Gabby Duran and the Unsittables Read Online Free PDF Page B

tablet and met Lisa’s eyes just long enough to communicate that the interruption was most unappreciated. Then she gazed down again. Lisa
went back to pacing and chewing on screws. John stopped drinking, but he nervously dangled his eyes in and out of their sockets.
    Finally, Edwina’s tablet beeped.
    “It is time,” she said.
    “Oh, thank goodness,” Lisa gushed. She raced for the basement door and flung it open. The cat was right there. It stood on its back legs and had one of its front paws raised, as if
it had been about to knock on the door itself.
    “Good, you’re here,” the cat said in a sweet feminine drawl, “’Cause believe me, y’all don’t want to miss this.”
    Remaining on her back legs, the cat led Lisa, John, and Edwina down the stairs. As they turned the corner, Lisa gasped. The basement was a shambles. The sky-blue walls were riddled with dents,
patches of carpet were shredded to bits, and several beanbag chairs had been ferociously gutted, their innards spilled across the floor.
    John put a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “We’re too late,” he intoned.
    “For the love of Zinqual, will you please keep moving?” Edwina asked sharply. When the parents wouldn’t, Edwina sighed and pushed her way past them until she’d fully
descended the stairs and could take in the entire room.
    “Shhh,” Gabby said. “He’s napping.”
    Gabby sat in the one intact beanbag chair. In one hand she held a copy of
Better Homes and Gardens
. With her other she stroked the back of Philip’s gelatinous head, which lay in her
lap. The rest of his body sprawled across the floor.
    “We were playing his favorite game,” she whispered to Edwina. “He got really into it—tired him right out, so I read him stories until he fell asleep.” She indicated
the magazine. “He said he likes this one because it’s scary: ‘Top Ten Ways to Eradicate Slugs.’” Gabby shuddered. “Gave us the shivers too, right,
Vondlejax?”
    The cat had made her way to Gabby’s side and leaned one elbow on the beanbag chair. “You know it, honeylamb. My tail was so far between my legs I could’ve tickled my own
chin!”
    Gabby laughed, then turned to Philip’s parents. “I’m so sorry about the furniture. It’s my fault. I have to admit I got a little nervous when he first…you
know.”
    “A little?” Vondlejax teased. “Sweetcheeks, I thought I’d have to run you to my litter box!”
    Gabby let out an embarrassed laugh. “A lot nervous. Pretty completely terrified, to be honest.” Then she turned to the cat. “You didn’t exactly help.”
    “I declare, I most certainly did! I shouted right out, ‘Don’t you panic! Every little thing’s gonna be just peaches and cream!’”
    Gabby tilted her head and looked at Vondlejax. The cat cleared her throat.
    “…which I suppose might have been a teensy weensy shock,” Vondlejax admitted, “seein’ as you thought I was an ordinary house cat.”
    “I
did
panic,” Gabby said apologetically to Philip’s parents, “and I ran and knocked into some things.…I may have even screamed a little.…”
    “You think?” Vondlejax hooted.
    “But then…” Lisa stammered, “how did you…”
    John finished for her. “What changed?”
    “Well,” Gabby said, “before Philip…altered himself, he said he wanted to play a game. So even though I was really scared when he was chasing me, I realized that’s
what it was to him, a game. But it wasn’t a nice game, you know? I mean, he might look like a monster—sorry—but that doesn’t mean he is one. He’s just a kid. And
it’s kind of awful that he knows someone like me who’s supposed to take care of him is going to run away screaming. It made me really sad.”
    Lisa sniffled loudly. “That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever heard a human say,” she sobbed. John handed her a tissue, and she blotted the tears that trickled from her
elbow.
    “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet,” Vondlejax said as she