Strange Happenings Read Free

desk.
    Tom scratched himself beneath the chin. "You could write about that time you caught a mouse."
    "Oh sure. As if he'd believe that," said Charley, and he went off in a huff.
    Tom, reminding himself that he wanted to talk to Charley about going through the transformation process again, was just about to slip back into a nap when something Charley had said floated through his mind. What was it? Oh yes ... did Charley say that the subject he had written about was,"
How I, Once a Boy, Became a Cat"?
    Surely what Charley meant to say was the other way around—that is, "How I, Once a Cat, Became a Boy." Or was he writing about how
he,
Tom, became a cat?
    It was too confusing. Tom yawned and shut his eyes again. But he could not sleep. What Charley had said bothered him.
    At last he got up and looked around for Charley, but the boy had gone out. Back in his room, Tom noticed that the paper Charley had written was lying on the desk.
    He read it. It was just what Charley had said: a report about a boy who had turned into a cat. This boy, so Charley had written, wished to become a cat and sleep all the time. That was familiar enough. In fact, as Tom went through it, the whole story was his
own
experience. However, in Charley's story, the boy's name was Charley and the cat's name was Felix.
    Why,
Tom wondered,
would Charley have everything the same,
except
the names?
    "Hey, Charley," Tom said that night as Charley sat at the desk working on his new essay. "I read your essay."
    Charley glanced around. He seemed surprised. "That's not like you."
    "You left it out."
    "Whatever. Did you ... like it?"
    "It was fine," said Tom. "It was pretty accurate, too. Except for two things."
    "What's that?"
    "You changed the names around. You called the boy Charley and the cat Felix."
    "Oh, right," said Charley, turning back to his work.
    "How come you did that?" Tom asked.
    "It was supposed to be true," Charley muttered.
    Tom frowned. "I don't follow."
    Charley turned around to gaze at Tom evenly. "I guess there's no harm in telling you
now.
"
    "Telling what
now?
"
    "Well, before I introduced myself to you and you took me in, I was once a boy, and my name was Charles."
    "You
were?
"
    "See, I was bored with my life—so bored, I began thinking that things would be better if I were a cat. As it turned out, I met a cat. Or rather, this cat introduced himself to me. His name was Felix. Felix knew about one of these neighborhood wizard-cats. Sound familiar? You can guess the rest."
    As Charley was telling this story, Tom felt increasingly troubled. "Charley," he said, "are you telling me—as you sit at
my
desk, wearing
my
clothes, doing
my
homework, looking like
me
—that at one time
you
were a boy and
then
became a cat? But then you decided you didn't want to be a cat and so became me instead?"
    "You've got it."
    "But ... but why didn't you and that Felix just change back to what you were?"
    "Felix didn't want to be a cat again."
    "He didn't?"
    "Nope."
    "Charley, are you saying you found me and tricked me into—"
    Tom interrupted, "It was what you wanted, too."
    "But that's outrageous!" cried Tom. "Anyway," he said, "I've had enough of sleeping. I want to change back."
    "Sorry," Charley said. "Too late for that."
    Tom, who was becoming increasingly upset, stared at Charley. "What do you mean?"
    "I prefer being a boy again. This is a great place and your family is nice." So saying, he left the room, shutting the door behind him.
    At first Tom was too astounded to do anything. Then he leaped off the bed and headed right for the door, only to remember that he had to get a person to open it for him. He called to Charley, but it was not Charley who came. It was his mother.
    "Want to go out?" she asked, reaching down and chucking Tom under the chin.
    "Of course I want to go out," Tom said in a rather irritated way. But when he spoke, all his mother heard was caterwauling.
    "Isn't it cute the way cats talk," she said as she scooped him up