Lucretia and the Kroons

15

Loochie moved across the last of the meadow quickly. She found the living room wall and slapped at it like it was the side of a favorite dog. She reached the hole, the one Pit had bashed open when he first chased her. Loochie wanted to climb right through, but she was too big. Loochie tapped at the living room wall, making her way back toward the walkway that would lead around to the kitchen.

A great screech rang out behind her. Loochie whipped her head back. In the far distance she saw the grounds had returned to the way they’d been before the rain. The meadows of half-dead grass, the row of trees. From Loochie’s position the trees appeared small. And even smaller was the figure lumbering out from between them. It was so thin. It screeched again. The figure staggered forward, trying to run but clearly weak, maybe injured. It fell and pushed itself up. Loochie squinted. Was it Alice? She couldn’t tell. It could be Pit. It barked now. It ran toward her.

Loochie booked it down the walkway. She passed the door that was half off its hinges. From inside she heard, once again, the flapping of a thousand little wings. The flying rats in their lair.

Loochie entered the kitchen. She ran to the window. She felt a chilled winter breeze, fresh air, on her face. She heard heavy footsteps beating down the hallway floor. Alice, or Pit, was close behind.

Loochie didn’t climb out the window. She practically flew.

She was on the fire escape in a T-shirt and jeans in December and didn’t feel the cold. She was too zapped with terror. She was hardly able to climb down the fire escape steps. She slid. In the periphery of her vision she saw a figure fill the window but she didn’t look back. Loochie was gone!

Loochie reached her apartment. She climbed through the window. She slammed and locked it. She rolled the security gate shut. “Mom?” she called out. “Mom!”

No response.

Loochie walked into her mother’s bedroom, then back to the kitchen. She peeked inside the bathroom. Empty. When she entered the living room she held her breath, expecting to find herself back in the meadow, staring down at the promenade of trees. Lost inside 6D yet again.

Instead, she saw only the dining room table, the sofa pushed back against one wall, the television sitting in the big entertainment unit. And her green bike, still upright. Everything exactly as she’d left it. The apartment quiet and empty. She clapped once, with relief, and the sound seemed so loud.

Loochie returned to the kitchen. She saw small brown footprints on the floor. They were hers. She’d tracked mud inside. That would have to be cleaned up, but not just yet. The last bit of her birthday cake was still sitting out on the plate. She’d expected it to be nothing more than a puddle of sludge by now. Instead it was only partway melted, as if she hadn’t been gone long at all. Sunny’s blue cap sat on the table, too, right where she’d left it. She picked it up and held it to her forehead. Loochie wept.