Taken by surprise, the cat uttered a throaty shriek and rolled over on her back. Kicking desperately, she tried to get the board out of her mouth. It stayed stuck.
Across the room, Graybar looked around and saw Silversides writhing about on the floor. Momentarily forgetting the brawl, he limped over to his companion. “Hey, babe, what’s the matter?” he asked her. “What are you saying?”
“I . . . outh . . . uck,” was all Silversides could manage.
Not understanding what had happened, Graybar just laughed.
“I . . . outh . . . uck!” Silversides shrieked.
Finally Graybar understood. He knelt and tried to pry the skateboard from his friend’s mouth.
Seeing that the cats were occupied, Ragweed snatched one of Clutch’s paws and gave a yank. “Come on,” he cried, “run for it!”
Clutch staggered to her feet. Led by Ragweed, the two pushed their way through the mob of mice who were trying frantically to get out of the room. Fortunately, the walls smashed by the cats provided new avenues for escape. Mice were streaming away to safety.
Dragging the dazed Clutch after him, Ragweed plunged through one of the holes in the walls.
CHAPTER 10
Blinker, Continued
IN ANOTHER PART OF AMPERVILLE the full moon was high, the night air soft, the fragrances of spring rich and varied. Blinker’s pink nose, framed by his fine, fair whiskers, trembled and his pink eyes kept blinking as he tried to take in a world so very much bigger than the room he knew.
“Oh, my,” he prattled in a daze of happy wonderment. “So many sounds . . . So many smells . . . So much to see!” Like an unsure compass needle, he turned round and round on shaky legs until he grew dizzy.
Stopping and starting, he made his way across the lawn in front of his house. The grass tickled his feet so, he had to pause more than once because of uncontrollable giggling. Here and there he plunged his nose into the ground and inhaled the sweet and musky smell—only to get a snootful of dirt and dust, which caused him to sneeze repeatedly. “It’s all so—ah-choo!—amazing,” he wheezed. “So delight—ah-choo!—ful!”
In a moment of abandon, he rolled over in the grass and kicked his pink feet in the air, which gave him the sensation that he was walking on the moon. Another kick righted him and he began to run about wildly.
When he reached the sidewalk in front of his house, he put a paw on the concrete. “Goodness, this is hard,” he murmured, almost as if he were learning a new language. “Yet very cool. Delightfully so. It is. It really is.”
He continued along the sidewalk, poking his nose this way and that. Every few inches he reared up on his hind legs and gazed about. “Oh!” he cried in rapture. “My shadow by moonlight. How velvety, how . . . mysterious.”
When Blinker reached the curb, he gazed down into the gutter where puddles had gathered. “Why, I believe that’s water! But not in a bottle or a glass. It’s just free!” He studied the water so intently, he leaned over too far and tumbled head over heels, landing with a splat in the middle of a puddle.
Thoroughly soaked, Blinker sat up, grimaced, looked around, then began to laugh uncontrollably. “Ridiculous. I mean, I am . . . so helpless. Like an infant. That’s what I am. A perfect baby! I might as well be blind and naked. It’s all so silly, but wonder—” He could not finish his sentence. He was laughing too hard. Dripping wet, he eased himself out of the water and began to move across the road.
Unexpectedly, there was an explosion of light so bright he was blinded. Then Blinker heard a roar louder than anything he had ever before heard in his life. Unable to see, to move, much less to think, he went numb with terror. The next moment the machine that made the roar hurtled over him, missing him with just inches to spare, creating a wind that left him frightened and coughing.
“What was that?” Blinker asked himself as he looked in the direction the thing had gone. All he saw were receding red lights. “A car,” he said to himself in a shaky voice. “I forgot about cars.” He pressed both front paws over his wildly beating heart. “I could get . . . killed.”
In haste, Blinker retreated to the gutter and attempted to climb the curb, which proved too high and smooth to manage. Given no choice, Blinker scampered the length of the gutter. When he reached the end of the block he halted. He knew he wanted to go home. An inner voice scolded him for being weak while urging him to be bold, to continue on, to explore the world.
In the end, Blinker compromised between urges: He would go on and see as much as he could by night. But as soon as daylight came, he would return to the house and the safety of his room.
Having calmed himself with this self-imposed limit, Blinker ventured upon the street again. This time he carefully checked both ways for any sign of danger before proceeding. Only when he was certain there was none did he dart across the street and into a park.
He took time to feel the rough bark of the massive trees. When he came upon a flower, a lily of the valley, he almost swooned with delight at its strong fragrance and delicate white bells.
Blinker went on, drawn by one astonishing discovery after another. First it was a damp, wiggling worm. Then a pinecone. A shiny pebble seemed to have captured the light of the moon on its smooth surface. There were signs of humans, too: ash cans, piles of newspaper, benches. It was as if each thing he came upon was the rarest of marvels and he the first to find
