A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers by Gail Gauthier

Author:Gail Gauthier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2010-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

THE MUSEUM OF CAT

“What is this?” Mrs. D. asked us after school one day the next week. She had marched us right up to Hannah’s room after we got off the bus. We didn’t even get a chance to take off our backpacks or raincoats.

I knew what was coming long before we got to Hannah’s bedroom and Mrs. D. pointed to the floor of the closet. I had told Hannah it wasn’t a good idea.

But she never listens to me.

“Eww. What’s that smell?” I asked.

We looked in the closet. Hannah had pulled all her shoes and toys off the floor and replaced them with a big shoe box lid filled with cat litter.

“Uh-oh,” Hannah said.

It turns out that a shoe box lid is nowhere near big enough to use as a litter box. But Buttercup had tried. There was litter all over the floor, and what was left in the box just wasn’t enough to do the job, which was why the closet smelled.

He had also chewed through the box of cat food Hannah had left for him. He got that all over the place, too. He hadn’t opened his jug of water, though. That was good.

“Well?” Mrs. D. said.

“The closet is a giant safe for locking up treasure,” Hannah explained.

“Why does it need a litter box?” Mrs. D. asked.

“Because Buttercup is the treasure.”

Mrs. D. looked surprised. I guess Buttercup wasn’t the first thing she thought of when she heard the word treasure.

“You see, our house is a museum, and Buttercup was a stuffed animal that people could come look at. But he came to life, and now he’s worth a lot of money, so we need a safe to keep him in when the museum is closed.”

Like anybody would go to a museum to see a cat—stuffed or alive.

“Hannah’s the boring person who takes people around the museum and shows them things,” I told Mrs. D., “and I’m the guard. Don’t you think I should get to carry a gun? Just a pretend one? I can bring some from home. I’ve got a bunch.”

“I know, Brandon. You’ve told me about your guns before,” Mrs. D. said. “But I think most museum guards just carry two-way radios on their belts. No guns.”

“Two-way radios, Brandon!” Hannah exclaimed. “My grandmother gave me some. I’ll get them. Then while you’re doing your guarding, I can give you orders. That will make the game so much better. ”

I didn’t really see how giving me orders could make anything better.

Mrs. D. laughed. Then she said, “No radios until you’ve cleaned up this mess, Hannah. And don’t make Brandon do it. He’s your guest.”

“He almost lives here,” Hannah complained.

“But not really,” I said as I hurried out of the room.

I could hear Hannah running after me. “Make your rounds of the museum,” she shouted from her doorway. “You have to check all the windows and doors, you know.”

“Yeah, okay,” I said as I ran down the stairs.

I decided I would use a computer monitor to check the doors and windows.

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