the getaway

Previously, on Nerissa's Life:  Mason pointed to the two cloud figures now towering beside them.  Either they had grown in size, or these two were different cloud people.  Bigger cloud people.  Bigger and definitely ANGRIER, too.  And directly below where they stood, was a slowly forming pool of water.  MOUSES!

"Hoohh-boy," Seville whistled.   "Methinks this is not good."

"Oh you do, do you?" scolded Mason.  "You're thinking, now?  NOW?  Why couldn't you have been thinking before..."

"There's no time to be talking 'bout details at the mo," Seville told his sister.  "I'm sure there's more than enough blame to go around, but right now, we need to get out of here, pronto."  Grabbing Mason by the tail, he yelled, "COME ON!"

Seville made a run for the far wall, the one through which the cats had entered the room, but in doing so, he stepped in the puddle of water beneath the cloud figures, which was slowly spreading across the floor.  His right front paw slid out from underneath him.  Trying to catch his fall, he stepped in the ever growing puddle with his left front paw.  That one, too, slid out from underneath him, and before Seville knew it, he was lying on the floor with all four paws splayed out in different directions.

"Get up!  GET UP!" Mason yelled.  "You've got my tail caught under that tummy of yours."

"Hey!" Seville sharply cried.  "Is that another one of your fat jokes, Mason?"

"This is no joking matter," Mason growled.  "I can't escape because you've got hold of my tail."

"Oh.  Sorry."  Seville climbed to his paws, releasing his grasp of Mason's tail.  But mere seconds later, his paws started to slip again and once more, he was down on the floor.

Seeing Seville was once again incapacitated, Mason grabbed Seville by his tail, and started to pull.  "I can't do it!" she puffed.  "You're too heavy.  How many treats have you been eating?"

Seville screwed up his face in anger.  "Now THAT WAS a fat joke, for sure.  Those treats only have one or two calories a piece, you know.  And it's not like I'm the only one eating 'em, either.  MOUSES!"

Mason scowled.  "One or two calories adds up when you eat an entire package at a time.  They're treats, not meals.  Don't you EVER listen to the peep when she tells you stuff?"

"I listen when I need to, but the fact is, when she's talkin' about stuff I don't wanna hear, I don't need to listen."  Seville wanted to stamp a paw for emphasis, but as he was still lying face down on the floor, he could manage nothing more than a weak slapping motion.  "Awww...  MOUSES!" he growled.  "MOUSES!"

As the two cats bickered with one another, Mason noticed the shadow of the storm cloud figures looming larger.  "Seville, we need to get out of here and we need to get out of here, fast.  WORK WITH ME, WOULD YOU?  Try to climb to your paws again.  Come on, Seville...  COME ON!!!"

"I'm tryin'.  I'M TRYIN'!  I can't get a pawhold on this slippery floor, Mason.  It's too wet.  There's too much water!  The puddle is gettin' bigger and bigger!"

"THEN SWIM!" Mason cried.  "SWIM!!!  Swim for your life, Seville.  SWIM FOR YOUR LIFE!!!"

Seville attempted a few strokes of the doggy paddle, but found the puddle to be too shallow.  "It won't work," he whimpered.  "The water's not deep enough for swimmin'."  A tear rolled down his cheek and onto the floor, adding to the puddle of water beneath him.

"Try floating, then.  If you can float, maybe I can haul you by your tail.  Like a tow boat or something."  Mason grabbed Seville by his tail again and pulled, but before long, she, too, was slipping and sliding on the wet floor.  Her hind legs flew out from underneath her and she landed with a hard thump on her tail.  "OUCH!"  She rubbed her tail with a paw.  "It's no good," she moaned.  "I can't pull you away from those creatures."

Seville swallowed, hard.  "Mason, you've gotta save yourself.  Make a run for it, Sis.  Maybe...  Maybe if you can get home to the peep...  Maybe you can bring back help?  Maybe..."

"I'm not leaving you alone up here, Seville."  Mason shook her head, adamantly.  "No way, no how.  I'm not leaving you here with those cloud figures on the loose.  We're in this together," and she placed one of her paws on one of Seville's.  "We're family," she purred.  "Family doesn't leave family to fend for themselves in sticky situations."

"Actually," Seville corrected his sister, "this particular situation is more slippery, than sticky.  My gosh, if I could get my paws to stick to this here wet marble floor, I'd be able to get up and out, and...  OUCH!" he yelled as Mason smacky-pawed him in the ear.  "What happened to all your mushy talk about family?"

"Being family," growled Mason, "doesn't prevent me from giving you a good smacky-paw when needed.  In fact," she added in a whisper, "it's usually better to smacky-paw your fur-sibs than complete strangers.  Smacky-pawing strangers is frowned upon by the peeps."

"Smacky-pawing family is frowned upon, too," muttered Seville.  "Peep #1 says..."

Seville stopped short as the cloud figures' shadow darkened dramatically, directly overhead.  "Oh my mouses, Mason!  We've gotta escape or we're both done for, for sure.  We've gotta..."

Driven by both fear and desperation, along with a sudden surge of adrenalin, Seville climbed to his paws.  Balancing himself on all fours, precariously, but managing to maintain an upright position, he looked over at his sister.  "RUN!" he yelled.  "RUN!"

Miraculously, both cats managed to take one or two steps forward, but the pool of water from the cloud figures had continued to grow and Seville's third step landed him, once again, on a slippery patch.  Down he went once more, this time hitting his head, HARD, on the white marble floor.  Everything went dark and Seville wasn't sure if the cloud figures' shadow, overhead, was blotting out all the light, or if he had been knocked unconscious again.  Like when he first arrived inside the cloud.

"Seville.  Seville?  Seville, are you alright?"

Seville opened his eyes and saw Peep #1 kneeling on the ground next to him.  She was leaning over him, directly overhead, exactly where the cloud figures' shadow had been, moments before.  The peep's face looked full of worry.

"Seville, are you okay?" the peep asked, gently.

Seville managed to turn his head to his right.  He saw Mason standing there, front paws on her hips, looking worried but scowling, too.  "You NEVER listen, Seville.  You never listen.  And just LOOK at what happened to you because of it."

"What happened?" Seville managed to ask.

"That sudden gust of wind tore a tile right off the roof," the peep began.

"Oh yeah, I remember seeing that..." Seville thought aloud.  "It flew right by me, it did."

"IT DID NOT," Mason stated angrily.  "It didn't fly by you at all.  It hit you on your head, and  knocked you right out.  You've been lyin' there for ages now, unconscious.  Either that or you've been napping."

"It did?  It hit me on the head and knocked me out?" Seville asked.  "Really?"

"Really."  Mason narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips.  "The peep TOLD you to stop watering your nip plants and to come inside.  She knew there was a storm coming..  She knew you'd be a lot safer in the house, and..."

"MY NIP PLANTS!"  Seville cried as he bolted up into a sitting position.  "Are they okay?  Did they get enough water?"

"I should think so," muttered Mason.  "After you were knocked out by that roof tile, it started to rain.  It rained tonnes.  And," she added with a growl, "because the peep and I had to be out here with you while you were lying there on the ground, we both got rained on, too.  You know how I don't like the rain, Seville.  It messes up my fur."

"Oh.  Well sorry 'bout that," Seville apologised.

"You never listen, Seville.  You never listen to me or to the peep.  One of these days..."

But Seville didn't hear Mason's lecture, for at that moment, he looked up at the sky.  Off in the distance was a giant storm cloud, moving quickly eastward, and away from the cats' house.  Seville squinted at the cloud.  Was that?  Could that be?  Yes, yes it was.  It was difficult to see well, due to the growing distance between himself and the cloud, but Seville was sure he could see a young boy with poker straight hair looking out a window, from inside the cloud.  And the boy was waving at Seville.  He was waving goodbye.

"Sorry, Mason," and Seville turned his attention back to his sister.  "You were sayin'?"

"I was saying, YOU NEVER LISTEN."  Mason stamped her paws.  Turning to the peep she said, "YOU deal with him.  Maybe he'll be more inclined to listen to you.  BROTHERS," she grumbled.  "BROTHERS!"  She then stomped off toward the house.

Seville looked up at Peep #1 and shrugged his shoulders.  "What's up with her?  Do you know? MOUSES!"

an accident

Previously, on Nerissa's Life:  Seville glanced about the room.  Seeing the chaos around him, he twisted his jaw to one side.  "Hmmm..."  Noticing Mason scowling at him, he asked in an innocent voice, "WHAT?  Don't scowl at me like that, Sis.  If they didn't want me playin' with their toys, they shouldn't have left 'em out here in the open.  You know, where I'd see 'em.  And play with 'em.  And stuff.  MOUSES!"

Several of the globes that had been perched on tables prior to the cloud listing to one side, had fallen to the floor.  As the cloud eventually righted itself again, Seville watched one globe make its way across the floor, gradually coming to a stop mere inches away.  About to raise a paw and give it a good swat to send it careening off once more, he heard a loud and anguished cry.

"I said, DON'T TOUCH THAT!"

Seville followed the sound of the voice and found Jeremy lying on the floor, beneath him.

"And would you PLEASE get off me?" Jeremy whined.  "This shirt was freshly pressed this morning."

Seville smirked.  "Freshly pressed by your MOM, I bet," he chuckled.  Then, in a reassuring tone he added, "Actually, it still looks pretty pressed to me."

"More like flattened," Mason stated.  "Seville, get off Jeremy, right now.  It's not nice to squish people, you know."

Seville narrowed his eyes.  "Is that some kinda fat joke, there, Sis?  'Cause if it is..."

"Please...  PLEASE...  Please get off me," Jeremy wheezed.  "I can barely breath."

"THAT DOES IT," and Seville climbed to his paws.  "I'm gonna give you BOTH a good smacky-paw to remember, and..."

"ENOUGH!" a loud and forceful voice echoed throughout the room, emanating from all directions and thus preventing the cats from deciphering the exact whereabouts of the voice's owner.  Frozen in fear, they stared at one another.  Jeremy, however, appeared nonplussed.

"Oh no!" Jeremy cried out.  Having gotten to his feet, he reached down to pick up the globe lying closest to him on the floor.  "There's a crack," he whispered, horror evident in his voice.

Seville stood up on his hind legs to get a better look at the globe in Jeremy's hands.  "That a bad thing?" he asked the boy.  "I mean, it's just a toy, right?  I've broken lots of toys in my time.  One might even say I'm like a PROFESSIONAL toy breaker.  Peep #1 just gets me new ones.  You need my first peep to get you a new toy globe?"

Mason let out a loud sigh of exasperation.  "Seville, this is clearly more than just a toy.  Look at what happened when you made it spin, earlier."

"Oh yeah, I had forgotten 'bout that.  Well I had tried to forget about it, anyway."  Turning back to Jeremy, he asked, "So uh...  Do you think that globey thing of yours can be fixed?"

Jeremy stared down at Seville, blankly.  Mason shook her head, sadly, and sighed once more.

"Do you happen to have any superglue, about?" asked Seville.  "I'm a dab paw at workin' with superglue, you know."

"Yeah, like that time, way back when, when you super glued a marker to your butt," Mason laughed.  "That marker was stuck to your butt for days!  When you finally showed the peep, SHE HAD TO CUT IT OFF WITH THE FUR-TRIMMER!"  Tugging on Jeremy's pant leg, she added, very seriously, "Whatever you do, do NOT give Seville any superglue."

Seville scowled at his sister.  "Just ignore her," he said to Jeremy.  "That was a long time ago.  And it wasn't my fault.  It was an accident, and..."

"Yeah, an accident," Mason scoffed.  "Just like you accidentally broke the Earth."

"I DID NOT."  Seville paused.  He looked up at Jeremy holding the Earth-like globe in his hands and staring at the large crack down its side.  He watched as a tear ran down Jeremy's cheek.  "I didn't really, did I? Seville asked.  "I mean, I didn't REALLY break the Earth.  DID I?  MOUSES!"

Jeremy glanced away from the globe and down at Seville.

Seville gulped, hard.  "Ummm...  You have insurance for this sort of thing, there, Jeremy?  UMMM..."

At that moment, Mason took a swipe at Seville, smacking one of his ears.  "Heads up there, Bro."

Seville massaged the ear Mason had smacked, and glared at his sister.

Mason coughed.  Then she coughed again, only louder.

"WHAT?" hissed Seville.  "What is it this time."

Silently, Mason pointed to the two cloud figures now towering beside them.  Either they had grown in size, or these two were different cloud people.  Bigger cloud people.  Bigger and definitely ANGRIER, too.  And directly below where they stood, was a slowly forming pool of water.  MOUSES!

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Be sure to tune in this comin' Wednesday for Part V of my latest adventure.  Purrs.

don't touch that!

Previously, on Nerissa's Life:  Off in the distance, Seville thought he could see what appeared to be the end of the corridor.  Would the mysterious wizard be on the other side?  And why-oh-why did he live inside a cloud?  And more importantly, WHAT DID HE WANT WITH TWO CATS?  MOUSES!

The corridor came to a dead end but Mason clearly knew exactly where she was going.  Stepping toward the wall, she allowed one paw to disappear into its fluffy, cloud-like structure.  "Are you coming?" she called over her shoulder to Seville.  "He's waiting for us in there."

Seville watched his sister vanish, leaving nothing but pillowy soft clouds behind her.  "For mousin' out loud," he muttered.  "I'm gonna have to go in there after her, now, even though that's just about the last thing I was wantin' to do."

One of the cloud figures reached forward and poked a surprisingly sharp cloud finger in the small of Seville's back.

"Okay, okay!  You don't have to shove," Seville grumbled.  "I'm goin'.  I'm goin'!  MOUSES!"

Emerging on the far side of the wall, Seville's paw nearly slid out from underneath him as he stepped on something slippery.  Looking down, he saw a small pool of water that had formed near the wall's edge.  He looked up again and saw that he was now standing in a large room, housing a number of long tables.  Upon each table, there was a globe, carefully balanced on a pedestal, showing various weather patterns on Earth.  Due to both the room's size, and the fact that the floor and tables appeared to be made of white marble, the same colour as the cloud-like walls, the room had a somewhat stark appearance.

Mason was on the far side of the room, engrossed in an animated conversation with someone.  "Could she be talkin' to the wizard?" Seville wondered aloud.  "Could that be him?"  Trotting toward Mason, he skidded on yet another wet patch.  "Whoever thought of usin' marble floors in a cloud that rains every time you walk through a wall, was missin' a few marbles, himself," he grumbled.  "Must be the most stupid thing, ever.  That marble sure does get slippery when wet.  MOUSES!"

"There you are," Mason said, turning to Seville.  "Finally.  I'd like you to meet..."

"YOU'RE NOT A WIZARD," Seville stated.  He narrowed his eyes and wrinkled his nose.  "You look way more like a...  A...  A schoolkid or somethin'.  You don't look like a wizard at all.  Where's your robe?  Huh?  And do you even own a wand?"  Turning to his sister, he said, "Mason, I thought we were gonna meet the wizard, not some kiddo on summer holidays.  MOUSES!"

"What IS it with you and your wizards? Mason asked.  "You've been talking about wizards from the moment we got here.  Well, from the moment you woke up, anyway."

"Well I...  Awww...  Never mind," Seville scowled.  "MOUSES!"

The young boy grabbed Seville by a paw and vigorously shook it.

Seville drew back.  "Watch it," he growled.  "It's bad enough to be poked and prodded by cloud figures, but to be manhandled, too?  Or rather, kid-handled, I should say.  MOUSES!"

"I'm so sorry," the boy apologised, profusely.  "I'm sorry!"  He raked his fingers through poker-straight hair.  "It's...  It's...  It's such a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Cat.  I've waited for so long."

"You've been waitin' to meet me?" Seville asked.  "Little ol' me?" and he blushed.  "Me?"

"Of course," replied the boy.  "You're Seville the Cat."

"Well uh...  YEAH.  That is me.  So uh..."

"Enough of this mindless chitchat!" Mason exclaimed.  "We have work to do.  Jeremy, here, has been wanting to meet you because he's in need of your help, Seville.  He..."

"He is?"

"YES, HE IS."  Mason stamped a paw.  "Seville, this is going to take forever if you keep questioning everything I say."

"It will?"

"ENOUGH WITH THE STUPID QUESTIONS!" and Mason whacked Seville on his side with the end of her tail.

"Fine.  You don't have to yell.  And quit whappin' me.  It smarts as all get out," he added under his breath.  "My gosh, you're such a bossy sister.  How did I ever end up with a sister who thinks she's the boss of..."

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Jeremy yelled with horror.

"Wha?" cried Seville, taken by surprise.  He withdrew the paw he had, moments earlier, used to mindlessly spin one of the Earth-like globes precariously poised over the nearest table.

Without warning, the cloud the cats were in tilted violently to one side, causing the floor to slope, perilously.  Tables began to slide down the incline, alarm bells started to ring, Jeremy's chair, which was on wheels, crashed into the far wall, and several cloud figures materialised nearby.

Seville glanced about the room.  Seeing the chaos around him, he twisted his jaw to one side.  "Hmmm..."  Noticing Mason scowling at him, he asked in an innocent voice, "WHAT?  Don't scowl at me like that, Sis.  If they didn't want me playin' with their toys, they shouldn't have left 'em out here in the open.  You know, where I'd see 'em.  And play with 'em.  And stuff.  MOUSES!"

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Be sure to tune in this comin' Sunday for Part IV of my latest adventure.  Purrs.

where's Mason?

Previously, on Nerissa's Life:   The hand withdrew back into the cloud from whence it had come, carrying both cats along with it.  Off in the distance, Mason and Seville could hear Peep #1 calling their names once more.  Seville felt a tear roll down his cheek as he listened to the peep's cries growing fainter and fainter by the second.  Would he and his sister ever see Peep #1 again?


"Oof.  OUCH!  Watch it there, buddy.  Just who do you think you are?"

In response, the cloud figure pushed Seville once more, causing him to stumble over his front paws.

"I'm tellin' ya," Seville growled, "one more shove like that, and things 'round here are gonna get REALLY messy.  MOUSES!"

Seville studied the corridor down which he was being led.  The walls were padded with white and dark grey clumps of something familiar.  "Clouds.  That's what they are," he murmured to himself.  "The walls look like the edges of a cloud.  I must be inside the storm cloud."

Now remembering exactly what had happened earlier when the giant hand had grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, pulling Seville and his sister into the belly of the cloud, he looked about for Mason.  "Hey.  You.  Yeah, YOU!" he said to the cloud figure.  "Where's my sister Mason?  I want to see Mason right now."

Getting no response from the cloud figure but another shove forward, Seville reached a paw out to touch one of the corridor walls.  Although the wall looked solid, it wasn't, and his paw went straight through, disappearing behind white foam.  Withdrawing his paw, he noticed a small puddle form on the floor, directly below the spot he had touched.

"Uh, just so you know there, buddy...  I didn't do that.  Well, I kinda did do that, but what I really mean is, I DIDN'T DO what you might think I did.  That there's water on the floor.  Nothin' yellow 'bout it.  MOUSES!"

The cloud figure remained silent but pushed Seville forward once more, apparently just for good measure.

"So uh...  So is this here some kinda Wizard of Oz sorta thing?  You know, like when Dorothy and Toto were transported off to the Land of Oz?  TAKE ME TO THE WIZARD!" Seville chuckled, thrusting a paw into the air.  "First though, I want you to take me to my sister.  Where is she?  I WANNA SEE MY SISTER, AND I WANNA SEE HER NOW."

Grabbing Seville by the shoulder, the cloud figure brought the cat to a stop.  The billowy hand pulled back on Seville's right shoulder ever-so-slightly, forcing him to face the right wall.  It then pushed Seville toward it.

Just as Seville's paw had gone straight through the cloud-like wall earlier, he found his entire body could pass through the wall, and before he knew it, he and the cloud figure were standing in a room, completely empty, save for a large, golden, throne-like chair.  And on that chair sat...

"MASON!" Seville cried, excitedly, as he ran forward to where his sister sat.  Giving Mason a huge hug, he asked, "Oh my mouses, Mason, is it really you?  I was so worried 'bout you.  What are you doin' here in this room?"

Seville took a step back.  "Mason...  MASON.  Mason, are you like this cloud's wizard?  I mean, I jokingly asked the storm guy here to take me to the wizard, and where he brought me was straight to you.  MOUSES!"

Mason grinned from ear to ear.  "This place is great, Seville.  You ask for nip, and do you know what you get?  NIP!  I asked for a big plate of it, earlier, and you should have seen what they brought me.  The service here is incredible.  It's like a five star hotel!  These storm guys really know how to treat a cat right."

"Maybe for you," Seville grumbled, "but I haven't been treated all that well.  They've just been shovin' me around.  And I haven't been given a single nip leaf since we arrived, and boy-oh-boy could I ever do with some.  And..."

Seville interrupted himself by scratching behind an ear with a paw.  "Mason, just how long have we been in this here storm cloud, anyway?  You've had time to chow down on an entire plate of nip?  REALLY?  I thought we just arrived."

Mason waved Seville's worries off with a paw.  "Oh, we've been here for ages.  Couple of hours, at least.  You were unconscious when we first arrived."

"UNCONSCIOUS!" Seville cried out, indignantly.  "I MOST CERTAINLY WAS NOT."

"Well then you must have been napping," Mason stated.  "I had assumed you had knocked your head on something on the way up here, but maybe you simply decided to take a nap."  She scowled.  "I know you like your naps, but everything has a time and place, and.."

"FINE.  I was unconscious, then."  Seville looked about before asking, "So uh...  You think I could get some of that nip, too?"

"Probably not," Mason answered, wiping a little nip juice from the corner of her mouth.  "Now that you're awake, they'll," and she pointed to two cloud figures hovering near where Seville had been pushed through the wall, earlier, from the corridor, "They'll want to take us to see..."

"The wizard?" queried Seville.

Mason narrowed her eyes.  "Wizard?  WIZARD?  What is it with you and wizards, today?  No, they'll want to take us to see..."  Mason coughed, and lowering her voice she added, "You know, him."

"Who's him?  I mean, he?  You know what I mean."  It was now Seville's turn to lower his voice.  "And why are you suddenly whispering?"

"I don't know," Mason answered with a sing-song voice.  Hopping down from the chair, or throne, or whatever it was, she pawed her way across the room toward the cloud figures.  "Let's go," she told them.  "It's time for Seville and me to meet..."

"WHAT THE MOUSES ARE YOU DOIN'?" Seville yelled, grabbing his sister by the tail.  "You can't just waltz around here with these cloud people things.  For starters, they're pushy as all get out," he told her, rubbing the back of one shoulder where he had earlier received a particularly hard push.  "Plus, they don't answer any of your questions.  Actually, they don't appear to talk at all!"  Seville stepped back and looked closely at his sister.  "Mason, are you still high from that plate of nip they gave you?  Huh?  HUH?  HUH?  Well, ARE you?"

Mason waved off her brother's questions.  "All will be answered in good time.  Come on," and she grabbed Seville by a paw.  "It's time for us to go meet this wizard."

"Wizard.  WIZARD.  I KNEW IT!  I knew there was some kinda wizard lurkin' about 'round here," Seville muttered.

Moments later, Seville found himself being dragged through the cloud wall once more.  He and Mason were now heading down the very same long corridor he had travelled along before, but this time Mason was leading the way, instead of the cloud figures pushing him forward.  Seville did his best to keep a healthy distance between himself and the cloud people, just in case one decided to reach forward and give him another prod.

Off in the distance, Seville thought he could see what appeared to be the end of the corridor.  Would the mysterious wizard be on the other side?  And why-oh-why did he live inside a cloud?  And more importantly, WHAT DID HE WANT WITH TWO CATS?  MOUSES!

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We interrupt our regular programming for...

CANADA DAY!

As Canada Day falls on Nerissa's Life's next scheduled publishing day, Part III of our story won't be available this Sunday.  Instead, it will be broadcast, live, on Wednesday July 4th.  Please be sure to tune in, then.  MOUSES!