Hidden Kittens

The two children were hunched down under the old stairs leading to the back door. Before them was a dilapidated, old box containing a worn, old, wool blanket, a mother cat, and three tiny kittens. As they crouched balancing on their toes over the box and watching the nursing kittens, they heard their names called out by Debbie, their little sister. Steve, the oldest, looked accusingly at his younger brother, Rob.

Quick to his own defense, Rob whispered, “I never told anyone.”

Debbie seemed to know right where they were hidden, calling out their names, “I’m going to tell Mom on you, Steve and Rob.”

Steve, glaring at his younger brother, asked, “Oh yeah? Then who did?”

Rob fearfully started to back away from the box and his brother, responding, “How should I know?”

Steve gathered up the corners of the blanket and tucked them inside to keep the kittens warm and safe, both boys hurrying to hide the cat and her kittens. Rob started to explain again that he hadn’t told anyone.

“Shut up! Someone’s coming.” Steve warned Rob.

Just then, the screen door screeched as it opened, their mother stepping out on the porch blocking the slanted lines of afternoon sun streaking through the floorboards.

“Debbie where are your brothers?” Mother asked, more interested in the flowers in the window box than the little girl.

Debbie slowing in her advance on the two hidden under the porch veers off to the tree swing and sings out, “I dunno.”

Her mother, drying her hands on a towel responds, “Find Steven, and tell him he has to do his homework.” Debbie nods as she again fastens her eyes on the two boys under the stairs.

Rob begins to realize that Debbie knows where they are, but not necessarily about the kittens and asks Steve, “How are we going to keep Debbie from mauling the babies.”

Steven, in a huff crawls to the loose boards framing the stairs the entrance to their hidden cave, and whispers, “It’s not my problem,” he turns to his brother and says, “I have homework to do.”

Rob, reaches for the box, and starts to drag it further back under the house. With genuine concern about the kittens, he tells his exiting brother, “You’re gonna be sorry.”

Steve intercepts his aggressive little sister, picks her up, playfully tosses her over his shoulder, and carries her into the house saying, “Mom wants you to come in too.” Steve’s voice trails off as he opens the screen door, “Did you know about the big, hairy, spiders that live under the house?”