Runaway Ralph - Beverly Cleary [20]
Ralph waited, but when nothing happened, he summoned the courage to peek over his shoulder. Catso was calmly washing himself and appeared not to notice. Ralph was not fooled for an instant. He knew Catso was aware of every move he made. Drat that cat, he thought bitterly, as his heart beat faster than the tick of the watch on the shelf beside his cage.
Catso licked his right paw over and over with great care and began to wash his right ear. That’s right, thought Ralph. Take your time. He was worn out from bracing himself for the pounce that did not come. A real war of nerves, he thought, just what that cat wants. He’s got me where he wants me, and he knows it.
Catso groomed his left paw, currying his fur neatly in the direction of his toes. He used his teeth to pull bits of dried mud from between his paw pads and then began to scrub his left ear. Well, come on, thought Ralph. Get it over. You don’t have to be so neat. He would just as soon be knocked off his shelf by a cat with dirty ears as a cat with clean ears.
Catso finished washing, looked at Ralph, and glanced away. Ralph, who was familiar with that maneuver, thought, Here it comes! But this time Ralph was mistaken. Catso’s attention had been caught by the leather strap of the wristwatch hanging over the edge of the shelf. He tapped it with a curious paw and watched it swing back and forth. Ralph’s blood chilled as claws appeared from the exploring paw that batted the strap once more. Then the claws hooked the watch strap and dragged the watch down to the worktable. Why, that stupid cat actually thinks the watch band is a tail, thought Ralph in astonishment.
Catso sat very still, listening to the watch tick. He batted it experimentally with his paw, but the watch lay as still as any terrified mouse. While Ralph watched in fascination, Catso picked up the watch in his mouth and, with the strap hanging down like a tail, leaped from the table to the floor, where he dropped the watch, batted it about, picked it up again, and slipped out through his hole in the screen door.
Ralph ventured out of his corner and with shaking paws clung to the wires of his cage to see what happened next. Catso played with the watch awhile on the bamboo leaves, but when the cook with a pan of scraps in hand opened the kitchen door, the greedy animal dropped the watch and ran off to be fed. The watch slid on a smooth bamboo husk until it came to rest, hidden from sight, under some leaves.
“Talk about close calls,” said Chum.
“Stupid cat,” said Ralph in a weak voice.
Ralph was dazed by the whole experience, but he noticed Garf leave the dining hall when the campers began to sing one of their favorite songs:
“Up in the air, Junior Birdmen,
Up in the air and upside down.
Up in the air, Junior Birdmen,
Keep your noses off the ground.”
Come into the craft shop, Ralph pleaded silently.
True to his promise to Aunt Jill, the boy did not enter the craft shop but sat alone with his thoughts, twirling idly in a tire suspended from one of the trees and singing to his private tune:
“When you hear the doorbell ringing
And see the badge of tin,
You’ll know the Junior Birdmen
Have turned their boxtops in.
B—I—R—D—M—E—N! Yea!”
Before long Karen, her left arm covered with white lotion, came running into the craft shop with two of her friends. “My watch!” she cried, sending Ralph scuttling into a corner. “It’s gone.”
“Somebody must have taken it,” said one of her friends, an older girl who was wearing polished English riding boots.
“I’ll bet it was that Garf Jernigan,” said the second friend.
“I’ll bet it was, too,” said the girl