Шейла Нортон - Charlie The Kitten Who Saved A Life

‘ Made him …?’ Julian glanced at Laura, who glanced at me, frowned, and looked back at Nicky.

‘How do you mean?’ she said.

‘I don’t know. I think it must be Oliver. Daniel always did say he thought that cat had some special power to make him do things. But the thing is …’ She sat down next to Laura, went a bit pink, and went on quietly, ‘Well, the thing is, my next door neighbour had come in for a chat.’

‘Not Kevin the Creep?’ Laura said, laughing.

‘Yes. Only it wasn’t quite so funny anymore.’ Nicky looked at Caroline and Grace now, then looked back at Laura, raising her eyebrows like it was some kind of code. ‘He was being a bit too friendly. If you get my meaning.’ The eyebrows again. It must have been human body language.

‘What, was he coming on to you, Nicky?’ Caroline said, nudging Grace, and they both started giggling.

Nicky went even pinker, and looked down at her lap.

‘Oh my God,’ Laura said. ‘And Daniel came home just in the nick of time?’

‘Yes, with the two cats! And as you can probably imagine, he was pretty upset.’

‘Not with you, though, Nicky?’ Julian said.

‘No. He told me afterwards he’d overheard me telling Kevin to back off, that I wasn’t interested. But Kevin started to argue the toss, and … well, Dan got hold of him and nearly hit him.’

‘Oh my God!’ Laura said again, putting her hand to her mouth. Even Caroline and Grace had their mouths open wide with surprise, while Julian was trying to look serious.

‘But he didn’t, I hope?’ he said.

‘No.’ Nicky glanced down at me again. ‘But only because this little chap stopped him. It was unbelievable, honestly, you should have seen him. He threw himself at Dan and clung to his jacket by his claws, yowling at him. It brought Dan up short, and by the time he’d lifted Charlie off himself, he’d calmed down.’

‘Oh my …’ Laura just stopped herself from calling the God person yet again. She shook her head, and everyone in the room stared at me. I felt a bit self-conscious.

‘Sorry!’ I meowed. ‘It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Ollie was proud of me.’

But it seemed like Ollie wasn’t the only one.

‘That’s amazing,’ Laura said, reaching for me and giving me a hug.

‘Clever little Charlie,’ Caroline said, coming over to stroke me. ‘I said he was a hero, Daddy, didn’t I?’

‘Oh, come on! It was probably just a coincidence,’ Julian said, shaking his head. ‘He might have simply jumped up at Daniel to get a cuddle from him, and clung on with his claws to stop himself from falling.’

‘You weren’t there, Julian, with all due respect,’ Nicky said quietly. ‘You didn’t see him.’

‘And we should all know by now, cats do look after humans and try to help them,’ Laura said. ‘After all the things Oliver did last year to help our village. And particularly our family, Julian.’

They all went quiet for a minute, looking at each other. I knew what they were thinking about, of course, because I’d heard all about it from Oliver himself – how he’d visited Caroline, before I was born, when she was poorly and lonely because she had no friends. And also how he made Christmas better for everyone in the village.

‘Yes. OK, Oliver did … somehow … seem to turn things around for us, didn’t he,’ he admitted. ‘Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps there’s more goes on in a cat’s mind than we can ever understand. But look at Charlie. He’s only a little kitten, who ran away and got lost! I just can’t quite believe …’

‘I am not a little kitten anymore,’ I said crossly. ‘Even Ollie admits that now.’

‘Well, as far as I’m concerned,’ Nicky said, ‘Charlie and Oliver have saved my marriage. Daniel needed a sharp shock like that, to make him realise he was neglecting me and Benjamin. He got up early this morning to make Benny’s breakfast, and as soon as he got back from doing a bit of work this morning, he’s taken him out to the park in his buggy. He says he’s going to advertise for another mechanic to work for him, and in the meantime he’ll let the apprentice help a bit more where he can, so he’s not so exhausted. He’s been so focused on making the business a success, taking on all the work he could, and getting so tired, he admits he couldn’t face coming home and helping with his own son. He just fell into the pub every night and then couldn’t summon up the energy to come home. He knows he needs to make some changes and try to get some balance.’

‘Good for him,’ Laura said gently. ‘I’m so glad you’re going to work it out together.’

‘Thanks to Charlie and Oliver,’ Nicky insisted.

And before there could be any further discussion on the matter, at that moment the doorbell rang again – and this time, yes, it was the television people. And so we come to another chapter in my story!

It’s getting a bit late. Is anyone too tired to hear the rest of my story now? No? Good, because we’re almost up to date. We’re nearly at the point where I found out all the answers. Not all the answers to everything in the world, of course, as I suppose that even for someone who isn’t a little kitten anymore, there will always be things in the world that I don’t understand. But after the television people came, I understood some things, at least. And later on, I understood a lot more.

I was shut in the lounge while they came into the house, in case I was daft enough to try to run off before I’d even been allowed to star in my own story. I listened from behind the closed door as the voices greeted each other, and finally the door was flung open and someone gasped:

‘And is this our little hero?’

‘If you say so!’ I meowed, trotting up to the strangers to have a good sniff around their legs and see if they smelt friendly. A couple of them bent down to stroke me, and Caroline was being very jumpy with excitement, answering questions like was she pleased to have me back home, and how much did she miss me while I was gone? Then Julian took over, suggesting everyone sat down so they could talk properly, and Laura went to make tea and coffee.

‘Charlie’s story has really caught people’s imaginations,’ said a man called Andy who seemed to be in charge. ‘They loved the fact that a little cat like Charlie was brave enough to chase away a seagull and save an elderly lady from possible harm.’

‘So everyone agrees it was definitely Charlie in that video?’ Julian said.

‘I think we can assume it,’ Andy said. ‘There were lots of witnesses, don’t forget. And the two ladies … um …’ He glanced at a piece of paper in a folder that was open on his lap, ‘Jean Francis and Shirley Benson, who found him, have said they’re quite sure it was him. The cat in the video Shirley’s niece made had the same bad eye and the same sore place on his leg and everything. Well, as you might know, there’s been considerable nuisance in the Mudditon area recently from some particularly aggressive seagulls, and since Charlie’s story broke, there’s been a lot more discussion in the local press there, and on social media, about how to combat the problem to prevent their tourist industry suffering. It seems it’s made local people, and holidaymakers, more aware of the need to dispose of food rubbish properly and not to feed the gulls with food meant for humans.’

‘Let’s hope it works, then,’ Julian said. ‘We were all very sorry to hear about tourism suffering in Mudditon.’