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Author: Howard Buchin The Write Place
Ridley-Roo and Zelda-Lu
(Shortcut to Chapters 1-3 ...... 6 ... 7&8 )
Hear the story
Chapter 4 Missed chapters 1-3?
Zelda-Lu Trapped & in Trouble
"Bring her to me, Hector!" Maude shrilled. "I can handle our little cat friend from here. Just hand her here, Hector! Oh, I guess the old saying is true: if you need something done, do it yourself, Maude spattered out at her husband.
Hector reached outwards to where Zelda-Lu was in the space at the rear of the fridge. Zee-Lu was crouched down trying to evade her capture by Hector. "I got her, Maude," Hector triumphantly exclaimed. "Now look here, just don't try and escape or I'll have to squeeze you tighter, and I wouldn't want to choke the life out of ya. Ah-ha-ha-ha! "Hector's voice brimmed with glee as he chuckled away. He happily handed Zee-Lu over to Maude. Maude had her two bony hands creepily wrapped around Zee-Lu.
Meanwhile, I did my best to keep out of sight. I was off to the side hoping not to be seen. I was feeling more regretful by the minute. I felt responsible for this mess since I had made the decision to begin searching out a new home. Zelda-Lu was right when she said that we should've stayed in Wompous Forest. We knew what to be afraid of and what we needed to look out for. Here now with Maude and Hector, our situation just seemed to be getting worse and worse. I tried to think hard of a way to help my little Zee-Lu. I was stumped. Anything I thought about didn't seem to be practical or have much chance of success.
"Yes, my furry little friend, we've got you now, Miss Priss," Maude's words spilled from her mouth like venomous liquid oozing from fangs of a deadly cobra. "And we're going to hold you tight and never let you go, my troublesome little demon-kitty. I'm going to show why it's never a good idea to misbehave at your Auntie Maude's house. Trust me, Miss Priss, you'll not like what's coming your way. We'll show you, won't we, Hector?"
Hector moved closer to Maude and tried to temper her moodiness. "Now, now, Maude," he blurted out. "Let's remember she's new to our abode. She's going to take some time to get used to us and vice versa." Maude shot back, "We don't have to do anything of the sort, Hector Charingo!" Maude seemed very upset with Hector. "You're a blithering nincompoop. Why have I put up with all of your claptrap for so long?"
"Well, I'm just saying let's not do anything too rash, Maude," Hector responded without sounding too self-assured.
"Rash!? Rash? Isn't that something you had all over your backside when you rubbed up against that poison ivy? Do I seem a rash- minded person to you, Hector? Oh don't bother even answering that. I don't care what you think."
Hector grew more and more defensive as the conversation edged along. "No- I didn't mean to say you're a rash person or anything like that there- " Maude cut her husband off and she was almost furious. "Oh Hector, since you've nothing to say, don't keep that big pie-hole of yours open in case any flies get trapped in there." Hector had no response to Maude's dressing-down. "Now we must get busy. I need you to find a cloth sack, a potato sack will do."
Hector knew there was no point in arguing. "This way, we can place our fine furry friend in the sack and keep her out of any further trouble. Can you do that for me, Hector?" Maude impatiently spit out her words. "I've been thinking about what I want to happen with this little varmint for the past hour. I will teach her a lesson that she'll never ever forget."
Hector hurried off towards a darkened corner of the room and grabbed what looked like a fairly large dust-laden sack. "I know what I have to do with you, Miss Priss, now don't I? At least we won't have your sinewy little body strutting about all over our nice house, will we, Miss?" Maude spoke roughly to Zee-Lu.
Hector had now come back holding the sack open for Maude. "Here you go, Maude, the sack's all ready, "Hector said. Maude just dropped my Zee-Lu into the sack and tightly tied the top in a knot. "There you go, my precious little puss-puss. Are we all nice and cosy?" Maude bristled. I could no longer see Zee-Lu. I could just make out the outline of Zee-Lu as Maude suddenly reared back and tossed the sack with Zelda-Lu on to the hard floor. At that moment, Zelda-Lu began to thrash about inside that grimy sack.
"Well Maude, what do you plan to do with her now that we've rounded her up?" Hector asked very softly. "Hows about we just enjoy our little victory over this mischevious misbehaving mongrel? We can rest after almost driving ourselves to the brink of madness. Now our little Missy is tucked safely into the sack and all is well with our world. Our house is no longer a jumping gym. And this pestiferous puss-puss is going to learn her lesson the hard way. But the first order of business is lunch. I'm hungry as a horse."
"Hey Hector, I've got some left over chitlins and beans that I'll warm up in the kitchen. Come on, Hector, let's go," Maude spat out. Meanwhile, I moved closer to the cloth bag now that Hector and Maude had walked off to get some lunch. I felt funny talking to a cloth sack.
"Hey Zee-Lu, can you hear me?" I said. "Are you okay?" Then I heard Zee-Lu speaking, "Yes Ridley, I am okay. And you should feel badly since this is all your fault. You and your big ideas, Ridley. Now we need to know what to do to get me out of here."
"Yes," I replied. "I know it's my fault and I swear that I will make it up to you." Suddenly I had an idea which might work. "Hey Zee-Lu, I just noticed that the sack they've got you in is made of pure cotton. Remember you love eating cotton, don't you?"
I felt excited to know that we had a chance of gettin' Zee-Lu out of there. I could hear some strange gnawing sounds from inside the potato sack. It sounded as if Zelda had begun to chomp away at the inside of the fabric of the sack. Minutes later I could just make out my mate's little brown nose as I spied her through a small hole that she been able to tear open.
At that same moment, I could hear the sound of Hector and Maude's footsteps coming up the staircase towards us. "Hurry," I implored Zelda-Lu, "I think I hear them coming up this way!" Zelda-Lu had just gotten herself through the hole she'd chewed and was outside of the bag, when suddenly, a loud thundering voice said, "Hector, quick do something. I think that little varmint has gotten out of the sack!"
Chapter 5
Ridley-Roo & Zelda-Lu's Great Escape
"Zelda-Lu, we gotta skedaddle from this place right now! Maud'’s ready to tie our sorry backsides to the whipping post. I don't know about you, but I don't want mine whipped black and blue!"
I wasn't sure if Zee-Lu understood how extremely urgent our situation had become. "Okay Ridley, and where do'ya suppose we might run to?" Zee-Lu said as she was being very catty.
"Zelda, it doesn't matter. Let's just start sprinting in any direction pronto!" My speech was slurred and likely hard to understand since I had this habit of jumbling everything together when I got really nervous.
"Okay Ridley, you lead, I'll be right behind you." Zee-Lu was tightened up like a spring. Off we ran down the back hall towards the darker end of the house. I could hear Maude and Hector following closely only yards behind us. We zigzagged in and around furniture and walls trying to throw them off our trail. Suddenly I spied an open window with just enough space for Zee-Lu and me to crawl through.
"Hey Zee-Lu, can you see that slightly opened window towards the end of the hall?" "I think we could just about fit through there and then figure out what to do from there." I stammered.
Zelda-Lu didn't seem so sure, but I knew how she was desperate she was not to end up in Maude's strong grip. "Okay Ridley, I'm ready to make a jump for it if you are!" Zelda-Lu's voice trembled as she spoke. She was as nervous as I've ever seen her.
"Okay Zee-Lu, I am gonna count to three. One-two- three and let's go!"
We must have made quite a sight the two of us. We had just slipped through the open window and we were hanging on to the little bit of ledge that was there up on the second floor.
"Okay Ridley, so we made it through that window. Now what?" I wasn't too sure. I had assumed there would be a low hanging branch for us to jump to ... or another ledge close by, but in this case there was nothing like that to jump to. There was just the front yard and the drive way where there was now a newly parked work truck along side Hector's vehicle. In the flatbed part of the truck there seemed to be a big load of hay or something.
Meanwhile inside the house there was a loud knocking on the door. "Hector, you better go and answer it. It's probably that guy with the animal traps that I ordered." Maude gave orders like an army sergeant commanding his platoon.
"Okay, okay Maude, I'll go down there and let him in. Although, I don't know the point now cause I don't see those darn little cats anywhere, and I kind of have a sneaking suspicion that they might have gotten away," Hector said. He started to walked down the stairs towards the front door. Maude was waving him forward as she lashed out, "I wouldn't give two cents for you and your sneaking suspicions! Let's move it. We must get those cats back or you’ll be sleeping out in the barn with the rest of the dumb animals!"
The workman walked into the house carrying his two large traps and he addressed Hector." "Oh, hi there. My name's Darwin of 'McDougall's 'Trap 'n Catch-em'. Here's your two traps that you ordered, Mr. Charingo. Shall I just set them down here?"
"Yes - yes, somewhere that is out of the way. I am not so sure those two beasts are even in our house anymore," Hector mumbled. "Okay, Maude, the man's going to just leave the traps down here in the entrance-way, okay?"
"Yes okay, Hector. Now get back up here and help me to find these cats!" Maude was frustrated and upset at all that had happened.
I had surveyed the whole layout in front of Zee-Lu and me, and the only spot that I saw where we might jump to was the hay laid out in the back of that truck in the driveway.
"Hey Zee-Lu, I know this might be a long-shot, but what do you think about trying to jump down on the back of that truck? The one with the hay in the back. I don't see any-other way to escape from here." I spoke quickly as I hoped Zelda-Lu would agree to my plan.
"Well Ridley-Roo, since the only other place to go would be back into the house, I guess I will go along with your plan. Who's going to jump first?" I had to think about this one. "I will. If it isn't safe then I'll meow up to you not to jump after me."
Zee-Lu nodded her head in agreement and I prepared to launch myself from the ledge into the back of the truck. "Okay Zee-Lu, here I go. Wish me luck. I think I might just close my eyes when I do this." I closed my eyes, took a big deep breath and then I jumped. I felt like yelling Geronimo! I sailed through the warm summer air feeling the wind pushing my whiskers back towards my face. Then I felt a kr-ploomph as I landed with all that nice hay underneath me. It made a bit of a crunching sound as I crashed down into it.
"Hey Zee-lu that was't too bad. Now it's your turn." Zelda-Lu looked down at me scared, but determined. "Okay Ridley, here I go." She backed up on her haunches and then vaulted out into the air as she sailed towards me. "Lookout below Ridley, I don't want to land on top of you!" Zee-Lu called as I watched her.
As Zee-Lu descended, I threw a little more hay towards the spot where I saw she was about to land. She came down into the back of the truck and bounced a little as she hit the hay. "Hey Zee-Lu, are you okay?" I asked.
"Yes I am Ridley. I'm just fine, how about you?" she said. "Yes I'm okay but .. oh-oh, here comes that man, the one who owns the truck. We'd better duck." Just in time we crawled under the hay as the man opened his door and started the engine.
"I think we'd better just lie low here and see which way he's going," I said to Zelda-Lu. At that moment, I could see Maude's head poking through the open window, the one from which, moments earlier, we'd launched our escape. She was looking around the ledge and yelling something towards the house, likely towards Hector. Luckily, Maude couldn't see us as we'd been lying low in the back of the truck in the hay.
"Zelda-Lu, did you notice those funny looking cages sitting in the corner of the truck? I wonder what he uses them for?" I was feeling somewhat calmer by now as I spoke.
Who knows, Ridley? Maybe this man goes around putting things into them. Oh boy, I hope he's not a professional catnapper!" Zelda said. Well, we would have to keep a close eye on this as we whooshed along the highway.
By now the man was accelerating his truck as we motored along getting closer to the open road. One thing I knew, Zee-Lu and I were setting off on a new set of wonderful adventures, but without Hector and Maude chasing us down. We just lay back as we watched the countryside from our little mound of hay.
End of chapter 5
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