Шейла Нортон - Charlie The Kitten Who Saved A Life

‘Laura might have told them. And she’ll definitely have told my dad, and he’ll have totally freaked out. He’s probably had to come back down from London. I’ll be grounded for the rest of the holidays!’ Caroline said, joining in with the mewing.

‘Well, look, let’s not all get ourselves in a state about it,’ soothed the plump female. ‘First things first, you need that head injury checked, dearie, and here come the paramedics now, so let’s get you sorted out and we’ll worry about everything else afterwards.’

Two males wearing identical clothing were running down the beach now, carrying bags and looking very serious. They got down on the rocks next to Caroline and started looking at her head and her finger, and talking to her, and to Grace, asking them questions I couldn’t hear properly. They took quite a long time. They put white bandages round both her hurt places and, finally, took one of her arms each to sit her up.

‘She needs the stretcher,’ I heard one of them say as Caroline swayed slightly and put her paws up to her head again. ‘All right, sweetheart, we’re going to lift you now. One, two, three …’ She was laid onto a thing like a sheet that they’d put on the beach. ‘Still feeling dizzy?’

‘No, I’m all right while I’m lying down,’ Caroline said. ‘I really don’t think I need to go to hospital. I don’t like hospitals.’

‘It’ll be fine, love, they’ll take good care of you, you’ll see. Anyway we’ve already told them we’re on our way, so it’s out of our hands. And now we’ve got your names and your holiday address, we’ll be calling your details over to the hospital so they can get your parents there.’

‘But we don’t want—’ she started.

‘Has to be done, sweetheart,’ he said firmly. ‘No choice in the matter. You’ll be glad to see them when they get there, you know. Everyone has arguments, pet, but at the end of the day, they’re still your parents, see?’

‘I know,’ Grace said in a little voice as she followed them up the beach. ‘We shouldn’t have done it, Caro. We’ll just have to take the telling-off.’

I shrunk myself back into the shadows again as they all came back up the steps. I was glad they were going to the hospital. Glad they were going to be taken home, too. But as for me, I had no idea what I was going to do. I followed behind them, at a distance again, up the slope to the road where this big yellow car they called an ambulance was waiting. The female from the café called out goodbye to them.

‘You’ll be all right now, dearie!’ she said.

And then, as Caroline was carried inside the ambulance, with Grace climbing in next to her, the woman said:

‘Oh, there’s that little tabby cat again! I could swear he was trying to let me know there was an accident on the beach.’

I ran back quickly to the nearest bushes, trying to hide. I’d have liked to get into the ambulance and go with Caroline and Grace, to be honest, but I knew I wouldn’t be allowed.

‘It looked a bit like Charlie,’ I heard Caroline say.

I couldn’t help a pitiful little mew escaping from my lips. I felt so lost and lonely now the girls were being taken away. I don’t suppose they heard me, from inside the ambulance. But as the men started to close the doors of the ambulance, I saw Caroline’s face staring back out at me. I couldn’t have been as well hidden as I thought I was. And at the very last moment, just as the doors closed, I thought I saw her eyes growing wide with surprise and her mouth making the word ‘Charlie!’

And then they were gone. And I was all alone.

Despite all my worries, I knew my priority now was, of course, to get hold of some food. I’m not a bad hunter, even though I do say so myself. Oliver here gave me lessons from my early kittenhood. But the scrubby little bush things near the café didn’t look very promising in terms of mice or shrews, and the only birds around were seagulls. I certainly wasn’t intending to mess with them after what I’d just witnessed. I sat down and washed myself again – always a good bet in times of uncertainty – and suddenly a voice behind me said:

‘Well, little puss, shall we see if we’ve got anything nice to reward you with?’

It was the female from the café, and before I knew it she’d picked me up and carried me inside with her.

‘What are you rewarding him for?’ the boy asked her as, to my delight, she proceeded to pour me out a big dish full of milk and started looking in the fridge for some scraps.

‘He came to let me know about that little girl, I’m sure of it. Told me there was an accident down on the beach, he did.’

‘Yeah, right, Auntie Stella!’ the boy laughed. ‘The amazing talking cat, is he?’

‘You can laugh,’ she said, giving me a stroke as she put down a second bowl, full of bits of lovely leftover fish. ‘But I’m telling you, if he could speak he would have been saying: Quick, it’s an emergency! ’

Fancy that. At last, a human with a pretty good grasp of Cat! I’d have to converse with her a little more, just as soon as I’d finished this delicious meal. I was enjoying it so much, I was purring out loud while I ate, but I still couldn’t help hearing the conversation going on between the female, who seemed to be called Auntie Stella, and the boy.

‘Hope the little girl will be all right,’ she was saying. ‘That was a nasty cut on her head.’

‘I thought you said it was her finger?’ the boy said.

‘I knew you weren’t listening. I told you, she hit her head when she fell over. She was running away from the dratted seagulls because one of them bit her finger when it pinched a bit of her sandwich. Damn things are getting to be a real nuisance around here, if you ask me. There’ve been a few people lately who’ve been attacked like that on the beach.’

‘Poor kid, she must have been frightened. I don’t like their big beaks myself.’

‘No, well, you’re a big wuss, aren’t you,’ she said, laughing. ‘And yes, I do feel sorry for the girl of course, but you know, they were asking for trouble, running away from home like that – silly children. God only knows what might have happened to them, far worse things than a sore finger or even a bumped head.’

I stopped eating for a minute at this, and gave a little meow of agreement. Wasn’t this exactly why I’d been so worried about the girls myself? I agreed with Stella – it had been a relief, in a way, that they had to go to hospital rather than carry on with their mad running away idea. But it wasn’t until I’d finished my food, licked the bowl clean and started to wash myself that the reality of my situation came flooding back to me in a rush. I was lost and alone in a strange place, and although my poor Caroline was safe now, I had no idea how badly injured she might be or whether the hospital would be able to make her better. Or whether I’d even be able to get back to her again, to find out. Now that my urgent need for food and milk had been satisfied, these worries were suddenly so overwhelming to me that I didn’t know what to do, apart from pacing up and down and crying.

‘Poor little thing’s still hungry,’ said the boy, watching me.

‘I don’t think so, Robbie.’ The female bent down and picked me up, giving me a little stroke and looking at me carefully. ‘I’m sure he’s somebody’s missing pet, you know. But he’s not wearing a collar.’

No, I wasn’t. I never do. I know some of you are happy about wearing them, but personally I can’t stand the things. After I chewed my way out of the first two Julian bought me, my family gave up trying.