Clarice the Brave by Lisa McMann

Author:Lisa McMann [McMann, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2021-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

Starting Again

I COULDN’T SMELL food on her breath. If Special Lady hadn’t been fed, was she here to eat me? You can never, ever trust a cat. Even if you have a gentlewoman’s agreement. My neighbor in captivity could be my enemy in the wild. And that’s exactly what this appeared to be.

“Why are you still here?” she asked. The pier creaked, and she glanced sharply behind her, then turned back to me. “They won’t be using this boat to go anywhere. I heard them talking.” Her voice was soothing, but her tail swished stiffly. She took a step toward me.

I narrowed my eyes. “I couldn’t make the jump once the waves picked up.”

“You should have come with the captain.”

“I . . . I know. I was scared. It’s a risk being a mouse.”

The cat seemed to ponder my fear as if she still didn’t understand it, even after our talks.

“People don’t worry about cats,” I explained nervously, inching back against the side of the hull. I had nowhere to go without turning and bolting to my crate. “They allow you to exist among them. Let you on their laps and walk around like one of them. You’re invisible if you want to be. Not so with mice. They aim to destroy us.”

“True,” said Special Lady. “But you’re so small. You can hide anywhere.”

“The fear stopped me from being able to move,” I said. As it has right now, I wanted to add, but of course I didn’t really want her to know that.

Special Lady seemed satisfied with the explanation. “Well then,” she said, continuing to inch toward me with her deceiving, sweet, nimble steps, “shall I help you out of here? I don’t think we’re going to leave this island anytime soon.”

“Hff,” I said, my heart bursting from my chest. I was mesmerized by her yellow glare as she came for me, and I wondered if this was what it had been like for Olivia. Had she become frozen, too? Perhaps it hurt less that way. I closed my eyes as the cat reached me. My body trembled uncontrollably.

“There, there,” soothed the monster. She lowered her evil face to me and opened her jaws. I could feel the heat of her breath on the scruff of my neck. I’m sorry, Charles Sebastian.

And then she had me. My nape clenched between her teeth, held like a newborn kitten. She bounded up and over the railing with my body hanging down, all my insides liquifying, my bones dripping from the skin of my limbs. The fear was so intense that I believe I fainted for a few seconds—me, a very brave mouse, actually fainted. But when I opened my eyes I was no longer in the cat’s mouth. I was on the pier. She stared down at me.

“Is this . . . ,” I whispered, trying to find my voice, “is this the part where I run and you stomp on me and it’s all just a game before you devour me?”

Special Lady sat back on her haunches.

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