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Berkley and a few others to
hang with, but this was my turn off. No other kids my age graced
the deserted street. Forget kids my age, I would’ve settled for a
sign of life.
    Not many houses either, that’s what
made it lonelier. Even the trees sporadically placed appeared too
far away from each other. Large trees that bent toward the center
of the road hung like umbrellas masking the sky. At a different
time I would’ve thought the fall colors pretty. But the changing
shades only reminded me the leaves would soon be falling. More
death. I sulked and kicked at the fallen ones, blaming them for
their fate.
    As I approached the large blue
Victorian I broke my stride and almost tripped over my own feet
when I saw the sign on the lawn. A large cardboard sign, taped to
the bottom of the mailbox. Kittens – free to good home.
    It hadn’t been there when I left for
school this morning. Trust me; that’s one thing I wouldn’t have
missed.
    My heart began to pound and I veered
off the path toward home. How many years had I asked for a pet? Mom
always had a cat when she was young. She went on and on about this
one cat Tabby. Yeah, like can you believe she actually stuck the
cat with that name? Anyway, she would dress it up in doll clothes.
How sick is that? Talk about mistreatment of animals. She had more
than one cat even. No such luck for me.
    Dad was allergic. Cats, dogs, anything
with fur. Real convenient. I remembered my mom saying that to my
aunt once when I had asked for a Great Dane puppy after seeing my
friend Angela’s.
    Convenient or not it was true. Once
one of mom’s friends showed up at the house with her Shih Tzu and
insisted that since it had hair rather than fur it couldn’t bother
Dad. Being a nice guy and an animal lover Dad crossed his fingers
and let her in.
    An hour later he looked like he’d been
attacked by killer bees. His eyes were almost swollen shut and
needless to say, she was never invited back. Especially after she
had the nerve to say that Dad’s allergic reaction couldn’t have
come from her pet. She blamed it on the shrimp cocktail. End result
there – not a chance in hell for me. Call me destined to be
petless.
    They offered me an aquarium when I was
six. I took it; I mean, it was the closest thing I was going to get
to a pet. But let’s be real – you can’t hold them.
    So when I saw the sign it was as if
Dad looked down and said, okay kid, here’s your chance.
    I walked with determination up to the
front door and knocked. An old stout woman with white hair appeared
wearing an apron. An apron! Can we say like time warp to back in
the day?
    “ Hi, I saw your sign, about
the kittens.” I held out my right hand, “I’m Salem.”
    She gripped my hand and shook it
firmly. “Vera Taunton,” she said in a thick syrupy voice and
invited me in. Right at the edge of her kitchen was a little
cordoned off area where beautiful little balls of fur frolicked. My
breath caught and corny or not I made some sort of ‘aww’
sound.
    “ My Fluffy was a naughty
girl and snuck out on me,” she said as she picked up the longhaired
Calico mom and stroked behind an ear. She turned, gently placed the
cat down a few feet away in an adjoining room, and shut the door.
“Now here I am with a batch of kittens.”
    She pointed to the litter as if I
somehow could have missed them. Yeah, lady. Not on your
life.
    “ Now what did your parents
say? I hope you asked them first.”
    For a second I was so afraid she’d
toss me out I actually thought of lying. But deep down I knew I
couldn’t and when I took a good look at her face, I knew she’d let
me visit even if I couldn’t take one home.
    “ Not yet, I just saw the
sign. We just moved in recently, not too far down the street. I
thought if I could take a peek then it might be easier to describe
a specific one.” I shrugged but was pretty sure she understood what
I meant.
    “ Well go on in the pantry
there and sit down with them. They’re ready to go