Kitty Tree

[Maybelle Marriot]

Maybelle enjoyed the outdoors and when she was at home, she even enjoyed sometimes climbing trees. She had been told that it was bad form to do so at school though. Or really, anywhere, but at least she wouldn't cause embarrassment doing it in the privacy of the Marriots backyard. 

At any rate, Maybelle's kitten was stuck up in a tree. Her current dress was not conducive to tree climbing and she was certain that her aunt would not appreciate yet another torn dress, no matter how noble the reason was.

The turquoise cat that she had gotten as a kitten in Christmas 1885 was utterly content according to her yellow paws so Maybelle was at a loss of what to do. "Please come down, Turquoise. I'll give you a treat if you do," she called up to the cat.

She briefly considered the levitation spell before deciding that she didn't want to risk it.

  

[Alfred Bott]

On weekends, Alfie didn't always have much to do. His friends had homework to do or tests to study for- which he would do too if he could hold a quill or flip through a book. He was a good reader. He really was, and he always paid attention in class. Still, as nobody had time to turn the pages of a book for him or take dictation on an essay, homework was out of the question for him. That's why he usually went home to London for the weekends and saw Betsy or Papa. This this week, however, Papa had already told him it was out of the question. It was Billy's birthday, so Betsy would be staying with Papa and Mummy Lydia, but, as usual, Mummy Lydia didn't want him there.

That meant he spent a fair bit of time since classes ended on Friday floating around the grounds, looking for someone who wasn't too busy for him. He usually found at least one if he asked everyone he saw who didn't seem to be studying, and who he knew wasn't bothered by him to begin with. He had also long since learned his lesson that girls and boys alone together weren't good candidate for a conversation, so when he's come across two of them behind the greenhouse, he'd just floated by without a word.

The next girl he came across, though, didn't seem to have any male company as far as he could tell. Indeed, when he'd first spotted her across a rather large stretch of grass, she'd seemed to be talking to a tree. Well, she must have been very lonely, then. Surely, she wouldn't mind a little bit of company.

When he got closer, and started to overhear some of what she was saying, it became clear that she wasn't really talking to the tree, but to something in the tree which she wanted to come down. One glance upwards told him that the something which she was talking to was most likely an odd-looking, bluish-greenish cat with yellow paws perched up in the branches.

She may have wanted it to come down, but it didn't seem to feel the same. It seemed quite content up there, licking at one yellow paw and flicking its tail back and forth as cats did. "I can scare it down if you want." He offered the girl after an attempt at garnering her attention by tapping her shoulder, which sent his finger plunging halfway into her back. Floating up would be no trouble for him, and, if the cat wasn't actually scared just by seeing him, he could always float through it and make it seems so cold it wanted to leave.

  

[Maybelle Marriot]

Maybelle looked at the boy - he was a ghost but still a boy in her eyes - offered to scare her cat out of the tree. "No, thank you," she said. "I don't want her terrified but perhaps if you floated close enough to her and just out of her reach, she might try coming after you?"

She was pretty sure that her kitty had never seen a ghost before but she doubted that it would be scared. Curious, though, it almost definitely would be. Hopefully enough to chase after the ghost.