CATCH THE CAT
Copyright © 2010 Aaron Hoopes.
Smashwords Edition
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ISBN 0-9743247-9-5
For more information or to contact the author of this book:
Zen Yoga Press
1152 North Rd.
Vershire, VT 05079
1-860-805-6551
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to all the people who have encouraged me to persevere in getting this story out there. Thanks to my wife, Elfeya, and, of course, thanks to Mom and Dad for their love and their editing. Cover Artwork by Mikako Naito
CATCH THE CAT
Chapter 1
It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and everything was perfect. Well, maybe not quite. Justin Lumkin was miserable. But at least it was the last day of school and he would be free of the torment for the summer. Justin had a bit of a weight problem. He was bigger fatter really than most of the other kids in the class and they enjoyed picking on him. He had chubby cheeks and blue eyes that often filled with tears when he lay in bed at night. He wasn’t good at sports and was always the last one chosen when the other kids made up teams. They laughed at him whenever he missed the ball. Justin thought he must be the most miserable kid in the world, but as he looked across the classroom he realized there was one other person who was just as miserable.
The skinny pale girl sat in the back of the room, her scraggly black hair covering her face, strategically hiding the acne blemishes which stood out on her cheeks. Her name was Nikki Bean. She was the other misfit of the class. Justin would have felt sorry for her if he weren’t so busy feeling sorry for himself.
“Mr. Lumkin, would you please answer the question,” Mrs. Wick asked, as she stood by the blackboard at the front of the room, shaking Justin from his thoughts.
“Uhm, I…uhm…didn’t…uhm…hear the…uhm…question.” Justin stammered. The girls in the back row started giggling.
“Brilliant, Lumpy,” Rex Summers whispered from behind him.
“Maybe if you were paying attention you might have heard the question, Mr. Lumkin.”
“Sorry, Mrs. Wick,” Justin mumbled, sliding down in his chair trying to sink out of sight.
At that moment the bell rang and the classroom erupted as the students jumped up and raced for the door. It was the last bell on the last day of school and everyone was eager for it to be over.
Justin struggled to get out of his chair. As he stood up he realized Mrs. Wick was standing over him. The rest of the students were gone.
“Justin, you will be in the eighth grade next year,” Mrs. Wick said in her pinched, nasal voice. “It’s a big step. I hope you spend the summer doing something productive.”
“Yes, Mrs. Wick,” Justin said sullenly. He gathered his books and slowly trudged out of the classroom into the hall.
“Outta the way, Lump!” Mark Wallace hollered, pushing past Justin and racing down the hall.
Justin jumped aside and thought he was safe until a pair of hands slammed into his back, and a rough voice blasted his ear.
“Yeah, Lump, get out of the way,”
The next thing he knew he was sprawled face down on the floor. He rolled over and looked up. Standing over him was a tall, muscular boy with a menacing look on his face. Everyone in school feared Ralph Corvin. He was the official school bully.
“Get in my way again, Fatboy, and it’ll hurt a lot more,” he hissed.
“Jerk,” Justin thought as he scrambled to get up. No sooner was he on his feet than Ralph shoved him down again and kicked his backpack, scattering the contents across the floor. The few kids remaining in the hall laughed and pointed.
“Hey, you boys!” a strong voice came from behind them. It was Mr. Detillo, the vice principal. “What’s going on here?”
Ralph yanked Justin up by his arm and squeezed.
“Justin tripped, sir. I was just helping him up.” Ralph said innocently.
“Are you okay, son?” Mr. Detillo asked Justin.
“I’m fine,” Justin mumbled, trying not to wince at Ralph’s fingernails biting into his arm. Last year after a similar incident he had tried to tell a teacher that Ralph was bullying him. Ralph got a week of detention and Justin had paid for it with six months of torment. He wasn’t about to go through that again.
“Well, try to be more careful,” Mr. Detillo said to Justin and walked off down the hall.
“Good boy, Lump. You’re learning. Now get out of here…and don’t let me see you around this summer or I may beat some of that blubber out of you,” Ralph growled as he shoved Justin down again and walked out the school door.
Justin gathered up the notebooks, pens, trading cards and candy bars that had spilled out of his backpack. “Mega-jerk,” he muttered to himself as he slowly made his way to the door. He wanted Ralph to get as far away as possible before he went down the stairs.
Finally, he reached the front entrance and went outside. The green in front of the school was shaded by a huge oak tree with giant branches growing in every direction. There were still a few kids hanging around the enormous knotted tree. His attention was caught by a group of girls who seemed to be singing. As he got closer he realized the girls were circled around a tearful, scrawny Nikki Bean crouched in front of the tree.
They were not singing.
“Ikky Bean peed her pants! Ikky Bean peed her pants!” the girls chanted.
“It’s not pee, it’s just water,” she said timidly, but the other girls ignored her.
“Ikky Bean peed her pants!” the girls jeered in unison, which somehow made their jeering more hurtful.
“Hey,” Samantha Robbins, the tall, blonde ringleader shouted, “Maybe we should call her Ikky Pee,”
The crowd of girls burst out laughing.
“Ikki Pee, Ikky Pee,” they sang.
“Come on, you guys,” another girl, Katie Dearborn, said. “Let’s get out of here. She’s starting to stink.”
As if on cue, they turned on their heels and skipped away, singing and laughing, leaving Nikki slumped against the oak tree. Justin, feeling that he was a kindred spirit in misery, approached her.
“Are you okay?” he asked softly.
“It’s not pee!” Nikki yelled, looking up at him angrily. Her eyes were puffy from crying “I just spilled my water bottle.”
Justin could now see that her jeans were soaked. It really did look embarrassingly like she had peed in them.
“Uhm…well, if we go sit in the sun for a little while, maybe it will dry,” he offered hesitantly.
Nikki brushed a tangled lock of black hair from her face and tried to focus on Justin through her misty eyes. She attempted a weak smile. “Hey, that’s a good idea, Lump…oh…sorry, I mean…Justin, right?”
Justin nodded. Very few people used his first name. “Those girls are losers,” he said.
“Yeah, I won’t argue with you there.” Nikki stood up.
Nikki walked with her backpack in front of her waist to obscure her wet jeans. They made their way to the far side of the lawn where the afternoon sun was blazing and sat down. The warmth of the sun engulfed them immediately and they began to relax.
“How’s that?” Justin asked.
“Gonna take a little while,” Nikki replied. ‘So, what are you doing this summer?”
“Not much,” Justin shrugged. “My parents work most of the time so I’m on my own a lot. How about you?”
“Same. My parents are split up so I have to spend half the week at my Dad’s and the other half at my Mom’s. Both of them are really busy with stuff. That’s okay though. They’re kind of weird, you know.”
“Yeah,” Justin nodded.
“It’s funny. We wait all year for school to end thinking that it will be so great when it’s finally over. Then we just end up doing nothing all summer and waiting for next year to begin. And the truth is I hate school. I hate all those people.” Her eyes lowered to her drying pants. “I hate myself,” she muttered.
“Yeah,” Justin said again, sinking into his own misery. “I know how you feel.”
“I wish we could find one of those genies in a bottle who could change everything for us,” Nikki said wistfully. “I’d be a beautiful model.”
“Yeah,” Justin said for the third time. “And I’d be…” he trailed off.
“What?”
“Not fat, for starters,” he said.
All of a sudden a gentle wind kicked up and caught the leaves of the oak tree. The sun had just moved behind it and was now coming through the leaves like a million slivers of shimmering gold in the sky. It seemed like a perfect moment, and for the first time in a long while they both felt good.
And then something really surprising happened. From out of the tall grass at the edge of the lawn stepped a purple cat. It was sleek and muscular with yellow eyes and a black-tipped tail. The cat strutted across the school lawn and came right up to them. Justin and Nikki both watched in astonishment as the purple feline sat down on the ground in front of them and looked up.
“You know,” the purple cat said, “people often moan and groan about the chains that bind them, not realizing that they already possess the key to unlocking them within themselves.”
Justin’s mouth fell open and Nikki almost peed in her jeans for real. Was it a dream? Was it an illusion? Had the cat actually spoken?
“What?” Nikki finally managed.
“I said that people often struggle to escape the invisible chains that bind them without realizing that they already possess within themselves the key to unlocking them,” the cat repeated. Its voice was soft and magical, giving them the sensation that the words were floating around in their minds.
“You…you can talk,” Justin eyes bulged out.
“Hello?” The cat’s soft voice took on a tinge of sarcasm. “I think we’ve established that already.”
“But cats can’t talk,” Nikki stammered.
“Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not a normal cat.”
“And cats aren’t purple,” Justin added.
“Good grief! Are you guys trying to win some sort of award for mastering the totally obvious?”
Justin and Nikki looked at each other and then back at the cat. It sat there with its yellow eyes fixed on them.
“Cool!” they exclaimed in unison.
“So what’s all this stuff about removing chains, Mr. Cat?” Justin asked.
“Please, call me Zink,” the cat replied.
“Zink! What a funny name,” Nikki said, laughing.
“Young lady, you know how much you dislike being teased about your name and yet the first thing you do is tease me about mine,” the cat chastised.
“I’m sorry, Zink,” Nikki said.
“Yeah,” Justin added. “She wasn’t trying to be mean.”
“Okay,” Zink said. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I like my name and I don’t really care what people think about it.”
“Well, I hate my name,” Nikki said.
“Me too,” Justin agreed.
“So I gathered. It’s not only your names you hate, right? You guys were sitting here wishing you could be totally different.”
“How do you know that?” Nikki asked.
“Come on, I’m a talking purple cat. I know everything.” Zink bragged.
“No way!” Justin argued.
“Way.” Zink replied.
“Okay, Zink, if you’re so smart, tell us how can we be different. We’re stuck as we are. We’ll never change. He’s Lumpy Lumkin and I’m Ikky Bean. It’s our fate.”
“Ha!” The cat fell over on his back, paws in the air, and began to giggle. “You guys crack me up. It’s your fate…oooh, so serious. Gimme a break.”
“Hey, don’t laugh at us,” Nikki said seriously.
“Sorry about that,” Zink rolled back over so he was lying on the grass in front of them. “But you guys have so much potential, and yet here you are just sitting around feeling sorry for yourselves.”
“All right, so tell us what kind of potential you think we have,” Justin challenged.
Zink sat up, his ears flopped down and his eyes narrowed into slits. His two front fangs thrust forward “Ah, you seek answers, Grasshopper,” His voice sounded like that of a Chinese monk in an old kung-fu movie. “I’ll tell you what you wish to know, but,” his ears popped up and his eyes opened wide, “only if you catch me!”
And with that the cat sprang to its feet and darted off across the lawn, a purple blur. Justin and Nikki’s eyes met for a split second and then they jumped up and charged after the cat.
They chased Zink across the school green and into the playground.
“Geez!” Zink exclaimed. “You guys are such slowpokes.”
“You move too fast,” Justin said between panting breaths.
“Oh, shall I slow down a bit?” the cat asked and began moving as if in slow motion. “How…’s… th…is?” the cat asked his words matching his movements.
Nikki and Justin got closer but each time they reached out to grab it, the cat was just out of reach. Exasperated, they gave up.
“I can’t do this,” Nikki panted and plopped herself down on a picnic table in defeat.
Justin slumped down beside her.
“Yeah, me neither,” he agreed.
“Whether you believe you can do something or believe you can’t, you’re right,” came the cat’s voice from the other end of the table. “If you start out saying ‘I can’t catch the cat,’ no matter what you do, you will never catch me. On the other hand, if you start out believing you can catch me, then you’re working towards a positive goal and will eventually find a way to succeed.”
Nikki thought for a moment and then started rummaging around in her backpack. She brought out her yellow flowered lunchbox and opened it.
“Kitty, kitty, want some cheese?” She said holding out a small piece left over from lunch.
“Meow!” the cat cried as it jumped into her lap and pawed for the cheese.
“Got you!” Justin said as he wrapped his hands around Zink. Within a split second the cat had wiggled out of his grasp. Justin shook his head as he looked down at the few strands of purple fur in his hands and then over at the cat sitting a few feet away chomping on the cube of cheese.
“Ohhhh, yummy, what is that? Monterey Jack or something? That’s some tasty cheese you have there,” Zink said as he munched hungrily.
Nikki and Justin looked at each other and laughed.
“Zoinks! You almost got me,” Zink exclaimed and began licking his paw and rubbing it over his nose. “I’ll have to be more careful. You guys are pretty clever. That wasn’t bad for a first try.”
“Come on, I caught you!” Justin argued.
“Did not!” Zink replied.
“Did too!” Justin countered.
“He did have you there for a second, Zink,” Nikki said.
“Well, I guess you did at that,” the cat agreed reluctantly.
“So, then we did catch you. Now tell us your secrets,” Justin ordered.
“Meow,” the cat said.
There was a moment of complete silence as the three faced each other.
“Just kidding,” Zink laughed. “Okay, I’m prepared to teach you what you want to know but it’s going to take some effort on your part. I can’t just wave my little paw and magically change you. You have to do it on your own. I can only show you the way.”
“All right, so what do we do?” Nikki asked.
“You have to figure out the five secret words that will change your life. Once you do that, everything will begin to fall into place,” Zink said.
“Five secret words? What are they?” Justin asked impatiently.
“No way! It doesn’t work like that. I can’t tell you. You have to discover them for yourselves. Only then will you be able to understand their true meaning,” Zink replied.
“So what do we do?” Nikki asked.
‘Well, first of all, you guys have to become comfortable with yourselves as you are now.”
“But I’m too fat.” Justin protested. “How can I be comfortable when everyone picks on me?”
“Yeah, and I’m ugly. I hate my hair and all these pimples,” Nikki whined.
“Hmmmm,” Zink said thoughtfully, his ear twitching. “Well, it’s like this.” Zink began waving his paw in the air as if drawing. A line of numbers appeared.. “See these numbers, they go from negative ten to zero and then up to positive ten.”
10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
“The only way you can make progress is to start at zero and go up into positive numbers. If you start from a negative number, all your time is spent just trying to get to zero and you will never go up to a positive number.” Zink walked slowly up to Nikki and jumped into her lap. “You guys sitting here bumming out about being too fat or ugly or whatever is all negative. Unless you can start at zero as your baseline, you will never be able to get into positive numbers.”
“And how do we do that?” Nikki asked as she gently rubbed the purple cat’s neck.
“That’s done by accepting yourself as you are. When you go home tonight I want you to stand in front of a mirror and look at yourself. Try not to make any judgments about what you think is wrong with you, just look. Examine each part of your body as if you had never seen it before. Look in the mirror for ten minutes, all the while telling yourself that this is zero. From this point forward you will go into positive numbers. Don’t dwell on the negative, just accept it as part of yourself at zero. You will be able to change, but only when you start from that point.”
“I get it,” Justin said with a sheepish grin. “If I can accept myself as a fat kid, then it is my choice to stay like that or to do something to change it.”
“Exactly!” Zink replied. “And tomorrow you’ll be ready to begin your training. Be back here at 9:00 a.m. sharp!”
Zink hopped down from Nikki’s lap and rubbed his head against her leg.
“And bring some more cheese.”
Justin and Nikki left Zink on the picnic table in the school playground and walked home in silence, each reflecting on the cat’s words.
“So, are you going to do it?” Justin finally asked as they neared Nikki’s house.
“Do what? The mirror thing? Yeah, I think so. I mean, why not?” Nikki replied. “How about you?”
“Yeah, I think I’ll give it a try. Got nothing to lose. I get the feeling that cat has a lot more to say to us,” he said.
Nikki nodded excitedly. “See you tomorrow.”
“See ya.”
Chapter 2
Justin and Nikki met back at the playground the next morning.
“Zink!” they called, searching everywhere for their new feline friend, “ZINK!”
“Zoinks! You guys make a lot of noise,” Zink called from the top of the slide connected to the jungle gym.
“There you are!” Nikki shouted.
“Here I am,” Zink said, settling down at the top of the slide. “So, tell me. How did it go last night with your first assignment?”
“Well,” said Justin as he shuffled his feet, “I tried. I felt kind of stupid, though. I looked at myself in the mirror and told myself not to make any judgments. I made sure no one was listening at the door and then said to my reflection, “This is who you are Justin Lumkin. You are overweight and out of shape. Accept it and then you can begin to change.”
“Very good!” Zink exclaimed, throwing his paws up into the air.
“But, I’m not sure I really believe it,” Justin added.
“That’s okay, it’s a start,” Zink said. He turned to Nikki “And how about you?”
“Well,” Nikki began softly, “I was watching TV and I noticed that all the girls on the show look so perfect. Thin, beautiful, poised, and popular. Then I turned it off and went to the mirror. It was kind of hard not to compare myself to those actors or to make judgments about myself. But I kept looking like you told us. After a while I started thinking about what you said about starting at zero.” She twirled around and smiled, “So this is zero.”
Zink sat back on his haunches and rubbed his chin with his front paw. “Oh my, you guys are good. I’m impressed.”
“Is that it?” Justin asked impatiently. “I mean, even if we accept ourselves at zero, we’re still Lumpy Lumpkin and Ikki Bean.”
“Is that it? Is that it? Ha…ha…ha…whoa!” Zink laughed so hard he almost toppled sideways off the slide. “No, you silly goose,” he chided when he had regained his balance. “We haven’t even begun yet. I just had you do that exercise to warm up. You know, to get you in the right frame of mind to begin.”
“Oh, well then, what are we supposed to do next?” Nikki asked curiously.
Zink stood up, stretched his back legs out and yawned.
“I’ll tell you what’s next when you catch me.” And with that he slid down the slide and took off like a bolt of purple lightning across the playground. “Whee!...”
“Oh no, not again!” Nikki cried desperately as she and Justin started after him.
Zink ran around the playground with Justin and Nikki trailing close behind with flailing arms. He circled the perimeter over and over always staying just out of reach. Justin and Nikki began to tire, but Zink egged them on shouting over his shoulder that they would soon learn all his secrets.
After about twenty minutes Justin collapsed in a heap on the grass.
“I can’t! “I’m…….too…… tired,” he said between gasps for air.
Nikki flopped down beside him, also huffing and puffing.
“It’s no use,” she gasped.
“Try…the cheese…again,” Justin said breathlessly.
Nikki reached into her backpack for the cheese she’d brought to entice Zink, but quickly realized it was missing.
“Looking for this?” the playful cat said from across the lawn. He had a hunk of yellow cheese between his paws and was munching happily.”
“No fair,” Nikki snapped.
“Ah, but you were going to try the cheese trick again, weren’t you?” Zink teased. “Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me,” he laughed.
“But we get so tired chasing you. I can hardly breathe.” Justin said.
“Bingo!” Zink cheered, “The first secret word.”
“What?” said Justin.
“Huh?” said Nikki.
“Hello? You guys got brain-freeze or something?” Zink tapped his head with his paw. “You forgot?”
“Oh,” remembered Nikki, “yeah, yesterday. The five secret words.”
“Sheesh!” said Zink. “Let’s try again. You get so tired you can hardly…”
“Bingo!” Justin yelled with a triumphant look on his face. “You said bingo! The first secret word is bingo!”
Zink frowned and his left ear began to twitch. “Uhhmmm, no.”
“But you said bingo,” Justin protested.
Zink put his paws on his hips. “Not what I said. What did you say? You get so tired you can hardly…”
“Breathe?” Nikki finished Justin’s original sentence.
“Give that girl a purple balloon!” Zink applauded and proceeded to produce a purple balloon from nowhere and blow it up and tie it. “The first secret word is, indeed, BREATHE. What else did I tell you yesterday?”
Justin and Nikki stared at each other blankly and shrugged.
Zink frowned and pointed a sharp claw menacingly at the balloon.
“Oh, wait, was it something about unlocking chains?” Nikki quickly blurted out.
“Yes!” Zink said with a sigh of relief and handed the balloon to her. “Regardless of what people imagine their problems to be, the five secret words are the magic keys to unlocking the solutions. Which one of the five words do you guess will be the most important of all?”
“Well,” Nikki started, “we don’t know the other four…” The purple balloon slipped out of her hand and began to float away. “Oh, no!”
Justin, feeling a little ignored, leaned forward “The answer is breathe, obviously,” and stuck his tongue out at Nikki.
Nikki jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.
“Kids, kids. Now, now,” Zink said. “No violence please, Nikki. Leave that to prime time TV. Justin is right. Out of the five secret words I will teach you, the number one word is breathe. And it’s soooooo simple. You humans just don’t breathe properly. Stop for a moment and just notice how you breathe normally. Then try taking a few deep breaths. Would you believe me if I told you that what you think is deep breathing is still pretty shallow? That’s because you are breathing with only the upper part of your lungs. That’s fine for most of the everyday things you do, but if you need a burst of energy to climb a tree or, let’s say, chase a cat, you quickly find yourself out of breath.”
“What do you want us to do?” Justin asked.
“Well, you need to learn how to fill your lungs completely when you breathe.”
“How do we do that?” Nikki asked.
“You have to start from the bottom and work you way up.” Zink sat down on his haunches. “Here, sit up and put your hand on your stomach like this just below your belly button.”
Justin and Nikki sat up and mimicked the cat.
“That’s the center of your body. Think of that when you breathe.” He brought his paws to his lips and puffed out his cheeks. All of a sudden another bright purple balloon appeared in his paws and he filled it with air. “Now, imagine a balloon like this inside your chest. Take a deep breath in through your nose and fill the balloon from the bottom up.”
Justin and Nikki both began to breathe in, slowly expanding their lower bellies and pushing out their hands as they filled their lungs with air.
“Now, close your eyes and hold it for a second,” Zink said. “When you breathe you bring oxygen and energy into your body. The more fully you breathe, the more oxygen and energy you gather. Now, breathe out through your nose, slowly and smoothly.”
Justin and Nikki exhaled.
“Whoa! Hey…little help,” Zink exclaimed.
Justin and Nikki opened their eyes and saw the purple balloon starting to float away taking the cat with it.
They jumped up and chased after it. Finally Nikki managed to grab Zink’s tail and reel him in.
“Whew!
Thanks,” Zink said as he touched the ground. “Guess I was getting
carried away with the balloon analogy. Ha! Ha! Get it? Carried away?
With the balloon?”
Nikki and Justin stared at him
expressionless.
“Never mind.” Zink rolled his eyes. “Where was I?”
“Uhm, oxygen and energy,” Nikki said.
“Oh, yes. Well, the oxygen you breathe in travels around to all parts of your body in the bloodstream. The more oxygen, the richer the blood.”
“And more energy!” Nikki said.
“Exactly,” Zink replied. “Now do it again five times.”
Justin and Nikki sat quietly and took five long, deep breaths.
On the last exhale, Nikki’s eyes snapped open. “Wait, a minute, this is something Mrs. Snodgrass told us about.”
“Mrs. Snotgas,” Justin said.
“Justin!” Nikki glared at him.
“Please continue, Nikki,” Zink said with a disapproving glare at Justin.
“Anyway, in health class she showed us how the blood delivers oxygen to your cells and picks up carbon dioxide which is expelled by the lungs. She had a big chart. It was kinda neat.”
“Yes, yes.” Zink said happily. “And do you know what carbon dioxide is?”
“It’s a gas,” Justin offered.
At that moment Zink let go of the purple balloon and it shot off into the air with a loud PFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTT which sounded very obnoxious.
All three of them broke into giggles.
“Yes, it’s a gas,” Zink said when he could finally control his giggling, “But not just any gas. Carbon dioxide is like a toxin or poison that accumulates in your body during your everyday living. Pretty disgusting, huh? When you breathe out it’s all that pollution that you’re getting rid of.”
“But if most people breathe only with the upper part of their lungs then the bottom of their lungs must be filled with a lot of that stale air, right?” Nikki asked.
“Absolutely! Sheesh, Nikki,” the cat said, “maybe you should be the teacher here?” Zink said with a wink. “If you breathe with your full lung capacity, you bring in more oxygen, the good guys, and get rid of more of the toxins and poisons, the bad guys, that are trapped inside you.”
“And that gives us more energy to catch you,” Justin exclaimed as he lunged for Zink.
Zink nimbly darted away as Justin did a belly flop on the ground.
“Nice try,” Zink said, “But you’ll have to do better than that.”
The chase continued. Each time Justin and Nikki got tired they stopped and did some deep breathing until they got their energy and breath back.
“Gosh,” Nikki said as she lay on the grass beside Justin looking up at the deep blue sky. It was late afternoon and they had been chasing Zink for at least an hour. “I feel so great!”
“Yeah,” said Justin. “My whole body’s tingling. How come no one ever told us about breathing before?”
He rolled over then and looked across the lawn where Zink was stalking a grasshopper. Now, Justin thought, if I could only catch that goofy cat. As he watched, Zink moved silently and effortlessly closer until the grasshopper, sensing impending doom, launched itself into the air to escape. But Zink was faster. In one fluid motion the cat sprang after it and snatched it from the air.
“Well, I think that’s about enough for today,” Zink said as he padded across the lawn towards them, stopping just out of reach. “But I want you guys to continue practicing your breathing whenever you can remember to do it.”
“Are we going to see you tomorrow, Zink?” Nikki asked.
Zink looked up at the sky and sniffed. As his head swiveled around to check the western horizon, Justin was momentarily out of the cat’s field of vision. The boy prepared to attack. He could almost feel the cat’s fur and sleek little body as he went into a crouch.
“Justin. Uh, uh,” Zink said, “Don’t even think about it.” He leapt into the air and in an instant he was ten feet further away. Continuing to gaze up at the sky, he said, “Looks like rain, probably for a couple of days. Tell you what, come back here on the next sunny day and we’ll continue your lessons then.” He turned and started to walk away, but then stopped on a little dirt path and sat down. In a moment he was rolling around and reveling luxuriously in its fine dust. Finally, he stood up and looked back at them. “And what was it you have to do for homework?” he scratched his head as if he had forgotten.
“Breathe!” Nikki and Justin said in unison.
“You got it,” Zink said. He started to bound away, but then stopped again, whirled around, and threw his paws up as though he were gesturing at something above him. He seemed to grow in size and his voice got deeper and stronger as he bellowed across the lawn in a booming tone that echoed all around them. “DON’T…FOR…GET…TO… BREATHE!
“BREATHE!” Justin said, throwing up his arms and trying to imitate Zink’s voice. “OUR…FIRST…SECRET…WORD!”
Chapter 3
It rained for the next three days just as Zink predicted. Justin and Nikki couldn’t meet Zink in the playground, but they both spent as much time as possible practicing the breathing exercises the purple cat had taught them. Whenever they remembered to breathe they found themselves full of energy. On the fourth day the sun finally came out and Justin rushed to Nikki’s house as soon as he’d finished breakfast. Nikki was waiting on the front porch.
“Ready to go catch Zink?” he asked.
”Yep, only….”
“Only what?”
“Do you think we will ever catch him? For real?” Nikki said despairingly.
“Well sure…eventually…maybe.”
“But only if he wants us to.”
“What do you mean?” Justin said.
“Come on, I mean this cat talks! I don’t think we’re going to catch him unless he wants us to.”
“Well, I’m gonna catch him,” Justin said with conviction and they started off for the school grounds.
Zink was waiting for them, perched again atop the slide, lapping and preening and pretending not to notice them, until they said in unison, looking at each other and laughing as they did so “Hi Zink.”
“So, my friends, you have returned,” the cat said. “Have you been practicing your breathing?”
“You better believe it,” Justin replied. “Watch this.”
Justin proceeded to take a deep breath in through his nose while expanding his lower abdomen. When his lungs were full he stopped, holding his breath. A few moments later he let it out in a long, slow exhale, again through his nose. Nikki, not to be left out, joined him on the next breath and the two of them breathed quietly for five minutes, feeling the fresh oxygen fill up their bodies.
Zink looked astounded. “That’s great,” he said. “How did you get it so fast?”
‘It’s not that hard, Zink,” Nikki said.
“Oh…then why don’t more of you humans do it?” Zink asked.
“Well,” said Justin, “I’m gonna do it more.”
“Me too,” Nikki added.
“So, you think it’s easy. Hmmmm…Today I guess you need more of a challenge. So we are going up there.” He pointed his paw at the mountain that rose up behind the school. It was one of the striking features of the school grounds. It was not just a hill, not even a big hill, but a bona fide, certified, genuine mountain.
“Patterson Mountain?” the kids gasped, once again looking at each other in disbelief.
“You got it!” Zink exclaimed as he turned and started off towards the woods at the base of the mountain. “Can you catch the cat? Last one to the top is a rotten egg!”
Justin and Nikki looked at each other and rolled up their eyes.
“Rotten egg!” Justin said. “Give me a break.”
“Yeah,” yelled Nikki. “We’re not little kids, you know.”
But they were not about to let the cat get away. Despite the “kid talk,” Zink was cool. Even if they weren’t sure what he was talking about with all the breathing, they knew it made them feel good. Chasing after a purple cat who talked and dangled secret words in front of them was pretty cool too, and fun.
So with a whoop and a holler, they started off after the cat.
Zink darted nimbly through the underbrush for a while and then climbed up onto the dead stump of a big tree. Taking slow, steady deep breaths, he waited for Justin and Nikki to catch up. They soon came crashing through the woods, huffing and puffing. As they neared the stump, Justin spied the cat and motioned for Nikki to alter her course so she would be able to sneak up behind Zink and capture him while Justin distracted him with a frontal assault. But Zink jumped easily away and took off again up the slope.
“Hey, you think I got no brains,” he teased in a high-pitched squeaking voice.
“Psychopath!” Nikki yelled at the cat in annoyance. It was a word she had only learned recently and still wasn’t entirely sure what it meant, but it sounded as if it might fit this crazy cat.
“And, by the way,” the cat said disappearing into the forest,” DON’T FORGET TO BREATHE.”
Much to their surprise all the huffing and puffing, caused by their ascent up the mountain, had forced them to put to use the breathing skills the cat had taught them. Was this Zink’s plan?
Breathing was much harder than when they were standing on flat ground since their bodies were demanding more and more oxygen from the increased exercise. But they soon found that if they concentrated on their breathing they could get into a rhythm and it became naturally deeper and in sync with the strenuous exercise they were doing.
The climb up the mountain took more than an hour. Zink had to stop a number of times to let them catch up, but they finally made it to the top. There Zink stood on a big flat boulder breathing deeply and effortlessly as he watched Justin and Nikki hunch over gasping for air.
“No, no, don’t bend over,” Zink scolded from the boulder. “Stand up straight. When you bend over, it’s much more difficult to breathe deeply. To fill your lungs to the fullest, the oxygen must enter your body in a straight line.
When the two of them finally managed to catch their breath, they looked up at the cat.
“So now your body is starting to learn what it’s like to have a surplus of oxygen inside it,” Zink said.
“Wow! It feels great!” Nikki said as her deep breathing became steadier. She brushed her long black hair away from her face which was flushed with excitement. “I think I’ve got it, Mr. Cat. I never liked sports before, all that running around. But now I see, well, there’s something else, oh you know what I mean, something in addition to the breathing and the running. It’s sort of….”
“Justin,” the cat said. “What is Nikki talking about?”
Justin shrugged. “I haven’t a clue.”
“No, listen,” Nikki said in frustration. “I can’t explain it exactly, but it’s like if you breathe and move at the same time….”
“Wahoo! Chalk one up for Nikki,” Zink said, licking his forepaw and making an imaginary mark on an imaginary scoreboard. “Move is the second secret word!”
“Move?” Justin asked.
“Yup,” Zink said nodding his head. “Movement is life. Breathing is most important since it brings oxygen into your body, but movement is the key to making sure that oxygen circulates throughout your body. It might help to imagine that if you aren’t moving, your blood slows down and stagnates.”
“Stagnates?” Justin asked unsure of the exact meaning of the word.
“It sort of turns to thick jelly,” Zink replied.
“I like jelly,” Justin said.
“That’s why you’re fat, Jelly Belly,” Nikki teased.
“Better than being a stringy Bean!” Justin yelled back.
“Hey, hey, hey, cut it out you two,” Zink said, jumping off the boulder and stepping between them.
“Our blood doesn’t really stagnate does it, Zink?” Nikki looked at the cat.
“No, of course not, but if you imagine that it does, it will give you incentive to keep moving, right?” Zink responded.
“Catching you is incentive enough,” Justin muttered as he sprang toward the cat. “Gotcha!”
But Zink was already back on the boulder looking down at Justin splayed out in the dirt.
“Shoot!” Justin exclaimed brushing the dirt off his pants.
“As I was saying, the second secret word is MOVE. You have to get your body moving to assure that the blood circulates freely and fully.”
“Zink, you sound like somebody else I know,” Nikki said thoughtfully. “Who was it? Oh, yes, my Mom when she was taking her aerobics class,”
“Yeah, that’s it. Like this,” Zink said and started spinning around on his back with his feet up in the air. Every so often he would shoot one leg out and wiggle it wildly.
Justin and Nikki looked at each other in bewilderment.
“Man,
weirdo cat!” Justin said. “That’s not aerobics. That’s break
dancing.”
“Oops,” Zink stood up and shook himself off. “My
bad. I always get those two mixed up. Anyway, the word ‘aerobic’
means to live in oxygen. Aerobic exercise is a way to stimulate the
cardiovascular system and raise the heart rate in order to get the
heart pumping more oxygenated blood flowing through the body. Zoinks,
that was a mouthful!” He let his body go limp. “Wears me out just
saying it. How about I run up another mountain or two to get my
energy back. Heh, heh.”
Justin made a face and touched Nikki’s arm. “He thinks he’s funny.”
“Yeah, but that’s what he’s talking about, isn’t it?” Nikki said. “All our huffing and puffing has to do with that cardiovascular heart-pumping stuff.”
“You mean,” Justin said, “chasing Zink forced us to breathe deeper and take in more oxygen and also made our hearts pump more oxy…oxy-something blood?” He looked at the cat and wiggled his hand. “What’s the word?”
“Oxygenated,” the cat said.
“…oxygenerated blood…”
“Oxygenated,” Nikki said, tilting her head in a sign of impatience.
“…oxygenated blood through our bodies,” Justin completed his sentence and turned to Nikki. “Is that correct, Miss Cardiovascular girl?”
“Whatever,” Nikki said turning away.
“Chasing you,” Justin looked back at Zink and continued, “forced us to breathe deeper and take in even more oxygen.”
“It’s a tricky way of making us exercise,” Nikki said.
“Not exercise, Nikki,” Zink corrected. “Zinkercise!”
They all laughed as they climbed on top of the flat rock and looked out at the view. From the top of Patterson Mountain they could see all of the surrounding towns. The sun was high in the sky. It was a beautiful day.
“Zinkercise!” Justin yelled out.
“Right,” Zink said. “The key is to prolong the Zinkercise for as long as you can. That way the blood flow gets smoother and vital energy has more chance to flow to all parts of your body. When that happens, your body starts to burn fat and build muscle.”
“Cool!” Justin exclaimed.
“There are a bunch of different Zinkercises. Do you want to try one of them? It lets you feel the energy flow through you.”
“Why not?” Justin said.
“And you, Miss Cardiovascular girl?” Zink turned to Nikki.
Nikki nodded. “But don’t call me that.”
“Zokey dokey,” Zink smiled and winked at her. “All right. This Zinkercise is called the Green Slime Shake Off, and it’s a way to actually feel energy in the nerves in your skin. Ready?”
“Sure,” Justin and Nikki said in unison as usual.
Zink stood up in front of them on his hind legs. He held out his front paws and began to shake them loosely. Justin and Nikki poked each other in the ribs and tried not to laugh as Zink began to explain what to do. It looked pretty silly.
Zink was unperturbed. “Imagine your hands are covered with some yucky green slime and you’re trying to shake it off.”
“Oh, yuk!” Nikki scrunched up her nose and stuck out her tongue.
“Begin slowly,” Zink continued, “and then gradually increase speed. Get rid of all the tension in your hands, keep them loose and relaxed.”
They began to shake their hands like the cat.
“Now go in a circle.” Zink said as he started to make small circles with his paws.
After a minute of that he told them to go side-to-side and then up and down. They continued to wiggle and shake their hands for about two minutes. They tried to stifle their giggles but ultimately failed.
“Now, imagine the green slime is climbing up your arms. Start to wiggle them and your shoulders as well.”
Soon all three of them were wiggling and giggling like crazy.
“Stop,” Zink said finally. “Now, quickly drop your hands down to your sides.”
“Oh, wow! What’s that?” Nikki cried in excitement. “My hands are tingling and my fingers too.”
“That’s the energy,” Zink said smugly.
“The tingling is a really interesting, alive kind of feeling,” Justin’s eyes were wide open.
“Imagine what it’d be like if you could get your whole body feeling that way,” Zink said.
“We’d probably die of the giggles,” Justin laughed.
“Move,” Nikki said between giggles. “Secret word number two.”
Chapter 4
Justin and Nikki continued to chase Zink every day. Most days he would run to the top of Patterson Mountain and they would follow. Other times the cat would lead them around the base of the mountain, hopping from rock to rock along the banks of the Tracy River. But inevitably their course veered towards the mountain, and they would find themselves going up again. When they reached the top, the cat would always have them do the breathing exercises for about fifteen minutes. He also taught them some stretching Zinkercises to warm up and strengthen their muscles. Needless to say, they got better and better at running up Patterson Mountain.
Nikki and Justin also learned pretty fast that after the long trek up the mountain, they felt like they were about to starve to death. They began bringing a lunch in their backpacks. Sitting on the flat rock gobbling their food, they noticed Zink was sitting a little ways off watching them.
“Look,” said Nikki poking Justin in the arm. “Do you think Zink is hungry, you know, like we are?
“Maybe, but then why doesn’t he bring some cat food or go catch a bird or something?”
Nikki slapped at Justin’s shoulder. “Don’t say that. Eating birds is the one thing I don’t like about cats. Don’t you dare encourage him. Birds are so cute and pretty and they sing….”
“Aw, come on. It’s just cats being cats. Besides, why don’t you offer him some of your lunch. Then maybe he won’t try to eat any birds.”
“Well, all right,” said Nikki, breaking off a piece of her sandwich. “But I bet he’ll turn his nose up at it. That’s why they make cat food.”
Boy, was she wrong! As soon as Zink saw the bite of sandwich being offered he bounded over, snatched it from Nikki’s hand and swallowed it whole.
“Thanks,” the cat said. “I was starving.”
“You really should chew your food more,” Nikki said in a motherly tone.
That was how they discovered that Zink loved other food besides cheese.
Soon a lot of their time on top of Patterson Mountain was spent talking about food and tasting the various things the kids brought.
“So, Justin,” Zink said one day. “What’s your favorite food?
“Pizza!” Justin blurted out. “No, wait, GRC burger and fries.”
“Surprise, surprise.” Zink said. “I notice you bring leftover pizza or a burger and fries almost every day. You really like them cold?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Justin said as if he were trying to convince himself. “My Mom likes pizza too. If there’s any left over she wraps it up for me. Or sometimes she gives me five bucks to buy my lunch. Occasionally I buy a sandwich at Sandwich World, but I can get more food at GRC Burger.”
“And more food is better?” Zink asked.
“Sure, I like eating,” Justin replied. “But, you know I haven’t been as hungry as usual,” he pointed to the uneaten fries left over on his napkin. “It’s not really that I haven’t been hungry,” Justin confessed. “It’s just that I know we’re going to run down the mountain later, and the fries get sort of heavy in my stomach when I run.”
“I
see,” Zink said. “and how about you, Nikki? What’s your
favorite food?”
“Chocolate, definitely chocolate,” Nikki
said, rolling her eyes. “Ooh…I seem to need chocolate every day!”
“You need it!” said the cat in a somewhat imperious and disapproving tone.
“At
least I used to.”
“Explain yourself, little princess,” said
Zink as he sat down beside Nikki and rubbed his head against her arm
until she began to scratch him around the ears.
“Well, it’s kind of like what Justin was saying. I’ve always had a chocolate bar for dessert at lunch. But now that I know we’re going to run down the mountain after lunch, I don’t want to eat so much chocolate because it feels sort of heavy.”
“What about you, Zink?” Justin asked. “What’s your favorite food?”
Nikki scowled at the cat and then said in a startlingly fierce tone of voice, “If you say birds, I’ll never speak to you again.”
“No, certainly not birds” the cat said quickly, not wanting to offend Nikki. “Now chipmunks on the other hand….”
“Hey!” said Nikki.
“Only joking,” Zink smiled.
“I’m
talking about human food like we eat.”
Zink sat back and thought
about the question for a moment. “As a cat,” he said finally,
“I’d have to say milk, but if you want to get technical, milk is
a beverage not a food. So my favorite food would have to be purple
tofu.”
“Purple tofu!” Justin and Nikki exclaimed. “Gross!”
“It’s not gross, in fact it’s really yummy,” Zink said.
“Yuck! I hate tofu.” Justin stuck his tongue out.
“How can you hate tofu?” Zink asked.
“It tastes disgusting.”
“No it doesn’t. Tofu doesn’t have any real flavor. It’s kind of a magical food because it takes on whatever flavor you cook it with. That’s why it’s so great. If you cook it with garlic, it tastes like garlic. If you cook it with lemon, it tastes like lemon.”
“Really?” Justin was skeptical.
“I bet you’ve never even tasted tofu, have you, Justin?” Zink asked.
Justin blushed and turned away.
“I’ve never heard of purple tofu, Zink,” Nikki said.
“Well,” Zink leaned closer and began to whisper. “It’s something I made up. Zink’s Purple Tofu! You think it’ll sell?”
“Maybe you should stick to magic words,” Nikki said patting him on the head.
“So, other than purple tofu, what is your favorite food?” Justin asked.
“Well, to be honest, I have no idea what my favorite food is.”
“That’s weird,” said Justin.
“Not really,” said the cat. “I don’t eat much of your kind of food, you know? I just haven’t had a chance to try that much of it. I’d like to try more.”
“Hey, we could bring you some,” Justin said.
“Yeah,” Nikki said excitedly. “I could raid the fridge and bring lots of different things for you to try and see what you like.”
“Me too,” said Justin.
“What a great idea,” Zink said, then paused and looked around slyly. “I’ve always wondered what the big deal is about broccoli.”
“I’ll bring some of that tomorrow,” Nikki said.
“And I’ll bring an extra banana. How about that?” Justin said.
“Wahoo! Munch time!” Zink exclaimed and started dancing on the rock.
Nikki and Justin jumped up and started dancing and laughing with him.