Acting Out Read Free Page A

clucks his tongue at Rover.
    “Okay, now watch this,” David says, pulling a toothbrush out of his sweatshirt pocket. “Sit.” Rover sees it
and sits
. Sits! Like a dog waiting for a treat.
    “Man,” David says. “Rover’s the craziest catever. Check this out.” He tosses the toothbrush over his head toward his closet door. Rover takes off running. Once he reaches the toothbrush he scoops it up in his mouth and brings it right back to David. We all applaud. David hoots like he’s at a basketball game. Rover darts around David and jumps back on the bed.
    “Fantastic!” Sunita says.
    David nods. “We had to get him his own toothbrush so he’d stop swiping ours!”
    “What a crazy cat!” Maggie beams. “Oh, before I forget, Gran sent you this toothbrush. It’s specially designed for cats, and is smaller than a human toothbrush—in case Rover gets tired of carrying that big one around. And, you know, in case you want to actually brush his teeth.” My cousin hands over the skinny brush.
    “How’d you teach a cat to fetch?” Brenna asks.
    “He knew how already,” David answers. “I wish I had taught him. That would have been cool. I’m going to try to teach him other doggy tricks like rolling over and begging.”
    “Do it again,” Brenna says. “I want to get an action shot.”
    David takes the toothbrush from Rover’s mouth. Rover sits. And waits. David tosses it again and Rover goes running.
    Josh and Jules are looking at the cat and whispering. I wonder what’s up with that. I hear one of them say something like “backdoor cat.”
    “But I didn’t know he could fetch,” I hear Jules say.
    David must have heard her, too. “What about a backdoor cat?” he says.
    “Jules used to take care of this cat when he was at our place,” Josh says.
    “Your place?” David asks.
    “Where did you get the cat?” Josh asks.
    “What, do you think I took your cat?” David stands and looks worried. “I didn’t know you even had a cat, Jules. I thought you just had a rabbit.”
    “No, no, it’s not my cat. Technically,” Jules says.
    “Technically?” David says, scooping up Rover and holding him close to his face.
    “Well, this cat was a stray that used to hang out by our house. I mean, I’d been petting him and giving him water, but I hadn’t talked my parents into letting me keep him yet.” Jules’s voice is small, and she looks like she might cry.
    “How do you know this is the same cat?” David asks.
    Jules starts to answer but nothing comes out. Josh jumps in. “The notch on his ear, the coloring, the dark “
M
” above his eyes, and that striped tail.”
    “I got Rover at the animal shelter. He’s the cat a bunch of us saw at Stream Cleanup Day. Somebody brought him to the shelter. He had no tags and nobody claimed him. Nobody.” David looks at Josh a little angrily, and a little fearfully.
    Josh puts up his hands.
    “He wasn’t our cat, Jules just watched out for him.” He looks at Jules as if he is checking to make sure that’s true.
    Jules nods. Nobody says anything.
    And then, Jules puts her arms out to take the cat from David. David’s eyes are big, but he lets her take him.
    Jules holds Rover up under her chin and rubs Rover on the “
M
” on his forehead. Rover yawns and rubs his head against Jules’s shoulder.
    Jules sighs and says, “I’m so glad that Rover finally has a good home. Rover is lucky to have you, David.”
    I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding.
    The door flings open and David’s five-year-old sister, Ashley, shouts, “It’s time for lunch. Mom said!”
    Rover jumps from Jules’s arms and runs under the bed.
    “You don’t have to shout,” David tells his sister.
    “Sometimes I do,” she says. Then Ashley seesme. “Zoe!” she shouts and hugs me around the waist. “I’ve been waiting for you for a long, long, long time. I’m so happiest you’re back.”
    “I’m so happiest, too,” I say, bending down and giving Ashley a