Philip and the Angel (9781452416144) (5 page)

Philip grabbed the can from Emery and put it
back.

“
Fish. Here’s fish,” said Philip. “Cats
eat fish, right?”

“
We don’t have any rivers near us. How
would the mother know about fish? Look around. They must have
mouse-flavored cat food.”

The two boys scoured the cat food shelves for
mouse-flavored cat food but couldn’t find any.

“
They must be out of it,” said Emery.
“Mouse’s
gotta
be the most
popular flavor. Do you see any bird-flavored cat food?”

“
No, I
don’t
.”

“
Let’s get the fish then.”

Philip grabbed the fish-flavored cat food,
and together he and Emery went to pay. Outside, Philip said, “We
have everything we need. Ready?”

“
Rescue mission to save cats
ready.”

“
Then let’s go,” said
Philip.

Chapter Nine

The mother cat pulled her lips back and
showed her teeth.

“
Look out!” Emery cried. Philip jumped
and Emery scurried behind Philip.

“
Just put some food on the plate and
let her smell it,” Emery advised. “Boy, I wish it
was
mouse flavored. She’d eat it in a
hurry.”

Philip scooped some of the wet, squishy food
onto the paper plate with the back end of an old, cracked plastic
fork he’d found in the trash behind the supermarket. He pushed the
paper plate toward the cat. He and Emery watched the mother cat
sniff at it and give it a lick.

“
I think she likes it,” said
Emery.

Just as they’d planned, Philip moved the
paper plate back a little. The mother cat got to her feet and
stepped toward the food. She sniffed and licked it again.

“
Go on,” whispered Emery. “Back
further.”

“
Shhhh.” Philip wanted to tell Emery if
he knew so much about how to do it, why didn’t he do it himself,
but he didn’t want to start an argument in front of the mother cat,
who slowly followed the paper plate of food nearer and nearer to
the cage. The door of the cage opened flat onto the ground, and
Philip slid the paper plate into the cage.

“
Don’t move,” he whispered to
Emery.

“
I have to go to the bathroom,” Emery
whispered back.

“
Oh, great! Just hold it,” Philip
ordered. “Don’t move.”

The cat stuck its head into the cage and
sniffed the food again. It put one foot into the cage and started
lapping up the food. Slowly, Philip reached behind the cat and
pushed it into the cage.

“
Get the door,” Emery
ordered.

Both Emery and Philip reached for the door.
The startled cat meowed once. Emery dropped the door. Philip pushed
the cat’s head back inside the cage. Emery grabbed the door and
lifted it. Philip hooked it shut.

“
Meooww,” the cat said. It looked at
the two boys and returned its attention to the plate of
food.

“
Wow!” said Emery. “That was
tense.”

“
Do you still have to go to the
bathroom?” Philip asked impatiently.

Emery waited a moment before saying, “No. It
went away. I guess I was nervous.”

“
Get a small box. There’s a million of
them. We’ll put the babies inside.” Philip remembered what Angel
had said. “Get two boxes.”

Emery scurried around the hodge-podge of
cardboard and junk and came back with two small boxes.

“
Hold it closer,” said Philip. He
lifted the gray kitten carefully and put it inside the box. Then he
lifted the black kitten and did the same. “Give me the other box.”
He put the box alongside the two striped kittens and, using a flat
piece of cardboard, pushed them into the box.

“
What are you going to do with them?”
Emery asked.

“
We
are going
to bury them.”

“
In the ground.” Emery sounded
amazed.

“
No, in a chocolate pie. You carry
these two boxes and I’ll get the cage.”

“
Chocolate pie,” Emery grumbled under
his breath.

The two boys went a block out of their way so
they wouldn’t meet anyone they knew. Philip didn’t want his parents
asking him why he was carrying around a caged cat. When they
reached the house behind Angel’s, Philip led Emery past the house
and into the backyard, hoping the owner was out or watching
television. He and Emery ducked into the bushes behind Angel’s
house.

“
Leave it,” whispered Philip, pointing
to the box with the two dead kittens.

Emery put the box down and crept along behind
Philip to the edge of the bushes.

“
Wait,” said Philip. “Her again.” He
pointed and waited until Mrs. Beebe stepped back inside her kitchen
door. “Okay. Come on.”

Philip led the way to the shed and opened the
door. The two boys ducked inside, and Emery pushed the door shut.
An old faded blue blanket lay stretched out on the floor.

“
Where’d that come from?” Emery
wondered.

“
I’ll bet Angel did it,” said Philip.
He lifted the two wiggling kittens from the cardboard box and
placed them on the warm blanket. “Open the cage.”

“
I hope the mother cat’s not mad at
us,” said Emery.

“
If she doesn’t eat cows, she won’t eat
us,” said Philip.

Emery opened the cage door. The black cat
looked around before stepping out.

“
She ate all the food,” said
Emery.

“
I’ve got more.” Philip took the can
out of his pocket. “Give me the plate.” He scraped out the rest of
the food onto the plate and put it near the kittens. The mother cat
went over to the two kittens and began licking them. Then she
flopped down beside them.

“
When do they open their eyes?” Emery
asked.

Philip didn’t answer. The two kittens had
already felt their way to the mother’s stomach and begun to feed
themselves.

“
How about water?” Emery
said.

Philip shook himself awake. “Right. We gotta
get water. Let’s take care of the other two, and then I’ll talk to
Angel. She’ll know what to do. Here, take this.” Philip picked up a
spade with a broken handle and handed it to Emery.

Philip cracked open the door and checked.
“Coast is clear.” He and Emery scrambled back into the bushes.

“
Over here,” said Philip, finding a
smooth spot of dirt outside the bushes. He dug a hole while Emery
kept watch. Philip took a handkerchief from his pocket and picked
up the two kittens one-by-one and placed them into the hole. Then
he put the handkerchief down on top of them.

“
This is sad,” said Emery.

Philip’s throat hurt, and he didn’t think he
could talk so he motioned for Emery to scrape the dirt back into
the hole. They filled the hole and were packing it down when they
heard Mrs. Beebe’s voice.

“
Oh, the little doggie is back with a
friend. Burying bones are you?” She started cackling with
laughter.

Philip looked at her. “Woof!” he barked
angrily.

The old woman jumped. “Bad dog,” she said.
Philip and Emery got to their feet and ran past Angel’s house onto
the sidewalk.

“
Woof?” Emery asked. “Why did you
‘woof’ at her?”

“
Never mind. I’m going to get some
water and talk to Angel.”

“
I have to go home. It’s getting
late.”

“
All right, but meet me tomorrow
morning, and I’ll tell you what we have to do.”

“
Come and get me.”

“
I will.”

Emery crossed the street to his own house.
Philip checked on Mrs. Beebe, but she was not in sight.

“
Bad dog,” he grumbled. Next time
he
would
be a bad dog and bite
her if he could. He put Mrs. Beebe out of his mind and walked up
the pathway to Angel’s door. Philip knew she’d be pleased to hear
his report.

Chapter Ten

Philip’s report did please Angel. Every day
after school from then on, except for Mondays, Philip found Angel
on her back patio getting some fresh air. Angel would check on her
mother, and when it was safe, she and Philip would slip inside the
shed to visit the cats. Emery joined them when he finished taking
Hansel for his walk.

One day while the three children watched the
kittens Angel said, “She has a nice family. One boy and one
girl.”

Philip felt too embarrassed to ask Angel how
she knew which was a boy and which was a girl, but he didn’t want
Angel to think he didn’t know anything so he pointed to the mother
cat and said, “Well, yeah, and she’s a female, you know.”

Emery and Angel both turned to look at
Philip, who suddenly realized what he’d said. “Oh.” He blushed.
“Well, the mother, yeah. A female. I guess you knew already. Never
mind.”

The three cats all had names by now, given to
them by Angel.

“
We’ll call the mother cat Ling Ling.
It’s a cute name, don’t you think? We’ll call the black kitten
Frisky, because he is, and since the gray one’s the cutest, we’ll
call her Angel.” She giggled.

“
Don’t I get to name one?” Philip
complained.

“
Sure,” said Angel with a smile. “See
the gray one. You can name it Angel.”

Philip made a face but found he couldn’t make
himself argue with Angel. He stayed quiet and let her have her own
way.

The little kittens surprised Philip by how
fast they grew. One day when the children went into the shed, they
were shocked and pleased to see Frisky with one eye open, the first
of the two kittens to see the world. After that things happened
quickly. Eyes opened, legs got stronger and soon the kittens were
frolicking around the shed. Philip used his allowance to buy food
for the mother cat, grateful when Angel pointed out he could get
dry food cheaper than wet food and, besides, the mother cat went
out “food shopping” on her own anyway.

When the final day of class ended, Philip and
Emery hurried home. What a great day! No more school until
September. The glorious vacation seemed to stretch ahead forever.
But as they started down their block, Emery said something and
Philip got goose bumps.

“
What are you and Angel going to do
with the cats?”

“
What do you mean?”

“
They’re getting big. They can’t live
in the shed forever. Either somebody has to adopt them or they’ll
escape and be wild.”

Suddenly, a big black cloud covered up the
sunny warmth of the day. They’d reached Emery’s front door so
Philip did not have to respond. He hadn’t known what to answer
anyway.

“
I’ll walk Hansel and see you at the
shed,” Emery said, heading up his front path.

Philip walked faster. He had to talk to
Angel.

She sat on her back patio as usual, but
Philip noticed at once she looked worried. “What’s the matter?” he
asked.

“
My mother found the
kittens.”

“
Oh.” After a moment of quiet Philip
asked, “What did she say?”

“
She wondered how they got in the shed,
but then she saw the cage and the water bowl and the food. I had to
tell her I put them there, but she knew I couldn’t do it by myself.
I had to tell her about you and Emery.”

“
What’s she going to do?”

“
I think she’s okay for now. I told her
they’d been there for almost a month and didn’t cause any trouble,
and they were fun for me. I asked if I could keep them like I
always ask for a pet. She said no, I couldn’t have a pet like she
always answers. She said I should have told her about them. I told
her I was afraid she wouldn’t let me take care of them. She always
thinks everything is going to make me sicker.”

“
So it’s okay for now?”

“
For now. But there’s another problem.
I have to go to the hospital for one more operation.”

Philip never knew what to say when Angel
started talking about being sick.

“
The doctor says this will probably be
the last one. After this one I should be fine. Boy, I hope so. Do
you know how many operations I’ve had?”

Philip shook his head.

Angel gave him a small smile. “You
don’t want to know, but that’s not all. There’s still
another
problem.” She pointed to the
shed.

“
I know. What do we do with the cats?
Right? They’re getting big.”

Angel nodded.

The two children sat and thought.

“
How about your house?” Angel suggested
softly.

“
You
know
my mother would have a fit.”

“
Emery’s house?”

“
He’s got a dog.”

“
Well, let’s go visit them.”

They went into the shed. Ling Ling meowed and
walked over to Angel. She wound herself around and around in
between Angel’s legs.

“
This is how she says hello,” said
Angel. Philip could hear sadness in Angel’s voice. When he looked
at her, there were tears in her eyes. Angel bent down and started
rubbing Ling Ling. Ling Ling rolled over on her back and offered
her stomach.

“
She likes tummy rubs,” said
Angel.