ELEVEN

Pinky’s eyes adjusted easily to the darkness and she tried to get her bearings. She knew that the tree was to the left of the house, so she kept close to the left side of the walls as she made her way deeper inside. The house was filled with all sorts of strange things. The first obstacle was a nest of wires all twisted and tangled behind a series of stacked black boxes in a wooden cabinet. Climbing through them was more difficult than any adventure she had had with Sam in the briar patch. When she finally made it to the other side she encountered a gigantic plaid structure pushed tightly against the wall. Since it was impossible to crawl behind she made her way along the front and could detect the quiet purring of Miss Kitty. “What a spoiled cat,” thought Pinky, assuming the sofa was Miss Kitty’s bed.

There were more wires snaked about and wooden tables with towering objects on top. The carpet felt soft and she imagined how wonderful it would be to curl up and take a nap, but she had a serious mission to accomplish with little time to spare. The room was already filling with the gray light of dawn.

She crept down a long hallway with several doors, most of which were closed. Venturing inside the first one she detected a cool, hard surface beneath her feet. This room was small and contained even more unusual structures. Her foot slipped on a soft, pasty substance. “What could this be?” she wondered, reluctantly licking her toes. “Yuck!” she exclaimed, trying to wipe the minty sweet flavor from her burning tongue. “I hope I haven’t been poisoned,” she thought with alarm, searching desperately to rinse her mouth. There were small splotches of water under the sink that she lapped up quickly, but it only seemed to make matters worse. Now her mouth was filled with froth, causing her to gag and cough uncontrollably as she tried to spit it out.

Pinky raced from the bathroom trying to free herself from this ghastly white foam, and there was Miss Kitty watching with horror as if she had seen a ghost. She turned tail and raced out of the hallway, giving Pinky her first chuckle. “She must be one of those lily-livered scaredy-pusses that Silas talks so much about”, she thought, and made her way through the second opened door.