Шейла Нортон - Charlie The Kitten Who Saved A Life

They didn’t argue with her. Nor did I. I just purred in her ear, happy to be called her hero! But despite my worries about Caroline, I must say I was quite interested to hear this conversation. Because although I still didn’t understand it at all, it did at least prove I wasn’t dreaming when I saw myself in the newspaper and inside the television!

That first day I was home, I didn’t even see baby Jessica – she’d already gone to bed. Because of our long journey back from Mudditon, dinner was late and it was getting dark by the time they’d finished eating. Caroline was sent off to bed too then, as she had school the next day, but not before she’d given me another long hug and told me again how much she’d missed me and how much she loved me. I was hoping they were all going to keep up this extra love and attention, and not stop making a fuss of me once they’d got used to me being home again. I followed her upstairs to her room and, to my surprise, before she got ready for bed she picked up a phone from her bedside table.

‘Yes, it’s mine, Charlie,’ she said, waving it at me. ‘Daddy and Laura changed their minds! Cool, isn’t it!’

It was surprising, that’s what it was. I’d heard them with my very own ears, several times, saying she was too young and didn’t need one. Perhaps I’d been away so long, she was now old enough. That was a scary thought. But I sat on her bed and listened as she started speaking into it.

‘Hi Grace! Guess what – we’ve got Charlie back!’

I could hear Grace’s voice coming out of the phone, squealing with excitement. I have no idea how she got inside it.

‘Yes, Daddy brought him home today. We don’t know where he’s been all this time, but he’s been in a fight, and he’s skinny and he’s got a sore leg and a sore eye, but Laura says we can feed him back to health.’

It was lovely to hear Caroline chatting to her friend, sounding giggly and happy, making me think perhaps there wasn’t anything wrong with her anymore after all. But towards the end of her conversation, Grace must have asked her something about how she was feeling, because she sighed and said, ‘Oh, you know. The same. Just … tired, still, really, all the time.’ She looked at me, smiled and added, ‘But it’s cheered me up so much, having Charlie back.’ And then Laura called up to her to remind her to get herself to bed, and I scampered back downstairs to get some cuddles in with Julian and Laura before it was night-time. But even with all the extra attention, it was hard to forget my worries.

In the morning, I woke up to a strange sound. It was a kind of laughing noise, but a gurgling and bubbling laugh, like a kitten might make, if only we could. I padded into the lounge, and there on the rug was baby Jessica, lying on her back with all her paws waving in the air, while Caroline, dressed in a very smart dark blue outfit with her hair neatly tied up, was tickling her tummy and making her … yes! She was making her laugh! I stopped in the doorway and stared in amazement. Up till then, I’d thought little human kittens like Jessica were only capable of one sound: that awful constant mewing. But there she was, grinning all over her face and bubbling with laughter, and Caroline was smiling at her as if she loved her almost as much as she loved me.

‘Look, Jessica!’ she said, catching sight of me standing there. ‘Charlie’s back! Charlie’s come to say hello to you!’

I trotted a bit closer, wondering whether at any moment Laura would come rushing in to shoo me away from the baby. But Caroline picked me up and sat me on her lap so that Jessica could see me.

‘Here he is!’ she said. ‘Look, Jessica! Pussy cat!’

And she took hold of Jessica’s tiny paw and stroked me with it. At first the baby blinked with surprise, but then she started to smile and make the gurgling noise again.

‘Ah, she loves you, Charlie,’ Caroline said, hugging me. ‘Not as much as I do, of course, but nobody ever could.’

‘And nobody could love you like I do, either,’ I meowed to her, rubbing my head against her arm. ‘But I’m worried about you. Are you ill again? Why did you say you’re so tired? What happened at the hospital?’

‘I’ve got to go to school now, Charlie,’ she said, instead of answering me. ‘Please promise me you won’t ever go wandering off again. I couldn’t bear it.’

‘I won’t if you won’t,’ I said.

And I spent the rest of the day – in between sleeping in my comfortable bed, and eating my delicious food – pondering on the fact that this was what I’d longed for and dreamed of, all the time I was lost. I was home now, I was safe, I was back with my lovely family and I’d never leave them again. But I still couldn’t feel completely happy until I found out whether Caroline was all right. And nobody seemed to be telling me.

Things definitely seemed to have changed at home while I’d been away, and there was still quite a lot that I didn’t understand. For instance, why was Caroline dressed in those smart blue clothes and going off to school carrying a huge bag of books? Why was everyone being so nice to each other? I was pleased about this, of course, but it was so different from the way they’d been behaving before the holiday, with all the arguments and slamming of bedroom doors. I did wonder whether it was all because of me – the excitement of having me back home – but nice though that idea was, I had a feeling there was more to it. I was frightened that Julian and Laura were being extra kind to Caroline because they’d found out she was ill again. Caroline was behaving better too – less cross and grumpy, although when she came home from school every day she looked so pale and tired I could hardly bear to think about it.

From time to time, I was also still puzzling over the incident where I saw myself in the television in that shop window. When my family turned their television on in the evening, I tried to climb up to it, or sit on the shelf above it to stare down at it, trying to work out how to get inside it, but there was no way in. It just didn’t make sense. But at least I seemed to be making Caroline laugh, even while she was lying on the sofa with that pale face and those dark circles under her eyes that frightened me so much.

Despite my worries, I can’t deny I was enjoying getting used to my home comforts again. Having had to grow up quickly, as I’ve already said, in order to survive my time of living rough, all I wanted to do now was revert to my kittenhood. Safe in the knowledge that nobody was going to throw things at me, jump on me and try to kill me, or swoop down from the sky and peck me to death, I could go back to playing outside in the sunshine. As far as my sore leg would let me, I could enjoy games like chasing leaves that fluttered down from the trees in the wind, jumping out at birds from behind bushes and leaping in the air just for the fun of it. Indoors, I was enjoying playing my old games like peek-a-boo with Caroline from inside an empty cardboard box, and chasing a wind-up toy mouse across the carpet, making both her and Jessica squeal with laughter. Then I would stretch out to rest on my favourite windowsill in the warmth of the sun, or curl up on the sofa cushions in the evening, dreaming happy dreams again.

On my second day back home, Caroline brought Grace to see me after school.

‘Oh!’ she said, her lower lip wobbling when she looked at me. ‘Poor Charlie!’

‘He’s getting better, though,’ Caroline said, picking me up and stroking me. ‘Daddy says we’ve got to keep feeding him lots of good food and milk, and brushing him so that his fur comes through nice and soft again.’