Page 3 of Dad Next Door

Every instinct was telling me to hop the fence and make sure the kid was okay, but I didn’t want to scare his mother by bursting onto their property without her permission.

“Yes, please,” she called back.

I cut through a break in the trees and hopped the fence, managing to land on a patch of grass and not in their garden. “What’s going on? Is everyone okay?”

“Jinx got out.” The kid rushed toward me. “We need to find him.”

“Jinx?” I asked the kid, glancing at his mom to make sure she was still okay with me being in her yard.

“Our cat.” He pulled off his glasses and swiped his hand over his eyes. “He got out.”

“Okay.” My fighting instincts instantly calmed, knowing they weren’t in any immediate danger. “When did this happen?”

“Just now.” He put his glasses back on, then grabbed my wrist. “We need to find him.”

I let him drag me toward where his mom still stood.

“Is there any place he likes to go?” I asked as the kid frog-marched me toward her.

She shook her head, her eyes wide with fear. “He’s an indoor cat. Never been outside.”

I looked between them. Their reactions seemed a bit extreme for a lost cat. “What color is he?”

“He’s a sphynx.” The kid came to a stop but didn’t let go of my wrist.

“I don’t know what that is.”

“It’s a breed,” his mom said.

“Oh, okay. But what color is he?”

“He’s naked!”

I looked down at the kid as my brain did a little stutter. “I’m sorry?”

“Sphynxes are hairless,” his mom explained.

A hairless cat? No wonder they were freaking out. How long could a cat like that survive outside?

“Where have you looked?” I asked the kid, hoping to calm him down enough that he could focus.

He waved his free hand in a wide arc, still clutching my wrist.

“His name is Jinx?” I asked, sweeping my gaze around the yard.

Their plot was a lot like mine, with the back half being wooded and a small grassy area that served as their yard. Unlike my property, they had a short deck across the back of their house and a garden area with two small sheds.

“Yes.” The kid’s voice was loud but even. He’d calmed down.

“Did you look around the sheds?”

He shook his head.

“How about we start there?”

The kid nodded and set his mouth in a tight line, like he was steeling himself against his tears.

“I’m Quinn, by the way,” I said to his mom, letting the kid pull me to the sheds.