Class Pet Catastrophe by Bruce Coville

Author:Bruce Coville
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2021-01-05T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Percy and Pandora lived about fifteen miles out of Syracuse, in a rugged, hilly area that was very isolated. The last part of the trip took us over a dirt road.

I was amazed at how much an Earth vehicle can bounce.

Their house was small but comfortable. They had a wood-burning stove that I found very charming, and two large dogs named Keats and Shelley that both the Veeblax and I found quite alarming.

After Percy had given me something warm to drink, we talked a little about what was going on. Then he said, “Come on, kid, I’ve got a spot where they’ll never find you.”

I followed him out of the house, along a little path through the woods, to a small metal structure on wheels.

“This trailer is my writing hideaway,” said Percy. “I don’t usually let people up here, but this is a special occasion.”

The trailer was on the edge of a cliff, so that the back side of it had an open view of the sky and of the city far below. I found it very beautiful, and more peaceful than anywhere else I had been on Earth.

I looked at him curiously. “For some reason I had a feeling you would help me. And I was right, though I am still not sure what made me think so. Why are you willing to take this risk?”

Percy shrugged. “Anyone who wants to make a living as a poet in America has to be a little bit of an outlaw. And since it’s partly my fault that you brought the Veeblax to school, I feel responsible. I’ve been following this story in the papers, and I think you’re getting a bum rap. It’s all overblown nonsense stirred up by the press. I suspect the dust will settle after a while and people will get over being hysterical about the Veeblax. At least, I hope so. Until then, you need a place to hide.”

He paused, then looked at me seriously and said, “Look, Pleskit, I may be a poet and an outlaw, but I’m also a parent. So I have a good idea of what your Fatherly One is going through right now. We’ve got to get a message to him so that he’ll know you’re safe.”

I did not want to hear this. I was angry at the Fatherly One for agreeing to surrender the Veeblax. But I knew Percy was right. So I wrote a short note saying that I was safe and asking him not to look for me (a request that I knew he would ignore) and handed it to Percy.

“I’ll drive Pandora back into town and let her slip it under the door of Tim’s apartment, “he said, tucking it into his pocket. “That way if someone happens to spot her, they still won’t know where it came from.”

I watched the poet go back up the trail toward his little house.

I was all alone in the woods of a world that was still quite strange and alien to me.

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