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and walked away.
    As he disappeared around the corner of the house, I ran out of my room, tripping over Betty’s boxes in the living room.
    Where had he gone?
    The front doorbell rang, but Betty was there before me.
    “Good evening, Mrs. Mackenzie.” I heard Rafael’s silky voice float through the entrance. “I do believe I’ve found someone that belongs to Sydney.”
    I pushed my way past Grace and Al to see Rafael raise his hand to his shoulder and Jerry promptly jump onto his finger like some kind of performing animal. With a graceful flourish, Rafael extended his hand in my direction.
    “Pardon?” Betty finally found her voice.
    I couldn’t blame her. Being presented with a mouse was strange enough, but having Rafael deliver it was even stranger. With his outrageously styled blond hair and blue makeup on one eye, he looked very much like a magician.
    “This is Sydney’s mouse,” he explained easily, as if it were common to find lost mice every day. “I believe she was looking for him yesterday?”
    Betty, Al, and Grace turned to me.
    I swallowed and nodded, wondering if I were stuck in some bizarre dream.
    “Oh!” Betty’s face suddenly flooded with understanding. “So, this is why you were so upset, honey? This is your mouse?”
    “Come in,” Grace invited with a smile. “I’m Grace.”
    Rafael obliged and introduced himself to Al and Grace while still holding Jerry.
    Betty turned to me in obvious relief. “I didn’t know you had a pet, honey, now I see why you were so upset! Oh, I feel terrible! I didn’t mean to throw him away!”
    “How did you find it?” Al asked Rafael, sounding very suspicious.
    His question shook me out of my stupor. I wanted to know the same thing.
    “By lucky chance,” Rafael replied smoothly. “I saw Sydney with Jerry in the woods a couple of days ago and when I came across a tame mouse this afternoon, I knew it wasn’t a coincidence. One does not come across tame mice very often.”
    As his enigmatic gray eyes bore into mine, my heart stopped again.
    “You saw Sydney in the woods?” Grace was asking with a frown.
    I was terrified. There was something very wrong here. So he had seen me, but that didn’t bother me nearly as much as a new question suddenly springing to mind. Just how did he know Jerry’s name?
    “Al, why don’t you run down to the store and pick this mouse up a cage,” Betty said. She was obviously very relieved. She turned to Rafael. “I don’t know how to thank you, young man. Sydney was distraught, I tell you, utterly distraught.”
    “I know,” Rafael replied, looking straight at me. He stepped close and placed his elegantly shaped fingers on my wrist. Turning my hand over, he set Jerry gently in my palm and leaned down to murmur in my ear, “Jerry loves you dearly. He has no desire to be free. He prefers a cage—your cage.”
    His eyes pierced mine and I felt a shiver run up my spine.
    “What a sweet mouse,” Betty commented, cooing at Jerry along with Grace. “And how sweet of you, Rafael, to bring our Sydney’s mouse back home. I can’t thank you enough.”
    Sweet was the farthest thing from my mind. I was becoming downright terrified. I felt the hair on my neck rising even as I clutched Jerry close to my heart.
    “I must be going,” Rafael said and dipped in a slight bow to all of us.
    With that, he was gone.
    “Did you see how he bowed?” Al asked after Rafael had left and Betty had closed the front door. “That was a Japanese bow. I should know. I was stationed in Okinawa. He might be from Japan. I read that some of those young boys there wear makeup now.”
    “He’s so nice,” Grace murmured, a little dreamy-eyed.
    “I’m happy for you, Sydney,” Betty said, putting her arm around my shoulder. She frowned at Al. “Go to the store and get a cage, honey! We can’t have Jerry getting loose again.”
    “Can I come with you?” I heard my voice asking.
    Al nodded.
    “We can discuss your battle plan on the way,”