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"When are you going to tell about the prince and the diaht it over "On Monday I'll tell it," she said "Now, there's tieon? Did you have your hand raised?"

Mrs Pidgeon nodded "Gooney Bird," she said in a nice voice, "you have an a stories Don't we, class?" She looked around, and almost all of the children nodded

"But I want to be certain that the children understand that these are made-up stories So I want to point out--"

"My stories are all absolutely true," Gooney Bird said

"I want to point out," Mrs Pidegon went on, "that of course we all know that China is a foreign country across the ocean, and that avan could never drive froed her pearls and sighed "Mrs Pidgeon," she said, "why don't we take a few minutes for research? Is there an atlas in the bookcase?"

Mrs Pidgeon laughed and said, "Of course" She went to the bookcase and took out a book of maps called an atlas

"Now," said Gooney Bird, "would you find out if there are other Chinas?"

"Other Chinas? I don't think--" Mrs Pidgeon began turning the pages of the atlas She found the index at the back

"My goodness!" Mrs Pidgeon said after a minute "There's a China in Texas!"

"Correct," said Gooney Bird "And? What else?"

"There's a China in Maine!"

"Correct," said Gooney Bird "And?"

"California! There's a China Lake! Oh, and oodness, look! In North Carolina--"

"And now it is time to continue the story," Gooney Bird announced "Where e? Oh, yes I re van had just left China--"

She took up the story again

After thevan left China, the Greene fa suitcases Then they added a laer that they had forgotten to put in thevan, a cooler full of haraphics, and an orange and white cat named Catman, who had no tail because he had flicked his for they put into the station wagon was a rolled-up rug fro to fit They tried it sideways, and folded, and upside down, but it still wouldn't fit

"Let's leave it behind," Mr Greene suggested

But Mrs Greene began to cry "It was my mother's," she said "There's a stain on it where o I feel sentireed to take the rug because it made him cry, too, if his wife cried He decided to put the backof the station wagon down so that the end of the rolled-up rug could stick out He ed and that Catman had a comfortable place to sleep on the back seat, just beneath the end of the rug and next to the place where Gooney Bird would sit

Mr Greene and Mrs Greene and Gooney Bird Greene all got into the car and drove away fro journey to Watertower

They drove for many, many hours They ate all of the haet gas They went to the bathroom They played the car radio and listened to news and operas and football games and talk shows about love relationships

Suddenly Gooney Bird glanced down and noticed with dismay that her beloved Catman had disappeared She looked around the floor of the back seat, but Catman was not there

She heard a s She knew that Cat He probably found it a warm and dark and cozy place

But Gooney Bird orried about Catet hi But he slithered away, beyond her hands

She looked at the backs of her parents' heads, wondering if she should tell the and her father was driving, watching the road carefully and listening to a radio prograle into the rug herself to rescue Cat to faint!"

"Shhhh," the other children said

It was dark and dusty and a very tight squeeze inside the rolled-up rug But Gooney Bird wiggled inch by inch toward Catman

Cat eyes as he backed away from her hands Gooney Bird was determined to rescue hi thing happened Even though Gooney Bird was not very large and did not weigh very s fro caused it to tilt At that e the radio station, and the car went over a pothole in the road The rolled-up rug, containing both Caton and flew through the air before it landed at the side of the road in so a purple flower looked curiously at it and then wandered away

The station wagon drove on, around a curve in the road Slowly the rug unrolled Cat on end, and if he had had a tail, his tail would have been sticking straight up in the air For aat Gooney Bird Then he ran away, very fast

Gooney Bird sat up She was not entirely sure what had happened But she was not hurt She simply wondered where her family was, and her cat, and the car

Other cars stopped and people got out Many people offered her a drink of water from their bottles of Evian But Gooney Bird wasn't thirsty After a while, a police car with a flashing light came A TV reporter came, and a cameraman While the policeman talked on his radio, the TV reporter, a woe hair, interviewed Gooney Bird and called her "the little girl who had a flying carpet ride" In the interview, Gooney Bird described Catman and asked people to call the station if they found hiot Catman back

Eventually the police car took her to her parents, ere both crying at a gas station four miles down the road

When Gooney Bird and her parents were finally reunited, everyone, including two policeed and kissed and did the tango

The End

"What a lovely story!" Mrs Pidgeon said "And an exciting one, too! But a little sad, to lose your kitty that way"

"Catman is not a kitty," Gooney Bird said "He is a cat And I didn't say that I lost hiot him back"

"So no one found him and called the TV station?"

"Actually, they did," Gooney Bird replied