Кейт Мур - Full Steam Ahead, Felix

Jacqui gave him a lovely long cuddle for twenty minutes or so, stroking him from his head right down to his pointy tail that tapered to its end. It was wiry and gristly, like a baton for a drum, and she had no doubt at all that she wanted him to join the Huddersfield band.

She FaceTimed Angie as she stood holding him. Angie had the same immediate reaction: that he was ‘the one’ and that he needed to join them at the station at once.

‘We’ll take him,’ Jacqui told the family.

Oh, the little girls did look disappointed to see him go! A crestfallen expression crossed their faces as they realised they now had to say goodbye to their little kitten. Even in his first eight weeks on the planet, he had clearly made an impression. The smallest child snuggled into her daddy for comfort with a very sad face indeed.

But the tiny black kitten was not destined to be a family cat. A greater fate awaited him. Jacqui unfolded the black-and-yellow fabric carry case that she had brought with her (just in case) and slipped him swiftly inside. Given his age, he had probably never been inside a carrier before, but he certainly didn’t have an issue with it. As Jacqui was soon to learn, nothing fazed this little superhero.

She took him back to her house for an overnight stay before his first day on the job. Not wanting to overwhelm him, she kept him confined to her large bedroom, which had shiny wooden floors and lots of room to run about in, should he wish to do so. Immediately, however, he showed his preference for lounging about on the soft cherry-red blanket she had laid out over her bed.

Jacqui’s four cats were terribly interested in the new lodger. They were off doing their own thing when he first arrived, so it was only as each of them returned from their adventures that they began to sniff their twitching velvet noses and notice him.

For Jacqui’s youngest, Romeo, who was then about four and a half months old, the little black kitten became an immediate playmate. The two cats became best buddies in the blink of a khaki-green eye – playing together, sleeping together and even grooming one another. They were so sweet.

Pickle was Jacqui’s one-year-old. He was a looker, with similar leg markings to Felix, but he was more uncertain. ‘Ooh, what’s going on?’ his quizzical expression seemed to say – yet he was absolutely fine with the younger cat regardless. Ginger Deanie, the old man of the house at nine years old, almost rolled his eyes when he saw the new arrival. ‘ Another one?! Really?’

The only sticking point was Smudgie, a three-year-old female calico cat who was disabled (she had four legs, but only three paws). She was also similar to Felix in a way, but only in temperament – for Smudgie was a diva. And, true to form, she hated the kitten on sight, hissing constantly at him whenever he came near.

But the kitten could not have cared less. Tumbling about on the floor with his new mate Romeo, he totally ignored the hissy fits being thrown by the female cat in whose home he was staying.

Jacqui was rather reassured to see it. She feared the little cat was going to have to learn how to live with a temperamental female … After all, if diva Smudgie wasn’t a fan – then how on earth would diva Felix react?

Jacqui kept Angie constantly updated with pictures and videos of the new little kitten. Angie loved seeing the snapshots coming through on her phone, especially the ones of Jacqui’s cats each welcoming their new friend: the kitten and the cat in question would stand nose to nose as they enjoyed getting to know one another. As her phone beeped again, Angie excitedly turned to attend to it – but, this time, it wasn’t a picture Jacqui had sent. Instead, Jacqui had texted, ‘We’re going to need a name for him …’

Angie hadn’t been thinking about names. Had Jacqui suggested one herself, she’d most likely have said yes to it straight away. Or if Jacqui had not mentioned it at that moment, perhaps they’d have done what they did for Felix and invited all on the railway network to suggest a name for the new cat. But the moment Angie read that message, the most perfect solution popped into her head.

‘Jacqui,’ typed Angie, ‘can we call him Bolt?’

She was thinking, as she so often did, about her beloved former colleague, Billy Bolt. Though the little kitten was everything Billy wasn’t – cute, friendly, black – the idea of having a Bolt back on-site at the station, of again being able to call that name, was too tempting to resist. It was her way of paying tribute to him. Angie didn’t quite know what Billy might have made of it, but given his grudging love of cats, it was perhaps a fitting way to continue his legacy.

And there was another reason it was a fitting name – because the ladies’ secret mission was about to blow its cover, and news of the apprentice was certainly going to be a bolt out of the blue for the rest of the world.

Their mission was completed the following afternoon. Angie got to the station first and waited for Jacqui and Bolt in the car park. It was a sunny September day and the weather more than matched her excited, happy mood. As she saw Jacqui’s little yellow car coming round the corner she gave a thrilled squeal. She couldn’t wait to meet her new baby. She was very restrained, though. As Jacqui parked up and lifted out the carry case, Angie didn’t rush to peek through the mesh. She wanted to get the kitten safely into the office before anything else happened. So she deliberately didn’t look for him, even though the case was rocking a little, focusing instead on getting through the gateline with their charge.

Neither Angie nor Jacqui was officially working that day, so their colleagues immediately clocked them as they walked on to the concourse. There was a young man called Joe on shift that afternoon – a very tall ginger-haired gentleman who was known for being thoughtful. As Angie and Jacqui tried to rush through, he noticed not only them but also the carry case that Jacqui was carefully shepherding through the gate, which clearly contained some kind of creature. He gave them all a puzzled look, which they had to ignore. The moment for announcing the mission was most definitely not now – not on a busy concourse, where the Saturday-afternoon shoppers were thronging through the gates. Heads down, Angie and Jacqui scurried straight through without speaking to anyone, turning left down platform one to make their way to the back office. Little did the passengers surrounding them know that a new chapter in Huddersfield station history was being written at that very moment.

Felix was not around as they entered the back-office corridor. Angie didn’t know where she was, but she was glad that Bolt was going to have time to adjust to his new surroundings without his manager breathing down his neck. No new worker deserves that when they first clock on for duty.

The team leaders’ office was empty, thank goodness. Angie, Jacqui and Bolt entered and shut the door behind them. Then Jacqui carefully laid the carry case on the desk.

Angie knew that in the next few moments she would be meeting a very special little boy. Her loving heart was already pounding in her chest. After all the planning and preparation and top-secret discussions, he was finally here. Her little apprentice. She couldn’t believe it was real, that they had done it. She placed her hands over her mouth, not trusting herself to speak.

Jacqui gently opened the carrier. As she’d been looking after Bolt for the past twenty-four hours, she wanted this to be Angie’s time, so she graciously stepped back and let her colleague come forward.

Oh my goodness, what a cutie! As she peered into the carry case, Angie saw his ears first. They looked bigger than him. ‘Oh!’ she cried in delight.