Emmett and Jez Read online

  “Bee! I’m in here!” Emmett called, but the bumblebee couldn’t hear him. Emmett tapped on the glass with his hooves, eager to get her attention. Tap, tap, tap!

  The bumblebee peeked out from behind a pink petal and gasped. “Emmett?” She flew toward him and placed her feet against the glass. “The little pig from the zzzide of the road? Izzz it really you?”

  “It’s me! Look! I made it to Fosterland!” he said loudly through the window. “It’s amazing! Although”—he took a deep breath—“sometimes I do dream about the great outdoors. Maybe someday I can be out there in the field, singing in the sunshine with you and the birds… and my dear pal Jez!” He closed his eyes and smiled at the thought.

  “That izzz a lovely dream. Who’s Jezzz?” buzzed the bumblebee.

  Emmett smiled. “Jez is my fluffy friend! He’s the best. He’s sweet, and funny, and—”

  But before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by thundering growls and the sudden sound of Jez bounding down the hallway like the roof was on fire!

  Slam! Jez smacked against the window with both paws. His eyes looked like saucers! “Let me at ’em! Let me at ’em!” Jez shouted. “I’ll get that bumblebee. I swear I will! And those little birds, too!”

  Startled by Jez’s sudden pounce, the birds fluttered away, and the bumblebee flew backward, vanishing into the wind.

  “Jez!” Emmett stepped between him and the window, holding up a hoof. “The bee and the birds are our friends. And you scared them all away! Here, let’s breathe together. In through the snout… out through the mouth… in through the snout…”

  Jez took several deep breaths but kept the confused look on his face as he scratched his head. “The bees and birds are our friends?” Jez said. “You are one of a kind, Emmett. Sometimes I wonder if you’re even a kitten at all!”

  Emmett gulped and forced a smile. Out of the corner of his eye, the pink reflection in the window was bothering him. He thought he could be a foster kitten—but the truth was, he was starting to doubt that, too.

  Changing the subject, he turned the attention back to Jez, asking, “So, where have you been all morning?”

  Jez’s face lit up. “You won’t believe me when I tell you. I got up this morning to use the litter box, and as I was trying to hide my poop—you know, so the food fairy doesn’t steal it—I turned around and saw a jungle in the distance. A jungle, Emmett. There’s a giant tree, two times the height of Mount Couch.”

  He continued. “I spent the whole morning trying to climb this thing. It isn’t as easy, you know, with three legs, but I was determined. I gripped, and I clung, and I clawed, and finally—get this—I made it to the top. Emmett, it was the best. You can see everything from up there. Up high, in the treetops, life just feels right.”

  Emmett nodded as he listened to the tale. He found himself wondering how two close friends who loved each other so much could possibly manage to see the world from such different perspectives. Still, he was happy for Jez—really—even though his interests seemed so drastically different from his own.

  CHAPTER 7 Faux Paws

  In spite of their differences, Emmett and Jez were growing closer and closer. And not just because they went on so many adventures together but because Emmett was now huge and nearly squashed Jez every time they lay together on the cloud. He was now nearly three times the size of his friend.

  “I can barely fit on this thing anymore,” Jez whined one day, squished to the side. He laid his head on top of Emmett’s giant pink tummy and sighed. “I’ll never understand how you’ve grown so big when all you seem to eat is veggies and grains! Don’t grow up too fast, my friend, or you’ll be leaving Fosterland any day.…”

  “Leaving Fosterland?” Emmett jolted up. “What are you even talking about?”

  “Everyone knows Fosterland is just a temporary place. Right? I mean, didn’t I ever tell you about…?” Jez looked to his friend, who was flabbergasted. “Oh, shoot. I never finished reciting that rhyme, did I?”

  Emmett slowly shook his head.

  “Okay, here’s the thing.… There’s another place we go after Fosterland.”

  Emmett’s eyes grew huge. “What?!”

  “Dang. I thought I told you. It’s all in the rhyme.”

  Emmett furrowed his brows, completely confused.

  Jez smacked his paw pad against his forehead. “Oops. See, the trouble is, I don’t remember the whole rhyme. But I know someone who does.…”

  They looked at each other and said in unison: “Coco the Elder Cat.”

  Off they went, over grasslands and through the jungle, searching for the wise black cat. They looked in the rain forest, but she wasn’t there. They scoped out the grasslands, but they didn’t see her anywhere. They checked Mount Couch, and Jez found little black hairs at the mountaintop—a sign she had been there not long ago.

  “She’s got to be around here somewhere,” Jez said, studying a piece of her fur.

  Emmett looked to the windowsill, and there she was, perched on a cushion in the sunlight, curled into a perfect circle.

  “Psst!” Emmett whispered, pointing in her direction. “Found her!”

  Jez’s eyes lit up as they crept closer to Coco. “Ask her about the rhyme,” he whispered.

  “You ask,” Emmett whispered back. Not only was he nervous to speak to Coco, but he was worried about what she’d say. Leave Fosterland? The only place he’d ever felt safe? Where he had met his best friend? Emmett didn’t want to think about it.

  “No, you ask!” Jez responded, nudging his friend.

  “No, you!” Emmett said, nudging Jez back and accidentally knocking him against the foot of a chair, which skidded across the floor. Skrrrt.

  They both gasped and stood perfectly still.

  The noise had awakened Coco from her snooze. She cracked open her watchful eyes, then lifted her long, lean neck from the cushion. She looked down at them, waiting for them to speak.

  “Hello, ma’am.… If you don’t mind… we just… had a quick… question,” Jez started.

  Coco sat perfectly still, listening.

  Emmett cleared his throat. “We’d like to know what happens to foster kittens like us. Jez says there is a rhyme about Fosterland, and we’d like to hear it from start to finish. Please.”

  Coco looked at Emmett and winked. She stood and stretched up tall, so shiny and sleek, and slowly recited the rhyme:

  “Dream big, dream big, and soon you’ll see

  All that a foster grows to be.

  The dream inside your heart today

  Decides the place you go to stay.

  Fosterland is but a phase

  To foreshadow the best of days.

  For all your dreams will soon come true,

  When Foreverland welcomes you.”

  And with that, she curled back into a ball and fell asleep.

  “Foreverland?” Emmett said. “What in the…?”

  Jez leaned in. “What I was trying to tell you is… this isn’t a permanent home. There is another place for us—a forever home made just for us out of our hopes and wishes.”

  Emmett squinted, trying to make sense of it all.

  Jez continued. “Don’t you see? That’s the magic of being a foster kitten. When you’re a foster kitten in Fosterland, you can lie on this fluffy cloud to let your imagination soar and think about the life you hope to live. Our dreams travel up into the sunbeam and swirl around over our heads, making our future bright! Dream big, because your dreams are designing your future life in Foreverland!”

  “The dream inside your heart today…,” Emmett pondered. “So you’re saying that the things we dream about today will decide where we end up going for good?”

  Jez nodded. “Yes, something like that.”

  “And we’ll go to the same Foreverland?”

  “I don’t see why not,” Jez said. “We’re best friends!”

  “Well, then I dream that Foreverland has fluffy pillows!”

  “Yes!” said Jez. “I’m right there with you. Oh, and sunny spots!”

  “I love sunny spots!” Emmett replied.

  “I dream Foreverland has a wrestling ring and lots of good snacks,” Jez continued.

  “Definitely. Snacks are a must. Like crunchy lettuce, and—ooh! Watermelon.” Emmett’s mouth was watering just imagining it.

  “I was thinking tuna, but okay,” Jez said, laughing.

  “I dream Foreverland has lots of birds who want to sing songs with me.”

  “There you go with birds again. I don’t need birds in Foreverland, but I wouldn’t mind a couple of feathers dangling from a string.…”

  “You have weird hobbies, Jez,” Emmett said, huffing. The last thing he wanted to do was insult his friend, but seriously, what was with this guy?

  “Em,” Jez said, “all I want is a tall tree where I can survey my kingdom. My dream is that Foreverland has an epic treetop view.”

  “Who wants to be way up there? I can’t even see up there,” Emmett said. “I dream that Foreverland is filled with dirt and worms!”

  “Dirt is gross,” Jez said, licking his paw.

  “You’re gross! You lick your own butt!” Emmett said, grumbling.

  “Yeah, Emmett, because I’m a kitten. What kind of kitten doesn’t lick their own butt?”

  Emmett felt his heart sink. All at once, a terrible feeling came over him, a feeling he had buried and tried to forget. But now it was bubbling to the surface faster than he could stop the words from escaping his mouth—

  “Well, maybe I’m not a foster kitten! Maybe I’m a… I’m a… a… pig!”

  “What are you talking about?” Jez laughed.

  “I’m a pig, Jez. I think I’m a pig.” Emmett thought back to the bumblebee’s words and the fact that his reflection looked so different from his kitten best friend’s. He felt in his heart that the bee was right. He was a pig.

  Jez blinked, speechless. In his shock, every hair on his body stuck straight out as if he’d been hit by lightning. He looked like a prickly pine cone as he arched his back, stunned, and sidestepped out of the room.

  Emmett looked down, watching a teardrop fall to the floor. He’d finally admitted what he might have known all along. That he was not a foster kitten at all but was actually a piglet.

  The truth was, the only thing he knew about being a pig was that it was scary and lonely. He could hear the words of the bumblebee echoing in his brain: “Little pig, bee careful!” Deep down he’d always worried about going back to those feelings of hunger, of thirst, of loneliness and fear.

  His life had only started to get better once he found out he was, in fact, a foster kitten. Being a kitten was the only thing that ever felt safe! Now that he’d confessed the truth, his head was swimming with the sinking feeling that maybe he was about to lose everything. Including his best friend.

  Just as he was feeling like he couldn’t be more alone, Jez slowly turned the corner and walked in with his tail between his legs.

  “What do you call it when a kitten rudely storms out on his best friend?” He hung his head in shame. “A faux paw.” He smiled shyly and swished his tail onto Emmett’s face, wiping away his tears. “I’m sorry, Emmett. I didn’t know what to say. I’m sorry.”

  Emmett took a deep breath. “I forgive you,” he sniffled. “Besides… I guess I’m the one with the fake paws.…” He tried to joke, holding up one leg, but his hoof was trembling. “So what does this mean?”

  “I think”—Jez gulped, staring into the distance—“if I’m a kitten… and you’re a pig… and we have very different dreams… I think it means that we might be going to different Foreverlands.”

  CHAPTER 8 Meoink

  The truth was out.

  All along, Emmett had been a baby pig, not a kitten. And that explained all his quirks—his fear of heights, his love of vegetables, and his gentle fondness for birds and other creatures. All the things he thought made him strange weren’t actually weird at all for a piglet. But the problem was that he and his friend Jez had different dreams, which seemed sure to lead them down different paths.

  “I’ve been thinking,” Jez said, hopping up onto Emmett’s back. “If the dreams we dream today decide the place we go to stay, then all we have to do… is dream the same dreams!”

  Emmett wasn’t so sure.

  “Hear me out,” Jez said. “If we want to stay together, all we have to do is prove to the food fairy that we are exactly alike. She’s in charge of this place, after all. If we can show her that we have the same exact dreams, then she’s bound to send us to the same Foreverland! And if you can’t be a kitten, then maybe I, Jez, can learn how to be a pig. Why not? I bet I can do it!”

  Emmett felt a flutter of hope. “… So you want to be a pig now?”

  “How hard can it be? Here, teach me how to say something in ‘pig.’ ”

  Emmett let out a long, slow “ooooiiiink,” then looked at Jez, who was studying his mouth intently. “Okay, now you try.”

  Jez took a deep breath and gave it his best shot. “Meeeeoooink!”

  Emmett smiled.

  “Meoink! Meoink! Meoink! Am I doing it? That’s the best I can do. Meoink!”

  Emmett gave a knowing nod. “Maybe we can try something else. Want to sample some kale?” He nosed open the food box, which he was now tall enough to reach on his own, and pulled out a leafy green. “I know it looks funky, but trust me when I say it’s delicious,” Emmett told his friend.

  Jez plugged his nose, opened wide, and stuffed the whole leaf into his frowning mouth. With his mouth full, he gagged and said, “Yop… dis tashtes like… um… grash-flavored construshin papor.…”

  Just then the food fairy walked into the room. Jez immediately snapped into character and let out a big “MEOINK!” while green drool spilled out from his cheeks. “Yum, dat kale ish vewy tashty shtuff!” he called out, shoving another leaf into his mouth. “Meoink! Meoink!”

  The food fairy kneeled down and pet them each on the head lovingly, then walked away.

  Spitoo! Jez spat out the big green ball of mush and looked over to his friend. “Do you think we convinced her?”

  CHAPTER 9 The Mirror

  The next morning, Jez awoke sprawled across Emmett’s head. With a big stretch and a yawn, he mumbled, “I tried to dream of birds and breeze, but all I could see was tuna and trees. It’s hard to tell yourself what to dream.”

  Emmett sat up slowly, and Jez rolled onto the bed, looking up at his big pig friend. They were each so tiny when they first met, but in their time together both of them had grown a lot. Sitting tall, Emmett was struck by the feeling that growth doesn’t just happen on the outside—it’s also something that happens on the inside, where you slowly find out who you really are and stop trying to be who you really aren’t. Emmett looked at his kitten friend and said:

  “Don’t dream for me, Jez—dream for yourself. Dreams should be easy, I think…” Emmett paused, thinking back to his attempts at kittenhood. “Trust me, I know what it’s like to try to dream someone else’s dream. Remember when I tried to climb Mount Couch with these?” He held up his hooves, and they both giggled. “I mean… talk about awkward!” Emmett chuckled. “I was just trying to fit in. But now I realize it’s kind of awesome that we are a little different. It makes us unique!”

  “Come with me,” Emmett said. He walked toward the rain forest, and Jez followed behind. Heading straight to the steamy mirror, Emmett said, “Ready?”

  On the count of three, they wiped away the dew with their paws and snoot, revealing a crystal-clear image of a small brown kitten and a large pink piglet standing side by side. “It’s us!” they both said in awe.

  Jez said, “Emmett, I owe you an apology. I spent so much time telling you to be more like me! I was wrong. You’ve got such an incredible snout, and your tail is so cool. Emmett, you’re a marvel. And you’re my friend. You’re a perfect piglet. You deserve all the mud and berries you can dream of.”

  Emmett looked at himself, and for the first time ever, he didn’t want to look away. He noticed his height and thought it was impressive indeed. He noticed his snout, so round and handsome. He turned to the side and observed his little skinny tail, which he actually thought looked quite cute when it wiggled about.

  He said to his friend, “Jez, you’re one cool cat. You’ve taught me so much about how to have a friend. So what if you’re into different stuff than I am? Look at your whiskers and your striking paws. You run faster on three legs than I can on four! You’re going to make a fantastic king of a jungle someday.”

  Jez inhaled deeply. He could see that his back limb was strong and muscular and that his mane was growing in thick and silky. And he could see that he had indeed grown into a majestic young cat.

  Emmett kneeled down, setting his face right next to Jez’s, and they took in their reflections. Four eyes, seven legs, two mouths, one nose, one snout, and two giant, hope-filled hearts.

  Emmett whispered softly, “Even if we’re a little different, we’re the same in all the ways that matter, and we always will be.”

  Emmett and Jez wandered over to the grasslands and lay sprawled on the floor, looking up at the ceiling. Emmett cuddled in close, feeling overcome by the happy-sad, nervous-excited feeling that a new chapter was soon to begin.

  Breaking the silence, he asked, “What do you think Foreverland is like?”

  Jez thought for a moment. “Well,” he responded, “Foreverland is what you dream it’s going to be. So I think it’s going to be a dream come true—for me and for you.”

  A dream come true, Emmett thought, and began to let his mind wander.…

  After a moment, he let out a contented little grunt. “Rrrruh.”

  “What’s that sound, Em?” Jez asked.

  “I think it’s the sound pigs make when they’re happy,” Emmett replied. “It’s like a purr, in pig language. Rrrruh.”