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Odelia was soon reunited with Max and Dooley and Harriet and Brutus, and she hugged them all as they clung to her fiercely.

“You did well, you guys,” she said, a little thickly. “Especially you, Harriet.”

“Just doing my bit,” Harriet said modestly. Then she added, a little less modestly, “A queen has to rule, so that’s what I did.”

“I was really scared, Odelia,” said Dooley.

Just then, a loud creaking sound had them all look up, and before their very eyes, the branch that had been precariously swaying in the wind, now tore off that tree and crashed down on top of the jungle gym, flattening it as it did.

The four cats looked on with fear written all over their features.

“And to think we were sitting on that thing only an hour ago,” said Max softly.

“Is this the end of cat choir, Max?” asked Dooley.

“I don’t know, Dooley, but it’s certainly the end of that jungle gym.”

In fact the whole playground infrastructure seemed badly damaged. The swing was down, as were the slide, the merry-go-round and the seesaw.

“Let’s go home,” she said. “There’s nothing we can do here.”

They’d have to return in the morning, to assess the damage.

The cats didn’t have to be told twice, and so they all hurried to the car, to be out of the rain, which was still lashing their faces, and the wind, whipping the trees above. Most of all she was afraid another branch would be torn loose, and flatten either them or the car.

The fire department, too, was urging everyone to leave the area.

Chase wiped the rain from his eyes and stuck his key into the ignition.“The fire chief told me the park had been closed off, but a couple of the neighbors heard the cats cry out, and called it in. They said they made a sound like they never heard before.”

“Scared to death, the poor darlings,” said Odelia as she hugged her cats close.

“We should have kept them at home,” said Chase as he crunched the car in gear.

“I know—but I had no idea it would get this bad.” Also, it’s very hard to tell cats what to do. And apart from locking the cat flap, it wasn’t easy to make them stay home.

At least they’d learned their lesson: don’t venture out in a raging storm.

“I’m so happy we’re still alive,” said Dooley. “I was so scared.”

“Brutus was singing for us,” said Max. “It was very nice.”

“I always sing when I’m scared,” said Brutus. “It helps.”

“You were scared, too?” asked Dooley, much surprised.

“Of course.”

“I didn’t think you ever got scared,” said Dooley.

“Every cat gets scared sometimes, Dooley. No matter what they tell you.”

“You have a nice singing voice, Brutus,” said Max. “Very soothing.”

“Thanks, buddy,” said Brutus.

Arriving home, they ushered the cats inside, and she rubbed them dry with big, coarse towels until they practically glowed, then she planted them in front of an electric heater, and she and Chase went upstairs to take a hot shower.

By the time the whole family was back in bed, it was two o’clock.

And while the storm raged outside, soon they were all out like a light.

Chapter 27

Sergio Sorbet didn’t mind the rain, or the wind or even the thunder and lightning. In fact he reveled in it! He was, after all, used to playing Zeus, and after seven years and four movies, he’d almost started believing that he was, in fact, the famous Greek god.

So he stood in the rain on top of the flat roof of the house, and screamed into the wind, holding his powerful arms aloft and defying the elements.

It invigorated him. He drew strength from it—he loved it!

He roared again, raising his face to the sky. Above him, the weather gods raged and rampaged but the more they castigated the earth, the louder he screamed back.

“I am Zeus!” he boomed, his voice drowned out by the wind.

From somewhere up there, he thought he heard the sound of laughter.

So he let out a loud roar and pummeled his chest.

“I AM ZEUS!”

Suddenly, he felt a stinging pain against his left temple, and briefly wondered if he’d been hit by a pellet of hail. He shook his head like a dog, then experienced another hit, harder this time, and momentarily lost his balance and sank down to his knees, his hands hitting the water that stood, ankle deep, all across the roof, the gutters and drainpipes unable to handle the sheer volume.

When the third hit came, this time to the back of his head, he went down hard.

And didn’t come up again.

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Jasmine Muchari had been in the Sorbet family’s employ as a housekeeper for going on thirty years now. She’d been there in the good days, the bad days, and everything in between. Lately the Sorbets had only experienced good days, though, especially since their son had become a global superstar, his movies grossing billions. In fact ever since he’d been cast as Zeus, Sergio had gone through an impressive transformation. Gone were the boozy weekends with his dubious friends, or the late-night dates with questionable women. These days all he did was spend hours in the gym, sculpting a physique that could only be called godly.