“Where did he go?” asked the freckled kid.

  “I don’t know,” said the blond girl. “He just disappeared.”

  She picked up the collar, eyed it curiously, then pocketed it as if it were the spoils of war, and moved on.

  I breathed a deep sigh of relief as I watched them walk away. Odelia might have been able to track my health with the collar, but it was now obvious that the collar was in fact a danger to that health, and my wellbeing!

  18

  Odelia watched as her uncle took Gran’s statement in regards to the multiple attempts to break into her home, when suddenly her phone produced a loud beeping sound. She picked it out of her pocket and stared at the app in question with concern. It was the Better Pet Yet app, and the notification told her that Max’s heartbeat and brainwaves had unexpectedly been terminated. And when she opened the app, it said, ‘Terminal error!’

  Her heart rate spiked when she realized that according to the app… Max had just been killed!

  Immediately she glanced around, and when she couldn’t find her cats, asked her mom and then her grandma, but they hadn’t seen them either.

  “I saw them earlier,” Chase indicated, “but they seem to have disappeared.”

  She held the app in front of her husband’s nose. “According to this thing Max is dead, Chase. He’s dead!”

  Chase took the phone and studied the app intently. “It doesn’t say that he’s dead. It just says it lost connection to the chip monitoring his vital signs.”

  “Which means he’s dead!”

  “Which means he’s not wearing his collar right now. He could have taken it off. Or it could have malfunctioned.”

  Only slightly mollified by this sample of excellent reasoning, she glanced down at the app, and saw that her three other cats were still in the vicinity, as evidenced by the three little dots moving on a map of Hampton Cove, but Max was not among them.

  A wave of panic washed over her, and she leaned on her husband for support. “You gotta help me, Chase. If I lost Max, I don’t know what I’d do.”

  “Easy, babe. I’m sure he’s fine. You know Max. He knows how to take care of himself. He’s a clever puss, and has managed to get out of plenty of tough spots before.”

  “But he’s not on the map, Chase!” she practically screamed.

  He took the phone, messed with the app’s controls, and finally said, “I think I’ve got him—or at least I’ve got his signal.” And he pointed to a little red dot that was, indeed, moving. It also said that it was this dot that wasn’t registering any signs of life at that moment. “Let’s just follow the dot,” Chase suggested, “and see what we find, all right?”

  She nodded, and chewed her lower lip in distinct concern over the fate of Max.

  And as they left Uncle Alec and one of his officers to do the honors and interview all the neighbors who’d flocked to the backyard in connection with this sudden spate of burglaries, she and Chase followed the little red dot. And soon they were walking along, with Odelia fervently hoping that Max was all right, and hadn’t been harmed in any way.

  “We had him,” said Ralphie dejectedly. “We had him and he slipped through our fingers.”

  “We’ll get him next time,” said his sister Lisa.

  “No, we won’t. This time he gave us the slip for real,” said Mike, who’d been the first in their small band of friends to get hooked on the new Mokemon game.

  “The others are still out there,” said Jake, the Benjamin of the gang. “We should go after them next.”

  “They won’t net us as many points as MokeMax,” Ralphie pointed out.

  “I just don’t understand what happened,” said Jackson, who was the tallest of the group, and stuck out not just because of his height, but also because of his red curly hair. “How can a Mokemon simply disappear like that?”

  “Maybe it’s a glitch?” Lisa suggested.

  “I don’t think so,” said Ralphie as he studied the collar he still held in his hand. They were in their local park, where they liked to meet, and where they’d discovered that the Mokemons they liked to hunt spent most of their time, especially at night.

  “I don’t understand what this is,” said Lisa. “Mokemons are fictitious, right? So how come MokeMax was wearing a collar?”

  “I think I know what’s going on here,” said Jackson, who wasn’t just the tallest and hairiest, but also the smartest of the outfit. “This is the latest iteration of the game. And it’s based on old technology that somehow they’ve managed to turn into something way cool.” He looked at the others with delight. “Holograms, people!”

  “Holograms?” said Mike, giving their friend a skeptical look.

  “Holograms! Just think about it: how come we can see these new Mokemons? Because they’re actually there, only they’re not really there, of course. They’re being produced with these collars. It’s a high-tech instrument designed to produce a holographic effect in the real world. I bet it can fly, too, which is why the Mokemons can move so fast. Only this one must have malfunctioned, which is why MokeMax suddenly disappeared, and we were left holding his collar.”

  “So… MokeMax is actually inside this collar somehow?” said Lisa, staring at the thing.

  “Yes, he is,” said Jackson, clearly proud to have figured out what had baffled the others.

  “So… how do we fix it?” asked Ralphie, who really wanted to bring MokeMax back to life so they could catch him.

  “I’m not sure,” said Jackson as he subjected the collar to closer scrutiny. “Look,” he said, and they all looked.

  “It’s the logo of the Mokemon company!” said Lisa.

  More cries of excitement filled the air. “You were right, Jackson,” said Ralphie. “This collar… is MokeMax!”

  And as Jackson placed the collar onto a flat rock, they all bowed their heads in deference to the greatest Mokemon to have hit the world in recent years: MokeMax.

  “MokeMax, please come back to us,” said Lisa. “We miss you.”

  “Yeah, we miss you, MokeMax,” Ralphie chimed in.

  “What the hell is going on here!” suddenly a harsh voice intruded upon their reverent meditation on the greatness of the great MokeMax.

  “And what have you done with my cat!” a female voice added itself to the interruption of this sacred moment.

  The five kids looked up as one kid, and saw they were being approached by a man and a woman, who both looked very angry indeed. The man was built like a lumberjack, and the woman, petite and fair-haired, appeared to be so angry she was on the verge of breathing fire through her nostrils. Her name might as well have been Daenerys.

  “We-we were talking about MokeMax,” said Ralphie, surprised by this sudden emergence onto the scene of these two adults. He knew adults rarely understood how wonderful and exciting the world of Mokemon was, but he now sensed there was more to it than that. Maybe they didn’t approve of five kids being out in the park at night?

  “What have you done with Max?!” the woman demanded. She grabbed the collar and held it up. “Did you kill him?”

  “Oh, no, of course not,” said Lisa, shocked by the accusation.

  “We tried to catch him, but he got away,” said Ralphie.

  “We think the collar malfunctioned and MokeMax’s hologram disappeared,” Jackson explained his theory.

  “What are you talking about?” said the woman. “Where is Max?”

  “Well… I guess you could say he’s inside the collar?” said Jackson, speaking extra-slowly now, since obviously these two didn’t have the first clue about Mokemon.

  The woman stared at the collar and then at Jackson. “You mean that Max disappeared… into his collar?”

  Jackson nodded furiously. “That’s exactly what happened. But if you go online you’ll probably find a FAQ on how to fix the collar, and maybe bring MokeMax back to life.”

  “What’s all this nonsense about Moké Mons?” asked the guy with the many muscles as he took the collar from the woman and eyed it suspiciously.

  “MokeMax is one of four new Mokemons that were launched this week,” Ralphie explained. “Mokemon, which stands for Mock Monsters, is a brand owned and operated by Intended2,” he added when the two grownups just stared at him as if he’d suddenly grown a third ear or a second nose or something. It was tedious having to explain basic stuff like this to adults, but he was used to it by now, having had to explain the brilliance of Mokemon to three aunts, two uncles, four grandparents and his mom and dad.

  “MokeMax is the coolest of the four,” said Lisa.

  “And he nets you the most points if you capture him.”

  “Though MokeDooley is also pretty cute.”

  “I like MokeBrutus best,” said Mike.

  “I like MokeHarriet,” said Jake devotedly. “She’s so cute.”

  “MokeDooley is actually the least interesting new Mokemon,” said Ralphie.

  “You’re only saying that because he only nets you half the points,” said his sister.

  “MokeDooley?” said the woman, shaking her head as if trying to wake up from some nightmarish dream.

  “Okay, so they’re all pretty cool,” said Ralphie, “but MokeMax is the best. He’s brave, he’s handsome, he’s big, but most importantly, he’s blorange. Not orange, mind you—blorange. And yes, there’s a big difference.”

  “MokeMax is also very versatile,” said Jackson, not stinting on the MokeMax praise, as they all had become big fans in the short time since MokeMax had become part of the big Mokemon family.

  “Yeah, you should have seen him this morning, climbing that tree as if he’d never done anything else his entire life,” said Lisa with a laugh.

  “Or when he escaped from the General Store,” said Jake. “That was way cool!”

  “Okay, enough,” said the woman, who’d been following the back-and-forth with rapt attention. “Where did you say Max… MokeMax’s collar broke down?”

  “Um… must have been on the corner of Harrington Street?” said Mike.

  “Yeah, Harrington Street,” Ralphie agreed. “He’d just been dumped from a car, and that’s when we spotted him.”

  “It’s been tough tracking him,” said Lisa, “since the app keeps breaking down.”

  “I don’t think it’s the app breaking down but the hologram,” Jackson said. “I think the technology isn’t fully developed yet. It might even still be in beta.”

  The woman now smiled for the first time since they’d made her acquaintance, though she still hadn’t formally introduced herself. She now held out her hand and said, “My name is Odelia Kingsley, and this is my husband Chase Kingsley. We’re the proud owners of Max, who’s a real cat, by the way, and not a hologram.” She held up the collar. “I bought this collar for him on the advice of his vet, who said it would make it easier to track his health—heartrate, blood pressure, and so on.”

  Ralphie frowned at the woman. “What are you saying, lady?”

  “I think she’s saying that MokeMax isn’t a Mokemon but an actual cat,” said Mike.

  “That’s right. There is no MokeMax, though I’m sure that when I tell him about this, he’ll find it very flattering, the way you just spoke about him.”

  “So this collar…” said Lisa.

  “Is exactly that: a cat collar. Only the company who produces these collars is the same company who are behind this game you like so much. This Mock…”

  “Mokemon,” said Ralphie with a frown.

  Jackson snapped his fingers. “They must have made a programming mistake,” he said. “Somehow the software that runs these collars must have bled into the Mokemon universe.”

  “You mean… we’ve been hunting an actual cat all day?” asked Lisa, looking horrified.

  “Not just any cat,” said Mrs. Kingsley. “My cat. In fact all four of my cats: Max, Dooley, Harriet and Brutus.”

  “So… none of them is an actual Mokemon?” asked Mike.

  “No, they’re four actual cats, all wearing cat collars.”

  “Oh, crap,” said Ralphie, and he voiced what the others were all thinking.

  “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Kingsley,” said Lisa. “We had no idea.”

  “When the four new Mokemons suddenly popped up on our phones, we were so excited, since they only appeared in Hampton Cove, and nowhere else around the country.”

  “So we figured we were the first who’d been given the opportunity to capture them,” Lisa continued to explain.

  “I think you better call off the hunt now,” said Mr. Kingsley in a deep rumbling voice.

  “Of course, sir,” said Ralphie, then eyed the man a little closer. “Say, aren’t you a cop?”

  “Yes, I am,” Mr. Kingsley confirmed, which caused the four other kids to gulp.

  “Are-are we under arrest now, officer?” asked Mike.

  The cop allowed his facial muscles to twitch into what could loosely be interpreted as a smile. “No, you’re not under arrest, but I will advise you to quit hunting my wife’s cats.”

  There was a threat implied in the man’s words, though Ralphie couldn’t exactly put his finger on it. Still, he quickly said, “Of course, sir. We’ll call off the chase. Won’t we, guys?”

  “Y-yes, o-officer,” said Mike with a distinct lack of bravado.

  “Do you want us to help you find MokeMax—I mean Max, Mrs. Kingsley?” asked Lisa.

  “Yes, I would appreciate that very much,” said Mrs. Kingsley.

  And so the five kids set out, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Kingsley, to hunt down MokeMax one last time—though this time they couldn’t rely on the Mokemon app on their phones, only on their own sense of direction and their smarts.

  Ralphie certainly hoped Max would be fine, for even though Officer Kingsley had said he wouldn’t arrest them, he still had the distinct impression that if Max wasn’t found before the morning, there would be hell to pay. And how was he going to explain that to his parents?

  19

  I have to admit I’d had enough excitement for one day, so after being abducted, kicked out of a car, and chased by those crazy kids, I felt enough was enough, and decided to go home and enjoy a nice nap for the rest of the night, and maybe until well into the next day, too!

  Of course when I arrived home, my friends were nowhere to be found—probably singing their hearts out at cat choir—and of Chase and Odelia there was not a single trace either—presumably still trying to figure out who’d dared to burgle the house next door.

  And so it was a distinct sense of gratification that first I ate my fill in kibble, then did my business in my litter box, making a nice donation after the excitement I’d gone through, then mounted the stairs at my leisure, jumped on the bed (and made it at the first attempt—take that, Vena!), curled up into a ball and went straight to sleep.

  I like the company of humans, of course, and the company of my fellow felines, but sometimes a cat just wants to be alone, if you know what I mean.

  And so while the world turned, I slept the sleep of the young and the restless. Or is the bold and the beautiful?

  And I felt pretty refreshed when at long last Odelia and Chase decided to call it a night as well, and entered the bedroom. Their cries of dismay woke me up from a very nice dream of what paradise must be like: a place filled with kibble-laden golden plates as far as the eye can see. As I opened one eye, awakened by the ruckus, I found myself gazing into Odelia’s face, and I must say she looked at me a little strangely. And then suddenly she heaved a startled cry and moments later hugged me so tight I had trouble breathing!

  “Max!” she cried with a distinct quiver in her voice. “You’re all right!”

  “I know I’m all right,” I said as I yawned cavernously. “That’s the way I roll.”

  “But… you lost your collar!” she said, and showed me the proof of her statement by presenting me with the collar.

  I gave the contraption a look of distaste. “Those kids tried to catch me again,” I said, “until I realized this thing is what must have put them on my trail, so I decided to rip it off and lo and behold: problem solved!”

  “Oh, Max!”’ she said, and once more gave me one of those bone-crushing hugs you always read about. And then she promptly burst into a flood of tears!

  “There, there,” I said as I watched the strange scene unfold. I glanced up at Chase, who stood behind his woman, and even the big strong detective was suffering from a certain moistness about the eyes!

  “Don’t cry, Odelia,” I said finally and with a touch of awkwardness, since I’ve never been particularly well-versed in the teachings of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. For I had the strong suspicion someone had died and this is why my humans were in such an emotional state. But then I realized that if someone had died, it most probably was… Gran!

  “Did something happen to Gran?” I asked therefore. “Did she… die?”

  “Oh, Max,” Odelia sniffled. “No, Gran is fine.” And to prove it, she cried some more!

  “We were very worried about you, Max,” said Chase, proceeding to lift a part of the veil on why they were in this state. “Odelia actually thought something had happened to you, since her phone started beeping the moment your collar lost connection with you.”

  Finally understanding dawned. “Oh,” I said, as I patted my human on the head. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think about that.”

  “Of course you didn’t, Max,” said Odelia, now smiling through her flood of tears, which was a strange sight indeed, and for a mere feline like myself very hard to interpret, I can tell you. Was she crying? Or was she smiling? Was she sad? Or was she happy? Tough!

  “Look, I’m fine, you guys,” I said, and got up from the bed to demonstrate my physical prowess. Of course, as I turned a few rounds, I accidentally slipped off the bed and tumbled to the floor, fortunately landing on all fours. It caused ripples of laughter to emanate from my humans, and I must confess I liked this a lot better. It’s not much fun to realize you’ve caused pain and heartache, just by the inadvertent act of throwing off your collar, even though I still thought doing so had saved my life from those pesky kids.