Gaby, Lost and Found: A Wish Novel

A Siamese cat crouched on a tree branch, peering down at Gaby with brilliant blue eyes. It cried out. The cat was stuck in the tree in front of her house and, as luck would have it, she had on the nicest sweater she owned. Gaby pulled the cardigan sweater tighter around her. This was her last good school sweater until who-knows-when her father would have enough money to buy her a new one. The poor cat cried again. Gaby looked back at her small yellow house. If her mother were here, that cat would already be out of the tree and purring — safe and sound, in her mother’s arms.
Mind made up, Gaby pulled off her sweater and tossed it onto her porch. “You’re out of luck, gato!” she yelled. “My mom, master tree climber and cat rescuer, isn’t back yet.” She rolled up the sleeves of her white dress shirt. “But until she is, you got me.” Gaby grasped the nearest branch and pulled herself up. “Gaby to the rescue.”
The cat meowed.
“I am hurrying.”
The last time Gaby had climbed the tree was when she and her best friend, Alma, had challenged the boys to a water- balloon fight last summer. Up high was the perfect spot for a full-blown assault on the boys below. Those guys never had a chance.