Jayden Blue and the Wait of the Sun, A World So Close Book Six
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Wait! Just Wait! 1
Chapter 2 – Because Raylene Painted Flowers 10
Chapter 3 – They Just Want To Be Held? 16
Chapter 4 – Worries About It Are Over 24
Chapter 5 – Back To How We Started 32
Chapter 6 – Another Journey To Val ka’Yoom 39
Chapter 7 – Every Possible Color 47
Chapter 8 – That’s The Answer 57
Chapter 9 – Satisfied With Who I Am 63
Chapter 10 – Cookies As Bait 71
Chapter 11 – Those Gigantic Iron Lions 79
Chapter 12 – This Wild Scheme Of Yours 88
Chapter 13 – Iron Fish Of Tunney’s Lake 98
Chapter 14 – Take Me To The Ocean! 106
Chapter 15 – A World Much Closer 114
Chapter 16 – Who Is She Really? 123
Chapter 17 – Don’t Look Through These 130
Chapter 18 – Let’s Capture Those Lions! 137
Chapter 19 – It’s A Hill, Jay 148
Chapter 20 – Probably Math, Right? 154
Chapter 21 – Those Lions Are Exempt 161
Chapter 22 – He’d Rather Be Sleeping 169
Chapter 23 – My New Favorite Story 177
Chapter 24 – Chocolate Chip Cookies! 186
Chapter 25 – A Different Name 195
Chapter 26 – Let’s Take The Shortcut 207
Chapter 27 – We’re Together, Raylene 216
Chapter 28 – Weary Of That Too 225
Chapter 29 – Oh, How We Can Jump! 232
Chapter 30 – We Brought You Cookies 239
Chapter 31 – A Perfect Purple Flower 247
Chapter 32 – What Romeo Would Do 256
Chapter 33 – A Big Moon So Close 264
Chapter 34 – Together Is Always Wise 272
Chapter 35 – Maybe Pick One 281
Chapter 36 – In Each Other’s Arms 289
Chapter 37 – We’ll Find Those Baby Lions 295
Chapter 38 – This Time, He Jumped 301
Chapter 39 – You’ll Imagine Something 308
Chapter 1 – Wait! Just Wait!
“Thanks, Hex,” he mumbled. “You too, Halo. That helps a lot.”
He wiped around on his face, hoping that he’d somehow push aside the cat hairs that their tails had left stuck to him. Then, feeling the cold, he hurried his hand back under the stack of blankets.
After twitching his nose around, hoping that that would stop the tiniest of tickles that still couldn’t be ignored, he pulled his right hand out again, rubbed at his eyes for a second, then opened them.
“Oh. So, that was one of those wildflowers bugging me. Sorry, guys.”
The clear blue sky above him was carrying around swollen marshmallow clouds, and his entire view was crisscrossed by plant stems and stalks waving around in the light breezes.
One particular petal on just one blossom of a single flower had chosen to investigate his nose. Not in a harsh way, though. Just a light touch.
He swatted it away while scrunching up his face, then he retracted the hand back to where it was warmer. His left arm already felt the weight of a cat—Hex—pressed against it, so he wiggled his right in behind his other cat—Halo—who was tucked in on his right side.
After a deep sigh, he said, “Okay, guys. Finally, we can get some more sleep.”
Before the cats could answer, the nagging bell above the door rang, and he heard the teacher say, “Class, let’s begin.”
Jayden Blue snapped open his eyes and saw the familiar ceiling tiles and dull lights of what could have been any one of his classrooms.
“Oh, no way,” he said. “I’m in school?”
The cats at his sides, above the warm quilt, purred and didn’t seem motivated to start a school day. So, he sneaked his arms out, laid them on the cats, and began scratching around their necks.
“Guys, someone put my bed in school. This is weird. Do either of you know what’s going on?”
Hex, a mostly-white cat with a very legible black “x” on his left side, chose not to reveal any knowledge that he might have had about that.
On his right side, Halo, a mostly-black cat with a well-defined white ring on his head, felt no need to offer any explanation of the situation.
“Oh, fine. Okay, so we’re in school. Which class is this?”
He picked up his head and saw a teacher at her desk, holding up an open book that made any identification impossible.
“Huh. I still don’t know.”
Neither did Hex or Halo. If they had reasonable guesses, they didn’t say.
When the book got lowered and laid on the desk, he saw just who was leading that class.
It was a tall, slender gray wolf, who howled twice at the ceiling before turning her snout and the pointer stick held in her paw to focus on him.
“Jayden?” said the teacher. “Nice of you to join us. Here’s a pop quiz for you and those cats of yours: what is the subject matter that we’ve been discussing this week?”
Before even trying to answer, he looked to his right. Raylene Hawkins, in her usual seat, was smiling at him and bounced her eyebrows up three times, then left them up there.
Then, he looked around at all of his classmates staring and waiting to hear his answer. Between them all, tall wildflowers had pointed their blossoms at him and the cats, also listening for his response.
“Um . . . I think this might be—”
“That’s incorrect! Would you like to try again? No, sorry, we don’t have time, so I’ll just tell you. You are in a class on how to become ferocious, fierce, and fearless, just like those baby iron lions who are trying to keep you warm.”
“I, uh—”
“Yes, Mr. Blue?”
He risked another look at Raylene, and she began raising and lowering her brows at a steady pace and showed no sign of stopping.
Shaking his head and unable to blink, he spun back around to face the front of the room.
“I need to be ferocious?” he said, “And fierce? And—”
“Yes, of course!” said the woodpecker, who had replaced the wolf, pecked the desk viciously for a second, then turned one black eye to study him.
Then, she bobbed her head, fluttered her wings, and said, while poking her beak at every student and wildflower in the room, “But only when necessary.”
Shaking his head, his eyes wide open and locked again on Raylene, who only shrugged and bounced her eyebrows at the same time, he heard the other students and flowers laughing and whispering.
The plump goose now leading the class, who wore a stylish and colorful knit jacket and matching hat, looked directly at Jayden and said, “Got that?”
“Um, maybe?”
“Good,” she said. “If you need assistance,”—she tipped her head to her right—“consult with the giant iron lions.”
He snapped his head to his left and saw the room’s tall windows and beyond them, close to the glass, Hex’s parents staring into the room. They were mostly like Hex—thick white fur but with only half of an “x” on the left side of each—but bigger. Way bigger.
“Go ahead,” said the tall bear who’d taken over teaching duties, wearing a blue cap and with a tiny squirrel on his shoulder. “Go ask them. They’re quite wise, you know.”
“Um, sure. Okay.”
“Maybe tell them a story too? That would be nice.”
“Huh?” Jayden said, scratching his chin.
Instead of the bear, he saw two pudgy chipmunks on the desk. They did nothing but stare at him as they sat up on their haunches and tapped their tiny fingers against their furry chests.
“Huh. That’s weird.”
He shimmied around until he’d bunched himself up on his pillows, chuckling about how good he’d become at not disturbing sleeping cats that would likely sleep the rest of the day anyway.
As soon as his bare feet touched the cold floor, he said, “Guys, no way! It’s too cold!”
He squinted at the sight of both cats standing on the bed and reaching for him.
He took another quick look at Raylene, and she said, “Those cats, Jay,” while shaking her head and grinning. “Don’t ever let them out of your sight!”
“Fine,” he said, then he picked up Hex with his left arm and Halo with his right.
He heard Raylene giggling, but he focused on the tall windows and the giant lions on the other side and said, “Let’s see what’s going on with your parents, Hex.”
While stepping his cold feet around desks and wildflower stems, he kept a close watch on two giant pairs of bright blue eyes, which also kept a close watch on him.
He walked as far as he could without actually touching his nose to the glass. There, he held the steady gaze of Hexdad, Hex’s father, then Hexmom, his mother.
Both cats rarely blinked but sometimes twitched around their long whiskers.
“Um, I need to ask you about how to be ferocious, and maybe—”
The gigantic cats looked to the bright sky and meowed as loudly as any lions roaring. When they’d finished, they lowered their gaze back at him.
Hexdad turned his eyes up for just a second, then said, “Uh-oh! That sun!”
Jayden looked at the bright orange circle high in the sky and gasped when it began sliding down toward the horizon. It bounced a few times, like a ball on concrete, and rested there.
He looked at Hexmom when he heard her say, “Ooh, maybe it’ll get cold!”
Looking past the lions, he saw a heavy blanket of clouds unrolling toward him and the school. The winds were increasing, causing currents and tides in the thick white fur of the lions. And behind him, in the classroom, he heard the wildflower stalks waving around and complaining about the cold even more than the students.
He recognized Raylene back there, too, saying, “It’s really winter here, Jay! Yep, even here!”
Hypnotized by the storm racing toward him, he snugged up his hold on Hex and Halo, and only then did he notice how heavy they’d become.
“Guys, what’s going on? You’re growing?”
He looked into Hex’s bright blue eyes, level with his, and gasped when the cat nodded. Looking down quickly, he saw Hex’s back paws, already becoming massive and resting on the floor.
“Oh, no way, Hex!”
On his right side, he saw the same calamity with Halo’s big paws flat on the floor.
“Not you too! No, guys, it’s too soon!”
Mixed with a rough purr, he heard a voice from his left say, “It’s our choice.”
He snapped his head around and met the calm blue gaze from Hex.
“Was that you?”
Hex chose to leave that a mystery.
From his right, there was a quick meow, then someone said, “Oh, we’re ready.”
He swiveled around to catch the shiny green gaze from Halo.
“You said that? Really?”
Halo must have felt like he’d already made himself clear, so he didn’t add to his comment.
Behind him, Raylene said, “I guess the Hex and Halo show is over, Jay! Oh, well!”
Jayden kept looking through the window, above the heads of the very tall white cats, who were nodding and chuckling, and yelled, “Wait! Just wait!”
Before he could mount any kind of argument with Raylene, gears began grinding and pulleys started their pulling, and heavy burgundy curtains swept in from both sides, blocking the sight of the incoming storm, the sinking sun, and two giant iron lions.
Feeling the cats too heavy to hold any longer, Jayden crumpled and collapsed. He ended up on his back on his cold bedroom floor and stared up at nothing but a flat ceiling, in a dark and quiet room, while ice and snow pounded on the window, demanding to be invited inside.
Jayden shook his head and watched the heavy curtains slow then stop, blocking out the storm. Even through the layers of thick fabric, the howling winds and flying ice refused to be ignored.
Oh, these cats! he thought. I’m in my room? That was all a dream? They’re not really getting big like Hex’s mom and dad?
Before trying to confirm anything about their size by using his eyes in a dark room, he squeezed each of them in his arms.
Hex seems the right size, he realized with an unstoppable grin. Halo too. It was all just a dream!
“Guys,” he said, “it’s really cold. We can’t just lie around like this.”
They didn’t voice any agreement or offer an alternate plan.
Jayden jumped up onto his bare feet and without any desire to, he started an awkward dance, each foot fleeing from the cold floor until the other had risked becoming ice. Then, curiosity got a grip on him, and he took only one step toward the curtains.
When he began to reach out with his right hand, he felt Halo’s claws hook on to keep him right where he was.
“Really, Halo? I can’t put you down?”
Halo’s only answer was to stare, with green eyes, and to purr, which Jayden felt but couldn’t hear.
“Sure. Okay. Hex? Probably you too?”
A subtle movement of his left arm got Hex to cling more tightly too.
“Both of you, huh? Oh, fine.”
He blew out a deep breath and pivoted close enough that he could pinch the curtain on the right without letting go of Halo. A couple of shuffling steps to the right revealed enough of the window for Jayden to see that it had become more of a white wall than anything else.
“Huh. That’s a lot of snow. Guys, is it so bad out there that Raylene won’t be able to make it over? Should we go downstairs and try to see?”
Hex seemed agreeable to that idea.
Halo kept purring, ready to be carried wherever Jayden wanted to go.
“Wait, guys. It’s just too cold like this.”
He scurried back to his bed, where he let go of Halo, who stayed right where he was with the help of his claws. Jayden peeled off the top blanket, the thickest one, and flung it around all of them like a cape. Then, he got his arms under the cats again, allowing them to relax their grip, and was rewarded with signs that their purring had gone way up.
“You were cold too!”
Oh, wait, he thought. Before we go—is it even time to get up yet?
He spun around enough to see the clock on his nightstand and said out loud, “3:00! We should all be sleeping!”
After a fast barefoot hustle to the doorway, he leaned his head out into the hallway, the added thickness of the blanket forcing the door to open wider.
He looked first at the other doors and saw that they were all closed.
Everyone’s sleeping like they should be, he thought.
“Guys,” he whispered, “this would be a lot easier if you’d walk on your own. What do you think?”
He held the steady gaze of the pair of bright blue eyes up against him on the left. Seeing only a hex being thrown his way, he looked to the cat that he was carrying with his right arm.
That might not be a green-eyed hex, he thought, but it’s close enough.
“Fine. You’re probably cold too. The both of you.”
Before venturing out, he wrestled around until he had both cats inside the blanket and with each hand, he held it over the top of his head and over the cats too.
He took a step and whispered, “Why is the hallway floor always so cold?”
They didn’t offer any theories, so he dragged the trailing blanket out of his room, whipped it into the hallway, and stepped his bare feet onto it.
“That’s better,” he said, planning to stand there only long enough to keep his feet from freezing solid.
But an opening door across the hall froze him where he stood anyway.
“Jay?”
It was his mother, who’d opened her door only enough to peek out.
“Oh, um, yeah. It’s me.”
“Well, what’s wrong? Where are you going?”
“Oh, uh, just downstairs to check the weather.”
She squinted out at him for a second, then rubbed at her eyes.
“Alright. But why are you so big?”
He looked down and even in the dim light, he saw that he did look quite bloated. Leaking out another deep breath and letting his lips flutter, he pulled open the blanket robe first on the left side, and Hex gave his mother a quick hex. Then, on the right side, and Halo yawned before gazing up at her.
“Well, I never,” she said.
She shook her head while Jayden closed it back up.
“I’m not even going to ask. Make sure you get enough sleep, alright? Raylene’s coming over for breakfast.”
“Oh, that’s right! She—”
“Shh!” she whispered. “Let’s not wake your father, alright?”
“Okay. Yeah,” he whispered. “What are we having? If it’s up to me, I’d like—”
“Jay! It’s 3:00 in the morning! I won’t stand here working on a meal plan with you and those cats of yours!”
“Oh, yeah. Okay.”
“Be sure to get some sleep!”
She shook her head at him, and it never stopped all the while she was closing the door.
Alone in the quiet, dark hallway, Jayden got a better hold of the cats, both of whom were cozy and purring happily. And their fuzzy faces were peeking out to help with navigation, if needed.
Chapter 2 – Because Raylene Painted Flowers
Still shivering but grateful that the stairs had carpet runners for his cold feet, Jayden whispered, “Guys, this isn’t easy!”
Halfway down, he sat with the warm quilt doing double duty as a cushion beneath him.
He spread open the makeshift robe, giving the cats a better view and an opportunity to actually walk on their own.
They didn’t seem at all interested in that. Supported on his legs while he sat, they still employed their sharp claws to stay close up against him. Their purring had never missed a beat.
“Really? Even now, you won’t walk?”
They wouldn’t walk.
“Wait till I tell Raylene about this. Do you want her to know just how lazy you’ve become?”
Hex was getting ready to deliver a quick hex, so Jayden looked to Halo. His long yawn made it clear that he wasn’t feeling too ambitious right then.
“Oh, fine.”
After wrapping up and again hiding Hex and Halo, Jayden got himself up and continued his careful travels down the staircase. The cold foyer floor was an unwelcome development, but he knew that he’d have to brave that to look out the front door. The windows, he figured, had been whitewashed on the first floor of the house too.
Just how am I supposed to open that door with these cats? he wondered. Oh, I’ll put them on the couch first!
He gave up on the house’s front door for the moment and tread across the living room’s wood floor, which he found had been replaced with a sheet of ice. But he’d reached the narrow space between the couch and the coffee table without that ice trapping his feet to the floor until spring arrived.
“Okay, guys. You’ll only have to stand until you can sit. This shouldn’t be too much work for you.”
He opened the blanket enough for the cats to peek out.
And all they did was peek.
“No, really. You two like the couch. Come on.”
He shook the blanket all around, swaying his hips back and forth, and the two reluctant cats finally retracted their claws and dropped silently onto the cushions.
Where they froze and stared up at him.
“What? Still not happy?”
Hex hexed him.
“Thanks, Hex.”
Halo yawned.
“Yeah, I’m sure you’re tired,” he said with a hushed laugh. “Stay. I’ll be right back, and then—”
Hex was the first to jump up onto the high back of the couch. Halo followed him quickly. As Jayden watched, they switched places, took a few seconds to get their positions right, then sat and gazed at him.
“Hey. That’s like Raylene’s painting again. That one of you two in the wildflower field.”
They continued to stare at him.
“You knew that, though, right?”
He could have believed that they’d frozen in place.
“I didn’t really expect you to answer. You do look happy in that field, though.”
His eyes felt heavy, like even blinking was too much trouble, so he pulled the quilt up and rubbed them through the thick cloth. He pried them open only enough to confirm that the cats weren’t in danger of being sat upon, then spun himself around and dropped onto the cushions.
He leaned his head back, eyes still closed, and said, “Maybe just for a minute. Just a—”
A blast of ice hit the front of the house, causing his heart to pound as his eyes snapped open.
“No, I need to go back to bed. I’ll just check the weather first. You guys can stay right there.”
He got up, tightened his blanket, and left for the front door, dragging the long train behind him. A quick touch to the doorknob convinced him to find a better way, so he grabbed it with his blanket like a mitten and gave it a twist.
He pulled it in only enough for one eye to look out and was immediately blinded by invading snow and cold winds, so he kneed it shut with an urgent boom.
Then, he managed to open his eyes wide and peer up at the top of the steps. He held his breath until he was sure that no slippers were slapping the cold floor and indicating that someone was coming to investigate.
Looking again toward the couch, he saw Hex and Halo still seated high up on the couch back, mimicking the composition of Raylene’s painting of them.
“Huh. You guys are weird.”
He’d taken only one step back toward them before he stopped, his eyes on the living room floor between him and them.
“Mom put that thing away, guys?”
He took another step.
“But you like it now, right? Because Raylene painted flowers all over it?”
They might have agreed with his claim, but they chose to not say.
“Can I say those words now? You know which ones.”
Hex stared. Halo yawned, then he stared too.
“Vacuum cleaner?”
No reaction from the cats on the couch.
“Vacuum. Vacuum.”
Only silence and an early-morning hex from each cat.
Jayden closed the distance and stood near them, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
I’m glad they’re over that, he thought. All because Raylene painted it with her new—
“Wait, guys. Where are her new paints?”
He looked around and didn’t see the new paint set that she’d brought home from school the day before.
The cats didn’t feel any need to look around.
“She didn’t take it home—I remember. Did Mom put it somewhere?”
Halo turned his head toward the doorway to the kitchen. Hex did too.
“Thanks.”
He was about to head in that direction when he saw both cats stand up, still near the painting on the wall. With blue eyes and green eyes locked on him, they reached out with their fluffy white and black paws.
What’s going on with them? he wondered. Oh, maybe they’re cold. That’s probably it. They think they need more fur.
Snickering at his own thoughts, he put a knee on the couch, leaned toward them, and let them climb in and cling to his sides. He wrapped the blanket back around to cover all but his face and their heads and stood back up.
There, he thought, that ought to do it.
A few shuffling steps later, he stood in the doorway with his cats and flipped on the light.
Probably on that extra chair, he thought. That’s where Mom puts things to keep them safe.
He leaned over the table to look and saw only two of her books and a few pens and highlighters.
“Huh. Not there.”
Barely able to keep his eyes open, he stayed where he was and scanned all around the room.
Oh, there’s that paint set, he thought. It’s under the new cookies? Why would Mom put that there? She did make those cookies, though. Good. We’ll need those.
With his eyes closed as much as possible, Jayden shuffled toward the cookies, answering the call of his grumbling stomach.
Although the cats seemed quite warm and content to go along for the ride, he still said to them, “Guys, I’ll just take a look, then we’ll go back up. I’m too sleepy to eat anyway.”
I bet they’re not too sleepy, he told himself. Oh, but Mom still hasn’t bought more treats for them. No way am I opening a cat food can right now either.
Leaning against the counter to keep his balance, Jayden and Hex and Halo looked out from the warm cocoon at a large plastic container that was mostly clear and showed neat stacks of cookies inside.
“Yep. Cookies.”
His stomach rumbled.
“Just a peek.”
He pried the lid up for a look.
“Huh. Are those chocolate chip? Maybe I should check?”
Hex didn’t care. If Halo cared, he didn’t say so.
“They’d better not be raisin.”
He grabbed the nearest one and held it up, but it was a struggle to focus with eyelids so heavy.
And the cookie was in his shadow.
And the weight of two cats fused to his sides started to take its toll.
So, he spun around and leaned back into the counter, holding the cookie closer to his eyes. And for the cats to see too.
With eyes holding closed much more than open, he felt himself sinking toward the floor, with the blanket bunching up beneath him.
Completely seated, his eyes refusing to open again, Jayden said, “I really better check. Just one bite.”
Neither cat challenged his plan.
“Better be chocolate chip,” he said before holding the cookie up for a modest sampling.
And sleep, which had watched the entire spectacle and had shown remarkable patience, finally reached the limits of its good nature.
It wrapped him up more tightly than the blanket draped around him and Hex and Halo. And paying no heed to the cookie in his hand or the bit of chocolate stuck to his chin, it scuttled him away to enjoy whatever dreams could be had before the household awoke.
Sleep didn’t take Hex, though. Nor Halo.
Bright blue eyes and shiny green eyes remained fixed on the cookie in Jayden’s hand.
Chapter 3 – They Just Want to Be Held?
That’s my mom’s voice, he thought as he got caught up in a beach towel and dragged away from a dream of lying in the sunlight somewhere. She’s probably telling me to get out of bed already. But why is Dad in here too? What’s going on?
He heard his father say, “Well, he’s been working hard. Shoveling snow isn’t easy.”
“No,” he heard his mother say, “it’s not. Portraying Romeo too. But why not just stay in bed, then?”
The seconds of silence that followed told him in no uncertain terms that it was time to open his eyes.
But it was too warm, and the cats purring by sides, he was sure, were in no hurry to start their day either.
“Made him hungry,” said his dad. “And he’s doing better. Look. No part of that got lodged in his cheeks.”
His mother’s chuckle didn’t signal any real amusement that she might be experiencing.
“Alright. Yeah, I can see where he took a bite. That’s a Jayden-sized bite on the top.”
“Yeah,” said his father. “Um, but what about those other two bites? They’re kind of small.”
“Oh, you don’t think . . .”
“They’re both looking right at us,” said his father. “They’re not denying it.”
Oh, thought Jayden, it’s really time to open my eyes!
He wasn’t surprised to see his mother looking down at him over the thin wire frames of her eyeglasses. Her hands on her hips were what he’d expected too.
It was a relief to see the grin on his father’s face and when he nodded and pointed, Jayden looked down at the cookie in his hand.
Yes, he noticed right away, it really is chocolate chip. Good. We’ll need those. But what are they talking about with other bites?
“Um, I fell asleep,” he said.
“You sure did, Jay,” said his mother. “Couldn’t wait for breakfast?”
“I, um . . . I wanted to check the weather, remember?”
Mrs. Blue turned toward Mr. Blue and said, “I witnessed this odd travel arrangement of theirs very early this morning, in the hallway. Maybe we need a new thermostat?”
“Oh, that could be,” said his father. “I’ll look into that later. So, Jay, you gathered up cats and blankets, journeyed down here in the wee hours of the morning, and had just a bite of that cookie?”
Jayden looked at the bite marks again and said, “Huh. I don’t even remember.”
He looked up when his mother said, “Please, tell me you took a little nibble out of each side too?”
“I, um—”
He stopped at seeing nibble marks on each side of the cookie in his hand.
“Even if you don’t remember, just say you did, alright? Otherwise, I’ll have to revise my entire understanding of those cats of yours. They just can’t be interested in eating chocolate chip cookies, can they?”
They’re waiting for an answer? Jayden thought after a few silent seconds. Really?
“Um, yeah, Mom. I must have. No way would cats eat cookies. I think.”
“Well, good. Anyway, it’s about time for them to eat and for you to get ready. Raylene will be over soon, remember?”
“Oh, yeah! Raylene! Okay.”
He swept open the quilt while still seated, keeping his arms out like a bat spreading its wings.
The cats hung on at his sides, mostly looking up at Jayden but sometimes acknowledging the presence of his parents too.
“Guys. Really. We can’t sit here all day.”
The seconds dragged on, with cats purring and parents staring.
“Um. Maybe they want to go back upstairs?”
He hid them again beneath the thick wrap, leaving only their heads out for air and to look around. It took some effort, but he got up onto his feet and turned to put the remains of the cookie on the counter.
“Jay, you might as well just eat it. You’ll still have room for breakfast.”
“Yeah, Mom. Yep.”
“Or,” said his father, “you could, um, just keep it somewhere, then finish it off later.”
He watched his mother turn toward his father and say, “That didn’t mean anything at all about packing a cookie away into his cheeks, did it?”
His father fought a smile and said, “Why, no. Of course not. Just, um, like up on his dresser or something.”
“Oh, you two. Jay, with or without those cats of yours, you need to get moving. Very soon, you’ll hear—”
“Thumping on the door,” said his father. “With?”
“Mittens, Dad. Yep, it’s cold out there again.”
“Right. Mittens. Worn by?”
“Raylene.”
“Not somebody named Rayl, right?”
“Nope. No way, Dad. Not anymore.”
“Those cats really won’t let go of you?”
Jayden held his mother’s questioning gaze while again extending his arms out to each side, the bitten and nibbled cookie still in one hand.
The cats didn’t budge.
He popped his eyebrows and held them up.
“Oh, my,” she said. “Well, all of you, then. Better get going.”
Jayden grinned and wrapped up his purring cargo, gave his parents a sleepy smile, then took one step toward the living room.
“Jay,” said his father.
“Yeah, Dad?”
“You do know what’s good about that,” he said, pointing at the lumpy mass that he was transporting, “don’t you?”
“Nope. What’s that?”
“They won’t beat you up the stairs.”
He gave Jayden a big smile and popped his eyebrows a few times.
“Nope. Not this time, Dad.”
“I’ll get it!” Jayden yelled from the top of the steps.
The muffled pounding on the front door stopped.
“Guys, this is silly. She’s going to laugh at me.”
Hex didn’t care. He only adjusted where his claws were piercing Jayden’s thick shirt on his left side.
Halo didn’t comment, and his method of attachment seemed to be to his satisfaction.
“Oh, fine,” he said and placed his arms underneath them to prop them up, then he began a careful walk down the stairs, his sneakers landing on every single step.
At the bottom, standing in the foyer with his hand on the doorknob, he chuckled and said, “Okay, let me do the talking.”
Snickering at his own joke, he whooshed in the door and peeked around it, sending an invitation to every snowflake within range to take a free ride inside on the chilly gusts swirling into the house.
“Raylene!”
“You remembered!” Raylene said with a big grin. “I wasn’t sure you would.”
“Of course! Bet you want to come in, right?”
Her puffy parka never moved and neither did her arms at her sides, each terminating with a thick mitten. But her purple knit hat rode along with every slow shake of her head as she smiled at him with her eyebrows pasted up almost too high to see.
“Well, yeah!”
She stomped in, and Jayden quickly cut off the unlimited snowflake supply with a solid boom. While looking toward the couch, Raylene was still kicking her high brown boots to clear some of the snow.
“It’s so dark out there, Jay. I’m not sure the sun even came up today.”
“Maybe it did, but it went back down?”
“Nope. No way, Jay. Never happens. We’re not even going to look that up.”
Looking all around the empty living room, she said, “No Hex or Halo? Where are—”
Her eyes popped open wide at the sight, which she hadn’t noticed before then, of two cats partially hidden under Jayden’s arms.
But when she made eye contact with them, her brown eyes greeting Hex’s blue ones and Halo’s green ones, their tails bounced around and they let out welcoming meows.
“What are you boys doing there?” she said as she tossed her mittens onto the nearest chair and began scratching all around their ears. “Jay won’t put you down? He won’t let you walk on your own?”
“They’re even lazier than they were before,” he said. “They’re the ones that don’t want to be put down. It wasn’t easy getting dressed.”
“Jay, no way. They just want to be held? Why?”
“I can’t imagine. Oh, wait. Halo’s finally had enough of me.”
The mostly-black cat had released one set of claws and extended the paw toward Raylene.
“Oh, he’s so cute. Yes, I’ll hold you, Halo, dear.”
She pulled him in close, kissed the top of his head, then smiled first at Hex, then at Jayden.
“Now, you’re in trouble,” Jayden said.
“Huh? Why?”
“Try taking off that coat now.”
“Oh. Yeah. Um, maybe I can put him on the couch for a second.”
“He won’t like that. He’s already frowning just from you talking about it.”
“He’s not frowning, Jay!”
She gave him a better look.
“Oh. Okay. Maybe he is. Halo, dear, would you like to enjoy a very comfy couch for a few seconds?”
He held her gaze and didn’t so much as blink.
“He’s hexing you. It’s both of them now.”
“I think you’re right,” she said. “Still, Halo, I can’t leave this coat on all morning.”
“Nope,” Jayden said. “Not where we’re going.”
“Where the crow flies?”
“Yeah! Those iron lions kind of fly, too, don’t they?”
“They sure do!”
She plopped Halo down on the couch, threw her empty backpack toward the chair, then peeled off her parka and tossed it onto the chair with her hat and mittens.
“You brought your backpack?”
She shrugged and said, “Maybe we’ll need it?”
“Okay. Yeah, we might.”
She saw Jayden shaking his head and pointing toward the couch, so she turned to look. Halo was standing and reaching for her.
“Oh, Jay! He’s so cute, but what’s going on with these two this time?”
“I have no idea. I’m glad you didn’t see me at 3:00 this morning.”
“You weren’t sleeping?”
“I was sleepy, but no, I came downstairs and—”
“They let you go without them? That’s not so bad, then.”
“No, they were with me. We—”
“They do kind of follow you around, Jay.”
“No, that’s not it either! I had to carry them both, and we were cold, so I—”
“Why were you walking around carrying cats, then? Especially if it was so cold?”
“Well, we were cold at first, then I took a—”
“Took a walk, yeah. Carrying two cats. That warmed you up.”
“No, Raylene! I took one of my—”
She grinned and whispered, “Raylene!”
He stopped to smile and forgot what he was trying to tell her.
From the doorway to the kitchen, they heard Mrs. Blue, and they both turned to look, both still smiling.
“Good morning, Raylene.”
Jayden’s mother leaned against the wall with a coffee mug in one hand while the other wore a thick oven mitt and rested on her hip.
“Hi, Mrs. Blue.”
“Brave of you to venture out in that weather. I hope you’re hungry.”
“Oh, you made those cookies?”
Jayden’s mother leaned forward, causing her glasses to slide down, and watched them both over the top.
“Those cookies sure are important to you. Ask me later about how Jayden had a sample.”
Raylene turned toward him and sent her eyebrows climbing.
He said, “I, um, I got hungry. But I was sleepy, too, and—”
“And breakfast is almost ready,” said Mrs. Blue. “So, when you’re ready, come on in. Don’t take too long, though.”
She took a sip and vanished into the kitchen.
Raylene turned toward Jayden and whispered, “Jay. She did make those cookies?”
“Yep. Oh, yeah.”
“Will we be able to take them to you know where?”
He scratched at his chin while looking toward the kitchen, then said, “We’ll have to figure something out. Maybe Hex and Halo will help?”
She shook her head and said, “I think they’ve finally become too lazy.”
He walked with her, and she scooped up Halo, who quickly found a comfortable spot on her left side.
“Claws?” he said. “Is he using his claws?”
“Nope. I’m holding him.”
“Try letting him go. He won’t fall. Really.”
She let go. He didn’t fall.
“Oh my, Jay. What is going on with these boys?”
“I wish I knew.”
“You know what I wish I knew?”
“Nope. What?”
“What’s for breakfast!”
Chapter 4 – Worries about It Are Over
Still standing in the living room, still holding two clingy cats, and still smiling at each other, they heard Jayden’s mother in the kitchen say, “Jay! Raylene! It’s going to get cold!”
Jayden wiggled his arm under Hex to give him more support and smiled at Raylene’s shrug and simultaneous eyebrow lift. After finishing that, she gave him just a smile in return.
Before they took even one step toward breakfast, she said, “How?”
“How, what?”
“Halo doesn’t want to be put down. I don’t think Hex does either. So, how are we supposed to sit at your table?”
Jayden gave his chin a quick scratch, shifted Hex around, then called out, “Mom!”
She appeared again in the doorway, her hands full of her books and pens that usually occupied the spare chair.
“What, Jay? Aren’t you hungry?”
“I’m starving, Mom. But, um, these cats, they, um—”
Raylene said, “I don’t think they want us to let them go, Mrs. Blue.”
“She’s right. They’re acting weird. Those chairs in there aren’t big enough, probably, and we—”
“You two want to sit on the couch and eat? Is that what you’re trying to say?”
“Yeah, Mom. Good idea.”
“Thanks so much!”
“Alright. Go ahead and get comfortable. I’ll bring you each a stack of blueberry hotcakes. Sound good?”
“Yep. Yeah, Mom.”
“It sounds real good, Mrs. Blue.”
She gave each cat a glance, then shook her head first at Jayden then Raylene, then pushed her glasses up and retreated into the kitchen.
With Halo snug in her left arm, Raylene grabbed Jayden’s left hand and began to lead him toward the couch.
“These cats, Jay. What’s going on with them?”
“I have no idea. But we have bigger things to figure out.”
“Like what?”
She sat first and kept Halo on her left. Jayden sat to her right, and Hex squirmed in close on his right side.
“Oh, they made us sit with them on the outside this time.”
He felt her pressed up against him, fought to contain his grin, and said, “Yeah, um, they kind of did. Anyway, we have to figure out how to get those cookies for the trip.”
“Oh, that’s right. Any ideas?”
He said, “Last time, Hex and Halo helped. Remember that trick they played on my parents? We were able to sneak the cookies out, then we—”
“Jay, wait. All we have to do is take the cookies up to your room, right? We’ll only be gone a second, and no one will know.”
“They’ll know when we come back with no cookies!” he said.
“Oh. Yeah. Um, maybe we could get Lady to make another batch for us to bring back?”
He kept scratching Hex’s back and said, “What if that goose really doesn’t have chocolate chips?”
They froze, staring at each other, when they heard his mother in the doorway again.
“Haven’t we been through this already, Jay? And please, tell me you didn’t call me a goose for some reason?”
“Oh, um, no. Never, Mom.”
“No way, Mrs. Blue.”
She devoted a few seconds to shaking her head, then said, “Besides, didn’t I already make chocolate chip cookies, just like you both requested?”
He gave Raylene a quick grimace before they both looked up at her again. She’d let her glasses slide down to get a better view of them, and she held a full plate in each hand.
“Oh, um, yeah. Yep, we did. We just wanted to, uh, make sure.”
“Those chocolate chips are that important to you two?”
“Yes, Mrs. Blue. Yep.”
“Well, I won’t claim to always understand you two, but here are your—”
“Oh, Mom, do you have any plastic grocery bags?”
She’d taken one step toward them, but she stopped abruptly.
“What, Jay?”
He gave Raylene a quick look, but he already knew what he’d see. He smiled at her eyebrows being so high up.
“We just, um, were thinking about eating upstairs.”
“Alright. You can do that. And the bags are for?”
From the corner of his eye, he could see that Raylene had begun to shake her head while also staring at him with popped eyebrows.
“Um, in case we make a mess? We’ll be ready?”
“You already know that you’ll make a mess?”
Jayden gave his mother only a shrug.
“Well, alright. Here are your plates.”
She set them on the coffee table and left for the kitchen.
“I’ll just grab a couple of bags for you too.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
While they heard her rattling around in the kitchen cabinets, Raylene leaned close to Jayden and whispered, “Jay, let’s just take the cookies upstairs too.”
“Okay. Good idea. Mom!”
“What, Jay?”
“Can we take the cookies upstairs too?”
A few seconds passed while Jayden and Raylene grinned at each other, then Mrs. Blue walked back into the living room.
“Really? Did you happen to see how many hotcakes I gave each of you?”
She shook her head while handing the bags to Jayden.
“Yeah, Mom. Yep. That’s a lot. Thanks.”
“Thanks so much, Mrs. Blue.”
“Well, I don’t understand how you could possibly eat all that. If you want those cookies, Jay, go ahead and get them.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
She went back to her own breakfast and resumed her conversation with Mr. Blue, and Jayden pointed at the plates on the table.
“Can you carry them both? I’ll go get the cookies.”
“Sure, Jay. Hurry, okay? It’s getting cold.”
“Okay.”
He stood, and Raylene giggled at the sight of Hex standing up and reaching for him.
“Oh my, Jay. He never does that. What’s going on with them?”
“No idea.”
He picked up Hex and squeezed him in on his right side.
“Be right back.”
Still snuggling with Halo on the couch, Raylene watched him walk into the kitchen, then she turned her head to listen.
“Mom, why are Raylene’s paints up there with the cookies?”
“It just seemed like the safest place,” she said, pausing a loaded forkful of blueberry hotcakes.
Mr. Blue squinted at Jayden first, then at Mrs. Blue, but he kept eating.
“Safest from what?” Jayden said.
“After Raylene left last night, I saw that she’d forgotten her paint set on the couch. I don’t know why, but your cats were taking too much of an interest in it.”
“How? What were they doing?”
Raylene could hear that Mrs. Blue had taken a bite, but she was still trying to converse with Jayden.
“Just pawing at it. Pushing it around. I didn’t want it to get scratched up or anything.”
“Oh. So, you put it up here?”
“Well, no. Not exactly.”
When Raylene heard Jayden’s mother set her glasses on the table, she held Halo close, stood up, and walked to the doorway.
“First,” said Mrs. Blue, “I put her paint set right here,”—she pointed over the table at the spare seat—“under my books and things.”
“They still bothered it?”
“Yes, Jay. They were swatting at everything on there, so I put it up there on the counter with the cookies.”
“And that stopped them?”
Mrs. Blue rubbed her eyes for a moment before continuing.
“Well, they seemed to want to keep going after it, but they couldn’t jump up that high. So, I figured that up there might be the best—”
“Mom. Since when can’t they jump up here?” Jayden said, pointing at the cookies and paint set.
“I watched them,” she said. “They tried, but they could barely jump high enough to touch their paws on the edge there.”
“I saw it, too, Jay,” said his father. “They tried a couple of times.”
“Oh, no way,” said Jayden, then he held Raylene’s gaze, who stared back with eyebrows creeping up. “That’s weird.”
He set Hex down, which took some time because his claws weren’t happy to let go. Then, Jayden tapped the counter, saying, “Come on, Hex. Come on up.”
Hex jumped right up with no obvious effort on his part.
Jayden gazed at his mother, then he resisted looking at Raylene in the doorway, but he grinned at wondering whether she’d notched her eyebrows even higher.
“Halo probably can too,” he said, then he looked over at Raylene, knowing that she’d shrug and give her eyebrows a quick boost at the same time.
She did and left her brows up as she brought Halo near the counter and set him down. Before Jayden could invite him, he leaped up easily and sat next to his brother, both of them watching Mrs. Blue staring back at them.
“Huh,” said Jayden, standing two steps from the counter. “That’s just one more weird thing that—”
Hex flew into his right side and stuck.
“Never thought I’d see that,” said his father, smiling and suspending his chewing for the moment.
“Oh, my,” said Mrs. Blue. “Those cats really are being—”
She stopped at the sight of Halo standing on the counter and reaching for Raylene.
“Halo’s so cute!” she said, then allowed him to hook himself onto her left side.
With Halo safely stowed away, Raylene took a step and stood next to Jayden, both of them facing his parents at the table, neither of whom seemed to remember that they were involved with a hot breakfast.
“Well,” said Jayden, “we’re going to go eat.”
“All of you?”
“I guess, Mom.”
“Can you carry those cats and everything else?”
“Yeah, Dad. See?”
He stuck his arms straight up, and Hex didn’t move at all.
“Well, I never,” said his mother. “Just when I think I’m starting to understand them.”
“That’s what I always say!”
“And it seems you were always right,” said his father. “Oh, this is still good, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“They can’t beat you up the stairs like that.”
“Nope. No, they sure can’t.”
Jayden grabbed the cookies with one hand and the paint set with the other. He shrugged at his staring parents but stopped before following Raylene into the living room.
He said to his mother, “You put that thing away? In the living room?”
“I’m sure you can identify it by name now, Jay. Go ahead. Give it a try.”
He turned his eyes down to hold Hex’s steady blue gaze.
“Vacuum cleaner.”
Hex didn’t even blink, so Jay looked again at his mother and gave her a big smile.
“Wow. Now that it’s painted, they—”
“Oh, that’s another thing, Jay. Somehow, they smudged up most of the flowers that Raylene had painted on that thing. So, I got a washcloth, and we wiped all of them off.”
Around the corner, where Mr. and Mrs. Blue couldn’t see her, Raylene stared at Jayden and demonstrated for him just how high up her eyebrows could go when given a good reason.
Jayden stared at her, unable to even imagine grinning, and said, “We who, Mom? Who wiped?”
“Well, those cats of yours. They really weren’t all that much help, but they—”
“They didn’t get scared of it without the colors all over it?”
“No. No, Jay, and that’s kind of odd, too, isn’t it? It seems that all they needed was to see it once like that, and their worries about it are over. How about that?”
He wondered if Raylene would ever blink again. Maybe her eyes froze like that?
“Sure, Mom. Yep.”
“Still, though, when she gets a chance, maybe she can repaint them? We’ll have to be sure to let them dry all the way before the cats spend time with it again.”
He stared at her for a second, then said, “Yep. Okay.”
He rushed out of the room to join Raylene, who had begun shaking her head and was about to comment on Mrs. Blue’s story.
Jayden whispered, “We’ll have to figure that out later! Come on!”
Still shaking her head, she picked up a plate of hotcakes with each hand, and Hex and Halo hung on to each of them for a ride up the steps.
And they didn’t even fight to free themselves when they heard Raylene giggle and say, “I’m still racing, Jay. With Halo! But I’m not about to dump our hotcakes.”
She hummed softly and took her time getting up the stairway, her brown boots visiting each and every step.
Holding cookies and paint and with Hex hanging on all by himself, Jayden plodded up the stairs after her, his eyes on her boots all the way.
“That’s not really cheating, I guess,” he said. “Not this time.”