The Magical Ms. Plum by Bonny Becker

paper sat a little striped cat, its coat gleaming softly. It leapt gracefully onto Nadia’s shoulder and curled up there beside her ear.
    “Look,” said Nadia, stepping shyly from the closet. “Look!”
    Everyone oohed and aahed, even the boys, because Nadia’s little cat was just perfect.
    Nadia hadn’t known she wanted a cat until she got this one. How soft it was. How pretty its striped fur and its pink nose. How calm its dark yellow eyes.
    “Thank you, Nadia,” said Ms. Plum after everyone had gotten a good look at the little cat.
    As Nadia headed back to her desk, Ms. Plum picked up her book to continue the story she was reading to the class.
    “‘The barn was very large. It was very old,’” she read.
    “Cats carry tons of diseases,” whispered Lucy when Nadia sat down at her desk.
    “Really?” Nadia shifted her shoulders uneasily.
    The little cat snuggled against her neck, soft and warm.
    “I think I’ll give it some of my tuna sandwich,” Nadia whispered.
    “Tuna fish has some kind of worm thing,” said Lucy. “It gets into your bones, I think, and eats them up.”
    “Oh.” Nadia frowned.
    The tiny cat purred against her ear.
    “Plus there’s this weird algae thing happening in the ocean,” Lucy hissed, glancing to see if Ms. Plum was listening.
    “‘It smelled of grain and of harness dressing and of axle grease and of rubber boots …,’” Ms. Plum was still reading.
    “And that probably means that soon there won’t be enough oxygen in the air anymore,” said Lucy.
    “Right.” Nadia’s shoulders slumped. The cat snuggled against her neck, soft and warm.
    “You better give me your cat,” Lucy said. “It could bite you, you know.”
    Nadia reached up and lifted the cat from her shoulder. She held it in her hand. The cat opened its mouth. It did have sharp white teeth. Then it licked Nadia’s finger with its pink tongue. Its tongue was soft and scratchy at the same time.
    “Plus a giant meteor could hit the earth,” said Lucy. “That’s a real fact!”
    Nadia ran her finger along the back of her cat. Its fur rippled under her finger like a piece of velvet.
    “Elephants are most likely to attack at dawn,” said Lucy.
    The cat leapt back onto Nadia’s shoulder and snuggled down again. It purred so loudly that Nadia had a hard time hearing Lucy.
    “You can lose your hearing if you listen to really loud music,” said Lucy.
    “Hmmmm,” said Nadia.
    “Are you listening?” said Lucy as loud as she dared.
    Nadia nodded dreamily. But she wasn’t really listening. All she could hear was the cat’s deep, contented purr. It was like soft, faraway thunder. And Nadia remembered she liked the rain.
    She looked out the window. It was nearly summer. The tree outside Ms. Plum’s window was green with leaves that shifted with shadows and sunlight. A sparrow scolded and bobbed on one of the twigs. A tiny silvery plane whispered across the soft blue sky.
    On the table by the window, Clyde, the hamster, nibbled on a sunflower seed, hiswhiskers quivering. Hip-Hop blinked in the sun.

    Ms. Plum closed her book. She placed it on her desk with the vase of plum flowers and jar of plum-colored pencils and the basket of plums dusted with silver.
    She tilted her head, and her glasses sparkled in the sunlight. She smiled.
    Everyone smiled back.
    “What a wonderful class you are. What a wonderful year,” said Ms. Plum.
    Nadia nodded. Everyone nodded. Ms. Plum really did have the best class in all of Springtime Elementary.
    And Nadia was glad she was there.

    Ms. Plum gazed out the window of her empty classroom. The playground was empty. The halls were empty. School was out for the summer
.
    Ms. Plum sighed. Then she did something she did every year. She walked down the aisles and touched each desk as she passed, remembering each and every student. She dabbed at her eye and snuffled just a little bit
.
    Surely this was her best class ever
.
    Scooping up the plum-colored pencils on her desk, she