Софи Келли: A Night's Tail

“Just tell me what’s wrong.”

My hands were suddenly sweaty and I wiped them on my jeans. “Do you remember the other day when we were in the porch and you turned around and Owen was just suddenly there?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“You said you didn’t see him when you came in.”

He nodded again.

“You were right. You didn’t see him because you couldn’t.”

Marcus smiled. “Is this your way of telling me you think I need glasses?”

I cleared my throat. “No, that’s not it. You couldn’t see Owen because he was invisible.”

He frowned. “You’re not making sense.”

“I know it sounds crazy,” I said, and it did, just listening to myself say the words out loud. “Owen can disappear. And Micah, too. That’s the reason you didn’t see her until she suddenly appeared in the car out in the driveway.”

I could see the concern in his eyes, like clouds filling a blue sky.

“Kathleen, you’ve had a very stressful few days,” he began. “You’re tired and overloaded.”

I shook my head vigorously. “This is not stress and I’m not crazy. Owen can disappear and Hercules can walk through walls.” I picked up Owen and set him on the empty chair next to Marcus. “Disappear,” I said.

The cat blinked at me and took a couple of passes at his face with one paw. He was enjoying this.

Marcus grabbed my hand. “I’m going to call Roma.”

I yanked my hand back. “Marcus, I’m not crazy and I don’t need Roma. She’s an animal doctor for heaven’s sake, and I don’t need a doctor, period.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m just worried about you.” There were lines pulling at his eyes and mouth.

I looked down at Hercules, who had wandered in from the living room. “Go out to the porch,” I said.

“Merow,” he said, and it seemed to me there was a question in the sound.

“Please.”

He turned and walked toward the door.

Marcus made a move to go to open it but I grabbed his arm. Hercules stopped at the closed door, looked over his shoulder at me and then with a slight shimmer walked through it.

Marcus was frozen in place. Then slowly he turned to look at me. “It’s some kind of trick,” he said.

I shook my head.

“There’s some kind of panel in the door.”

“You know that’s not true.”

I let go of his arm and he ran his hands through his hair. “This doesn’t make sense.”

“I think it has something to do with Wisteria Hill.”

“Why?”

I made a helpless gesture with one hand. “I don’t know, but all three cats came from there.”

Owen had been watching everything. I turned back to him. “Owen, please. Show Marcus.”

The cat almost seemed to shrug and then he winked out of sight. The color drained from Marcus’s face. “I’m not seeing this,” he said.

“That’s how I felt the first time. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to it but I did.”

Owen reappeared.

Marcus didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands. “You think Micah can do all this?”

“She can disappear like Owen. As far as I know she can’t walk through walls like Hercules.”

“When did you figure this out?” he asked.

“She disappeared right in front of me one day.”

His eyes widened. “Wait a minute, you’ve known the entire time I’ve had Micah, then.”

“Not at first, but I have known for a while.” I jammed my hands in my pockets.

“How long have you known about Hercules and Owen?”

I looked away. “I figured it out when the work was being done at the library.”

He did the math. “More than three years?”

“Yes. But we weren’t together then. We weren’t together for a long time. I had to keep it secret. If anyone finds out what they can do they’ll be taken to a lab and their brains will be”—my voice broke—“dissected. They’ll be a science experiment.”

“So the time Hercules stowed away in that guy’s car . . . ?”

“He walked through the back window.”

“Do you know how many laws of physics this violates?” Marcus asked. He looked shell-shocked.

“Well . . . in the case of Owen disappearing, possibly none. It may be that somehow something in his cells allows light waves to bend around him. He doesn’t dematerialize. You just can’t see him. As for Hercules, matter can pass through other matter. Neutrinos are passing through us right now.” I’d done a lot of research trying to come up with an explanation for the boys’ abilities.

“You should have told me.”

“I know. I kept putting it off and it just got harder. I’m sorry. I know I keep saying that but I am.”

Marcus looked at Owen. He looked over at the door that Hercules had disappeared through. He took a step backward.

“I, uh, I need some air,” he said. He grabbed his jacket and was gone.

He was gone.

I swallowed hard. “I lied to him,” I said to Owen. “I lied to him, so what did I expect?”

I straightened the chairs around the table. I got the coffeepot ready for morning and took muffins from the freezer.

I gave Owen two stinky crackers just because.

He looked in the direction of the porch and meowed.

“I’ll take a couple out to your brother,” I said.

Hercules wasn’t in the porch. He’d gone outside where it was cold and dark and wet? I opened the back door.

Hercules was perched on the wide arm of the wooden Adirondack chair that I had dragged out during our late-February warm spell—more for him than for me. Marcus was sitting in the chair.

He was still here.

He hadn’t gone anywhere.

I stood in the open doorway for a moment, not sure what to do.

“I love you,” he said. He didn’t move and he didn’t look in my direction.

“I love you, too,” I said. Then I closed the door and went back inside.

about the author

Sofie Kellyis a New York Times bestselling author and mixed-media artist who writes the Magical Cats Mysteries and, as Sofie Ryan, writes the Second Chance Cat Mysteries.

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