The cat licks her paw, ignoring me.
“Are you new? Are you Mrs. Lopez’s?” She lives at the end of the hall, and she’s been saying she wants a cat. I check for a collar, but although the cat has one, there’s no tag. Maybe I shouldn’t knock on Mrs. Lopez’s door, in case this isn’t hers. It might upset her because the reason she can’t have one is her husband. Mr. Lopez has never made a secret of his dislike of cats, and Mrs. Lopez has said more than once he’s an idiot she can’t get rid of because she’s a good Catholic.
I stand in the hall, unsure of what to do next. Maybe I should just take a picture of the cat and post it on the Facebook group for the building residents. Even if the owner isn’t in the group, somebody might recognize her.
“I guess we’ll just wait and see who comes to claim you. Do you have a name?” No response. “You know what? Since you have a crown on your head, I’ll call you Queen. I think that’s a fitting name, don’t you?”
Queen looks up, her gorgeous green eyes startlingly wide, then paws me gently and purrs. She even seems to give me a feline smile.
“Guess I got it right, huh?” The cat rubs itself all over me, purring like the engine of one of the fancy European cars my boss loves so much.
Holding Queen in one hand, I unlock my door. As I turn the knob, loud, rapid steps come down the hall.
“Hey! You can’t take my cat!”
I turn and face a small, skinny girl of maybe eight or nine. Her long, dark brown hair is straight, but messy and tangled as though she hasn’t bothered to brush it—and nobody else has either. She puts her hands on her hips and looks up at me, her owlish blue eyes bright with fire and wariness.
She’s in a starched white shirt and burgundy pleated skirt. A private school uniform, I decide. But I don’t know anybody on my floor with a kid going to a private school. Maybe somebody upstairs?
But what’s she doing this floor, then? And if her parents are well enough off to send her to a private school, shouldn’t they be able to afford a hairbrush or two?
“This is your cat? Probably should keep a better eye on her, then,” I say mildly, not wanting to alarm the girl. “I was just going to take her inside so she wouldn’t get lost. Guess I don’t have to do that, since you’re here.”
“Right.” She nods.
I hand her the cat. “Okay, then. Here you go.”
She takes Queen and thanks me politely. I stand, waiting for her to leave. I want to make sure she returns home, even though we’re inside an apartment building. There are a few older kids I don’t care for. They aren’t in a gang or anything, but they have that “mean jerk” look all over them. I don’t want her getting bullied.
Or maybe she already was. They could’ve done that to her hair.
But the girl doesn’t move. “Aren’t you going home?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Nobody’s home. I locked myself out looking for the cat. She’s not supposed to be wandering around. She’s an indoor cat.”
I scowl. It’s like… I check my watch. Almost seven. This girl shouldn’t be alone. “How old are you?”
“Ten.”
Geez. “Can you call your mom or dad?”
She shakes her head again. “I’m not supposed to bother them.” Her shoulders droop for a moment.
“Oh.” Sympathy stirs. It sucks when you’re so low on your parents’ priority list that you can’t even call to let them know you’re locked out. I know what that feels like.
I wonder if I should call 911 or something, but if I do, it’s going to cause a lot of problems for her parents. And that probably won’t help. At the same time, I can’t just let her stay out in the hall.
“Want to come in?” I say. “I was about to have dinner. You can join me, if you’d like.”
“Uh… I’m not really supposed to go anywhere with strangers.”
At least she isn’t totally naive. “Well, my name is Kim, and I live in this unit.” I tilt my head at my door. “So you won’t be going very far.”
“I’m Vi.”
“Nice to meet you, Vi. So…” Although I understand why she doesn’t want to come in, a small part of me wishes she would just say okay so I can have my Kung Pao chicken while it’s still hot. “About that dinner…?”
She gives it some thought. “Well…if you really live right here…”