'He's just an ordinary cat,' I told her. 'Can't you hear him purring?'
Keeping her eyes squeezed shut, Kristi moved her hands to cover her ears. 'Make it go away, Ashley,' she begged. 'Make it go away!'
Ignoring her, I let the cat climb into my lap. While he sniffed Anna Maria's hair and clothes, I examined the leather collar he wore around his neck. On a little brass tag was the name
'Kristi,' I said, 'stop acting like a baby. He's no ghost. He must belong to someone. He even has a name - Snowball.'
Kristi slowly opened her eyes and stared at Snowball. She frowned and shook her head, obviously unconvinced. 'Nobody around here has a cat like that, Ashley.'
'Maybe he jumped out of a car or something.' I smiled at Snowball and he meowed and rubbed against Anna Maria. Then he slipped out of my arms and sniffed the box. He went over even inch of it with his little pink nose, his body tense, his ears pricked. When his nose had told him all it could, he looked at me. For a second I expected him to speak, but he swung his head toward the house instead and crouched beside me, his ears pressed against his skull.
At the same moment, Max started barking. Peering through the jungle of rosebushes and weeds between us and the lawn, I saw Max running toward us with Miss Cooper hobbling behind him.
'Quick, hide Anna Maria!' I thrust the doll into the box and Kristi shoved it deep into the brambles. I was sure Miss Cooper would take her if she saw her. After all, we'd found the doll on her property.
Snowball followed Anna Maria into the shrubbery, but he wasn't fast enough to avoid Max. The dog crashed through the underbrush and chased the cat across the lawn. Snowball ran past Miss Cooper like a white streak and disappeared under the hedge separating her yard from the empty lot.
It would have been smart to stay hidden, but I was worried about Snowball. As I plunged out of the shrubbery, shouting at Max, Miss Cooper waved her cane at me.
'You, girl!' she cried. 'Didn't I tell you to stay out of the garden?'
'Call your dog back!' I shouted. 'He'll hurt Snowball!'
Miss Cooper stared at me. 'That cat doesn't need any help from you or me,' she muttered. 'The devil takes care of his own!' Her voice quavered, and she clutched her cane so tightly the knuckles on her hands whitened.
Max came back then, and Miss Cooper called him to her side. He dropped to his haunches and growled at me as I edged away slowly, determined not to let the dog know I was scared of him. Suddenly Miss Cooper's hand shot out and caught my arm.
'Where's that Smith girl?' she asked.
As far as I knew, Kristi was still hiding in the garden, but I shook my head and pretended not to know what the old woman was talking about.
'She had better not be in my roses.' Miss Cooper let me go and hobbled toward the garden. Prodding the shrubbery with her cane, she called, 'You come out of there, girl, or I'll send Max in to get you!'
'Miss Cooper, Ashley, what's the trouble?' Mom was coming down the steps, and Miss Cooper wheeled about to face her.
'You better get some control of this girl,' the old woman told Mom. 'I already talked to you once today about her. Like I said, I'll have you out of here next week if she doesn't start behaving!'
Without another word. Miss Cooper snapped her fingers at Max and the two of them walked away. Mom stared after her, but she didn't try to stop her. As soon as Miss Cooper's door slammed shut, Mom turned to me.
'Ashley, what's going on?' Mom pushed her hair behind her ears, and I noticed the long silver)' threads shining in the dark waxes. Ever since Daddy died, I thought, the gray hairs had multiplied along with the tiny lines around her eyes that saddened her face.
Feeling guilty for taking her away from her work, I put my arms around her waist and hugged her.
'I'm sorry, Mom,' I whispered. 'She's such an old grouch.'
'I know, honey,' Mom said. 'But if she evicts us, where will we rind another place? Until I get a job, we have to be very careful with money.'
'I'll try not to bother her,' I promised, but I knew the very fact that I walked on the floor over her head annoyed Miss Cooper.
'Let's go inside,' Mom said. 'I made some iced tea.'
Although I hated to leave Anna Maria in the garden, I followed Mom toward the house. Miss Cooper was probably watching me from her kitchen window, just waiting to catch me, her finger poised on the telephone dial ready to call the real estate company.
As I started up the steps, I glanced back and saw Kristi run across her yard. I was glad she, at least, had escaped Miss Cooper's anger. ^
***
That evening while Mom and I were sitting on the porch, I glanced at the garden, darkening now as night approached. Poor Anna Maria was lying alone under the bushes. It wasn't right to leave her there with nothing to protect her. Later, when Mom was asleep, I decided I'd sneak outside and bring Anna Maria into the house where she'd be safe.
'Is that the cat you saw?' Mom asked suddenly.
I peered into the dusk and glimpsed Snowball's white fur as he vanished into the garden. A little shiver ran up and down my arms and lingered at the back of my neck as Miss Cooper's words echoed in my ears. Was Snowball the devil's creature?
Chapter 7
A Midnight Adventure
WHEN I GOT into bed, Oscar was curled up on my pillow waiting for me. He purred happily while I petted him, and when he'd had enough affection, he settled down on the windowsill to watch the night.
Was he waiting for Snowball? Crawling to the foot of my bed, I peered down at the yard. Mom was still typing, and an oblong of light from Miss Cooper's kitchen window slanted across the grass. Fireflies winked and blinked in the shadows, but the garden was nearly invisible in the darkness.
I waited till my eyelids got so heavy I could barely see, but there was no sign of Snowball. Just the crickets chirping, the leaves rustling, and now and then a passing car. Once the kitchen door opened and Max bounded out. I watched him run around the backyard, his dog tags jingling, but he didn't go into the garden and he didn't bark. He just did his business and went back inside.
After the door shut behind Max, the kitchen light went out, and the backyard surrendered itself to the moon. Its full face peered down from high in the sky, brightening the water in Miss Cooper's birdbath, illuminating the clusters of Queen Anne's lace in the garden, casting black shadows everywhere else.
A little later, Mom's typewriter stopped clicking. I listened to her moving around, getting ready for bed.
When everything was still, I looked at my clock radio, glowing green on top of the bureau. It was after twelve. Taking my flashlight, I crept out of my room, shutting Oscar inside to keep him from following me.
I eased the back door open and tiptoed down the steps. They were already cool and damp with dew, and I shivered as a little breeze puffed my nightgown away from my legs. All around me, the night lived its secret life. As I ran across the grass toward the garden, I felt as if a host of creatures watched me from the inky black shadows.
I paused at the end of the lawn and looked back at the house. All the windows were dark, but the moonlight shone full on the white clapboard and sent an intricate shadow from the stairs slanting across the wall. I was sure Oscar was still at his post, and I hoped he was the only one to see me slowly push aside the bushes and creep into the garden.
Brambles snatched at my hair and my nightgown as I made my way slowly toward the goldfish pond. A spider's web brushed my face, frightening me with its clammy touch, but I told myself I wasn't a baby like Kristi. There was nothing in the garden to hurt me. Nothing to scare me.
When I was sure I was invisible from the house, I sent the beam of my flashlight darting through the
