Note: By Saturday night I had written all the scenes I had planned for chapter 5. Then on Sunday morning, as I was hanging around in Clarksburg for Lisa to finish her half-marathon, this scene came to me. What’s interesting is that the scene appeared in my mind kind of as a mental picture, and kind of as the whole sequence of actions.
Anyway, it was a delight to write this. The words flowed out with no effort. After slogging with the earlier scenes in Chapter 5 (which came very, very slowly), I wish all my scenes were as easy and surprising and fun as this one.
Mindy Cabot’s player had come true. Her cat had come back. He was standing in the middle of the road, flipping the tip of his tail.
“Noopie!” Mindy yelped. “Get out of the street!”
The cat turned toward the porch where Mindy was playing with a box of plastic spoons. Mindy didn’t remember coming out onto the porch, or even getting up this morning. She remembered going to bed last night. And she remembered saying her players. And then she was on the porch playing with spoons.
Inside the house, Mindy’s mother screamed. Mindy jumped to her feet and looked in through the lower screen of the door.
She reached for the door handle, then turned toward the street. Noopie was walking away, toward Mrs. Lomax’s house across the street.
“Noopie, come back!” Mindy yelled, and ran after the cat.
She was in the middle of the street before she remembered what her mother taught her. Always look both ways. Her mother told her that a lot, but she told her it a real lot yesterday, after Noopie had been hit by that car.
Mindy knew what dead was from TV, but her mother had explained it anyway. “Noopie has gone to heaven, sweetie. To be with Jesus.”
Jesus was a nice man, Mindy knew. Maybe the nicest ever. But some people didn’t like cats. Mrs. Lomax was really nice, and she didn’t like cats.
“Will Jesus be good to Noopie?”
“Oh, yes,” Mindy’s mother said. “Jesus will take good care of Noopie in heaven.”
After Mindy and her mother had put Noopie in a shoe box and buried him in the woods “so that he can rest in piece,” her mother had reminded her again, “Always look both ways, okay?”
“I know that.”
“I know you do, sweetie,” her mother said, holding both of Mindy’s arms in her hands and looking her in the eye. “But promise me. Okay?”
Mindy had promised.
And now she hadn’t looked both ways.
She stopped in the middle of the street, her pretty yellow summer dress fluttering, and looked left, then right.
It was safe.
From in the house, Mindy’s mother yelled, “Mindy! Where are you?” She sounded scared.
Noopie was going around the corner of the house into Mrs. Lomax’s back yard. A lot of dogs were barking.
Mindy ran after Noopie.
Yesterday was a bad day. It was a good day at first, because it was Mindy’s birthday. She was five. She was so happy because now it took all of her fingers to show how old she was.
And then Noopie had crossed the street without looking both ways.
Mindy caught up with Noopie near Mrs. Lomax’s shed where she kept the rakes and hoes and claw–things to dig in the dirt.
She wagged her finger at the cat. “You naughty kitty. You know you have to look both ways.”
Mindy bent and picked Noopie up. He didn’t squirm the way he usually did. And he was breathing funny.
But Jesus had sent Noopie back.
“Mindy! Where are you!” It sounded like her mother was outside now, and she sounded really scared. “Mindy, call to me!”
“I’m here, Mommy. And guess what!” She ran to show her mother the good news.
Mindy came around the corner of Mrs. Lomax’s house. Her mother was on the porch. When she saw Mindy, she screamed and put her hands over her mouth.
As Mindy got to the edge of the street, her mother yelled, “No!”
Mindy stopped just in time. A car swooshed in front of her, only a few feet away. The car’s horn beeped and beeped.
Mindy almost dropped Noopie, but she was able to grab him before he fell out of her arms.
Mindy’s mother was running toward her. Mindy looked left, then right. It was clear.
Her mother caught her in the middle of the street, dropped to her knees, and hugged her.
“Oh, MIndy!” she said. “Don’t scare me like that!”
“Mommy, guess what?” Mindy wriggled free of the hug and held Noopie out so her mother could see. “Noopie came back. I played to Jesus and he sent Noopie back from heaven.”
Noopie sneezed.
Mindy’s mother screamed.
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