Something Fishy

Chapter 5: The Boss

   “Hey there, kitty,” I said. It was sort of cute, actually, small and scruffy with black and white fur and bulging yellow eyes. As we stared intensely at each other, Ron’s words echoed in my mind. It’s black n’ white. Was this the seven toed cat that had left the prints in my room?

     “Are you crazy? Don’t talk to it! We need to get out of here now!” The red-haired girl grabbed hold of my arm once more and hauled me away from the cat.

     “Wait, I just need to see how many toes –” But the cat had turned and padded off.

     “You came down the cat door, you said?” the girl interrupted me. “We need to get out of here through there. I don’t know where the normal sized doors are. Hurry, while it’s gone.”

     “The tunnel-y thing was over there,” I said, pointing. “Out of curiosity, why are we running from a cat? I mean, cats are very intelligent animals, but I don’t think they pose much of a threat to – ”

     “I’ll explain later,” said the girl, running and attempting to squeeze down into the tunnel, despite the fact that she wasn’t exactly as small as I was. Actually, she wasn’t really small by anyone’s standards. “Can you give me a push?”

     “Uh, sure,” I said. “You mean, like your butt, or –”

     “I don’t care! Just get me in here!” she exclaimed.

     “Fine, fine,” I said, and awkwardly attempted to jam her in. It was not unlike trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Though in this case, instead of a square peg, it was a round peg, but one that was larger than the round hole.

     “Push harder!” came her muffled voice.

      “I’m pushing….as hard…as I…can….” I gasped. My lungs were starting to feel like they were a little too small. It must have been my cat allergies setting in…

      “Fine, you go first!” said the girl, pulling herself back out. Her face looked red and her hair was sort of messed up.

      She didn’t have to ask twice. I scrambled into the tunnel (with no hesitation this time) and wormed my way up and out the other end –

     Where I promptly crashed into Ron.

     “Ow,” he said as our heads collided with a loud knocking sound.

     “What were you doing right there?” I complained.

     “I was going to try and go down to find you,” said Ron.

     “EXCUSE ME! A LITTLE HELP, MAYBE?” the girl’s voice comes from down below.

     “Who’s that?” Ron looks startled.

     “I don’t really know,” I said, “but we need to try and get her out of there.”

     “How?”

     I stroked my chin thoughtfully for a moment. Ron waited patiently until I snapped my fingers and proclaimed, “I have two ideas. Though actually it’s only one since the other involves a wrecking ball, which I most certainly don’t have on me, and you don’t either. ”

     “And the other?”

      “In a perfect world, it would involve rope,” I said. “However, I believe that I will make a perfectly acceptable substitute.”

     “For rope?” Ron’s eyebrows drew together.

     “Precisely,” I said.

     Two minutes later, I was once more inside the tunnel, but this time I wasn’t moving up or down. I was holding on to the girl’s wrists, and Ron was holding onto my ankles, and he was attempting to pull the two of us.