The Painted Ponies of Partequineus and The Summer of the Kittens Read online

  I wonder what he meant by that?

  August 26th

  Dear Diary,

  Jimmy is home from the hospital. I spent all afternoon at his house today, Mrs. Morris said I could, and we played board games and he showed me some really neat math tricks to help me do fractions in my head, and we talked about a whole bunch of things. Jimmy is really smart.

  He’s very thin, and he wears a hat all the time because he’s lost most of his hair, and he has something taped to his arm that attaches to a long tube so medicine can go into him from a bottle that hangs on a tall pole. I asked him if it hurts, and he said no.

  He has a special bed now, one with wheels and cranks and handles that make the mattress bend in the middle so he can sit up in it. Mr. Morris set it up in the hobby room. I think that’s so nobody has to go up and down stairs every time Jimmy needs something. Plus I think he likes being able to see all of his airplanes hanging from the ceiling whenever he wants to.

  Mrs. Morris feeds Thomas in the hobby room, too, and the litter box is there in a corner. Thomas likes to climb on the bed, and Jimmy says they sleep together every night. I’m really glad.

  I just have Veronica now. Jesse went to live with Emily yesterday.

  Mrs. Morris says I can come back again tomorrow.

  September 10th

  Dear Diary,

  Now that I’m back in school again, I have a new responsibility. I have to take Jimmy his assignments every day, and tell him all about what we’re doing in class so he won’t be so far behind when he gets better and can go again. I just noticed that I wrote that I have to, but that isn’t exactly right. I want to.

  Some days when I go to his house he’s sleeping, and some days there’s a nice lady there from the Victorian Order of Nurses. I asked Mrs. Morris if Jimmy will have to go and stay in the hospital again, and she said they wanted him to be at home as much as possible.

  I go to his house every day, even on weekends.

  Jimmy isn’t getting any better. There’s a tiger in his room all the time now.

  September 14th

  Dear Diary,

  Today was a wonderful day. Jimmy said he woke up feeling really good, and he was awake the whole time I was at his house. Mrs. Morris invited me to stay for supper, and we all ate from trays in Jimmy’s room and played Monopoly until almost eight-thirty. He even felt well enough to sit up in his wheelchair for a little while.

  I brought the telescope with me, and when it started to get dark we sat on the back porch and looked at the night sky, and we went flying all across Canada and the world and up to the moon and even as far as the stars. We haven’t done that in a long time. I didn’t tell Jimmy, but Mr. Harding was there too, sitting in my elm tree with Maggie and Smudgie on his lap. They were purring, and he was smiling.

  Just before I had to go home, I told Jimmy a secret that made him happy.

  September 15th

  Dear Diary,

  Jimmy died last night.

  October 12th

  Dear Diary,

  I’m sorry I haven’t written to you in a long time. I just haven’t felt like it, I guess, but now I do. I have lots to tell you.

  Remember our school picture, the one where Jimmy is sitting on a regular chair instead of in his wheelchair? Mrs. Morris has it up on their mantelpiece now. She told me it’s her favourite picture of him, and I said it’s mine, too. I never told her what happened that day, when I kicked up such a fuss and made the photographer waste all that extra time. It’s better if she doesn’t know.

  Veronica has to have her operation soon, the one that means she won’t be able to have any kittens. I feel sort of bad about that, but Mom said it’s the kindest thing to do, and that she’ll be happier and will probably live a longer life, too. She said there are already too many unwanted kittens in the world, and that it’s too hard to find good homes for them. I guess she’s right, but it would have been fun to have more kittens in the house.

  I’m doing really well in math class. Jimmy’s trick with fractions is so neat, and because of that I understand numbers a whole lot better now.

  Sometimes I wonder why Jimmy had to die so soon, and whether there was any reason for him to live at all, but I guess maybe one reason was so that I could learn stuff from him. What do you think, Diary?

  I spend lots of time with Jimmy up in my tree platform now, exploring the world with my telescope and talking to him. He doesn’t have to use the elevator anymore. He can climb up all by himself.

  When he’s not with me, Jimmy goes flying all the time. I know he does.

  Mom and Dad are getting along pretty good again. Dad is back teaching at the university, and guess what? Mom has a job! She’s a nurse’s aide at the hospital in Kentville, and she spends every morning in the children’s ward, helping all the sick kids get better. She told me she decided to do that because of Jimmy. Isn’t that neat? She seems really happy now.

  Dad comes home every night.

  After Jimmy died I told Mrs. Morris that if she didn’t want to keep Thomas any longer, I would take him back. Mom said I could. But Mrs. Morris said they still want him, that they love him because he reminds them of how happy Jimmy was to have his very own kitten.

  All the tigers are gone now. I scared them away, all by myself, and if they ever come back, I’ll do it again!

  Jimmy is buried in the cemetery at the east side of town, up on a hill beneath a really pretty maple tree. There isn’t any headstone yet, but I know where to go to find him. I stop by there some days after school. Mom says it’s all right as long as I let her know in advance so she won’t worry when I’m late getting home. One day last week I discovered a whole bunch of blue flowers planted there. They have little black dots in the center, just like the ones on Maggie’s and Smudgie’s graves. I think Mom put them there.

  I miss Maggie. For a long time I was mad at Dad for running over her, but now I think maybe something good came out of it after all. I don’t understand very much about why he and Mom were fighting all the time, but after Maggie died he started to pay more attention to us again. Mom and me, I mean.

  Remember when I told you about what Dad said, back when I was wishing I could do something to help Jimmy besides just pray and go visit him? Dad said, “Maybe you can when you’re older,” and I didn’t understand what he meant, but now I do.

  Maybe Jimmy didn’t have a very long life, but he’s still right here with us in a whole bunch of ways. Because of him Mom goes to the hospital every day and helps lots of kids to get better. And most important, because of him I know what I’m going to do with my life. I’m going to study really hard and become a doctor, so I can find ways to help kids who have spina bifida and cancer and all those other diseases. I told Dad, and he said he was very proud of me, and that Jimmy will always be alive through me and through all the children that I’ll be able to help.

  That was the secret I told Jimmy the last night I saw him, so wherever he is now, he knows.