The Cat!: Afterlife Adventures, #1

By Dean Shearer

Meet Noah, a bored boy on summer break who's grounded because he got curious and dug up his mom's garden.

 

Meet Kitty, a mysterious cat who sits in the yard across the street all day and all night . . . and gets very, very excited when she spots Noah watching her through his bedroom window.

 

When Noah finally gains the courage to go and pet her, he learns many strange and magical things. For starters, the cat can talk. And, last but not least, the cat, Kitty, is a ghost, and she needs Noah to travel to the Afterlife to set her soul free.

 

Will Noah make it out of the Afterlife alive? Will he retrieve Kitty's soul?

 

Who knows, because this will be one dangerous, spooky adventure.

 

Read . . . if you dare!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rattlebone Publishing
• Release date: Apr 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393478294

Dean Shearer

Dean Shearer is the author of many fictitious works such as The Cat, The World is Magic, and the short stories series Selah, the Universe. He wishes there was more to say about himself (he likes studying religions and walking barefoot and reading and writing in multiple genres and reading and writing a lot) but there's just too much to say.

Book preview

Chapter One

M om! said Noah. Mom!

Hm? she asked.

Can I go see the cat outside? Noah said quickly. The one that lives across the street. It keeps looking at me and it wants me to come play, I know this.

No, said Noah’s mother.

Noah growled.

"No, said his mother. You are grounded."

That’s right, he was.

But I didn’t even do anything wrong, he said. Please?

She gave him a long, hard look, and when she took her hand out of her pocket Noah jumped.

I’m not going to hit you, she said.

Noah turned around. He thought of the saddest things in the world, and tried very hard to cry. In his mind he saw a squirrel fall from a tree, then tumble off a cliff. But instead of crying he laughed.

He gave up.

He turned back around, and he said to his mother, "The cat. It’s my friend. I watch it play all the time. It starts jumping around in its front yard when it sees me and it looks really happy and it wants to play, Mom. We’re friends."

Well, said his mother, you’re grounded. And when you’re grounded you’re grounded, and that means no going out to play, and no friends.

Noah balled his hands into fists. He clenched his teeth, and his face went red.

His mother raised her eyebrows.

Noah clenched his teeth so tight his face began to shake.

She shook her head.

And Noah gave up. He ran up to his room, and slammed the door shut.

He lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling. He set up rows and rows of toy soldiers, then kicked them across the room. He bit his fingernails. He picked his nose.

Then he found himself laying on his bed again, staring up at the ceiling.

He wondered what to do.

After a while he thought, Go see the cat.

But another part of him said, No. Mom said no, and that means no.

But I want to, said the other side.

But do you want to get in trouble?

Noah did not reply.

Noah stood up and went over to the window.

He saw brown lawns. He saw Mrs. Smith take mail from her mailbox. He saw trees moving in the wind.

A car drove by. Once it passed, Noah saw the cat.

It sat in the yard across the street, not moving, looking at Noah with two blue eyes.

Noah waved.

The cat stood up. Its gray tail lifted into the air, and waved.

Noah gasped.

He pushed his bedroom door open, then ran down the stairs into the kitchen.

Mom! he said. "The cat waved at me!"

But his mother was not in the kitchen. Noah went into the living room. She was not there either. Mom? he said.

But no answer.

He went to his mother’s bedroom door, and he knocked. Nobody said anything. He opened the door.

Nobody.

Noah went to the living room window and looked out. There, on the neighbor’s lawn, was the cat. It looked at him eagerly, as if it wanted to say, Come play, come play! Then, again, it waved its tail.

Mom! shouted Noah, knowing his mother wasn’t home, "I have to go play with the cat. It really wants to play."

He went to the front door.