Read The Cat That Went to Homecoming for Free Online

people simply out of the kindness of their
hearts. Not everybody has an ulterior motive.”
    “I know that!” I shouted. Our raised voices
startled Hershey and forced him to jump off me and dart out of the
room. I stood up and watched him leave, then paced back and forth
running my hands through my hair. “I just don’t want to….” I
started to say something, and then realized I was revealing too
much.
    “You don’t want to what? Put forth all the
effort?” Mom countered me, standing to face me.
    “No! It’s not that,” I said, my eyes fixed on
the carpet to avoid hers.
    “Then what is it, Ellen?” she demanded.
    I let out a deep sigh and plopped back onto
the bed. How could I explain ‘what it is’ when I didn’t understand
it myself. Jane was the nicest person I had ever met in my life. If
I took money and a computer from her, and then failed, I would
disappoint her.
    I was afraid I would disappoint her.
    Mom sat back on the edge of the bed and put
her hand on my knee. “Ellen, talk to me,” she said. “What are you
afraid of?”
    I looked her straight in the eyes and blurted
it out. “I’m afraid I will disappoint her.” There, I said it.
    “Ellen, those that try and fail never
disappoint. It’s the ones who don’t try at all that do,” Mom
said.
    I saw Hershey peeking in the doorway at us,
his tail curled downward in tension. I gave him eye contact and
patted my lap to show him I needed him to come back. He did; he
jumped onto my lap and head-butted my arm, telling me, “Pet
me!”
    I looked at my mom and smiled. “Won’t he look
handsome in his service animal vest?” I said.
    Mom clapped her hands and reached out to rub
Hershey’s head, “Yes, he will!” Hershey rubbed his cheek against
her hand in affection.
     

 
    Chapter
Eight
     
    Jane and her husband, Stan, dropped off the
laptop the following Saturday afternoon while Mom was at work.
Earlier in the day, I had baked brownies so the three of us sat at
the kitchen table with brownies and milk while Stan showed me how
to use the laptop.
    Being that I had never used a laptop before,
I did not know how it worked. I just assumed you clicked on an icon
and was magically sent to the internet. That was not the case! Mrs.
Spenser had her WIFI password encrypted, so Stan showed me how to
add my computer to her network.
    “Be sure to keep the password written down
and stored in a safe place. There will be times when you find
yourself disconnected from the network and you will need to
re-establish the connection.”
    I would not have known that. He suggested
that I write it on a piece of paper and scotch tape it to the
bottom of my laptop.
    Jane downloaded the online Pet Handler’s
Course onto my computer using her credit card to pay the $70.00
fee, and right there my heart sank.
    “Jane, I don’t have $70.00 to pay you,” I
meekly said. “I wasn’t expecting you to download this for me
today.”
    “I’m downloading this for you as an advance
on your salary. Once I walk you through this, we will set up a work
schedule,” Jane said.
    Hershey jumped up onto the table and rubbed
his cheek up against the computer screen.
    “Well, hello there, handsome,” Jane said as
she stroked Hershey’s head. He head-butted her hand, wanting more
attention, and Jane chuckled. “He certainly is a social butterfly,
isn’t he?”
    Hershey found Jane’s glass of milk and
gingerly stuck his paw into it. After licking the milk off of his
paw, he must have realized that drinking the milk directly out of
the glass would be more satisfying than dunking his paw in twenty
times. He tried to stick his head in the glass, but the
circumference of the glass was smaller than his head so this did
not work.
    I knew what his next move would be because we
had gone down this road before, so I swiped the glass up off the
table and removed it. Hershey intended to knock it over to get the
milk. I went to the cabinet and pulled a small dish out to pour the
milk into and