The Unwilling Witch (2 page)

“Are you trying to get killed?” I shouted at Katrina as I brushed the windblown hair out of my eyes. Then I clamped my mouth shut. I realized I sounded just like a parent.

Before I could say anything else, Katrina scurried away toward the park.

“Wow,” Jan said when I got back to the sidewalk. “You saved her life. You're a hero.”

I shook my head. The rest of my body shook on its own. “She'd have seen the bus. I didn't do anything special. Come on, let's get inside.”

We went to the main entrance. “Check it out,” Jan said, pointing at an announcement over the doors.

I read the sign out loud: “
MALLWIDE MIDNIGHT MADNESS SALE THIS TUESDAY—ELEVEN P.M. TO ONE A.M.
” Perfect. There was no school Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday because of a teachers' conference, so I figured Mom would let me stay up late Tuesday.

Jan walked over to the community bulletin board and found a spot for her poster. “Which way should we go?” she asked as she looked around.

Lewington Mall is built sort of like a wagon wheel with five spokes. Someone with no imagination named the spokes North Mall, South Mall, and so on. That could have been a problem, with five corridors and only four directions, but they called the fifth one Main Mall, even though it's shorter than the others. From above, I'd guess the whole place looks like a turtle.

The front door leads right to the Hub—that's the center area—where there's a fountain and a stream. People throw pennies in the fountain and make wishes. Some slobs also throw gum wrappers and sales slips into the water. I could make a wish about what should happen to those people.

Except for some litter, the hub is very nice. The mall owners are always adding new decorations. At the moment, a bunch of workers were carrying in plants and setting them up next to the fountain. Another guy was adjusting the fountain so part of the spray would hit the leaves of the plants. Even though it's indoors, the Hub is a great place for trees and flowers. The ceiling over the Hub is a big glass dome that lets in lots of light.

There's a wooden bridge over the stream. It's a perfect spot to check out everything. You can see who's in all the corridors. I headed toward the top of the bridge, but I didn't make it. Something was very wrong. I leaned against the railing and grabbed the polished wood with both hands. Oh, no …

“What's the matter?” Jan asked.

“I don't know.” My stomach was twisting around like someone was using it to practice tying knots. I stumbled toward Jan. Wow. The moment I got off the bridge, I felt better.

“You sure you're okay?” Jan asked.

“I'm fine. Honest.” And I was. Just like that, the bad feeling went away. “Where do you want to go?”

“How about East Mall?” Jan asked. “We could look at swimsuits in Sharon's Sports Shack. I guess all I can do is look. I only brought six dollars.”

“Sounds good.” Our gym class was going to use the high school pool on Monday. Mom said my old suit was perfectly fine, but at least I could look at new ones.

I glanced toward the entrance to East Mall. It was empty except for one person—May Mellon. She was easy to spot in a bright yellow shirt decorated with purple and green parrots, and a pair of orange pants. But it wasn't her taste in clothes that worried me. There's this poem that called April “the cruelest month.” It's by the same man who wrote all those poems about cats. I don't know what it's supposed to mean or why he picked on April—I just saw it in one of Mom's books—but the person who wrote those words had never met May.

“Let's save East Mall for later,” I told Jan.

“Oh, yeah,” Jan said. “It's the meanest of the Mellons. Hard to believe there are more at home like her.”

I nodded. Amazingly enough, May was one of a set of triplets. Her brothers Clem and Clyde were also in our class. They weren't as nasty, but they were pretty rude and crude. She also had tons of other brothers and sisters, including two who went to school with my brother Sebastian. I turned away from May. I had better things to do than to dwell on Mellons. “Where now?” I asked Jan.

She looked toward West Mall. “I've got it!”

I knew what she had in mind. There weren't any good clothing stores in West Mall, but there was one place we both loved. I grinned back at Jan and we said the name together: “Kitty, Kitty, Coo.”

Okay—it was a stupid name, but it kind of made sense for a pet store. They had a picture of two kittens and a dove on the sign painted on the window. In real life, I don't think a dove would hang around with kittens, but you're allowed to make stuff up for ads. Jan and I loved looking at the kittens and puppies. If the nice owner was there, we got to hold the kittens and pet the puppies. If the nasty owner was there, we couldn't hold the pets, but we could still look at them until he chased us out and yelled at us for not buying anything. That wasn't fair. Since I didn't have any pets, I can't see how he expected me to buy stuff.

We hurried down West Mall, past Miller's Fat-Free Donuts (icky), Pretzels with a Twist (crunchy), Wrench City (boring), the empty place where the video store had gone out of business ages ago, two nail salons, three hair salons, the empty place where the popcorn store had gone out of business two years ago, and the ninety-eight-cent store that had taken over the ninety-nine-cent store in the spot where the dollar store used to be.

“We're in luck,” Jan said when we reached the front of Kitty, Kitty, Coo.

“We sure are,” I said when I saw that the nice owner was there. “It's our lucky day.”

In less than a minute, I learned how wrong those words could be.

 

Four

TROUBLE IN STORE

“Oh, look, they are soooo adorable,” Jan said, rushing over to the cages stacked along one wall.

Every kitten in the place gazed at us; every pair of eyes begged,
Take us home. We are really, really cute.

I hurried to the kittens. Across the shop, a scurrying bundle of puppies in their own cages stared at us in disbelief. I guess they couldn't understand how we could possibly visit the kittens first.

Birds in cages over our heads flapped and fluttered, but I think they knew they were stuck in third place. Birds are nice, but you can't really play with them or take them for a walk. Well, I guess you could take them for a flight, but I bet it would be a bad idea.

I went up to the first cage of kittens, unable to keep the
oooohhh
s and
aaawwwww
s from spilling out of my mouth. “They are so cute,” I said. “It's a shame they have to be locked up.”

Jan nodded. “My parents made a poster about that last month. It said:
FREE THE PETS.
They put it up on a tree in front of the house, and people kept ringing our bell and asking about the free pets.”

I put my hand on the corner of the first cage. I swear, that's all I did. I didn't bang it or thump it or anything. When I touched the metal, I got a shock, like I'd scuffed my feet on a carpet. I jerked my hand back right away.

I have no idea how the cage door fell open.

It just flipped right down. So did every other door on every other kitten cage. One after the other—
clickita-clackita
—they dropped like toppling dominoes.

I stood there with my mouth open.

The kittens were a lot smarter. They didn't stand around.

It wouldn't have been so bad if it was just the kittens. They scampered through the store, but they didn't try to hide or escape. At least, they didn't until a couple of seconds later, when the puppies got out.

That wasn't my fault, either. I barely bumped the puppy cages. There wasn't any spark this time. But the water in one of the dog bowls splashed up and hit the cage door. There was no way the water could have knocked open the door. But it did. Then all the other dog doors swung down.

And I hardly even touched the birdcages. But when I brushed against them, the birds got startled and fluttered their wings. Somehow, that blew open the doors.

Everyone in the store helped out. The dogs and cats were a lot easier to catch than the birds. But we finally got them all.

“Well, that was fun,” Jan said as she put the last parakeet back in its cage. “Maybe we can do it again next week.”

“Ouch!” Something sharp was digging into my calf through my jeans. “Well, hi, there,” I said, looking down at the cutest little face. A solid black kitten with green eyes had fastened itself to my pants. I tried to pull it free, but it wouldn't let go of my leg. And once I'd touched it, I didn't want to let go, either. It felt so wonderfully soft and alive.

“Seems like someone wants to go home with you,” the owner said.

I shook my head. “I don't think my parents would let me.”

“You never know until you ask,” Jan said.

“You're right.” As I spoke those words, the kitten released my leg. I noticed the sign next to the cages. Kittens were only ten dollars. Like many of the puppies, the kittens had been rescued from shelters, so the store didn't charge a lot for them. Still, it was amazing—who'd have thought you could buy total happiness for so little money?

“You have excellent taste,” the owner said. “She's the prettiest kitten in the store. I had a feeling she'd end up with someone special.”

“She?” I asked. Now I knew I had to take her. We girls needed to stick together.

“Wrap her up,” Jan said.

“Jan!”

“Just kidding. This is great. I'll even treat for some food or something.” She pulled a five-dollar bill from her pocket. Then she looked at the owner and asked, “Do you sell mice?”

“Jan!” I said again before I realized she wasn't serious.

Even with Jan chipping in for the food, I still ended up spending a lot more than ten dollars. I bought a small litter box, two bowls, a collar, and three cat toys. It all just fit in my backpack.

“Hang on,” Jan said as we left the store. She stopped at a gumball machine. A sign on the front of it said:
YOUR DONATION HELPS AID PEOPLE IN NEED.
There were machines like that all over the mall. I watched as Jan pulled four quarters from her pocket and started putting them in the coin slot. With each twist of the knob, she got two or three pieces of gum.

“Hey, isn't that your last dollar?” I asked.

Jan shrugged. “It's a good cause.” She looked down at the gumballs in her hand. “Want some?”

“Nope. They look like those hot cinnamon ones.”

“Yuck. You're right.” She turned toward a little kid who was running by. “Here,” she said, handing him a double fistful of gumballs. “All yours. Go wild.”

“Thanks, lady,” the kid said. He took the gum and dashed off. I guess to a little kid, seventh-graders like Jan and me were old enough to be ladies.

“I like sharing,” Jan said with a grin. “Especially when I'm sharing something I don't like.” Then she pointed at my new pet. “So, what are you going to call her?”

“I don't know.” I held up my kitten and looked in her eyes, trying to decide what her name should be. The owner had wanted to put her in a cardboard pet carrier, but I needed to hold her in my arms. “Something special. I'll know the right name when I think of it.”

We walked back through West Mall toward the Hub.

“Uh-oh,” Jan said, looking toward the donut shop. “There's May.”

“She's busy window-shopping,” I said. I figured we could sneak past without attracting her attention. She probably liked teasing kittens as much as she liked picking on kids.

Then I saw that May had spotted someone else, and I knew there was going to be trouble.

 

Five

BULLY FOR HER

As I looked into the Hub beyond West Mall, I saw Katrina plop down on a bench. I guess she'd come back from the park. May turned away from the donuts and headed toward her target.

“She's doomed,” Jan said. “This is like those nature films, where the bunny is sitting on the grass, all peaceful and happy. You know, then the camera pulls back and there's a hawk or a fox getting ready for dinner. The poor kid is about to get pounced on.”

“We have to do something,” I said. “You distract May, and I'll get Katrina out of there.”

“Me?” Jan asked. “No way. You distract her.”

“I thought of it first,” I said.

Jan shook her head.

There wasn't any time to argue. I rushed past May and ran to Katrina.

“Hi!” I said, grabbing her hand.

She looked up at me, startled.

“Come on,” I said, tugging at her. “Time to go.” I got her on her feet. It wasn't easy with a kitten in one hand and a loaded pack on my back.

Jan ran over to join us. She grabbed Katrina's other hand. “Hurry.”

We dragged her along as fast as we could. Then I looked over my shoulder.