The Wicked Cat Read Free

said.
    â€œThen how did it fall?” Watch asked her.
    Sally shrugged. “The wind.”
    â€œBut there isn’t any wind today,” Watch said.
    â€œYou’re such a stickler for details,” Sally said, still stroking the cat.
    Adam reached down and touched the black bark. It was warm.
    â€œI’d like you to come over here,” he said. “This is weird.”
    â€œYou go,” Sally said to Watch as she stepped up on the porch. “I think kitty wants dinner.”
    Watch managed to climb the fence and soon was standing beside the fallen tree, studying the burnt wood. The black marks cut almost to the core of the trunk. Yet there was something peculiar about that as well.
    â€œNotice that the burn only radiates from one side,” Watch said, pointing. “It doesn’t go all the way around.”
    â€œWhat could cause that?” Adam asked.
    â€œA lightning strike; it would have to be from the direction of Sally’s house.”
    â€œBut there isn’t a cloud in the sky,” Adam protested.
    Watch nodded, puzzled. “But I can’t think of anything else that would burn a tree like this. The burn definitely has to be the reason it fell down, and since the rest of the tree didn’t catch fire, I suspect it got struck all at once and quickly.”
    â€œIt looks like it was struck with a laser blast,” Adam said.
    â€œYeah,” Watch agreed. “But I gave this planet’s only laser pistol back to the Kaster admiral on Amacron Thirty-seven. You remember?”
    â€œYeah,” Adam said thoughtfully. “You know what’s also strange about this tree? That it managed to fall on the dog.”
    Watch nodded. “Yeah. It’s like someone timed it to hurt the poor guy.”
    â€œBut what or who would do such a thing?”
    Watch smiled. “Sally, if you gave her half the chance. Come on, let’s go inside. We still have to finish our game.”
    â€œJust don’t go lasering my king,” Adam said.

3
    L ater the three of them rejoined Cindy and decided to go see a movie. Sally left the cat at home with a note to her parents explaining that either the cat stayed or their daughter was moving.
    There was only one movie theater in Spooksville and it rarely showed anything but horror films, which was OK with the gang because the films were pretty tame compared to their own lives. They had just settled down with popcorn and drinks to watch a film about vampires who were spreading across the world disguised as used car salesmen when the cat appeared in the aisle and started meowing for Sally’s attention. They were pretty amazed that thecat had not only followed them to the theater, but had managed to sneak in as well.
    â€œIt really loves me,” Sally said, pleased at the interruption. She picked up the cat and offered it some popcorn. The cat wasn’t interested.
    â€œWe can’t watch a movie with a cat,” Cindy said.
    â€œWhy not?” Sally snapped.
    â€œIt’s against the rules to bring a cat into the theater,” Cindy said. “Besides it might scratch me again.”
    â€œIt won’t hurt you unless you abuse it again,” Sally said.
    Adam sighed. “Are we going to get to watch this movie or not?”
    â€œI know I would enjoy it more if the two female vampires beside us would stop fighting,” Watch said.
    But Sally and Cindy couldn’t stop arguing—or refused to stop—so the guys decided they’d be better off if they all left and came back to see the movie later. Leaving the theater with their buckets of popcorn, they headed for Cindy’s. But Cindy, of course, wouldn’t let the cat in the house.
    â€œMy mother is allergic to cats,” Cindy said. “Even a little cat hair makes her eyes swell up.”
    â€œI think you just invented that,” Sally said, holding on to the cat. “What if I tell you that if she doesn’t go