The Mysteries of Max: Books 31-33 by Nic Saint (interesting novels in english txt) 📕

talk to us, and I could see from his puckered brow and the worried expression on his face that he wasn’t liking this any more than we did.

“I tried to stop her,” he announced sullenly, “but she wouldn’t hear of it. I told her, okay, so maybe Shanille was out of line, but then you should try to be the grownup here. After all, there’s nothing to gain by pushing this thing.”

“Unfortunately Harriet is not the kind of cat who will back down,” I said. “And neither is Shanille.”

“Is she going to put it to a vote?” asked Dooley, turning his head like a spectator at a tennis match, looking from Harriet to Shanille as they both seemed to go from strength to strength—oratorically speaking.

“Yeah, she wants to settle this thing once and for all,” Brutus confirmed.

“So… what are we supposed to vote about?” I asked.

“She’s going to try to push Shanille out of cat choir,” said Brutus in a grave tone.

“No way!”

“Yes, way. She wants to take control, so that something like this will never happen again.”

“Oh, dear.”

“But I don’t want to vote for one or the other, Max,” said Dooley. “I like Harriet, but I like Shanille, too.”

“Plus, I don’t think Harriet would make a good choir director,” I surmised. “Frankly I think if she goes through with this, cat choir just might split in two: Shanille will take her followers to a different part of the park, and then there will be two cat choirs.”

“I’m afraid that just might be the case,” said Brutus somberly.

“But I don’t want two cat choirs,” said Dooley. “I like the fact that we all come together here night after night, and that we all get along!”

“Yeah, well, tell that to Shanille and Harriet,” said Brutus. “Clearly they don’t get along.”

“But…”

Just then, Harriet raised her voice. “Cats of cat choir, the time has come to take a stand: do you really want to keep on living under the dictatorship of Shanille? Or do you want your freedom, under my leadership? It’s your choice, and so choose wisely!”

“Dear friends!” Shanille yelled, summoning for silence, “don’t listen to my opponent. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She’s disrespectful, she’s mean, and she’s a bully. And I for one feel that we should say no to bullies and therefore start a procedure to expel Harriet from our community once and for all.”

“But then who’s going to sing the soprano parts?” a voice from the crowd yelled.

“Yeah, I like those sopranos!” another insisted.

“Thank you so, so much,” Harriet said, simpering a little. “Look, if you want to hear my sopranos you can hear them every night from now on, and not just when Shanille allows them. In fact you can listen to my sweet voice all the time, if you vote for me.”

“If you want tyranny to get a kick in the teeth, you’ll vote for me,” Shanille snapped.

“Free Cat Snax for all!” Harriet countered.

“Don’t listen to her!” said Shanille. “She’ll promise you Cat Snax today and eat them all herself tomorrow. Because that’s the kind of cat Harriet is: selfish!”

“Oh, shut up, Shanille.”

“No, you shut up!”

“Oh, dear,” I murmured.

“If this keeps up,” said Dooley, “the stork will be scared off by all the yelling.”

Soon it was time to vote, and oddly enough the electorate was split right down the middle: Harriet got half of the vote, and so did Shanille.

“I demand a recount!” Harriet cried. “This can’t be right!”

“Yeah, let’s have a recount!” Shanille agreed. “This can’t possibly be right!”

After a few tense moments, it turned out that the vote was exactly the same as the first time, so it was finally decided that a committee would be created that would try and figure a way out of this stalemate. So more voting took place, and suddenly I found myself the leader of this commission.

Yikes!

My fellow committee members were Dooley, Brutus, Kingman and Buster, and before long we were engaged in a tense meeting trying to resolve this remarkable situation.

“I think we should probably have a dual leadership of cat choir from now on,” Kingman suggested.

“You mean put both Harriet and Shanille in charge?” I asked.

“Exactly! It would solve all of our problems. They could be co-directors. Everybody happy!”

“I don’t think so,” said Brutus, once more providing the gloomy note. “Harriet is not the kind of cat who’s great at cooperation. Put her and Shanille in charge and they’ll end up fighting tooth and claw.”

“I think he’s right,” said Buster. “They simply are incapable of sharing the power.”

“So what do we do then?” asked Kingman. “Any other suggestions?”

“We could alternate,” said Brutus. “One night will be Shanille night, and the next will be Harriet’s turn. That way they both get what they want.”

“Not entirely,” I said. “On the nights Harriet is in charge Shanille will do everything in her power to sabotage the rehearsals, and vice versa. We’ll end up with a protracted war.”

“So then what?”

Frankly we were all stumped and out of ideas. So we decided to sleep on it and reconvene the next day. It sure was a tough proposition.

And as we walked home that night, Dooley said, “I’m worried, Max.”

“Me, too,” I admitted.

“I mean, what will the stork think? He’s probably going to be scared off by all the bickering and fighting. And then what?”

I decided to settle this thing once and for all. “Look, Dooley, Odelia has clearly said that she and Chase don’t want to start a family right now. They have plenty of time and so let’s give them that time, all right? The stork will just have to wait,” I added, anticipating his next remark.

He thought about this for a moment, then finally nodded. “All right, Max. We have to respect Odelia’s wishes. The stork will just have to wait.”

“Exactly.”

“I mean, after all it’s up to Odelia and Chase. They’re the ones who get to decide.”

“Absolutely!” I said, much relieved he was taking this stance.

“On the other hand,” he said, “we have to think of that poor