“Oh no!” Liam shouted. “It is the Fat Orange Cat! Not again!” Liam grabbed Patrick and ran into the house.
The neighbor’s fat orange cat came running after them!
“Go away, Cat, go away!” Liam cried. The fat orange cat hissed and snarled and tried to grab Patrick. Liam climbed onto his daddy’s big blue chair. He held Patrick high above his head, as high as he could.
But with one leap the fat orange cat jumped onto the chair.
“Go away!” Liam cried again. He had to think of a plan quickly before the fat orange cat could snatch Patrick. With his one hand, he held onto Patrick and with the other he pulled out the last chocolate chip cookie from his pocket. He threw the cookie across the floor. It flew across the floor and out through the open door. The fat orange cat chased after the cookie.
Liam jumped down from his daddy’s chair and ran to slam the door shut behind the fat orange cat.
“Phew! That was close!” he said, putting Patrick on his favorite perch.
“Bad cat! Bad cat!” Patrick chirped, puffing out his green and red feathers. He was a very good looking parrot with a big, yellow beak.
Patrick could not fly, but he could speak. He could say many words. Some of the words were naughty words.
“How am I going to keep you safe from the fat orange cat, Patrick?” Liam asked.
“Superpowers!” Patrick chirped.
“Yes, that’s a good plan,” Liam agreed. “But how will I get superpowers?”
“Superpowers!” Patrick chirped again.
“But how, Patrick? How?”
“Superpowers! Superpowers!” Then Patrick said a naughty word.
~~***~~
“Today is the big day!” Liam declared. “Today I am going to get my superpowers!” He pushed his empty breakfast bowl away and jumped off the chair. His mommy was busy with his new baby brother.
“Come on, Patrick! Hurry up!” Liam ran to his room. He had lots to do!
“Where’s my red spider web shirt?”
He searched through the bottom drawer of his cupboard and pulled out the shirt and the blue and red pants that his uncle had given him. He pulled the shirt over his head and he pulled on his blue and red pants. He was in such a big hurry that he forgot to take off his pajama pants.
“Shoes! Where’s my shoes!” he dived into the cupboard and found his new blue rain boots.
“Shoes! Shoes!” shouted Patrick.
“How do I look, Patrick?” Liam asked. He looked at himself in the mirror. He pushed out his chest to better see the black spider web printed on the front of his shirt.
“Oops, forgot the mask!” he said. He stood on his tippy toes to reach into the top drawer. He groped around and pulled out all the hats in the drawer. His mask was nowhere to be found.
“This will have to do!” Liam picked out his favorite hat. It had stripes all over. White and grey and orange and green and blue! He pulled it down over his ears.
“Now I’m ready! Come on, Patrick!” Liam shouted as he ran from the room. “Today I’m going to get my superpowers!”
“Superpowers! Superpowers!” Patrick chirped.
~~***~~
Liam climbed up onto his daddy’s big blue chair. Right up, onto the backrest. From there, if he stretched out, he could reach the top of the big window.
Liam spread his arms wide and he stretched and stretched. Then he stretched some more and he could just get the palms of his hands to go flat against the window at the top.
“Yes, yes! I’m clinging with my superpowers!” he shouted as he jumped from the chair.
He tried to get his feet to stick to the window but one of his boots slipped off and the other one just got in the way.
“Help!” Liam shouted as he fell to the floor. “Ouch!” he cried.
“Ouch! Ouch!” Patrick repeated.
On the other side of the window they saw the neighbor’s fat orange cat staring at them. He did not blink an eye! He just stared at them with his yellow eyes.