Chapter 15

ENCORE

Finally, it was time to sleep.

Stick Cat curled up on the windowsill. He glanced down at the street twenty-three floors below and saw a tow truck taking the cement truck away. He glanced sideways and saw Mrs. O’Mahoney’s arms reaching out of her kitchen window next door to tie her apron back onto the clothesline. He could smell the warm baking bread.

And then he looked across the alley to the piano factory.

Mr. Music sat on the piano bench. He rubbed his arms in an attempt to reinvigorate the circulation in them. His coworker, Tony, was now gone. Stick Cat figured that while he and Edith were crossing the alley and getting Edith pushed through the wall, Tony had helped Mr. Music, ensured his safety, and disappeared back into that strange wall.

Knowing that Mr. Music was safe made Stick Cat feel even sleepier.

Stick Cat closed his eyes.

But he didn’t fall asleep.

Do you know why?

It wasn’t because Edith got stuck in the wall again. She was, by this time, happily on her own kitchen counter, licking the breakfast dishes in the sink.

No, this was something altogether different.

You see, when Stick Cat closed his eyes, Mr. Music got up from the bench to close the piano factory’s windows. And when he started to close the last window—the one directly across from Stick Cat’s apartment—Mr. Music lifted his head and looked at the apartment building.

And he saw Stick Cat on the inside ledge of that window.

He stopped and stared at Stick Cat for nearly thirty seconds.

And then Mr. Music opened that window as high as he could push it. He walked back to the black grand piano and sat down on the bench. He propped the lid open very, very carefully. Mr. Music stretched his arms, rubbed them again, and cracked his knuckles.

And then Mr. Music began to play.

It was a slow and melancholy tune—almost like a lullaby. It mixed softly and quietly with the sound patterns of traffic drifting up from the street.

Stick Cat had never heard anything so quietly beautiful. He opened his eyes one time only—to ensure that he wasn’t dreaming. He wanted to know that it was Mr. Music playing for him.

When he saw that it was, Stick Cat closed his eyes again.

He listened as long as he could.

Until he fell asleep.

THE END