The Kitten

It was a stormy summer day. Adairia Nichols thought she heard a noise outside the window. "It's probably just the wind and the rain." her mother assured her.

Adairia shook her head. She was positive it wasn't that. "It sounds like crying." she insisted. She went to the window and looked out. "Oh, look, Mommy!" she cried. "There's a little kitten out there and she's cold and she's shivering!" Adairia flung open the front door and ran out without even putting a raincoat on.

"Adaira!" exclaimed her mother.

"Look, Mommy!" said Ava when she came back in the house with the dripping wet kitten in her arms. "She's cold." The tiny gray thing was shivering. Adairia was dripping wet and shivering too.

"You need to get out of those wet clothes." demanded Mommy.

"Okay." agreed Adairia, "if you take care of Grayla."

"Grayla?"

"That's what am I calling her." replied Adairia.  Mommy frowned. "What's the matter?" asked  Adaira. "You don't like the name Grayla?"

"It's not that. The name is fine."
 
"You're not going to put her out in the rain again? Are you, mommy?" Adairia asked worriedly. Her big blue eyes opened wide with horror at the thought.

"No. Of course not. It's just I don't think you should get too attached to her. She may belong to somebody." explained her mother.

"Well, anybody that lets a poor little kitten like this out in the poring rain doesn't deserve to have her." declared Adairia. Before her mother could say another word, she hurried upstairs and grabbed a fluffy dry towel from the linen closet and wrapped up the little grey kitten in it and began drying her off.

"Adairia!" said her mother.

"Oh alright." said Adairia. She handed the towel and the kitten to her mother and went off to change out of her wet clothes. In less than five minutes, she was back.

"Why Adairia!" exclaimed her mother. "I don't think you've ever gotten dressed so quickly before in your life."

Adairia ignored that remark. She just scooped back up the little grey kitten in her arms and kissed her.

"So much for not get attached." said her mother, but of course, Adairia wasn't listening. Of course, she did get attached to the little kitten. She was with them for almost a week. Adairia fed her and  brushed her and petted her and took care of her. Adairia grew to love the little kitten she called Grayla with all her heart.

Grayla loved Adairia right back. Every time, Adairia went away, she eagerly waited for Adairia to come back. As soon as Ava walked in the door, she brushed up against Adairia's legs until Adairia picked her up. When Ava sat down, she curled up in Ava's lap and purred happily as Adairia pet her.

In the meantime while Adairia and Grayla were getting so attached to each other, Mommy and Daddy placed an ad in the paper looking for the kitten's owner. They promised Aurora if nobody claimed Grayla, Aurora could keep her. "But don't get to attached to her." they warned. Of course, Aurora didn't listen.

At the end of the week, Adairia came home from school to find a strange woman talking to Mommy. "Adairia." explained Mommy. "This is Grayla's owner. She saw the ad in the paper and came to get Grayla. Her real name is Mabel."

Adairia hardly heard a word Mommy said. In fact, she completely blocked out the name of Grayla's owner when Mommy said it. To her, the kitten was Grayla and was always going to be Grayla and not Mabel. Mabel was too big of name for the tiny kitten. Adairia swallowed hard and stared at the ground to keep from crying. When she looked up, she realized Mommy was talking to her.

"Go and get, Grayla for Mrs. Crumm." Mommy urged.

Adairia did as she was told although she wasn't happy about it. She found Grayla under the bed and scooped the kitten up in her arms. "I'm going to miss you." she whispered into the kitten's fur. Grayla unaware of what was going on purred happily in her arms. Adaira went back to her mother and quickly deposited Grayla into her mother's arms.  She couldn't bare to give her straight to Mrs. Crumm. As soon as she put the cat in her mother's arms, she ran out of the room before she burst into tears.

Mommy gave the kitten to Mrs. Crumm. "Oh thank you and your daughter so much!" gushed Mrs Crumm. "We were leaving on vacation when somehow Mabel got out. We couldn't find her before we had to leave or we would miss our plane. When we got back, we saw your ad in the paper. We were so relieved that Mabel was okay." she explained.

Just then, the little kitten jumped out of her arms. She ran and found Adairia who was lying on her bed crying. She scrambled up on to the bed beside Aurora.  Adairia sat up and gathered the kitten in her arms and hugged her but she didn't take her back to her mother and Mrs. Crumm. She couldn't bare to.

After a few minutes, Mommy called "Adairia!" Adairia frowned unhappily. She held tightly to Grayla but she did bring the kitten back to Mommy and Mrs. Crumm. Only it turned out Mrs. Crumm was  no longer there only Mommy was.

Adairia looked around in surprise. "Where's Mrs. Crumm?" she asked only partly wanting to know the answer.

"She left." replied Mommy.

"She did?" asked Adairia in surprise.

"Yes, she saw how attached Grayla is to you...."

"I thought her name was Mabel." interupted Adaria rudely.

"Well not if you don't want it to be." replied Mommy.

"What do you mean?" asked Adaria afraid to hope.

"She's yours if you want her and you can call her what you want." explained Mommy. "Mrs. Crumm saw how attached you two are and she couldn't bare to separate you. You reminded her of when she was your age, and she had her first kitten. Besides, she has two other cats at home now. She was just relieved to find out that this little kitten is alright."

"Oh." replied Adairia. She had barely heard a word Mommy said except the part about the kitten belonging to her now. "Yes, I want her." she said happily. "She's mine, and her name is Grayla."