fourteen

The two friends flew high and low and finally found Lucky playing in a huge pile of shirts and blouses up in Goldie’s room. “Lucky, you are so adorable!” said Sylva. “Even if you are good at running away.”

Poppy waved Goldie’s red-and-white polka-dot blouse in front of Lucky. She pounced on it, batted it once or twice . . . and then she flipped! “Ooh!” cried the two friends together.

Clara called up the stairs. “Fairies! I’m heading over to the Flower sisters’ for the evening. Are you two going to be all right with that kitten?”

“We’ll be fine!” Sylva called back.

“You’d better get Lucky out of Goldie’s room before she comes home,” Clara said as she was leaving. “She’ll love Lucky, but she won’t love the idea of her precious clothes being used as toys. See you later! Take good care of your kitten!”

Sylva could not resist letting Lucky play in Goldie’s room a little bit longer. “I’ll just borrow this one shirt for Lucky to play with,” she said to Poppy. “She likes it so much, and Goldie never wears it.” Lucky pounced when Sylva waved the shirt. “You hold Lucky while I clean up.”

Poppy looked a little worried. “I’m not so good at holding Lucky, Sylva,” she said. “You saw what happened in the kitchen.”

“Honestly, Poppy, if she’s supposed to be our cat, you’ll need to learn to hold her,” said Sylva.

Poppy carefully took Lucky from Sylva’s arms. “I do need to hold her—you’re right, Sylva. I’ll carry her over to our fairy house so she can meet her new sisters.”

“She’d be better off staying here,” said Sylva. “She can get comfortable with her new surroundings.”

“But she’s going to live with us,” said Poppy, “at our house, Sylva. You can come see her and we can share her, but she’s really my cat.”

Sylva couldn’t believe her ears. What was Poppy thinking! The dollhouse was theirs together. They had made the doll family together and decorated the rooms together. So the cat should be theirs together, especially since it was a real live fairy kitten, not just a doll. What did it matter where Lucky was when they first spotted her? She could have been anywhere, and she just happened to be upstairs. Sylva noticed that Lucky was squirming even more in Poppy’s arms.

“You can’t even hold Lucky properly,” said Sylva. “You’re doing it all wrong.”

“Am not!” said Poppy.

“Are too!” said Sylva.

“She’s mine and I’ll do whatever I want with her,” said Poppy.

“Fine!” said Sylva. “Take her to your house! It’s lucky she’s called Lucky, because she’ll need a lot of luck with you!”

Poppy’s face turned white. “I’m going home now,” she said. “You can come over to see my cat anytime. But a real friend wouldn’t tell me I’m not good enough to take care of her.”

“Then maybe I’m not your real friend,” said Sylva.

With Lucky clinging to her shoulder, Poppy flew downstairs and out the door.

“Odeo!” said Squeak.

Rosy and Squeak had come in from their afternoon walk.

“Sylva, what’s going on?” asked Rosy.

Sylva burst into tears. Between gulps, she told Rosy the whole story of the paint and the rainbow light and the cat that came to life. “Poppy is going to need help with that kitten,” said Sylva. “But she won’t get it from me.” She flew up to her room and slammed the door.

If Sylva had not done that, she might have been able to hear Rosy telling her not to take things too hard. She might even have heard Squeak saying “Ma-bo-bo” over and over again.

But Sylva heard none of these things. She only heard the sound of herself crying, as the beautiful spring day wore on.