Chapter 5
He’s Not Here
“Come here, Darcy,” I said, dropping to my knees. “Where’s our good boy?”
I started crawling around the living room to look for him. So did Alfreeda.
Together, we looked under, around, and behind all the furniture. We kept calling, “Come out, Darcy!”
We searched everywhere in the living room. “He’s not here,” I said, my heart beating faster. “How can he not be here?”
I jumped up and ran to the kitchen. Alfreeda followed right behind me.
“Oh no!” I cried.
The basket of potatoes had been pushed away from the cat door. I ran over and kneeled in front of the little door. “Look,” I said, my heart pounding.
A bit of white cat fur was caught in the opening. Darcy’s fur!
“Grandma Kit!” I shouted. “Grandma Kit! Come here, quick!”
It was storming outside, so Grandma Kit, Alfreeda, and I threw on our raincoats and boots and ran across the farmyard, toward my grandparents’ barn. The rain fell hard, slapping my hood.
Grandpa Tom was in the barn. He was fixing the tractor. Grandma Kit told him that Darcy had escaped. “We thought maybe he came in here,” she said.
“No sign of him,” Grandpa Tom said. “Scruffy is right over there, sitting on top of that hay bale. If Darcy had come into Scruffy’s barn, there would’ve been a terrible cat fight.”
“Please come inside, Tom,” Grandma Kit said. “I need you to watch the cats in the hotel while we search for Darcy.”
“Of course,” Grandpa Tom said, wiping oil off his hands.
“The girls and I will search the farmyard,” Grandma Kit said. “If we can’t find Darcy here, we’ll take the truck. We’ll check the roads heading toward town. It’s not unusual for cats to walk many miles to get back to their owner’s house.”
“Lots of dogs do that,” Alfreeda said. “Some walk for hundreds of miles. They’re so brave.”
I wanted to shout, “How can you brag about dogs at a time like this?” But Grandma Kit was already outside, looking for Darcy. I ran after her, and Alfreeda ran after me.
We looked behind the chicken coop. We checked between hay bales. We looked in trees.
“He’s not in the farmyard,” Grandma Kit said at last. “He’d be crying in this rain, for sure. Come on, girls.”
All three of us piled into the truck and headed up the road toward town. Grandma Kit turned the headlights on high. They lit up the road. She drove very slowly.
“Alfreeda, you watch the left side of the road,” she said. “You watch the right, Tabitha.”
We peered out the windows. Rain came down in gray sheets. The sky was almost as dark as night. Thunder began to rumble.
“What if we can’t find him?” Alfreeda asked. “Joy will never see him again. If I lost my best friend in a pouring rainstorm while I was lying in a hospital, I’d be sad forever.”
Grandma Kit didn’t say anything. She just patted Alfreeda’s knee.
We reached town, and Grandma Kit drove up and down the streets. Before long, she stopped the truck. She turned off the engine and pointed at a small house.
“That’s the Jacksons’ home,” she said. “Look who’s there.”
“Darcy!” I cried, throwing open the truck door and leaping out.
I ran to the front steps of the Jacksons’ house and gathered Darcy in my arms. He was muddy, crying, shivering, and dripping wet.
I rushed him to the truck and laid him in Alfreeda’s lap. I took off my raincoat and sweater, then wrapped the sweater around him.
“He must’ve run like the wind to get here so fast,” Grandma Kit said. “I better call Joy’s parents and tell them what happened.”
She called Ms. Jackson.
“Annie, I’m so sorry, but Darcy escaped from Tabby Towers and ran home,” Grandma Kit said.
“I’m not surprised, Kit,” Ms. Jackson said. “Joy is just as unhappy without him. She’s so sad. I don’t think being apart from her sweet, furry friend is good for her weak heart.”
“We’re on our way,” Grandma Kit said. She didn’t wait for Ms. Jackson’s reply. She hung up and started the truck. Then she zoomed through the thunderstorm toward the city, an hour’s drive away.