Шейла Нортон - Charlie The Kitten Who Saved A Life

‘And will his eye get better? And his poor leg?’

‘Yes. We’re putting drops in his eye. And Laura’s taking him to the vet’s tomorrow to make his leg better.’

I flinched slightly at the mention of the vet. But my leg was still painful, so if he could make it better, I knew I had to be brave about it. As for the eye drops, it was horrible having them dripped into my eye, making me shake my head and bat my eye with my paw afterwards. But I knew Julian and Laura wouldn’t do that to me unless it was for my own good. I trusted them. It was a good feeling.

‘It’s all our fault, isn’t it, Caro,’ Grace said sadly. ‘If we hadn’t tried to run away …’

‘I know. It all seems so ridiculous now, doesn’t it? So childish. ’

‘Especially now we know about my great aunt.’

‘Yes. Although you’d think your parents would’ve told you she’s an old battle-axe who doesn’t even like children!’

‘Well, to be fair, I suppose they couldn’t have known I’d decide it was a good idea for us to go and live with her. I feel really stupid now. Mum says she only sends us money at Christmas and birthdays to make herself feel better because she wants nothing whatsoever to do with the family. That one time she came to visit us, apparently she was supposed to be staying for a week, but she walked out after one day, because she thought Rose and I were badly behaved and made too much noise. We were only little! Mum and Dad were really cross about it. They said she was miserable and unreasonable and they felt insulted. Can you imagine what she’d have said if we’d actually turned up on her doorstep?’

‘God, it would have been awful, wouldn’t it? What planet were we both on, down in Mudditon, Grace? I mean, I know I was feeling fed up about Jessica getting all the attention, but now, looking back, I think I was just being a spoilt brat.’

‘You seem to like Jessica a lot more now!’

‘Well, yes, she’s getting more interesting now. She doesn’t cry so much, and she’s sleeping better at night so Laura isn’t so tired and ratty. I suppose it made me feel better when she started smiling at me more, and laughing and making that ga ga noise. It’s kind of cute.’

‘She’ll grow up into an annoying younger sister soon enough, just like Rose,’ Grace said with a shrug. ‘Although I suppose having a sister isn’t all bad. Rose isn’t irritating all the time. We always used to get on together really well. I don’t know what changed.’

‘Perhaps it’s all part of this growing-up thing – finding people annoying. Now you and Rose go to different schools, and won’t be together so much, maybe you’ll get on with her better again.’

‘Yes.’ Grace smiled at Caroline. ‘High school’s not so bad, is it? The first week was pretty scary, but it would’ve been awful if we hadn’t been together. I’m so pleased your dad and Laura changed their minds about it.’

‘Me too. It was all so last-minute, we didn’t even know if they’d still get a place for me at Great Broomford. But when we heard it was OK, Laura didn’t even make a fuss about having to get me a different uniform. She said it was worth it, for me to be happy again. And I’m glad you’re getting used to it too. It was good you managed to talk to your mum and dad about how frightened you were, before we started.’

‘I had to, really, with Dad being so furious with me about the running-away thing. When he sat me down and made me spell out exactly what was wrong with me, it all came out, how they weren’t taking me seriously about how scared I was. He said afterwards that they were mortified. He said however busy they were, they’d always listen to me if I told them I was seriously worried about anything.’

‘Yeah. Dad and Laura have said the same kind of thing. You know, about me being frightened about the leukaemia coming back.’ I pricked up my ears, my heart racing, waiting to hear more. Had it come back or not? But she just shrugged and went on: ‘Dad said it’s always best to talk about your fears openly rather than bottling them up and just getting cross and moody.’

‘It’s not always easy though, is it, talking to parents?’ Grace said, laughing. ‘They’re … well, they’re so old !’

‘Still, one good thing came out of it all,’ Caroline said more cheerfully. ‘Our parents gave in about us having phones.’

‘Yes. To be fair, Mum and Dad did used to let me use that old one of Mum’s, but I never took it anywhere because it was so old-fashioned and embarrassing. Anyway, the battery always went flat after about five minutes. It was just a joke! But now we’ve both got proper ones—’

‘—like everyone else!’

‘—they’ll always be able to keep in touch with us when we’re out. I suppose it’s fair enough. We did worry the life out of them, didn’t we?’

All through this conversation, they’d been stroking me and playing with me, while I listened carefully, trying to get the gist of it all. It seemed my human kitten and her friend had done some fast growing up recently, just like me. Perhaps their smart new blue clothes were making them feel less like children, and that was why they were now talking almost like proper grown-up humans. Nobody seemed to care that they still hadn’t told me what had happened to Caroline since we’d been separated. It was frustrating, but I decided eventually that worrying about it wasn’t going to help either me or Caroline. And as it happened I did have other things to think about.

First there was the trip to the vet’s to get my leg seen to. I can’t deny that, despite my more mature outlook on life and having been proved beyond all doubt not to be a scaredy-cat, I still cowered in the travelling basket mewing in fear when we set off in the car. And the smell of the vet’s room brought back terrible memories of my experience at that other vet’s. I knew I’d behaved really badly on that occasion. Already, I was finding it hard to believe how furiously I’d fought with the humans who were trying to help me. I supposed I really must have been turning into a feral cat at that point. It wasn’t a pleasant thought. This time, although I was frightened, I did try not to bite the vet’s fingers or struggle quite so much. Although Caroline couldn’t come with us because she was at school, and Julian was at work, it was at least reassuring to have Laura there, stroking me and saying calming things to me, while baby Jessica sat in the corner in her car seat waving her paws at me.

‘It’s all right, Charlie,’ the vet said, holding me gently. ‘This won’t take too long.’

It felt plenty long enough to me. He kept poking around on my sore leg, making me jump and growl, and kept up a running commentary to Laura and his nurse, saying things like Just clipping his fur back and Here we go and Right, just cleaning it up again now. I was glad when he finally announced OK, I think that’s going to heal nicely now, Charlie boy.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. Before he allowed Laura to take me home, he took hold of me and fastened something round my neck. I shook my head from side to side, trying to get rid of it, but it was stuck tight.

‘What is it?’ I meowed crossly at Laura, but to my annoyance she was laughing at me.

‘Oh, look at him!’ she said. ‘Poor Charlie, he’s not going to like that one bit!’

‘I know. But it’s important that he doesn’t lick that wound,’ the vet said. ‘We don’t want any more infection. Keep it on for a week, and keep him inside. Then bring him back to see me – I’d like to check on him anyway – then we should be able to dispense with it.’

What on earth was it? I spent the whole journey back home tossing my head from side to side, knocking the thing against the edges of the basket.