Шейла Нортон - Charlie The Kitten Who Saved A Life

I wasn’t allowed to dwell on this for long, though, because suddenly there was a loud squawking and screeching in the air above me, and out of nowhere, two huge seagulls came flapping down, skimming the roofs of the huts behind me, circling round each other for a minute over the beach and then suddenly swooping down on the two girls, trying to grab their food.

‘Leave them alone!’ I meowed out loud without stopping to think, but of course, nobody could hear me because of the squawking of the gulls and now, the screams of the girls as they waved their paws around, trying to defend themselves.

‘Go away!’ Grace was yelling, flapping her paw at one of them. Bits of sandwich fell onto the beach and the gull started grabbing at them with his big hooked beak.

‘Ouch! Get off!’ Caroline was shouting at the other bird. She dropped the sandwich she’d been holding and jumped up, crying and clutching one paw in the other. ‘It bit my finger, Grace! Ouch! Go away !’ Still holding her sore paw, she started to run away from the gulls, but she was too busy looking back at them and crying, to see where she was going.

‘Watch out for the rocks, Caro!’ screamed Grace.

Too late. I watched in horror as Caroline’s paw caught on a rock and she went crashing down onto the ground. Her head hit another rock and she made a noise that sounded like ‘Oomph’ before lying very still, with Grace running towards her, screaming her name.

I suppose you all think, if I’m such a brave young cat, why was I still standing up there on the pathway by the beach huts instead of galloping down the beach to help? But look, sometimes things are so bad that even the cleverest cat in the world wouldn’t know what to do, right? I admit it, I just stood up there and stared, my heart pounding, my muscles taut and tense, my tail twitching, quivering with fear and indecision. What could I do? I wasn’t big enough to pick her up, was I? Even dogs wouldn’t be much better in a situation like this, I’ll have you know. They might go and lie down next to the wounded human and lick her face with their slobbery wet tongues, but at the end of the day, what’s the point of that? My instinct, to be honest, was to run for my life, but I think it says something for me, at least, that I didn’t. I was so scared for Caroline, I had to wait to see if she was all right. The seagulls had no such finer feelings, I can tell you. There they were, squabbling over the last few crusts of the girls’ sandwiches, not caring in the least about the trouble they’d caused, and within a few minutes they’d flapped their massive wings and taken off into the sky again.

‘Yes, clear off, you bullies, you!’ I meowed at them from the safety of the ground. I didn’t think they’d ever been known to eat cats.

When I looked back at Caroline again, I saw to my relief that she’d now woken up and lifted her head. She let out a moan, and Grace cried out:

‘Oh, no! Your head! You’re bleeding!’

‘Ow, ow, ow!’ Caroline was crying, holding her paw up to her head. ‘No, it’s my finger that’s bleeding. That horrible seagull bit me, Grace!’

‘ And you hit your head, look – you’ve cut it open. Oh, Caro, we need to go to a hospital. I’d better go and get help.’

‘No!’ Caroline mewed. ‘We’ll get into terrible trouble, Grace. And I’m not going to hospital. I hate hospitals!’

‘But you’re hurt!’

‘I’ll be all right. Just give me a minute. I’ll … I’ll wrap something round my finger, and maybe you can help me clean up my head … we can use the sink in that toilet block behind the café.’

She tried to stand up, but she must have been feeling dizzy, like you do if you’ve chased your tail for ages, because she quickly sat back down again and held her head. There was red blood dripping down the back of her neck onto her T-shirt and even though Grace tried to wrap a tissue round her finger, blood was still coming through that too.

This was no good. I knew I had to do something now, or I’d definitely have to consider myself a champion scaredy-cat for the rest of my nine lives. And there was only one option. I belted back along the pathway to the little café where they’d bought the sandwiches. The woman was inside now – I could hear her talking to the boy, and laughing.

‘Quick!’ I meowed at them in Cat from the doorway. ‘I need your help! It’s an emergency!’

‘Oh look,’ said the boy. ‘A nice little tabby cat. I haven’t seen him around here before. He doesn’t look like one of the ferals.’

‘No, he’s not. He looks well cared for. Are you lost, puss? He’s only a kitten, Robbie.’

She came over and bent down to stroke me. I wanted to tell her I was getting a bit big to be called a kitten, and that my name wasn’t Puss , but there really wasn’t time for any pleasantries.

‘Outside!’ I meowed. ‘On the beach! Quick!’ I walked back out of the door, turned round and meowed at them again urgently. ‘Come on!’

‘What’s up with him?’ the boy said, without moving.

But the woman, frowning and muttering to herself, wiped her hands on a towel and followed me out of the door.

‘What is it, puss?’ she said. ‘Hungry, I suppose, are you, or …’ She stopped, staring down at the beach. ‘What’s going on down there?’ And then she called back through the door to the boy: ‘Robbie, call an ambulance. There’s been an accident on the beach. A little girl, tell them. Nine-nine-nine, you fool, and hurry up about it!’

Then she ran, as fast as a plump little human female can, down the steps and across the beach, calling out to the girls as I watched her approaching them.

‘Don’t try to get up, dearie. There’s an ambulance on its way.’

‘Oh no,’ Caroline said. ‘Please, we don’t need an ambulance. I’m fine. Honestly, we’ll just get going.’

‘Caro,’ Grace said. ‘I actually think you should get your head looked at. It looks quite bad.’

‘Yes, my lovely, that’s a nasty cut on your head, it probably needs stitches – and look at your poor finger too! How did that happen?’

‘A seagull bit her,’ Grace said.

‘Oh, they’re a dratted nuisance, those damn birds,’ the woman said. ‘Now then, why don’t you go and fetch your mummy and daddy from the car,’ she added to Grace. ‘Tell them the ambulance is coming, and I’ll stay here with your friend until they get here.’

Even from where I was watching, I could see the look Grace exchanged with Caroline.

‘Don’t say anything,’ Caroline warned her.

‘We have to,’ Grace said. ‘It doesn’t matter anymore, Caro. It’s all gone wrong, and we shouldn’t have done it in the first place. We’re going to have to go back. After you’ve been to hospital.’

‘Back where, my lovely?’ the woman asked, looking from one of them to the other.

Grace looked down at the ground. ‘We told you a lie,’ she said, so quietly that I had to prick up my ears to hear her. ‘Our parents aren’t with us. We were trying to run away.’

‘But only to Grace’s great aunt’s house,’ Caroline said, as if that made it all right. ‘We were going to stay with her.’

‘That’s why you wanted to go to Duncombe. I did think it strange. And your parents didn’t know.’

The girls both shook their heads.

‘Are we going to get into really big trouble?’ Caroline mumbled.

‘Not from me, dearie. It’s not for me to say. But your poor parents will be beside themselves, you know. You’ll have worried the life out of them. Let me give them a call, for you, shall I? Let them know you’re all right?’

‘My parents probably don’t even know we’ve gone,’ Grace said, starting to cry now. ‘I’m supposed to be staying with you in Mudditon, aren’t I?’