Chapter 12: Be Prepared To Stop For Enemies

 

The next morning I’m scared awake by someone pounding on my door.

“You hurt my cat!” screeches Daria.

I lie back on my pillow and moan.

She pounds harder and screams, “What did you do? Gazella never claws curtains.”

No, only live victims, I think.

Kong growls softly in my ear.

“Ssh.” I pat his head.

I wipe the sleep from my eyes with a stiff and aching hand. I roll over. Yeeks! Fairy Godmonster sleeps next to me clothed in a lacy, pink nightgown. If I could be half as cool as she looks asleep, I’d have a dozen boyfriends.

I leap out of bed and notice the time. Nine. Whoa. I missed stable duty and breakfast. I quickly pull on clothes.

Fairy Godmonster removes her mask and opens her yellow eyes. I gasp. Cat, fox and human are combined into an amazing beauty.

Daria wails, “She won’t come out from under the bed.”

“How annoying.” Fairy Godmonster stares at the door, her eyes flashing red. “She has a big mouth for such a little thing.”

Kong whines to get out.

“I have to get Kong to the stable.”

She shrugs. “So, take him out.”

“I’ll get in trouble.”

“Big deal. What can they do, send you to the attic?” She laughs softly.

I walk to the door. “Are you still there, Daria?”

She whines, “Open up.”

“I’m coming out and my dog is with me,” I warn.

“Liar!”

Kong barks, deep and low.

Daria screams. I hear running steps and a door slam.

“Please stay here, Fairy G– er – Faro.”

”If you insist.”

“You can’t come downstairs,” I say.

“I’m trying to figure out how.”

Is she teasing me or does she really mean it? Nervously, I open the door quickly and lock it behind me.

Kong runs down the stairs past Weasel. She barely gets out of his way in time.

“What have you done to my little girl?” She grabs my arm. “Answer me, young lady.”

“Nothing.” I yank away from her. I run after Kong who heads for the kitchen. When I get there, Dad is putting him outside.

He turns around frowning. “He’s supposed to stay in the stable. It’s safer for him.”

He’s seen the scratches.

“I was lonely here while you were gone. It was an accident. I needed more pens from my room and forgot about the cat.”

“David did your stable chores.”

“I’m sorry, Dad. I was so tired from doing the invitations, I didn’t wake up in time. I didn’t mean to keep Kong inside to scare Daria. She didn’t even see him.”

“Why did she scream?”

“He barked at her from the other side of the door.”

Dad turns away from me, but I see him smile. I’m relieved to see a glimpse of the old Dad.

Weasel comes downstairs. “Daria says you’ve done something to her cat.”

“It scratched me.” I show her my hand and the punctures on the top of my head.

“Winifred. Are you all right?” Dad examines the wounds.

“Ow! Still tender, Dad.”

“At least, they’re not infected. Are you all right?”

“Yeah. You couldn’t pay me to be in the same room with that wildcat.”

“I thought you said your daughter’s cat was harmless, Erminia.”

Weasel shrugs. “I imagine that beast you call a dog, terrorized her. She has always been a model cat.”

Dad frowns. “I insist that you keep the cat upstairs in the bedroom at all times until you return home.”

“Of course,” sniffs Weasel.

Whoa. I really want to get out of here. “I finished the invitations, Mrs. Dudley. All five hundred.”

“Five hundred!” exclaims Dad. “All by yourself?”

“Who else was here, Dad? My Fairy Godmother?”

Weasel says, “I don’t allow talking back in my household.”

Dad clenches his jaw. “This is my house.”

Weasel lifts her nose.

I hurry out of the room before more sparks fly. “I’ll get the invitations.”

As I leave, I hear Dad say, “Erminia, that was quite a lot of work to ask of Winifred in one evening. How many people are you expecting?”

“With the great distance from Boston, I doubt there will be more than two hundred or so. It always pays to send out more than you actually want to come. I’ll know for sure when I receive the RSVP’S.”

Wish I could see the look on Dad’s face.

Daria is rattling my attic door when I get upstairs.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

She turns and sneers. “I know you were in my room,” she accuses me.

“My room,” I correct her. I unlock the door. She tries to follow me in. “Get away from me. If you ever try to get in here, I’ll bring my dog back up.”

I see the fear in her eyes. Then defiance. She says as she stomps away, “I’ll find out what’s in there and you’ll be sorry.”

“No, you will. You need to learn to respect other people’s privacy and their property.” I open the door, slam it closed and lock it.

I turn around and freeze. Shiny, modern exercise equipment covers the floor. Fairy Godmonster, in a silver leotard, is riding a stationary bicycle.

“What happened to the furniture?” I gasp weakly.

“Chill. Everything’s still here.”

“Where?”

“In this NTMT chip.”

“In what?” I stare at the four-inch square she removes from her pocket.

“Nanoparticle Transference Miniaturization Transmitter.”

I stare at the transmitter, stunned. Then stammer, “I-I can’t have a gym up here.

Someone will hear you.”

“Don’t concern yourself with trivialities.”

My voice rises. “Trivialities? My life is hard enough without trying to hide you and all this.”

“I got my whip to work. Made the walls soundproof.”

“You can’t stay here.”

Her yellow eyes turn black. “Where do you expect me to stay? In the deep, dark forest?”

“You’re a monster!”

Fairy Godmonster slowly climbs off the bicycle. Her back stiffens with disapproval. Yellow eyes bore into mine.

“I AM A FAIRY GODMONSTER. I expect to be treated as such.”

“Conjure up something.”

She sniffs, “My whip is limited until FIMM gets fixed. Luckily, I always travel with everything I need. I need to exercise every morning. You don’t think looking like this is easy, do you?”

Fairy Godmonster moves gracefully to a weightlifting machine.

There’s a knock on the door. “Go away,” I yell.

“Telephone, Win,” says David.

“Thanks. Be there in a minute.”

I trip over some equipment. Fairy Godmonster grabs me before I conk my head on a barbell.

“You could use some dance lessons to make you more graceful.”

Great. Criticism from my Fairy Godmonster. That’s all I need. I hear hard rock blasting out of the headphones she puts on.

David adds, “Cell phone’s downstairs in the hall. Dad says it won’t work up here.”

The cell phone! It’s Jac. My best friend is the only one who calls me on the cell. I unlock the door and slip out.

“Sorry I yelled, David. I thought you were Daria.”

David grins, “I’ve felt that way a few times myself.”

Locking the door, I run downstairs and grab the phone. Hurrying outside, I sit under the willow tree for privacy.

“Are you home?” I ask. Please say yes. Please say yes.

“Hi to you, too,” Jac says. “We’re still in Mexico.”

“Oh, Jac. I need you here. I’ve had two bad days.”

“Bad as in awesome or really bad.”

“Really bad. When are you coming back?”

“We’re hoping to be home a few days before the wedding. “What’s going on? She asks.

I tell her everything. Except about Fairy Godmonster.

“Scott sounds cool. Do you like him?”

I think about it. My heart beats faster. “Yeah.”

“I knew it!” she exclaims. “Your voice sounds different when you talk about him.”

I’m glad she can’t see my face.

“Here’s my advice,” she adds. “Be careful around Weasel. She could give you big trouble. Ignore the brat.”

She chats on. “This is what you do. Everything they tell you to. It’s the only way to keep the peace. Weddings are very stressful. Once I was a bridesmaid for my cousin, Perlita. She locked herself in the bathroom with the groom and made the wedding two hours late. The guests ate the reception buffet while they were waiting.”

We laugh and Jac catches me up on her vacation and the three boys competing for

her attention. She keeps talking, her favorite thing to do, until her mother makes her hang up.

I feel better. Until I walk back into the house.