It was dark when they got to the pet store which was still open. The lady with the white hair and blue eyes was still there, though Merlin was not perched on her head. While Dad explained that they wanted to buy a pet rat, and all the suggested accessories to go with it, Fiona wondered if the bird ever pooped when sitting on the lady’s head.
Aerya stood by Rumple Dumple’s cage, whispering to the animal. The lady with white hair got a cage, a book, a water bottle from the items hanging on pegs, a bag of food, a bag of wood chips, a wheel for the rat to run in, a house, and a food bowl. When she announced the grand total of $150, Fiona watched as Dad winced, and then paid. That was a lot of money. You could buy an iPod, and still have some money left over to buy music. She hoped that Rumple Dumple appreciated the cost of freedom.
Rumple apparently understood whatever Aeyra said, because the white haired lady had no trouble getting him into a cardboard box with holes. The lid folded together and made a handle. Fiona carried the rat, grinning at Dad, and peeking in through the holes from time to time. Aerya carried the big bag of wood chips, even though it was almost as large as she was. Dad carried everything else, all of it contained in the cage. He was happy, glad to be a part of something so nice for Fiona. As she smiled back, Fiona felt just a little bit bad, and tried not to think about that feeling.
At home, they quickly got the cage prepared for Rumpy. Aerya coaxed the rat from his box, and sat on the bed, lightly stroking him between the ears while Fiona and her dad put wood chips in the cage and placed his little house. Then Fiona sat on the bed with Rumpy while Aerya went into the bathroom to fill the water bottle. When the cage was ready, Fiona gently put Rumpy in, and closed the door. Aerya whispered something, and the rat sat up, squeaked, and wiped his whiskers.
“There you have it, your new pet,” said Dad, thumbing through the book on rat care. “This book has a lot of good information, Fiona. You need to read this so you can take good care of Rumple Dumple.”
“I will, Dad, I will. And Aerya is going to help me, too.”
“Yes, Mr. Dad, I will lend a hand.”
“I know that Rumple Dumple seems like a friendly addition, however, he isn’t a dog, or a cat. He’s a rat, and you should not let him roam around your room.”
“Why not?” Fiona pushed a strand of hair out of her face and looked at her dad, a little puzzled.
“Rats have teeth which always grow, and that means they have to gnaw.”
As if he was listening, Rumpy started gnawing at the tube to his water bottle.
“If he is loose in your room, you might find he chews on things. He might even gnaw a hole through the wall, and go inside the walls to explore.” Dad nodded like a rat expert.
“Oh, I see,” said Fiona.
“Also, Rumple Dumple doesn’t know where he is supposed to go to the bathroom. You don’t want him doing that on the floor, do you?” Dad shook his head with authority.
Rumpy chose that minute to demonstrate just what Dad had explained. Fiona looked at her father, and wrinkled her nose.
“Eeew!”
“Good. You can take him out and handle him. In fact, the book says you should do that every day to keep him tame. However, he’s got to go back in the cage when you aren’t holding him. Oh, and you should keep treats to a minimum.”
“We will, Daddy, we will.”
“Alright, now, girls, it is time to get ready for bed.”
After brushing their teeth, Fiona and Aerya said their goodnights, and went back to their bedroom.
“Don’t keep that light on past 9:30!” called Dad behind the two girls shuffling down the hallway, Fiona in her puppy slippers, Aerya wearing bunnies.
“We won’t!” called back Fiona.
Once inside the bedroom, they immediately took Rumpy from his cage, set him on the bed (after laying down a towel) and Aerya poured out the handful of crackers she took from the kitchen. Fiona added some almonds swiped from the refrigerator. Rumpy squeaked, grabbed a cracker, and chewed vigorously. Half way through the cracker, he dropped it, and picked up an almond. He ate the entire nut, then went back to the cracker.
“What does he think about this?” asked Fiona.
“Rumpy says that he is thankful for all we have done. He is ready to go find his family.” Aerya arranged the crackers in a semi-circle around the nibbling rat.
“Aerya, tell him he has to wait a couple of days”
“Why?”
“Because we just got him! My dad spent $150 dollars for all of this!” Fiona tried not to be exasperated with Aerya; still, hadn’t Fiona explained to the fairy princess the need for a plan?
“I am sure that Rumpy’s family will always remember that.” Aerya tickled Rumple Dumple under his chin. Rumpy’s cheeks bulged with cracker crumbs.
“That’s not the point. I have to figure out a way to explain to my dad why Rumpy is missing. I haven’t thought of anything yet.”
Aerya took a cracker, bit into it, and said,
“Why not tell him the truth?”
“News flash, Aerya - humans can’t talk to rats! Except for Dr. Doolittle.” Fiona held out an almond for Rumple Dumple. He sniffed it, then went back to eating a cracker.
“Then why don’t we go see Dr. Doolittle, and let him explain it to your father?” The obvious solution was so clear, it annoyed Aerya a little that Fiona hadn’t thought of it herself.
“Dr. Doolittle is just in movies.”
“Oh, like the people in the mirrors you showed me. I understand.”
“They are called DVDs -” Fiona stopped, not ready to try and explain how television worked again. “Dr. Doolittle is make believe, which means he doesn’t exist.”
“Like fairies?”
This was a good point. Aerya herself was a fairy princess, unable to get back to her world. Fiona once told Aerya that humans did not think fairies exist, and therefore, they had to tell everyone that Aerya was from another country. Still, fairies were not supposed to exist, and they did. Maybe Dr. Doolittle - ? No.
“That’s different, Aerya. Listen, just tell Rumpy that he has to hold on for a couple more days, and that I’ll think of something. At least he isn’t in the pet store.”
Rumpy squeaked at the mention of the pet store, and Fiona had the strange sense that the rat understood her. Aerya whispered to Rumpy, who nodded, stuffed a nut into his mouth, and began wandering around on the towel.
“What is he doing?” asked Fiona.
Aerya shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know - he doesn’t tell me everything.”
Rumpy went to the bathroom, answering the question. Fiona squealed at this, and jumped from the bed. She was back in a moment with a long streamer of toilet paper to clean up after Rumpy.
“No, Rumpy, you don’t do that on the bed!”
Rumpy’s cheeks were puffed with food as Aerya carefully put the rat back into the cage.
A kitten, or a pony, were pets that Fiona had actually thought about having. A rat, on the other hand? Not even once. Still, as she sat in class the next day, she thought about Rumpy. He had smooth, soft fur, and a cute way of wiping his whiskers. As far as rats went, he seemed like a friendly example. When she told Mrs. Rohl-LaFayette about her new pet, Ms. L shuddered at the thought, and that was kind of nice.
That night, Fiona told her dad some of what she learned in the book, while Aerya sat with Rumpy on her lap, brushing him with the Huckleberry Baby’s brush. Since the Huckleberry Baby only had 3 strands of yarn hair left, she didn’t need a brush any more. Rumpy held still as she brushed, and when Aerya slipped him a piece of swiss cheese, he quivered. Rumpy ran around on the table while they did their homework. Fiona wondered if anyone ever explained that the reason they didn’t have their homework was because a rat ate it. Rumpy only went to the bathroom on the table twice. Fiona got the evidence cleaned up right away, before Dad could see what happened. Then it was time for bed, and the three of them went into Fiona’s room to go to sleep.
“Good night, Rumpy.” Fiona pursed her lips, and Rumpy poked his nose up for the kiss. Aerya gave Rumpy a kiss too, whispering to him. Fiona turned off the light, and as the two girls lay in the double bed, she told Aerya what she considered for ideas to get Rumpy free, and why they wouldn’t work. Aerya listened politely, and fell asleep without a sound.
Fiona got out of the bed and went to Rumpy’s cage. He came out of his house, and peeked out at her, his dark eyes shining bright in the night. He moved to the other side of his cage, the side that faced the window, and stuck his nose out, sniffing the air, wriggling his whiskers, squeaking softly.
“You really miss everyone, don’t you, Rumpy?”
Fiona stroked his head with her finger, said good night again, and got into bed. She had to think of something to help him get free.
At school the next day, everyone asked if Fiona was going to bring Rumpy to class. Mitchell said that he saw a rat in a jar with a yellowish liquid. Shara said that rats were unclean, and she wouldn’t touch it unless she could wash her hands. Maggie said that rats were really smart, and misunderstood. She hoped to meet Rumpy, and that she wouldn’t wash her hands because she knew that Rumpy would be clean. Maggie raised her eyebrows in Fiona’s direction, and Fiona remembered that she still hadn’t read Maggie’s note. She shook her head, and Maggie rolled her eyes in a ‘why not?’ look.
Neil explained that rats carried disease, and that killed a whole bunch of people a long time ago. Sammy asked how rats could carry disease, since they didn’t have any way to carry it. This provoked a long discussion about other animals who carried disease, and it was decided that kangaroos most likely carried disease because they had a pouch to put it in. Lacking a pouch, it would not be easy to carry a disease, and rats were probably just innocent victims. Dakota thought the whole discussion was stupid, that kangaroos couldn’t cause the plague because there were no kangaroos in Europe. This settled the discussion, until Maggie pointed out that zoos had kangaroos.
When they got home that evening, Fiona stopped to go to the bathroom. Aerya went on to the bedroom, her pink backpack dragging behind her on tiny wheels. When Fiona went to the bedroom, Aerya was not there. Probably getting a snack, she thought, going over to Rumple Dumple’s cage. Then she stopped, her mouth falling open.
The door was open, and the cage was empty!
Oh, snap!
“Aerya!” she called.
Fiona heard the backdoor close, and a minute later, Aerya came into the room.
“Did you call me?”
“Oh, Aerya, tell me you didn’t.” Fiona was shaking her head.
“Didn’t what?”
“Aerya - where is Rumpy?” Fiona had her hands on her hips, and her words were clipped.
Aerya smiled. Her bright smile made her long black hair seem darker.
“He is finally free.”
“Aerya!” Fiona raised her hands and looked up at the ceiling.
“We promised him that he would go back to his family. I thought it was time to keep our promise.”
“Aerya!” Fiona now had her face in her hands, shaking her head.
“What?”
Fiona almost said, “I’m going to miss him.” Instead, she stopped, then continued again.
“What is Dad going to say when he finds out Rumpy is gone?”
Aerya cocked her head to one side, and twirled a finger through her hair, thinking.
“I don’t know. What will he say?”
“He’s going to flip! He said not to leave the door open.” Fiona was pulling her hair in exasperation. Sometimes Aerya seemed totally clueless.
“Maybe he’s forgotten about Rumpy?” Aerya sounded relaxed, sitting on the bed, arranging a couple of stuffed animals. Fiona closed her eyes and clenched her hands into fists. Both girls jumped when Dad spoke.
“Hi, girls! I got something special just for Rumpy - where is he?” Dad’s voice went from warm to a totally different tone at the end of the sentence. It was a tight, strangled tone that had trouble at the core.
Fiona was frozen. She hadn’t heard her father come down the hall, carrying a chew treat for Rumpy. She hadn’t even had time to close the door to the cage. She was just standing, caught in a room with a wheel, a house, a water bottle, a food bowl, and a rat cage that had no rat. In addition, there was that tight, strangled tone in Dad’s voice when he said ‘where is he?’ Fiona felt like she had swallowed a big stone.
“Hi, Mr. Dad!” Aerya was as cheerful as ever as she looked at Fiona’s father.
“Not now, Aerya. Fiona, where is Rumple Dumple?”
Fiona’s mouth opened, and out came a squeak. On the one hand, she wished Aerya would say something to solve the problem. On the other hand, she prayed she could say something before Aerya made the problem worse. If Aerya said that Fiona wanted Rumpy just to let him go - Fiona didn’t think there were enough dishes to wash to make up for that error. Fiona squeaked again, and then found her voice.
“He’s gone, Daddy! I just came in and found the cage open.”
As lies go, this was a good lie because it did mirror the actual situation. As long as Dad didn’t ask if Fiona knew why Rumpy was missing, she wasn’t too far from the truth. The stone in her stomach felt much, much heavier now. Watching Dad, Fiona promised herself that she would never lie to Dad again. He was shocked at first, his face frozen with wide eyes and his mouth open a little. Then Dad moved into solution mode.
“Alright, girls, we need to find Rumpy - we need to find him, right now.”
Dad set the chew stick on the cage, and turned to Aerya and Fiona, who were standing still, amazed that the story was accepted without any challenge.
“Aerya, you start by looking in the hallway. Check for any signs that Rumpy went down there. Fiona, I’ll help you look in the bedroom. We need to get everything up off the floor so we can look along the wall . . . “
It might have been better to just tell Dad that Rumpy was free, scurrying along the yards and gutters of Frederick to find his missing family. Fiona didn’t. Instead, she started picking up the things from the floor, and stacking them on her bed. Dad was a grown up, with important, grown up things to do. Fiona was sure he wouldn’t spend that much time looking for Rumpy.
Fiona made two important discoveries. The first was that Aerya somehow understood that it was best to be quiet. Could she hear Fiona’s thoughts? Did she catch the look from Fiona, the ‘whatever you do, be quiet’ look? However she got the message, Aerya did not offer any explanations to Dad. She just searched wherever Dad told her to look.
The second discovery Fiona made was that when a rat gets loose in the house, finding the creature is the top priority for adults. After searching Fiona’s room (including Fiona’s assignment to go under the bed, with a flashlight, to look for Rumpy) they checked Fiona’s mattress, the clothes hamper, and each drawer in the dresser. They searched the closet, and every other possible place where Rumpy could hide.
There was a break for supper (BLT sandwiches and clam chowder from a can), and then the search continued. They went room by room, with Dad trying to think like a rat to imagine where he would go if the door of the cage popped open. With no prompting by Fiona, Dad concluded that when Rumpy was exploring his cage, the door popped open. Presented with an open door, Rumpy just followed his curious nose. The question was - where?
When they finished searching the kitchen, even Dad looked tired.
“Fiona and Aerya, thank you for working so hard to find Rumpy. I’m not sure where he is; he’ll be fine for a couple of days, and we’ll find him, won’t we?”
“I’m sure we will.” Fiona wiped a bit of dust way from the corner of her eye. “Daddy?”
“Yes, Fiona?” Dad had various flecks from dust bunnies on his pants and shirt.
“Thanks for helping me to look for Rumpy. I really appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. Alright, you two, brush your teeth, and off to bed.”
They soon were in the bed, where Fiona discussed the matter with Aerya. Aerya wondered how long Dad would search. Fiona said she didn’t know, and she felt bad that her Dad was looking so hard for Rumpy when Rumpy was set free. Why don’t we tell him, asked Aeyra? Trust me, said Fiona, you don’t want to do that. They soon fell asleep.
The next day, after school, Dad had Fiona empty all the cabinets in the kitchen, searching for any sign of Rumpy. Aerya was sent along the baseboards to search for a hole Rumple Dumple could use to get into the walls. Fiona wondered why it was so bad to have a rat in the walls. A beaver might eat the wood, but a rat? And of course, you wouldn’t want a kangaroo, because kangaroos could carry disease in their pouch. The search went on for the entire evening.
That night, Fiona told Aerya that she thought her dad would keep looking until they found Rumpy, or -. Or what, asked Aerya? I just got an idea, said Fiona. I think I found a way out of this. We’ll work on it tomorrow.
The next day was Friday. When they got home from school, Fiona sent Aerya off to get the masking tape. Fiona emptied a shoe box that had been, at different times, a boat, a barn, and a bed. Next, it was time to choose a shoe.
She picked up a pair of plastic shoes that hadn’t fit her for several years. One shoe was too light, but two shoes, that would weigh too much, and they might move in the box. She picked up a sneaker - that was close to Rumpy’s weight. How about this red, patent leather shoe, too small to wear?
What are you doing, asked the red, patent leather shoes?
Hush, said the sneakers, you are too small.
We are just delicate, that’s all! said the red, patent leather shoes.
You would warp her toes and give her bunions, replied the sneakers.
She would be so elegant in us!
She liked us better! This was the high heel plastic shoes.
What are y’all chatterin’ on about? The snow boots were awake now.
Go back to sleep, you big, clumpy things!
No need to be mean, drawled the snow boots. Winter’s comin’ and Fiona’ll need us. We keep her feet warm better’n any of you.
Oh puh-lease, sneered the sneakers. You are so heavy, she can’t even pick you up when she walks!
And you probably give her onions, added the plastic high heel shoes.
That’s bunions, not onions. The sneakers were a little snotty, since they were the only shoes that regularly went to school.
Hey, what are you doing with him?! It was the left red, patent leather shoe. Why are you putting him in the shoebox?
Goodbye, my love! called the right red, patent leather shoe.
Hearing these words, the left red, patent leather shoe began to sob.
“Oh, shut up!” snapped Fiona, closing the door to the closet. Aerya was standing in the doorway, holding the tape.
“Who are you talking to, Fiona?”
“No one. Here, take this.” Fiona handed Aerya the shoe. Aerya took it. “Do you think that weighs the same as Rumpy?”
Aerya held the shoe in her right hand.
“I think, yes, it does.” She moved the shoe to her left hand.
“No, wait, it feels heavier. Hold on a moment.”
Aerya moved the shoe back to her right hand.
“I think it is lighter than Rumpy - just a second.”
The shoe went back to Aerya’s left hand.
“No, the shoe is heavier - then again, maybe not . . .”
Aerya passed the shoe from hand to hand, then finally held it in both hands at the same time.
“It’s pretty close.”
“THANK YOU!” Fiona grabbed the shoe, wrapped it in a scarf, and put it into the shoe box. Next, she wrapped tape around edge of the lid, and then wrapped the tape around the box like a ribbon. “That should do nicely. Here, Aerya, hold this.”
Aerya held the box.
“Alright, it’s a box.”
“Nope, it’s Rumpy.”
Aerya looked surprised.
“He’s in here? That’s wonderful, Fiona - you found him!”
“No, Aerya, he’s not in there. That’s just my shoe. It weighs about as much as Rumpy. When Dad comes back, I’m going to tell him that we found Rumpy, and he was dead.”
“Dead?!” Aerya held the box out as far as she could reach. Fiona touched the box with her fingers.
“Aerya, it is only a shoe. Rumpy is gone, remember? We are going to pretend that Rumple Dumple is dead, and in the box. We’ll show this to my Dad, and then ask if we can have a funeral for Rumpy.”
“A funeral?”
“That’s where you dig a hole to bury someone who died.” Fiona sat on the edge of the bed, feeling like she had swallowed another big stone.
“You plant your dead in the ground?” Aerya was eying the box, which she still held.
“Yes.” Fiona flopped back onto the bed. Her stomach definitely hurt.
“Do they grow again?” asked Aerya.
Fiona pursed her lips as her eyes looked to the left.
“I don’t know. Mostly not. Anyway, we’ll bury the shoe, and Dad will think it is Rumpy, and this will be over.”
“What if it comes back?” Aerya sat down on the bed beside Fiona, holding the box on her lap. Fiona sat up.
“Rumpy?”
“The shoe.”
“Oh, well, that’s okay. I’ll put it back in the closet with the rest of them.” said Fiona, In her mind, she could hear the shoes talking.
You’re taking him out to bury him? That stinks!
Yeah! I hope you never wear us again, chimed in the plastic, high heeled shoes that caused onions, or bunions.
The sneakers were quiet, having learned in school that silence can be the safest plan.
The snow boots were asleep again, making a low, rubbery snore.
The left red, patent leather shoe sobbed. Take me instead! Let him go - he’s got to much life left in him!
Shut - up! thought Fiona in response to the chorus from the shoes. She sighed, and flopped back on the bed, her hands rubbing her stomach.
-- End Pt. 2 --
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