Journey to "Crenshaw" - a sequel to the book by Katherine Applegate - VIP

 "Crenshaw" is not only a neighbourhood in South Los Angeles, California, but also the name of a super-sized talking cat, imaginary friend to Jackson. Both are the heroes of the book "Crenshaw" by Katherine Applegate. 

Jackson and his family have fallen on hard times. There's no more money for rent. And not much for food, either. His parents, his little sister, and their dog may have to live in their minivan - again. To learn more about the book, follow this link, get a copy (preferably from a local dealer) and start reading! It is magical! 

Below you will find a sequel, written by Thalia from class 3ka. Enjoy!

I was lying on my mattress. There wasn’t much space for anything else in the tiny room I shared with my little sister Robin and our dog Aretha. Robin was lying right next to me, she had all of the blanket for herself, but I wasn’t cold. Even though fall was coming, nights kept being warm in northern California. It was in the middle of Thursday night. I knew tomorrow we would have to leave our garage apartment again. Although dad was still working at the music store, our money only covered food. But I was thankful. Back in Swanlake Village (where we had lived before) we had often had only one meal per day.

I blinked into the darkness. I thought about what might happen after Friday, if we couldn’t find a new cheap apartment until then. Maybe I would have to leave my school again. Maybe we would have to live in our minivan again, sleeping in a carton like I had done before. Just to have a bit of private space, which of course I wouldn’t have - no matter what I did. Eating the leftovers and burned pancakes from a bakery store, (every once in a while) given to us.  That would be our highlight. On other days we would only eat toast. Drying our clothes at the top of our car after having cleaned them at the library’s sink, where they had real soap. And day after day we would be hoping that dad, playing his guitar on the street, would earn enough money to get us into a new home. A home where we could feel safe, and stretch out our legs at night, instead of smushing them together in a carton box.

I stared into the night. I didn’t like thinking of those days, it felt too heavy inside my heart. It felt as if a giant cat was sitting right on my chest, because I knew it could happen again.

In the morning I made myself some breakfast. Aretha came tumbling in just as I poured some cereals into my bowl. She licked my toes and I smiled because of the tickle it made. “Hey” said a voice from the back of the room. It was Robin. Dressed in her pajamas, she was sitting on our mattress. “You want some breakfast?” I offered her my bowl with cereals. “Thanks Jacks, but I’m not hungry.” She mumbled, while she walked across the room. “Today is Friday, isn’t it?” She asked and pretended as if she wouldn’t care. “Yes, it is.” I said and pointed at our calendar at the wall where it said “Friday” in big, black letters. There also was a red circle drawn around the word. For a couple of minutes neither of us talked. “Jackson?” I turned to Robin and looked straight into her eyes. “Do you think we can stay?” Her voice twisted and it was squeaky at the end. I could tell she was afraid of my answer, so I just said: “I don’t know.” And it was kind of true - I didn’t know. Maybe I was being afraid for no reason, maybe everything was just fine. I didn’t know.

Later after school I walked Marisol home. After all, she was my friend. I knew I wasn’t supposed to do that because it took me half an hour to walk back, but I just didn’t dare to go to my home straight away. I was too afraid to do so. Too afraid I might not be able to hold my tears back if I were to see our minivan packed and ready to go. “Everything alright with you Jackson?” “Sure.” I answered wiping my bad thoughts away. “I was just thinking about the story Ms. Malone told us today. I can’t believe she really raised a bat on her own!” I tried to smile but I guess I wasn’t so good at pretending, ‘cause Marisol was still looking at me with a bit of worry in her eyes. “Whatever might happen Jackson, we will always be friends”, she said. I smiled at her, but this time it was a real smile. It came just when the words had touched my heart and had filled it with warmth all around and inside. “Thank you“, I said and gave Marisol a big hug.

After Marisol had gone to her house, I suddenly met Chrenshaw again. All of a sudden, he was skateboarding right next to me. The wind blew into Chrenshaw’s red fur. “Meow” he said. “It’s nice to see you again, since we haven’t met in quite a while. How are you, buddy?” he continued. Well…, I thought that was kind of a weird question for him to ask, since he, as my imaginary friend, could always see my emotions right away, but I tried anyway. “Well, let me think… I’m having a few more friends at school now. Kylie, Joe and of course Marisol. Sometimes we meet at those trees over there. Kylie can climb them in a few seconds and then we all play tag.” I looked at Chrenshaw. He made a bored face. I knew that hadn’t been what he was expecting to hear. So, I went on. “We might move again.” Silence. The thing was that I knew that Chrenshaw only appeared when I felt bad. So, I figured that he had probably known anyways. But still, the words had felt heavy when they came out of my mouth. Chrenshaw looked at me. “Don’t give up, buddy. Whatever might happen, make the best of it.” That was all he said. I thought about his words. Make the best of it… I figured that meant that even if the worst things were to happen, even if we had to live in our minivan again, we would still find ways to be happy. Things to laugh and to giggle about. And I remembered what my mum always said: “Whatever might happen, we’ll still have us, and that’s worth a thousand things.” I understood what she had meant, I thought I had always understood. Now I realized the deeper meaning in it. I realized that it’s so much better to be homeless together than to be homeless alone.

We had been walking for quite a while, so now we were standing in front of the bright-blue painted music store, right in front of my home, the garage apartment. There was no minivan standing on the street, no sad looking parents, and where was Robin? I opened the door to our apartment. Everything was silent. I walked down the short corridor, walked into the kitchen. “Mum, dad? Robin?” I called into the silence. No one answered. I figured they might be out for a walk with Aretha. I hoped that would be the reason why they weren’t there. As I walked further to the kitchen’s sink, I noticed that there weren’t any of mum’s spices standing at the side and when I opened the kitchen shelf, I saw that it really was completely empty! Alarmed, I started looking around the room. We hadn’t had a TV for quite some time, but our sofa had vanished, too! The only thing that was left was our kitchen table which was standing right in the middle of the room. Nothing else. No family photos on the walls and not a single pair of shoes standing in the doorway. I wanted to sit down at the table but there weren’t any of our chairs left, so I sat down on the floor. Our floor was shining like someone had cleaned it right before. My view roamed over the parquet. There was something... something yellow over there. I moved closer and picked it up. It was a yellow piece of paper. I stood up, put it down on the table and read what it said: “Join us next door, it’s the green entrance. We have pancakes with marmalade for dinner.” 

A feeling of joy and happiness came scuttling up my heart. I smiled as I walked outside the garage apartment. There was a dark-green wooden door standing open. I ran in. There was a short corridor. At the end of it I could see the kitchen. When I stepped inside, Aretha welcomed me with a quick lick on my hand. I petted her soft head while I walked inside the kitchen. So, we had found a new home, a new apartment, just next to the old one. I couldn’t say how relieved I felt. As much as I had thought about that lately, I had expected the worst. But now the best had happened! My mum smiled as she passed me one of those cold but still delicious-looking pancakes. I smiled back but I had to ask one final question to be fully and completely happy: “Do we have a time limit for this apartment, too?” “Let’s put it this way” she said. “We can live in here as long as we can pay the rent, and I think we have good chances to do so because I’ve just got a job at the local elementary school today, where a guitar teacher is missing for a few months.” “That’s great!” I shouted out. I felt so happy, so proud of all of us.

Later, when we had put our table up at our new kitchen and were eating pancakes with marmalade, I noticed the hand-drawn picture that was tucked on the wall next to the window. It said in Robin’s big, messy handwriting: “Whatever might happen, we will make the best of it.” Below she had drawn four figures, and something else, too. I leaned forward to see it better. It was a small red spot in the shape of a cat, a cat with a baseball cap. Chrenshaw. I looked at Robin, she smiled at me while she crammed a pancake into her mouth. I gave her a grin and looked back at her picture. There was Chrenshaw. He winked at me, and I winked back.