all, they had promised to look for one with her at the animal shelter very soon. She squealed with delight when her mom said, “You can keep him.”
“But,” her father added, “you have to take good care of him.”
“Oh, I will!” Sandy exclaimed, hugging her parents.
Sandy let Gypsy sleep in her wicker doll carriage, tucking him in with her own sky blue baby blanket. Her mother bought two silver bowls for food and water and a litter box at the grocery store. Sandy did her best to take good care of Gypsy. She gave him fresh food and water and scooped out his litter box every day. She brushed his silky coat once a week.
Sandy also played with Gypsy every chance she got. Their favorite game was blanket monster. Every night at bedtime, Sandy would scoot her leg back and forth beneath the blankets on her bed. Gypsy would then pounce on the blanket monster over and over again, his fluffy tail twitching like an angry snake and his green eyes growing into huge full moons. Sometimes Sandy would giggle loudly, and her mother would poke her nose in the door and whisper, “Go to sleep, you two.”
Sandy and Gypsy quickly became best friends. But now he was gone. Sandy had come home from school one day, and Gypsy wasn’t sitting in his usual spot on the front porch. She panicked. Gypsy always waited for her after school. Where could he be? She checked inside the house. No Gypsy there. She then ran all over the neighborhood calling for him and knocking on neighbors’ doors. She peeked behind trash cans in the alley and checked beneath the fountain. Still no Gypsy. Sandy felt like a ton of heavy rocks had been dropped into the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t imagine life without her best friend.
***
Now Sandy sat on her bed wiping the tears from her eyes. She decided that maybe she would never see Gypsy again. Her eyes burned, and her legs ached from all of the searching. She decided to go to bed early. She pulled on her pajamas, brushed her teeth and her long, red, hair, kissed her parents good night and slipped into bed.
That night, Sandy dreamed that a spaceship came to earth and took Gypsy far away to a planet inhabited by cats that spoke with their minds. The cats wore spacesuits the same shade of silver as Gypsy's food and water dishes. Their purple eyes glowed like neon flashlights, but Sandy wasn't afraid. She felt strangely calm, almost as if she were under a spell. Then she felt herself floating a few feet above the planet's surface. Gypsy glided to her side in slow motion. He also wore a silver spacesuit, which glinted in pale light from the space cats' moon, but his eyes were still green. "Don't worry, Sandy," sang a voice in her head. "I'll be home soon." Suddenly a noise like thunder woke Sandy up. “Oh, it’s just a storm,” Sandy sighed as she smashed her face back into her pillow, hoping to dream of Gypsy again.
A few minutes later, the thunder sound boomed again. This time, however, a stream of dazzling light came rushing into Sandy’s room. Startled, Sandy ran to her window and looked outside. A blazing bluish white light, brighter than the sun and nearly as round, illuminated the entire sky. It floated in the air like a balloon and began to pulsate, as if someone kept switching their car headlights between low and high beam. Then, more quickly than the flip of a light switch, the throbbing sphere disappeared. Sandy blinked hard, her heart stuck in her throat. What was that? she wondered, rubbing her eyes.
Sandy heard shuffling of feet in the hallway and front door creak open. A few seconds later, her parents rushed into her room. “Sandy,” her father said breathlessly, “you’d better come out on the porch right away.”
“Why?” asked Sandy, bewildered.
“Just put on your robe and come on out,” urged her mother. “I think you’ll want to see what’s out there.”
“Uh, okay,” answered Sandy. She pulled on her robe and slippers and followed her parents to the front door. She stared at the brass doorknob, which seemed to glare back at her menacingly. What could be waiting out there for her? Aliens? Grey, hairless, reptilian creatures with bulging black eyes and slits for mouths? Gangly, stick like arms reaching out to her, ready to tear her away from earth forever? But no, her parents would never let aliens take her away. They would never let anything harm her. But what if her parents couldn't stop the aliens from abducting her? What if they fought for her and lost? Or what if they were aliens disguised as her parents? Her parents could be prisoners on a spaceship this very moment. Sandy shuddered at the thought.
Sandy looked at her mother, who smiled warmly. “Go ahead, sweetie,” her mother coaxed.
“Okay,” Sandy answered. She took a deep breath, turned the door knob and stepped onto the porch. She looked to her right. No aliens there. Then she looked to her left. Perched on the front porch swing, his silky fur glistening in the full moon’s light, was Gypsy. He washed himself fastidiously, his sandpaper tongue combing away as if he had never been gone at all.
“Gypsy!” Sandy cried, so happy that tears began to pour from her eyes like tiny waterfalls. Gypsy stopped his bath and gazed at Sandy with his big green eyes. He did not meow or purr, but Sandy distinctly heard these singing words inside her head: “Don’t worry, Sandy. I’m here to stay. Friends like us always stick together.” Sandy picked up her friend, brushed her cheek against his soft coat, and whispered, "I love you, Gypsy."
***
The very next day, a new sign appeared on the Fountain Square Library bulletin board. In large green letters, the sign said:
LOST CAT NOW FOUND
Beneath the words, a black and white cat with emerald green eyes and a little girl with long red hair flew together, hand in paw, in a velvet black sky with a smiling silver moon and twinkling bluish white stars.