Anton and Cecil Cats at Sea Part 9

"Work?" Cecil snorted in Anton's direction. "No offense to your friend, but that'd take forever."

"It could," said Anton, amused.

"It would," said Hieronymus, "but it seems worth a try anyway." He turned and slipped through the ragged slats of the cage and made his way around to the latch, where he set to chewing.

The keeper of the market was a short man with long hair braided down his back and necklaces of painted wooden beads stacked on his chest. Brandishing a long stick made of cane, he strode back and forth calling out to potential customers, whacking the stick sharply on the tops of the cages of braying or mewling animals. Gretchen tried to strike up a conversation with a few of the other creatures, but none of them were friendly.

"I can't get any of these other prisoners to tell me a thing," she remarked to Cecil. After several hours of languishing in the sweltering stall, Gretchen was finding the routine of dutifully falling into a realistic dead faint whenever a human strolled by tiresome. Hieronymus had worked industriously on the wooden latch while avoiding the keeper, who periodically spotted him and hit the front of the cage with his stick, but the mouse had made little progress.

Leaning toward Cecil, Gretchen lowered her voice. "Are you sure we shouldn't be trying to find a new home, like Anton said?" she asked him.

"Not if it means getting split up again," Cecil replied, glancing anxiously at Anton, who was by the door encouraging the mouse's efforts. Gretchen could see the resolve on Cecil's face; he wasn't going to let Anton out of his sight if he could help it. "Nope, we're a team," he said. "Three heads are better than one!"

"Four!" squeaked Hieronymus from up front. Cecil rolled his eyes.

Anton was worried about the mouse's endurance. "You know, my friend," he said seriously, "you could just . . . go."

Hieronymus spat out a tiny sliver of wood. "What do you mean, go?" he asked.

"You're not captive in this cage like we are," said Anton. "You have a chance to escape, and you should take it. Really, you should get out of here."

Hieronymus held up one paw. "I've pledged my troth; I will not leave a friend in danger." The mouse gave him such a severe look that Anton retreated a bit, trying to think of something else to say. In the next moment, in the din of the stall, Anton heard a human's voice. He knew he had heard it before, somewhere, but where? He raised his head to listen.

"Yes, yes, I need a cat, mayhap more than one," a man was saying to the keeper, looking around at the creatures. "I have rats in my larder like you would not believe, such awful brutes!" Anton couldn't see his face and he didn't understand the words, but the voice drew him. Cecil saw the man peering into the cages and murmured to the others to get down, but Anton remained standing at the cage door.

"Anton! Get away from there!" Cecil whispered loudly.

"Just a minute," said Anton, stretching his neck to get a better look. "I think I know this one somehow."

"Come on, it could be anybody. It's too risky."

The man finally turned toward their cage, and Anton saw the tall, thin build and the puffy white beard, like a cloud pa.s.sing by. It was Cloudy! Anton's mind raced. Cloudy, from his first ship, for whom he had killed the fearsome rat, the cook who had treated him so kindly and given him the delicious little fishes. Surely he would remember the little gray cat. Anton leaped up with both paws pressed high on the cage door, meowing as loudly as he could. Cecil rose to tackle Anton if necessary.

"What are you doing?" demanded Cecil. "Don't call attention to yourself. You'll be traded for sure!"

"It's all right!" Anton a.s.sured him in between yowls. "He's a good one. He knows me." Anton was out of breath, but he kept yowling. "And," he gasped, turning to Cecil, "he knows where I'm from."

Cecil and Gretchen stared at Anton for a long moment, absorbing the meaning of this statement, then hurtled themselves to the door, adding their voices to the clamor. Cloudy moved down the row to stand in front of the cage.

"Well, what's all this?" he asked, bending to look at their faces. "Quite a spirited group, aren't ye?" He caught sight of Anton and paused, furrowing his brow. "And who is this here? Have I met you before, little one?"

Anton thrust his paw through the slats, and Cloudy gently grasped it. The cook touched the scar where the rat's teeth had sunk in and took in a sharp breath. He quickly looked to Anton's throat to confirm the deeper one there, then stepped back and smacked his hand on his forehead. "Bless my beard, it's Mr. Gray, is it? How the devil did ye end up here?" He blinked from Anton to the others. "Well, no matter, we've got to get ye out."

Cloudy collared the keeper and pointed to the cage. The three cats fell silent, suddenly fearful that only Anton would be chosen, but after haggling with the keeper, Cloudy seemed pleased enough to buy the whole lot. The cats huddled together, and Hieronymus stayed out of sight-tucked into the crook of Anton's elbow-as Cloudy paid a pa.s.sing boy to cart the cage out of the market and into the fresh sea air of the docks.

After the group had made their way back to the ship-there she was, the Mary Anne, her figurehead of the two little girls still dancing off the bow-the cats were given a quick meal in the galley. Hieronymus was able to slip safely into a dark corner, where he found plenty of crumbs to nibble. They quickly discovered why Cloudy was in need of aid. Cecil heard the noise first, his ears pivoting.

"Rats," he said with a mix of disdain and antic.i.p.ation. "A fair number of them, I believe. In there." He nodded toward the larder.

"Ugh, rats," said Anton with a sigh. "I had a tough fight with one."

Cecil eyed Anton's scar approvingly. "You won, though, didn't you?"

Anton smiled. "Yes, brother," he said. "I was the victor."

Gretchen stepped up so all three stood side by side, facing the larder. They could hear faint clicking and twitching sounds coming from inside. "I ain't afraid of no stinkin' rats," she said fiercely. Cecil and Anton glanced at her with respect.

Cloudy followed the trio to the larder and opened the door. The cats barged in shoulder to shoulder, and Cecil raised his voice.

"All right, you nauseating lowlifes, your time on this ship is UP." The clicking sounds ceased completely; he had the rats' attention. "You know why we're here, and this will not be a pleasure cruise. We'll give you ONE CHANCE to save your worthless, revolting skins, but if you stupidly choose to stay, which would not be surprising given the puny size of your brains, then we're looking forward to what comes next." He paused, popped out his claws, and dragged them sharply across the wooden floorboard, leaving five distinct lines. Gretchen grinned and nodded slowly. Anton squared his shoulders and pa.s.sed a paw over his cheeks, smoothing his whiskers.

"Count of three, then your time in this world is DONE," Cecil thundered, leaning forward. "One . . . two . . ." Simultaneously, the three cats crouched to spring.

There was an explosion in the larder as the rats bounded out of their hiding places, knocking boxes and tins off shelves, careening toward the doorway. Anton stepped aside and counted seven or eight of them as they streaked past. Cecil remained planted in the center of the small room so the rodents had to swerve around him, their claws sc.r.a.ping the floor as they scrambled. In seconds they were gone.

"My," said Gretchen, wide-eyed and smiling at the brothers. "That went well."

When the cats returned to the galley they found Cloudy, who had briefly hopped up on the table as the rats rushed past, pouring milk from a tin into a large saucer for them. Anton spotted Hieronymus's eyes shining from the shadows in the corner, the mouse's little head nodding with pleasure.

"Wonderful!" Cloudy exclaimed, stroking each of them while they purred over the milk. "Better than I could have hoped for." He put his hands on his hips and leaned against the table, chuckling. "Mr. Gray, you have made some fine friends, you have. We shall enjoy our voyage now." He waved a large spoon over his head with a flourish. "Next stop, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia!"

And though our heroes could not understand him, dear reader, we know that this was very good news indeed.

Two kittens hurried up the path to the lighthouse, tumbling and rolling as they went. It was tiring, but Billy had entrusted them with an important message, so they pushed on until they could see Sonya sitting on the brick ap.r.o.n by the back door. She was cleaning her tail with long strokes, and she looked up smiling when she heard them coming. Her kittens were only a few months old and so dear to her, with ears too big for their faces and skinny little tails. They were allowed to go exploring during the daylight hours, and she wondered what had these two in such a rush.

"Mama!" panted the black one, who arrived ahead of his sister. "Billy says to come!" A b.u.t.terfly in the gra.s.s distracted him and he veered off.

"Why?" asked Sonya, as the second kitten, gray-striped, flopped down in a heap.

"Don't know why," she puffed. "He says to come now, Mama." She closed her eyes.

Sonya sighed. Billy had been very kind to her since Anton was taken and Cecil had followed. He helped her keep an eye on the kittens and checked on her often, and he let her know when a tall ship came in to the docks because there was always a chance of news of the brothers. But there had been no news, and it was hard not to lose hope. She left the kittens to rest at the lighthouse and started down the path at a trot. Hopeful was better than hopeless, she reminded herself, her heart aching a bit. She thought about her boys every day, whether a ship came in or not.

A crowd had gathered on the roadbed by the docks and Sonya wove her way toward the front, pa.s.sing cats and people. She nodded to Mildred, the grandmother of Gretchen, that young white cat who had been taken. Mildred was unfailingly present no matter the weather when a big ship arrived, faithfully waiting for news of any kind, good or bad.

"Billy, what's going on?" asked Sonya when she found him near the water's edge. "Why all the fuss?"

Billy turned to her and beamed. "It's the Mary Anne. She's come back!" He was trying to contain his excitement and doing a very poor job of it.

"The Mary Anne?" Sonya repeated. "The ship that took Anton?" She felt suddenly light-headed and whipped around to find the ship in the distance. There it was, enormous and heaving in the waves under full sail, the little girls on the figurehead clearly discernible.

Mildred stepped up behind them and looked out as well. "Maybe we'll see your boy today?" she said softly.

Sonya moved a little nearer to the old cat for strength, her heart hammering in her chest. "We've gotten our hopes up before, haven't we? I'll believe it when I see it," she said quietly.

"She's coming about now," Billy called out anxiously to the crowd, squinting intently at the ship.

Long seconds slipped by. The people milled about, chatting and pointing, but every cat on the wharf strained silently to see something, any sign of a familiar face on the Mary Anne. The great ship dipped majestically as it drew closer; some of the sailors were high up in the rigging pulling in the sails as others busily traversed the deck. And then, in the stillness that had gathered along the ground among the cats, Sonya heard a stirring sound. It was the long, joyful meow of a single cat, almost a howl, rising and falling. And then others to her right and left joined in, mewing cries of recognition and deep kindred spirit until it was a whole chorus of buoyant voices. Sonya felt her eyes begin to sting and cloud up.

"What is it, Bill?" she asked, her voice quavering. "I can't see a thing."

Billy opened his mouth and hesitated. "It's . . . three, my dear lady," he replied, almost in a whisper, nodding slowly, his eyes fixed on the ship. "Great cats above, it's all three."

Sonya's breath caught in her throat and she blinked hard to clear her eyes.

Finally she saw them, high up in the prow of the ship, sitting tall and proud, side by side, their heads lifted in the cool breeze, one gray, one white, and one black. What she couldn't see was a dapper little mouse, who stood boldly between the forepaws of the gray cat, talking nonstop.

As Sonya and Mildred and Billy leaned against one another to keep their knees from buckling, the great ship glided into the dockyard, unhurried, and the exultant song of the cats on the wharf rose to welcome their lost friends, found again and home at last.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

We want to thank our irrepressible and indefatigable agent, Molly Friedrich, and also our editor, Elise Howard, who entered into the spirit of the endeavor with the close attention and enthusiasm every writer hopes for.

We're also indebted to two very dear early readers, Roger Martin and John Cullen, for their patience, support, and humor throughout the long voyage to print.

Anton and Cecil: Cats at Sea.

By Lisa Martin and Valerie Martin.

Questions for Discussion.

ALGONQUIN YOUNG READERS.

Questions for Discussion.

1. In what ways are Anton and Cecil different from one another? In what ways are they similar?

2. On page 9, Anton says, "Right here is the best place in the world for a cat to live. Everybody says that." Why is the harbor a good place for cats to live? Why do you think Cecil wants to leave a place that "everybody" says is so great?

3. After Anton is impressed, why does Sonya tell Cecil that Anton "may surprise" them with his bravery (page 68)?

4. During his travels, Anton meets different types of animals that he's never seen before. How does he feel about these new creatures-like Dave the lizard, the clackers, and Hieronymus the mouse-when he first meets them? How do his att.i.tudes change when he gets to know them? Why?

5. On page 81, Adrianna the dolphin says to Cecil, "This above all: to thine own self be true." What does it mean to be true to yourself? Cecil is quoting from one of the most famous writers in the English language. Do you know or can you find out who it is?

6. On page 146, Gretchen refers to herself as part of the crew of pirates aboard her ship, saying, "Some things you just get used to." Describe her relationship with the pirates. Does she trust them? How has her time on the ship changed her?

7. Cats and mice are usually enemies. Why were Anton and Hieronymus able to become such good friends? In what ways is their friendship important?

8. "Where the eye sees the eye, the lost shall be found." Name some of the places in the story where one of the cats encounters an eye. What is the importance of the scenes in the story?

10. What do you think the future holds for the three returned cats? Will they continue their seafaring adventures, or stick to dry land?

11. The sailors think black cats are lucky. When the great whale nearly tips Cecil's ship, the sailors believe that "the whale had been an omen, an evil spirit, a test that had been pa.s.sed" (page 28). And when Anton appears on deck of the new ship, the captain says, "A cat that falls out of the sky is one we'd better make welcome" (page 167). Why are sailors so interested in signs and good luck charms?

Questions for Discussion prepared by Avery Finch.

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Ill.u.s.trations 2013 by Kelly Murphy.

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ISBN 978-1-61620-312-2.