Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 Michael stood in his doorway, shocked. "Where did they go?!" He rushed over to his dresser, where he had last seen the squirrels. "Maybe they fell on the floor? Or out the window?" He frantically searched the area around the dresser and leaned out the window to check the ground below. Nothing. "Mom! Did you clean my room?" he shouted at the top of his lungs. In some families, when you want to talk to a family member, you go to the room where they are. Other families have fancy intercom systems that broadcast your voice across the house at the touch of a button. The preferred method of long-distance communication in the Gomez household was to yell. Loudly. "No!" Mrs. Gomez's muffled yell came through the wall. "You lost them already?" Justin asked. "Lost what?" said Sadie. "Mr. Nemesis!" Michael ran out of his room. Sadie looked confused. "He lost his cat?" "No, not his cat," Justin replied, following Michael out.

"Would somebody please tell me what is going on?" Sadie followed her friends out of the room. "Michael!" she shouted. "I think he lost something," said a small voice from inside the room next to Michael's. Sadie popped her head into the room. Jane, Michael's four-year-old sister, was sitting on her bed, tying a bonnet onto the head of Mr. Nemesis, the family cat. "Oh hi, Jane. Do you know what he's looking for?" Sadie asked. "Nope. Do you like Mr. Nemesis's hat?" Jane said. "Meow," said Mr. Nemesis, in a very annoyed tone of cat voice. "It's so cute!" Sadie said. "Well, it's definitely not the cat that's lost." She continued down the hall and into the living room. "Michael!" she called out again. "In the basement!" she heard Michael yell through the floor. As Sadie headed toward the basement stairs, a quick movement caught her eye from the direction of the couch. She turned her head toward it but saw nothing. What was that? She walked over to the couch and knelt down to look underneath. Suddenly, she noticed another quick motion to her right and heard the distinct pitter-patter of

little paws. She turned quickly to see the door to the laundry room moving ever so slightly. Did something just run into the laundry room? "Come down and help us look!" Justin's voice said through the floor. "Hold on a second!" Sadie crept slowly toward the laundry room, her eyes fixed on the door opening. Cautiously, she cracked the door open just enough to fit her head through. For a moment, everything was perfectly still. Then she noticed the slightest bit of motion on a towel hanging out of a laundry hamper. She tiptoed toward the basket. "Sometimes Mr. Nemesis likes to hide things," Sadie heard Michael say as he opened the door to the laundry room. "Shhhhh!" Sadie put her finger over her lips. With the same finger, she then pointed toward the laundry hamper.

Justin entered the laundry room. "What are—?" "Shhhhh!" Sadie shushed louder. "There's something in the hamper," she whispered. "Why are you whispering?" Michael whispered as the three friends huddled around the laundry hamper. Sadie lifted the lid slowly. As light poured into the basket, the three friends peeked inside.

"AHHHHH!" screamed two tiny voices from within the hamper. "AHHHHH!" screamed Sadie, Michael, and Justin.