Read Georgia's Greatness for Free Online Page A

a crash coming from the kitchen.
    "That's odd," Durinda said, jumping up to go see what had fallen down. We all followed her.
    In the kitchen, Carl the talking refrigerator and robot Betty were flirting again. This had been going on ever since Pete the mechanic had helped them work out their romantic differences, back in February. Seeing them together like that sometimes made us think, Eeew, gross, but mostly it just made us happy.
    It was no use asking Carl and Betty about the source of the noise—they were too wrapped up in each other—but anyway, we could see it for ourselves.
    Somehow, the huge tin of dried cocoa had been knocked out of the cabinet. The lid was off, cocoa was spilled all over the floor, and in the center of the cocoa were a few tiny paw prints.

    "Now, how did that happen?" Durinda wondered aloud. "I'm sure I put that tin far back in the cabinet. I don't see how it could have fallen out on its own."
    "And look at those paw prints," Marcia said. "All seven of the remaining cats were in the dining room with us. They couldn't have made those prints."
    "Look!" Georgia shouted.
    We looked.
    And as we looked, we saw little strips of dried cocoa disappear from the spillage on the floor. It was as though a tiny, invisible tongue were licking it up.
    "What's going on here?" Annie demanded.
    The cocoa stopped disappearing at once. As we looked, little cocoa prints in the shape of tiny paws appeared on the floor. We watched as the cocoa paw prints made their way to the door. We followed the cocoa paw prints, which kept getting fainter, until we reached the cat room.
    The cat room was like our drawing room, a place to hang out, but for cats.
    We stood in the doorway waiting to see what would happen next. It was tough to know what was going on because the cocoa paw prints had faded into nothing.
    Then we heard a sound:
    Lap, lap, lap.
    We followed the sound with our eyes, and our gaze arrived at Zither's water dish. We could tell it was hers because all the cats had their names on their water dishes: Daddy's doing. He had such nice handwriting.
    All the other water dishes were empty. We listened to that sound of lap, lap, lap, watching as the water line on Zither's dish dipped lower and lower, the water sloshing a bit with each lap sound.
    "What is going on here?" Annie asked again.
    "Just a moment," Zinnia said, holding up a finger and acting as if she actually expected us to obey her while she crouched down and whispered something in Zither's ear. Then Zinnia held her own ear to Zither's mouth, as though listening.
    A moment later, as promised, Zinnia was back on her feet. And she had a report for us.
    "That's Greatorex," Zinnia said, indicating with a jut of her chin the invisible space above Zither's water dish.
    " What? " Rebecca said. "What are you talking about now, you silly child?"
    "It's true," Zinnia said with rare firmness. "Zither says Greatorex has somehow figured out how to make herself disappear."
    " What? " Georgia said. If anything, Georgia sounded more outraged than Rebecca had.
    Zinnia went on as though Georgia hadn't spoken. "Zither says," Zinnia said, "that all day, ever since Greatorex figured out this trick, she's been tormenting them with it. She steals their food, their water. She bumps them out of the way whenever she pleases, and they can't bump her back because they can't see her. She even sneaks off with all the best toys."
    As if to illustrate this last point, there was a thump in the area of a high counter. A moment later, there was a bat sound, followed by a ball of purple yarn sailing right over our heads. Annie, the tallest, had to duck a bit.
    "I don't believe it," Jackie said. "Or, I should say, I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't not seeing it with my very own eyes. I think Zinnia's right!"
    "You know," Marcia observed, "I've heard people say before that ours is a crazy house, and I have to say now: I'm beginning to believe them!"
    "Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?" Petal