But even dressed this way, there is no mistaking that this animal is ALIVE. (And asleep and insanely cute.)
Izzy works hard to keep breathing. How did the little animal get in her room and why is it sleeping next to her bed? How did it come to be dressed in her toys’ clothes? She isn’t sure what she should do. Is this some kind of surprise? Did her parents finally understand that Columbo hasn’t turned out to be a pal? Is this her real, true Pal?
And then she looks more intently at the small furry face and realizes she knows this creature! This is the animal she saw outside two nights ago. This is the possum that waved to her. And it all makes sense in a new way. The possum has come to be with her!
Izzy’s first instinct is to go tell her parents.
Yet something holds her back. Hadn’t her mother seen a small mouse in the garage a few months ago and run in a full-blown panic? Didn’t a barrel-chested man named Stoffer come to the house and plug all kinds of holes with pieces of steel wool? Stoffer spoke about rodents and disease, and Izzy’s mother was so worried, she took notes.
Sounds can be heard in the kitchen. Izzy’s mother is awake. Her father too. But the possum does not wake. This possum is really sound asleep. Izzy takes a moment to think. The important thing for now is to keep Columbo out of her room. She feels certain that the dog will be nothing but trouble around her sweet, slumbering friend.
So Izzy slides silently out of bed. She grabs her favorite blue sweatshirt, which is slung over the back of the chair by the window, and she heads for the door. Before she leaves her room she turns to look over her shoulder.
An adorable possum with a fuzzy white face, long whiskers, and bright pink nose is sleeping with her stuffed animals. And it is the greatest thing that has ever happened to her.
Chapter 19
Izzy shuts the door to her room and moves quickly down the hall to her mom’s office. She finds a piece of paper and a pen, and writes:
KEEP OUT
This means everyone!
Privacy needed today!
She then tapes the message to the door. She feels reasonably confident that this will keep her mom and dad from going into her room. Thankfully Columbo can’t open doors. Izzy feels grateful (in this one instance) that she doesn’t have a nosy brother or sister to worry about.
She sees her dad first. He is coming in from the backyard with Columbo. The dog looks different, even more agitated than normal.
Izzy smiles. “Hey, Dad.”
Her father answers, “Good morning, Izzy,” but he immediately turns back to the dog and says firmly, “Columbo! Calm down.”
Columbo seems to get even more excited. His tail wags, slamming into the wall, and he bolts down the hall, nose to the floor as if he has been hired to sniff out explosives. All that Izzy can manage to say is, “What’s wrong with him?”
Her father rolls his eyes. “We had some nighttime pests. Columbo must smell them.” He turns in the direction of the dog. “Settle down, boy!” But Columbo is having none of it. Izzy watches as he runs to the living room and goes straight to the fireplace. He is so excited that he uses his snout to push open the metal screen, and the next thing they know the dog is standing in the fireplace ashes.
That’s when Izzy’s mom appears from the kitchen. “Stop him!”
But it’s too late. Columbo is now thrashing around in the chimney. He puts his paws up onto the back brick wall as his head and upper body disappear.
Izzy laughs but her mom and dad don’t think it’s so funny. “Get him out of there! Alex, please!” Izzy’s mom is yelling now. Columbo’s collar is no longer visible because half of his body is up the chimney, and then he starts barking. The sound of his deep-throated alarm echoes up the brick shaft and adds to the general sense of chaos.
And that’s when Izzy notices the footprints on the floor. They are small and barely perceptible. They head out of the chimney, not in. It figures that Columbo would be on the trail, but going the wrong way!
Izzy runs from the room, shouting, “I’ll get a rag.”
There is a stack of cleaning cloths on the ledge above the washing machine. Izzy grabs a handful and instead of going back to the living room (where the commotion is only getting louder), she heads straight to her room. On the hardwood floor in the hallway she can now see the trail of little sooty footprints. Izzy drops down to the floor and rubs them away, moving fast. All the while she hears her parents in the living room wrestling with the maniac known as Columbo.
And for the first time since the dog came into her life, Izzy is thrilled that the animal never follows an order.
Chapter 20
Appleblossom opens her eyes to a room that is bright with light.
Fear strikes like lightning and she sits bolt upright. She is locked in a monster house! In the distance she hears an enormous racket. The people are yelling. The door is shut, but for how long? Will the dog and the people come rushing in?
What is she doing out here in the open?
This is all wrong!
She needs to hide.
Appleblossom tries to scramble out of the nest of fake furry animals. But it isn’t easy because she is wearing the thick blue garment. Plus she has crazy contraptions on her feet. She grabs one of the foot covers and pulls it off, throwing it hard across the room. She isn’t able to get the other cover off. The hat is still on her head, and the blue garment now feels tight and constricting. There isn’t time to deal with any of it!
Hurry, hurry, hurry! The words pound in her head. Where to go? Where to hide?
Under the little monster’s nest?
Too obvious!
Under the big wooden box against the wall?
Too tight of a squeeze!
Appleblossom is running lines of dialogue, but with herself. She races awkwardly around the room, only one foot cover on, the hat flapping over her eyes, and the wooden buttons on the blue garment rubbing along the floor.
And then (in a very dizzy state) she sees a tall basket tucked into an alcove in the corner. There are all kinds of things hanging from the rim of the straw contraption. Suddenly the words of Mama Possum come back to her: “True performers trust their gut instinct.”
When she first heard this she had no idea what it meant. Where was your gut? And what was instinct? Mama Possum explained that your gut is the pit of your stomach. And instinct is a natural response that you know without knowing you know, and if you are a born performer in the animal kingdom (like a possum), it tells you how to play a scene. Instinct also says to never eat a wild mushroom. Or touch a black spider with a red belly. Or trust a porcupine.
Appleblossom decides that her gut instinct is telling her to get into the tall straw basket in the alcove. And so she scrambles straight to it. She grips the sides of the cylinder and it moves. She is suddenly afraid that the basket will tip over. But it only wobbles as Appleblossom climbs to the top and flings herself inside. She tumbles down through layers of cloth, soft and sweet-smelling things that she feels certain have been wrapped around the littlest monster. And then she finds herself at the bottom of the basket.
But not a moment too soon.
Because suddenly the door opens, and the littlest monster enters the room. Appleblossom stares out of a gap in the basket as the people quickly closes the door behind her. She goes right to the pile of fake furry animals.
Appleblossom watches as the little monster sucks in her breath with surprise and shouts, “Oh, NO!” She begins hunting frantically. She throws off all of the covers on her sleeping nest. She looks underneath. Appleblossom is relieved that she isn’t hiding there. The people then gets to her feet and keeps searching. She tosses all the fake fur animals as she lifts everything she can get her hands on.
The mini-monster is looking for her. And then she stops. Appleblossom sees that the monster’s eyes have landed on the black foot cover that she t
hrew across the floor.
The people is staring at the foot cover, and Appleblossom sees that there are tears of sadness in her eyes. They spill down her cheeks and fall to the floor.
And it’s not a performance, because she doesn’t know she has an audience.
Chapter 21
Izzy can’t believe the little animal is gone.
She tries to stay calm. She will keep searching the room very, very carefully. She starts in the corner and goes inch by inch. She looks under cushions and all around her big chair. She moves her furniture, including the floor lamp and the bookcase. She uncovers six dead bugs, a yellow sock, a hair ribbon, and a paper clip.
The last place Izzy looks is in her closet. She moves her shoes. She pushes back every hanger (even though she can’t imagine how the possum could get up onto the clothes). She searches the pockets of her lime-green winter jacket. Then she moves her laundry basket.
She lifts the top. She sees the pants and shirts and underwear and socks that she wore all week to school. She puts her hands in and lifts the clothing in one big clump. Nothing at the bottom of the basket.
She doesn’t see the possum holding on to a pair of jeans. The mess of stuff does seem heavy, but she is tired of searching. And so she drops it all back into the basket and slumps onto the floor.
She can’t contain her disappointment. One minute she had the most fantastic new pet and now the little creature is gone. And so are the bonnet for her doll, one of the boots for her circus monkey, and Paddington’s raincoat.
So it turns out the possum is a burglar.
Izzy picks up the little black boot and holds it in her hands. It’s like Cinderella. Only all mixed up. She slips the boot into her pocket and makes her way to the kitchen, where a very wet Columbo is rolling around on the floor in a pile of old towels. The room smells like burned toast and wet dog, which isn’t great.
Izzy takes a box of cereal from the counter and slides into the chair next to her father, mumbling, “So that was crazy. Columbo got pretty excited.”
Izzy’s mother pours herself a cup of coffee and sits down as well. “He smelled a wild animal. He knew the thing was on the roof last night. He’s smarter than he looks.”
Izzy doesn’t say that the dog is no pet detective, even if he is named Columbo. “What kind of animal do you think was up there?”
Izzy’s mom sips her coffee before answering. “Oh, we know. Your father saw them.” Izzy’s spoonful of cereal stops at the midpoint between her mouth and the bowl. She turns to her father. “What did you see?!”
She realizes she sounded too excited, because her father touches her arm and says, “It’s okay, sweetie. We’re calling the exterminator.”
Izzy’s mom adds: “Your father saw possums last night.”
Izzy exhales. “So you woke up last night and saw a possum in the house?”
Her mother is alarmed. “Goodness no!”
Her father explains. “I went outside with a flashlight after Columbo woke us up. Spotted two by the chimney. Not big ones. Probably nothing more than babies. But so ugly. Like rats, only worse.”
“I don’t think possums are ugly,” Izzy says, annoyed.
“That’s because you’ve never seen one. They’re just the worst-looking things ever.”
Izzy starts to speak again and then stops. Her little possum friend is anything but ugly. The creature has dark, shining eyes. And the most perfect nose with a pink tip. She is furry and fuzzy and smells like a wet wool sweater. But she will keep all of this to herself.
Izzy continues to chew her cereal, and then finally says, “Are you sure you need to call the exterminator? Possums are nomadic. They move from place to place. We studied them at school.”
Izzy’s mom is impressed by her daughter’s knowledge, and her smile is one of relief. “Really? I didn’t know that. So they aren’t right now building some kind of nest under the house?”
Izzy grins. “No. And they don’t build nests. I bet they heard Columbo and that’s all it took to figure out that this was no place to call home.”
Her parents look pleased.
Izzy glances over at the large, wet dog rolling on his back. He’s in some kind of battle with a towel. She sees dog hair everywhere. Columbo is a shedder. That, she silently thinks, is really his greatest skill.
Izzy puts her cereal bowl in the dishwasher, then waits until her mom and dad are both out of the kitchen before she removes a small plate from the cupboard. She goes to the refrigerator and takes out cheddar cheese, four grapes, and two small carrots. She gets a sesame cracker from the box on the counter, and then adds a piece of chocolate from the secret stash in the back of the tinfoil drawer. She pours grape juice into a little cup her mother uses for hardboiled eggs. She carries all of this into her bedroom and closes the door.
Even though it appears that her little friend is gone, there is still the possibility that the possum is hiding somewhere.
And food might be just the thing to draw her out.
Izzy gets dressed and goes to the living room, where she tells her mother she wants to visit the library. Her parents are always happy when their daughter asks to spend time with books, so after the kitchen is cleaned up (and after Izzy has made sure her KEEP OUT sign is prominently posted on her door), her mom drives her down to the public library on Jensen Road. Izzy is intent on doing research. She wants to find out everything there is to know about possums.
Chapter 22
Appleblossom looks through the gap between the woven sticks of the basket. She sees the little monster come into the den and put a plate on the floor. She smells food, and feels her stomach rumble as the tip of her nose twitches.
It might be a trick!
Mama Possum said that monsters leave offerings that are really traps. The little people walks out of the room and Appleblossom waits. And waits. She hears no dog sounds. No noise from people. Through one of the cracks in the side of the basket, she can see the food on the plate. It is driving her crazy.
Appleblossom works her way up through the pile of clothing. Once on top, she balances on the edge of the basket, then swings her body around and climbs down. It doesn’t take long before she is on the floor next to the plate of food.
All fear melts away at the first bite of the cheese. It’s delicious. She follows with a grape. Each new thing is better than the last. Her sharp little teeth make quick work of the crunchy carrots. The best part of the sesame cracker is the dark seeds that coat the crisp offering. She drinks all of the purple liquid in the cup and it is so much tastier than muddy water! Her stomach rejoices at every new swallow of goodness, but the best comes last.
Appleblossom can’t believe the taste of the dark square. Is there a way to describe this morsel of goodness? It is so sweet and smooth. It makes a green snail seem like an old pinecone seed, and every possum knows that a green snail is fantastic eating.
It isn’t long before Appleblossom has finished everything in front of her. She lifts her hat-covered head into the air and considers her next move. Something sweet-smelling is close by. She knows that she should concentrate on finding a way out of the monster house, but her escape takes a backseat to her stomach, and she scurries to the area with the sweet smells.
The smells come from an area with a water chair and two empty ponds. Appleblossom climbs up a fuzzy cloth that hangs low and leads to a tube of fresh-smelling white stuff. The goop inside is delicious! It’s tangy and tastes like the wild mint that grows in the fields by the stream. What a find! Appleblossom squeezes out all of the goodness. The white goo (with a swirl of red and green inside!) oozes over her hands, and she does her best to eat it up.
The next treasure is right there near the empty pond. Appleblossom pulls herself up the plastic curtain, paying no attention to the fact that her sharp nails poke small holes as she travels. She reaches a container and uses her opposable thu
mbs to twist the cap. It comes right off. What’s inside smells like strawberries. Appleblossom scurries down to the hard white ground and lifts the large container to her mouth and takes a swig. And then . . . ALERT. PROBLEM. BAD MOVE.
The red goop is awful! It’s not the juice of a strawberry. It is thick, foul-tasting poison. Appleblossom spits up the red slime and it comes out as a frothy mess. Her head spins. She staggers forward, moving in a weaving line around the tile floor. She doesn’t notice that the red goop is all over her feet and that she’s leaving pink footprints with every step.
Appleblossom does everything that she can to get the nasty sludge out of her mouth. The more she tries, the bigger mess she makes. She grabs the end of the white paper that dangles next to the water chair. The thin tissue spins down in a seemingly endless stream, and she uses this to clean her teeth and mouth.
She burps, and pink bubbles float into the air. She’s dizzy and she realizes that she’s going to have trouble staying on her feet. So she wobbles back to her spot in the basket. It’s a tough climb to the top, but once she reaches the rim, she happily falls into the pile of monster clothing. She then curls into a ball, pulls the hat down around her head, and holds on to her own tail. She tries to imagine that it belongs to one of her possum siblings.
And then with the taste of red slime still in her mouth, she drifts off to sleep.
Chapter 23
It is late in the afternoon when Izzy comes back into the room. She looks toward the white plate right away. All of the food is gone! This means her little visitor is still in the house. Izzy’s heart starts to pound as her eyes move around the room.
She sees something pink on the tile in the bathroom, and freezes.
Is it blood?
She moves slowly to the bathroom door. The first thing she sees is toilet paper everywhere. It crisscrosses the room from the dispenser to the toilet to the sink to the tub. There is a large clump of toilet paper next to a puddle of shampoo, which is a goopy mess on the floor. The shower curtain has puncture holes in the plastic.