Feather's Girl, page 4
part #2 of The Morley Stories Series
“I’m sorry Morley. Didn’t you get the email about the pan-LUKE?”
No, I didn’t get the email. How could I? We don’t have a computer at home. It must have gone to Aunt Eira. Or Mum’s phone. And why would a pan have anything to do with closing the shelter? “Pan luke? What’s that?”
“Wait a minute. I’ll come out.” She does that, locking the door behind her.
Pan luke, she says. Short for panleukopenia. It’s a virus that cats get. Like flu, but worse. Humans and dogs can’t get it, but when cats do, it’s very dangerous. Especially for kittens, because they haven’t gotten their shots yet, the one that helps protect cats from getting this terrible illness.
There isn’t any cure.
“But Feather…um…Shane,” I say. “He’s OK, isn’t he? Please, tell me he’s all right…”
“Shane? Little tuxedo cat? Yes, he’s OK. He’s one of the cats in Room A, and we’re watching them…”
“What do you mean, watching?”
“It’s a very, very contagious disease, Morley. It spreads quickly, but it takes several days to know which cats have it and are getting sicker. And some get it, but they survive. That’s why we’ve had to close the shelter, until we can get rid of it.”
“But all the cats will be OK?”
“No, I’m sorry, I can’t promise you that.”
“You mean, they could be really sick?”
“Yes. Some could die. But we’re doing everything we possibly can to save as many as we can. I have to get back in there but…I’m so sorry Morley.”
“But what can I do?”
“We just do everything we can and hope for the best, dear,” she says as she slips back inside. “About all you can do now is pray for us!” Then she locks the door, with her inside with all the dogs and cats. And me on the outside.
Pray for them. Our family used to go to church all the time, but now we hardly ever go. I don’t know if I remember how to pray.
I leave my bike in the rack and go around the back, to the window that I know is the one for Room A. Then I sit there, right under the window, and tell Lucky Feather to be strong. Because I’m counting on him to stay healthy so he can come home with me. And be my pet and my friend.
My best animal friend.
He must be frightened.
I know he’s worried all the time, in that cage he’s in, with all the strange smells and now, the smell of bleach. It’s so strong, I can smell it coming out the window.
The smell must make it hard for the cats and dogs to eat.
But to get better, they have to eat. And drink water. And rest. Because doing all these things can make them stronger.
Why didn’t I get him already? Why did I say he could come home with me, but I left him there? Didn’t I care?
He asks me this. I don’t have a good answer.
I’m his friend, the girl who saved him, but I just left him there. In a cage. Where there are sick kittens. I know that some have already died. I know Feather can smell it, the ones that are so sick and the ones that are dying.
I’m so scared for him, so sorry, that I can’t stop myself from crying. For Feather and for all the pets.
I try to think about what my friends and Aunt Eira and Dom would say. Danny too. Probably. That I need to be smart and be strong. Not just sit here, crying. That doesn’t help.
I wish I had my own phone, because I’d text them now, or call them. I know they’d help.
But I can’t, so finally I make myself go get my bike and head home.
Then I think about other pets I know. Like Pixel, who is Aunt Eira’s kitten. And Jayden’s horse, Spirit. And Tippy, Sam’s puppy. They’re not trapped in a cage because they might have a horrible disease. Or catch it soon. They’re all at home. Healthy and safe.
Where Feather would be now, if I’d already adopted him.
But Feather isn’t safe.
Him knowing me hasn’t been so lucky for him, after all.
I get home and Mom says I can’t call Aunt Eira because she’s away in New York at a conference for bloggers and Dom went with her. Sam and Jayden still aren’t back from their vacations.
I go to the library, and there the librarian helps me look up pan-luke. I learn that its other name is cat distemper. It’s a disease, something like the flu or pneumonia. People and dogs can’t get it. Cats catch it from each other really easily. If they’re adults and they’ve had their shots, they probably don’t get it. Or they get better.
Most of the time.
But wild cats who never go to the vet easily get pan-luke. They usually don’t get better. They usually die.
The way the pan-luke got in the shelter is they rescued some really tiny baby kittens from a shed. Their mother was wild, or feral. She had pan-luke and she died. Most of her kittens got it from their mother. Then other cats at the shelter got it, something like you or me catching flu from other kids at school, but more serious.
The Sunflower Pet Shelter website says they were doing everything possible to save as many of the kittens and cats as possible. The dogs were being cared for in foster homes. They thanked people for understanding and continuing to donate the things they always need like food, litter, bleach and money for medicine.
I go home to make more bracelets. It’s all I know how to do that can help the pets now.
When I’m playing Candy Crush with Fairie Daisy, when I’m dusting upstairs or wrapping up the baking to take to the market or getting up or going to sleep, all I can think about is how scary it must be for everyone at the shelter. All the pets. And all the people, too.
And I cry for them.
And I try to pray.
six
It’s August long weekend when Jayden gets back home. A week later, Sam is back, too and so is her Tia Margaret. Tia means aunt. Margaret is who looks after Sam because her mother is hardly ever home.
One afternoon Jayden and I are over at Sam’s, out at her pool. I’ve thanked them again for the birthday presents and told them about my summer, the most fun parts. That was art lessons with Maudie, going to the beach, staying over at Aunt Eira’s and about the guests who brought their dogs.
Eira just laughed when I showed her the bathing suit Mum got for my birthday. “I remember she had one almost like this when she was about your age,” she says. “But you’re right. It really doesn’t suit you, does it?”
She took me to pick out a new bathing suit when we were in the city to buy more jewellery-making supplies. She said the new bathing suit was another birthday present. Or maybe something special, now that I could finally swim again because the last stupid cast on my arm was gone.
My new bathing suit is really pretty, all turquoise. I kept the crazy colours one my Mom gave me, because Daisy loves it. It’ll probably fit her in a couple of years. I already gave her the pink sunglasses and the hat.
My new swimsuit is a two-piece, easy to get on, and plain but I like it.
“What about Feather?” was almost the first thing Jayden asked me when he got home. “Do you have him yet?” So I told him about the pan-luke, and how much I miss helping out at the pet shelter. Sam asks almost the same question.
I tell them about how I’ve gone to the pet shelter almost every day to sit and talk to Feather. I always sit under the window near where he is. I know it’s hard for him, but I think he’s still not got the pan-luke. He’s almost six months old now, which is like being an older teenager but almost an adult, if you’re a cat.
There’s a sign on the door that says the shelter is going to open up again tomorrow. I’m excited to go back.
I’ve already heard all about what it was like in France and Italy from Sam. She loved trying out different foods and we heard all about going to Euro Disney and all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
She wasn’t so crazy about when they met up with her father’s new family in Rome, she said. Even though she hardly ever says anything about it, I know she doesn’t like her Dad’s new wife or being a half-sister to their daughter and two little boys. She says the girl is all right, but the boys are both total brats. But their mother just thinks everything they do is so cute and funny. And she orders Sam around, like she thinks Sam is just there to be a free babysitter.
Sam almost never loses her temper, but she says she’s told her Dad to come here to visit her. She says she’s never going back to his house. She says her mother thought this was great news. And then her parents had a big fight about it.
Jayden is also happy to be home. He says driving across the country with his parents, stopping in cities along the way, was interesting enough, but it just went on too long. He says when he closes his eyes, all he can see is trees and more trees and highway going by. He got bored with just sitting in the back seat playing endless video games. And he really missed riding Spirit every day.
I’ve told them about Danny coming to visit, and how I realize now that he never was going to come home. Getting him back to our family was just something in my mind, like a fantasy, not something that could really happen.
Him and my mom deciding they didn’t want to be together any more wasn’t because of anything I did. Or didn’t do. Or Daisy, either. It was just an adult decision.
I guess Danny has a whole different life now, in the city. Not the one he used to have, in Seabright with Daisy, Mom and me.
I know that now.
I’ve told my best friends all about what happened with Julia.
But why did she do it? Hurting me. And other kids, too. We’ve all heard the stories about her.
“There could be lots of reasons. Stuff in her life we don’t know about…” Jayden says, turning over on his lounger.
“Like what?” Sam looks doubtful. “You mean some kids might be bullies just because they’re bored? Or upset about something?”
“Maybe,” Jayden says. “Or there could be other reasons. Because they feel small inside and like they’re not good enough.”
“You think if they hurt other people, they feel like they’re bigger and better?”
Jayden shrugs. “Could be. Or maybe they’re jealous of other people and what they have?”
I can imagine people being jealous of Jayden and getting to be with horses and ride them any time you want. And who wouldn’t want to be Sam, and live in a beautiful big house with a huge pool? I just can’t imagine another kid wanting to be me, or have what I’ve got. What could they be jealous about? Probably not my crabby mother and annoying little sister.
“Or they just don’t know any other way to behave? That’s what I think,” Sam says. “Some kids just don’t know good ways to get what they want or need. They only know how to use other people. Or be a bully.”
“That’s pretty sad,” I say, considering. “You think maybe they don’t even do it on purpose? I mean the bullying?”
We think about this.
“They might do it on purpose. They might think being mean is fun,” Jayden says. “Or they might do it because they have a problem, like depression. Or anxiety. Or a personality disorder.”
“What’s that?”
“A mental illness,” Sam says.
“Is there a cure for it?”
“I don’t know. I guess so. Sometimes.”
So maybe that’s what needs to happen. That Julia get some counselling or something to figure out why she does bullying.
“I don’t think it’s something kids can do, on their own. I think it’s an adult problem, to get help for kids that bully other people,” Jayden says. “But first, to get help for the kids they hurt. That’s what one of my brothers told me.”
“There isn’t much kids can do for her, I mean, for a bully? To change them?”
“I don’t think so,” Jayden says. “But I’m not sure. We could ask about that, in health class…”
We could.
What we do know is Julia will probably be back to school next week, along with everyone else. I really am not looking forward to having to see her again.
At school. Or after school, on the path home.
Or anywhere else. I know she must have some kind of problem, because she never seems happy, but I don’t feel sorry for her. I don’t want to help her stop bullying and act better. I don’t want to do anything for her.
I don’t want to forgive her.
I especially don’t want to talk about it any more, even with my best friends. I just want to forget about it and have it all go away.
Eira says that won’t happen. Julia being a problem for me isn’t going to just go away, she says. I want her to be wrong about this.
My mother says just stay out of her way. As if that’s even possible.
“So,” Sam says. “Just 13 more days until middle school!”
Seems hard to believe we’ll be back to school so soon. We already know it’s going to be different. Better than primary.
At middle school, everybody has their own locker. Finally, I think, I have a place to keep my stuff that Daisy won’t ever get into.
We’ll be changing classrooms, so we don’t do every subject with the same teacher. Even if you get stuck with someone like old Meanie Greenie, at least you don’t have them almost all day, like you do in primary school.
And there’s a real cafeteria, where you can buy your lunch, like pizza or wraps or salads or pot noodles.
There’re also after-school clubs, like choir and jazz band and something called the Glee Club. I haven’t heard if there’s an art club, or a pets club. I hope so.
Not so great news is that in middle school, you get homework. With the upstairs guests and the baking and jewellery making and volunteering at the pet shelter and keeping Daisy happy, I wonder when I’ll get time to do homework.
Or anything else I want to do.
There has to be a way!
seven
“So, when the shelter is open again, you can go adopt Feather, right?” Jayden says.
“Uh, maybe. I want to. But my mom…”
“Is still saying, ‘No?’”
I sigh.
“But why…?” Sam says. “For just no reason. That’s so unfair!”
I really don’t know why. I talked about every one of her No Pet objections in my pet presentation. I answered every single reason she has to say, “No.” Every one she’s said and every one I can imagine.
That was way back in June. So, she’s had plenty of time to think about it. And get used to the idea of having Feather at our house. And probably she’d hardly even notice him, because he’d live in my room, mine and Daisy’s. I’d do all the looking after him.
“We could adopt Feather ourselves,” Sam says, as if she’s thinking out loud.
“Kids can’t,” I say. “It has to be your parent or guardian. They have to sign some papers. And promise you’ll be a good pet parent.”
“What if we asked Margaret to adopt Feather? She could just give him to you?” Margaret is Sam’s family’s housekeeper and cook. She’s always been kind to me and Jayden and to all Sam’s friends. I know Sam loves her as much as I love Aunt Eira.
“It still won’t work, even if Margaret agrees, because cats have a microchip with the owner’s name and address and phone number on it.”
“Oh yeah,” Sam says. “I guess I knew that. Tippy has a microchip, too.”
“And it wouldn’t really be honest, would it?” Jayden says. “Even if Margaret agreed to do it.”
We all think about this.
“What about your aunt?”
“She says she doesn’t set the rules in our house. And I just have to convince Mum…”
“But your mother doesn’t want to be convinced, does she? For some reason you don’t know about and can’t guess.”
This is true.
“Maybe it’s just because your mom’s going to have a baby?”
“But why would that matter?”
“Well,” Jayden says, “There’s this crazy old belief that cats can make babies sick. Or even kill them. It’s all nonsense, my mom says, but some people still believe it.”
“Sounds really dumb,” Sam says. “Why would a cat want to hurt a baby?”
I agree. “It must just be people who don’t know cats because they’ve never had one.”
“Like your family?” Jayden says. “Oh, sorry…didn’t mean to…”
But he’s right. Maybe my mom is just saying no because it’s something different. Having a cat is something we’ve never done before.
It’s a change. Like living without Danny. Or starting the cookie business. Or selling jewellery. Or starting middle school.
Doing something differently is always hard and scary, until you start. That’s what Dom says. He says, “You just have to plunge right in and do it!”
“So, you were talking about Danny, but did you find out any more about your real father?” Sam gets up to pour out the last of the lemonade into our glasses.
“Not much, really,” I say, and tell them, “His first name is Malcolm. He lives in Ireland, or he used to live there. I don’t know anything else about him, or how he met my mom.”
“I’ve wondered that sometimes. How my parents ever got together,” Jayden says.
“Me too,” Sam says. “But I guess it’s their business, if they don’t want to tell people. I mean their kids.”
But is it? Wouldn’t that help you know a lot, to know why your parents got together? And if they were excited and happy to have you? Wouldn’t that be a happy story you’d want to hear and a fun story for them to tell?
……
Even though it’s a really hot day, Jayden still has his tee shirt on over his swim trunks. It’s still wet, because he never takes it off. Maybe because he doesn’t like how his chest looks. Or he thinks he needs to have more muscles.
Or he just doesn’t want to get sunburn.
“Hey, did your mom decide to get your family a computer yet?” This is another question I was hoping they wouldn’t ask. We’ve already been told that we should have a laptop or desk computer to do our homework. I also know there were only three kids in my class last year who didn’t. Everyone feels sorry for them.
