Chapter 5
FINE
Pippi ran faster than she’d ever run in her life, so she wouldn’t become trapped and flop in a sack like Uncle Louie. She didn’t want to be carried off to the country and surrounded by mean animals that ate squirrels for breakfast.
She wiggled under the wire and up the metal pipe. At the edge of the roof she paused to catch her breath. “Lana, we made it.”
No answer.
“Lana?” She turned around and looked, but she was alone. Lana should have been right behind her. Had the human grabbed her? What if she flopped and Pippi never saw her again?
Turning around, she tiptoed to the pipe and crawled inside and under the wire. “Lana?” she whispered.
Daddy-Dean rose out of the hole in the floor. He coughed, making the beam of his flashlight bob up and down on the wall. Lana sat frozen, half-covered by insulation, right where Pippi had left her. If Daddy-Dean looked down, he could pick her up with his bare hands.
“Fred took his trap home after he caught the squirrel in the soffit,” Mother-Honey yelled.
Pippi wiggled out of the pipe and into the attic, clinging to the ceiling with her claws.
“What’s a soffit?” Natalie asked from down below.
“The metal overhang around the outside of the house just under the roof,” Mother-Honey explained. “We found a hole in it before we went on vacation, but Fred got rid of the animal and fixed the hole.”
While Lana sat in plain sight, the humans talked about getting rid of them. Pippi didn’t know what to do, but she had to think of something.
The bright flashlight shone into her eyes. “Hey, the little bugger’s up by the air vent in the roof,” Daddy-Dean said, lifting his entire body into the nest. He was so big he had to hunch over, and his head still brushed the ceiling. He stepped forward, making the floor creak and groan.
His foot stepped down so close to Lana’s head she could have put bite marks on his black boot. But she didn’t bite him. She didn’t move at all.
Daddy-Dean started to point his light down at his feet. Pippi flipped her tail, and he pointed the flashlight at her before he had a chance to look down. Glancing at the pipe, she made sure she could get out before he reached her. He took a thumping step across the floor.
Even though she could dodge and run fast, Pippi took a step toward the pipe. Daddy-Dean might be slow and clumsy, but he was still gigantic. If he got any closer, she’d run for safety.
He stopped and half-gasped, half-coughed. Then he turned his flashlight and his body away and walked straight toward Lana.
Pippi flicked her tail and chattered, but he didn’t glance to her, nearly stepping on Lana. “Bring me my inhaler,” he shouted down the hole.
“Come out of the attic,” Mother-Honey pleaded from below. “It’s not good for you. I’ll call Fred to take care of it. He enjoyed getting rid of the last squirrel.”
Tail and ears trembling, Pippi dug her claws deeper into the board at the ceiling. Fred had trapped Uncle Louie, and now he would make them flop.
Daddy-Dean put his legs down the hole, then most of his body. He turned off the flashlight and passed it to Mother-Honey. Then he reached across the darkened nest for the piece of floor.
His hand almost brushed Lana’s fur. Either his eyes weren’t good enough to see her, or he was too busy coughing and gasping to notice. She stayed so still Pippi worried she might be dead.
Daddy-Dean’s ferocious head disappeared down the mysterious hole. The piece of floor shifted over the opening, cutting off the last of the light.
For a few seconds Pippi didn’t dare move. The floor could lift again, and he could reappear. Or worse, Fred could come up with his trap.
The thumping and voices gradually faded away. She dropped down on the insulation. “He’s gone.”
Max started rustling, but Lana didn’t move.
“That was awesome!” Max dashed to the middle of the nest.
“Are you crazy? They want to make us flop. Let’s get out of here.” Lana finally lifted her head.
So relieved her sister wasn’t dead, Pippi almost laughed.
Max did laugh. “The human shined his light on me and didn’t know I was here. I’m too smart for him to trap me.”
Lana crawled up the ramp to the ceiling. “I’m leaving, and I’m never coming back. You should too if you know what’s good for you.”
“Scaredy-rat,” he called.
“I’d rather be a free scaredy-rat than a flopped Max.” She wiggled through the hole, up the pipe, and disappeared.
Pippi stared after her. Lana didn’t care about the names her brother called her. She’d chosen to be safe, even if he teased her forever. “Maybe she’s right,” Pippi said. “Daddy-Dean saw me, and now he’s sending the person who got Uncle Louie to trap us.”
“If you’d stayed hidden like you were supposed to, that wouldn’t have happened,” Max said.
She’d been trying to keep Lana safe. But did anyone thank her? No, they blamed her instead. It wasn’t fair. “Since Daddy-Dean didn’t come in through the pipe, I thought we could escape. Lana was so scared. I wanted to help her get out. I thought she’d run out with me.”
“Escape?” Max laughed the meanest laugh Pippi had ever heard. “Are you still scared of the humans?”
So what if she was? She didn’t care if he called her a scaredy-rat anymore. Lana was right. She’d rather be a scaredy-rat than a flopped Max. But she didn’t want him to flop. She wanted him to leave with her so he could stay safe too. “It’s too dangerous in here. I’m leaving. You have to come with me.”
“Never. You’ll be sorry when it rains. If you leave, I won’t let you come back. I’m not sharing my nest with scaredy-rats.”
“Fine.” Pippi stomped her paw. “Don’t expect me to visit you after you flop.”
“Fine,” Max shouted. “Go away.”
“Fine, I will.”
“Fine.”
“Fine!”